Twitter Accepts Elon Musk’s $43B Purchase Offer

Reuters is reporting this morning that Twitter’s board may announce its acceptance of Elon Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share.

The news agency cites “people familiar with the matter” in its coverage and notes that these sources said the deal could always collapse at the last minute.

The New York Times reports that Twitter’s board met with Musk Sunday and that discussions continued into the early hours this morning.

Musk acquired a 9.1% stake in Twitter on April 4, making him the company’s largest shareholder.

Twitter announced that Musk would be joining its board; however, Tesla’s CEO announced on April 9 via Twitter that he had declined that offer.

Had he accepted the board seat, Musk’s stake in Twitter would have been limited to no more than 14.9% for the duration of his service, plus 90 days.

Can Musk Actually Afford To Buy Twitter?

In short, yes.

But it will take some creative financing.

Updated April 25, 2022, 4:15pm ET

Twitter confirmed in a press release distributed this afternoon that it has agreed to the acquisition.

Elon Musk will wholly own the entity acquiring Twitter for $54.20 per share to be paid in cash.

The purchase price presents a 38% premium on the share price as of April 1, 2022, the last day prior to Musk’s purchase of 9.1% of Twitter’s stock, the release notes.

The transaction is expected to close in 2022 and was unanimously approved by Twitter’s board of directors.

Source: Twitter Accepts Elon Musk’s $43B Purchase Offer

Beware of fake DMCA link requests by AI-generated lawyers

Have you recently received a DMCA copyright infringement notice through email from a personal claiming to be a lawyer? Well, that email might be a scam and the lawyer who emailed you might not be a real person, but rather an AI generated persona for a lawyer at a fake law firm. That is what The Next Web uncovered in a recent report about such a DMCA request.

What is a DMCA request. A DMCA request is when someone requests the removal of content or a web page due to copyright violations. DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act and it is used to have hosting companies, Google and web site owners remove content that infringes on copyright.

What is the scam. In this case, the fake machine generated lawyer is emailing sites claiming DMCA copyright infringement and instead of having the site remove the content, they are asking for a link instead. The email says first starts off threatening, as most legal notices sound, but it ends saying “our client is happy for their image to be used and shared across the internet. However, proper image credit is due for the past or ongoing usage.” The proper image credit should be done with “a link to” the site “within 7 days.” “Otherwise, we are required to take legal action,” the email continues.

In short, the scam is to threaten copyright legal action for a link to a site.

Here is a copy of the email:

Fake lawyers. It gets even more creepy, as this reporter dug into this issue, they investigated who Arthur Davidson Legal Services was. The law firms site looked legit but the domain name was only registered this year but the site claims the firm has been around for many years. He then dug into the profile of Nicole Palmer and learned that she never existed, that she was made up by AI, by a generative adversarial network, a deep learning model that can be trained to create faces, art, or anything else. This is her photo, notice how the earrings and other aspects don’t exactly line up:

It is just pretty wild how far scammers will go to manipulate the Google search rankings.

Source: Beware of fake DMCA link requests by AI-generated lawyers

Brands plan to invest more in search in the next 12 months

With more people working from home, the lines between work and personal time are more blurred than ever. As such, a new report by Forrester, done on behalf of Microsoft, says there is a new persona that brands and marketers need to be aware of: the “workday consumer.”

What is a workday consumer? They are online more often than before the pandemic. They switch between work and personal to-do lists throughout the day. And they use work devices, tools and software for personal purposes. 

Key search stats. 

• 75%: The number of respondents who said search has become more important to their brand’s online advertising strategies.
• 70%: The amount of budget going to digital channels within the next 12 months, including search, social, online video and display advertising. (Before the pandemic, 58% of paid media went to digital).
• 60%: The percentage of companies planning to increase advertising budget for search, online video and display advertising in the next 12 months.
• 16%: The percentage of brand respondents who said their brand plans to increase its paid search advertising budget by more than 10% over the next 12 months.
• 88%: The percentage of respondents who said their brand plans to advertise on three or more search engines over the next 12 months. Currently, 92% of brand respondents said their company advertises on two or more search engines.

Key recommendation for search marketers. Workday consumers research products and services in between work tasks. So if you want to attract, convert and retain these people, make sure your messaging, content and ads go beyond simple demographics and past behavior.

Source: Brands plan to invest more in search in the next 12 months

WordPress 6.0 Features Numerous Accessibility Improvements

WordPress recently announced that version 6.0, due out in May 24, 2022, will feature a significant amount of accessibility improvements that will make using WordPress easier for users and bring it closer to WCAG 2.0 AA compliance.

WordPress Accessibility

WordPress maintains inclusiveness and accessibility as a core goal “as much as possible” for all WordPress releases.

In order to achieve this goal WordPress has an internal team that is focused on accessibility.

Accessibility Improvements in WordPress 6.0

WordPress offered a sneak preview of the numerous improvements coming to WordPress 6.0, currently scheduled for May 24, 2022.

Alt Text

An improvement to the alt text used on the featured image is to use the post title as the alt text for it when the featured image is linked to the post.

Improvements to Tabbing

WordPress noted an addition that allows tabbing into a block placeholder.

Screen Reader Related Improvements

A number of the improvements are related to making it easier for publishers who use screen readers to navigate through the blocks and get things done.

• Announce search results in the Block Manager.
• Ensure that blocks with a placeholder setup have their description read by VoiceOver, giving context for the block itself and the resulting controls.
• Improve successful draft save notification for screen readers by making it more descriptive.
• Add button text labels to site editor.
• Avoid duplicate labels for “Save Draft” and “Save as pending” buttons to reduce confusion

Aria-Related Accessibility Fixes to WordPress 6.0

This is an improvement that one of the WordPress contributors called a small change that resulted in an important improvement. This is about adding a role=”img” tag but without adding an aria-label to SVGs. So what they did was to remove the role attribute, which fixed the issue.

Improvements to the Navigation Block

The improvements to the navigation block are going to be welcomed by many

For example, several of the fixes make it easier for those using screen readers to understand situations where there are multiple navigation menu blocks, like a high level site navigation menu and a second level menu for categories, as well as improving the user interface feedback for screen readers when creating a new menu.

There are additional improvements to various other blocks, including the addition of an aria label to the search button.

Improvements to WordPress List View

The List View is a user interface for navigating through sections of content.

The list view interface is available through an icon at the top of the page in the WordPress toolbar.

Activating the icon through the toggle button reveals the drop down menu that stays open while in use.

Improvements to Handling Media

WordPress is also introducing improvements to how media is handled.

Additional Accessibility Improvements

WordPress 6.0 also improves screen reader and keyboard functionality in the Quick/Bulk editing, fixes issues with the login and registration buttons to add autocomplete values but in a way that doesn’t represent a security issue since the values are stored in the browser (more here).

Lastly there were miscellaneous accessibility improvements to official WordPress themes:

• “Twenty Nineteen: Override flex order in comment form.
• Twenty Twenty: Transform search into a dialog role and fix the handling of aria-expanded to synchronize mobile and desktop buttons.
• Twenty Twenty-One: Reverse logic for prefers-reduced-motion media query.
• Use the pointer cursor when hovering over the theme details button for consistency with the theme card.”

WordPress 6.0 Accessibility

The WordPress accessibility team put a lot of effort into making WordPress 6.0 accessible and inclusive, in accordance with their stated goal of making WordPress WCAG 2.0 AA compliant as possible.

Source: WordPress 6.0 Features Numerous Accessibility Improvements

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TikTok’s In-Feed Ads get more visual with Interactive Add-Ons

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Bing’s Ethical Shopping hub expands to the U.S., Canada

Microsoft Bing’s Ethical Shopping hub is now available in the U.S. and Canada. It launched in December, but only in the UK.

In addition, the hub has a new design, and the experience can be triggered when people search for relevant queries in English.

What is the Ethical Shopping hub? It allows people to search for fashion products in categories such as eco-friendly, fairtrade, recycled, vegan, and more. Every brand included in the experience receives a rating (powered by Good on You) based on three sustainability areas: people, planet, and animals. 

New design. Microsoft Bing is giving searchers more visibility into sustainability. Now, when you hover over the Ethical Choice label on a product listing you will see the overall brand rating (e.g., It’s a Start, Good, Great) and which criteria it is rated well on (e.g., Eco-Friendly, Organic, Vegan). Here’s an example screenshot from the hub

So, if it’s important for a shopper that a brand is rated as Eco-Friendly, this notation could help lead to a sale.

Integrated into Microsoft Bing search. It’s more than a hub now. Microsoft said in their blog post they have also expanded the experience so that it will show up when searching relevant queries on Bing. This should lead more searchers to discover the Ethical Shopping hub.  

Source: Bing’s Ethical Shopping hub expands to U.S., Canada

4 technical SEO tasks that are critical to organic success

“Driving revenue and awareness from search relies on your website health — today’s success in organic search is about a lot more than just keywords and content,” said Shachar Radin Shomrat, CMO of Deepcrawl, in her presentation at The MarTech Conference. “It demands technically sound websites in today’s marketing landscape.”

“Over a longer timeframe, the technical aspects of your website play a huge role in how well your content performs,” she added.

If SEOs don’t take the time to optimize critical technical aspects of your site that influence page speed, indexing, and more, it could mean lost traffic and revenue.

Here are four key technical tasks SEOs should take care of to help increase organic visibility.

1. Optimize site architecture

“Architecture is your foundational stage,” Shomrat said. “If the overall website structure is not optimized for search performance, then any individual page on that site is not set up to have its best chance at being crawled, appearing with search results and ultimately converting into a revenue-driving asset.”

No two sites are the same, but most search professionals agree site architectures should generally have a logical flow with a hierarchy of pages. This helps users and crawlers make sense of your site.

2. Ensure pages are crawlable

Your pages should be accessible to search engines and users via valid status codes. SEOs should make sure the pages they want to be included in the index have a 200 HTTP status code.

3. Check which pages allow indexing

Just because your pages are crawlable doesn’t mean they’re indexable. Marketers need to make sure their pages’ robots tags allow for indexing.

“If a page is not indexed by search engines, then it will not appear to users in their search results at all,” Shomrat said.

4. Improve page experience

People are less likely to convert to sites that offer poor experiences, such as slow-loading pages. Google and other search engines encourage site owners to optimize their technical structures to prevent this from happening, allowing their content to shine in the search results.

“If you do not fix your [technical] foundation, your content and keyword investments are not going to get the return that you expect,” Shomrat said.

Source: 4 technical SEO tasks that are critical to organic success

Google unveils a simpler way for European users to reject cookies

Google is making it easier to reject all cookies on search and YouTube in Europe. These changes will begin in France before expanding to the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland. 

Visitors who are signed out or in Incognito Mode will be presented with a choice to either reject or accept all cookies via buttons. A third option offers more options, and allows users to customize their choices. 

What it looks like. Here’s a screenshot Google provided of the new look on YouTube.

Why now? French data privacy watchdog CNIL fined Google.fr 150 million euros Jan 6. Google was given three months to provide a simple way for users to refuse cookies. Had Google not hit that deadline, the company would have had to pay 100,000 euros per day.

Source: Google unveils a simpler way for European users to reject cookies

Setting client expectations with a thorough preliminary SEO analysis

There are at least three huge mutual benefits to performing a comprehensive data-driven SEO analysis of a new client’s website.

First, your digital agency shows off its personalized, professional approach to every client by demonstrating that you avoid standardized templates. This gives the client the understanding that you set goals, terms of cooperation, and pricing policies on an individual basis.

Second, this helps develop trust in your relationship with the client as they get a clear picture of what’s to be expected, how you plan on achieving their goals and why they are charged the rate you set.

Lastly, a detailed analysis gives you the opportunity to lay out a clear roadmap, set the right expectations, and shed light on the workflow for the now-educated client. Everyone will be on the same page when it comes to understanding what’s working for them and what areas need to be improved upon. To recap, a diligently performed preliminary SEO analysis and audit allow you to identify realistic long-term goals and short-term deliverables, but that’s a topic for another time. The key to building a healthy client-agency relationship is diving head-first into their project to understand it practically as the client does.

Source: Setting client expectations with a thorough preliminary SEO analysis

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TikTok’s In-Feed Ads get more visual with Interactive Add-Ons

Brave Search adds Discussions to search results

Google Site Kit gains ideas to write about section

TikTok’s In-Feed Ads get more visual with Interactive Add-Ons

A handful of new Interactive Add-Ons have arrived within TikTok’s “For Your Page.” These new additions are available globally for In-Feed Ads and will be unique creative additions that will allow for more customized, engaging ads.

These new features come in two different flavors, Standard or Premium. According to TikTok, standard Add-Ons are made to “reach lower-funnel marketing goals, like driving clicks and conversions” while Premium Ads move up the funnel to aid in “brand awareness and community building.”

The new Interactive Add-Ons are compatible with App installs, Conversion, and Reach & Frequency (Traffic, Video Views) campaigns.

Premium Add-Ons. The new elements to target the lower funnel include:

• Pop-out Showcase. This image element will lay over the ad with the ability to drive product clicks that can be accompanied by text.
• Gesture. With a tap or swipe, a user can interact to obtain reward credits in the ‘Gesture reward card’.
• Super Like 2.0. This is coming soon but will allow for an even more visuals after a user likes an ad, including a pop up card after the like.

Standard Add-Ons. The new elements to target the mid/upper funnel include:

• Display Card. Visually showcase brand messaging or offers via Display Card that transcends the standard card format.
• Gift Code Sticker. Contrary to the TikTok release, these arguably target the lower funnel as viewers can click for a code and copy it before heading to purchase.
• Voting Sticker. Leverage the community for their input with a traditional-looking voting sticker.
• Countdown Sticker. Slap additional information over an ad for upcoming releases or important dates.

Source: TikTok’s In-Feed Ads get more visual with Interactive Add-Ons

Instagram Changes Ranking Algorithm To Favor Original Content

Instagram’s home feed ranking algorithm is receiving an update that’s designed to boost the visibility of original content.

Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced the ranking change is one component of a larger effort to reward originality and give credit where it’s due.

He goes on to discuss three updates intended to help credit creators for their work:

• Home feed ranking change
• Product tags
• Enhanced people tags

Instagram Ranking Update

Without revealing too many details, Mosseri says Instagram’s ranking algorithm will now assign more value to original content.

That means content someone creates and publishes themselves is likely to be more visible on Instagram than republished content.

Product Tags

The ability to tag products in Instagram posts was previously available to select users. Now, this feature is available to everyone.

You can tag a product in an Instagram post by following these steps:

• Start to create a post.
• Tap ‘Tag people’.
• Search and tag the brand first.
• Two options should show up at the bottom labeled ‘People’ & ‘Products’.
• Tap ‘Products’.
• Tap the photo to start tagging products.
• Hit ‘Share’ to publish the post.

Enhanced People Tags

Instagram’s existing people tagging feature is getting a small enhancement.

Now, individual users can add categories to their profile that show up when they’re tagged in a photo or video.

If someone publishes a video of you speaking at a conference and tags you, this new category feature will allow people to see who you are and what you do.

Source: Instagram Changes Ranking Algorithm To Favor Original Content

Google SpamBrain: AI-based spam prevention system launched in 2018

Meet SpamBrain. That is the name of Google’s AI-based spam prevention system that the search company launched in 2018, yes over a few years ago.

SpamBrain is credited by Google for catching about six times more spam sites in 2021 than it did in 2020, reducing hacked spam by 70% and reducing gibberish spam on hosted platforms by 75%.

SpamBrain. It is the first we are hearing the name SpamBrain. Google referenced it in the 2018 Google spam report, specifically the spam trends section where Google talks about its “machine learning systems” to improve search spam detection.

Google confirmed that this is the first time they are talking about this name, SpamBrain, publicly. “Since we first started using it, we’ve been updating SpamBrain constantly, and it’s grown much more effective at detecting and nullifying both existing and new spam types,” Google told us.

Google also said that SpamBrain “was built to be a robust and evolving platform to address all types of abuse.”

Spam improvements. Google said that in 2021 it made additional strides in detecting and thwarting search spam attempts. These highlights include:

• ~6 times higher identification of spam sites
• 70% reduction in hacked spam sites
• 75% reduction in gibberish spam on hosted platforms
• 99% “spam free” searches

More on spam. Google talked a bit about its spam-fighting efforts, saying that links are still important for ranking and that its link spam algorithm in 2021 helped “broadly identify unnatural links and prevent them from affecting search quality.” Google also released a two-part spam update, part one and part two in June 2021 and then a November 2021 spam update.

Source: Google SpamBrain: AI-based spam prevention system launched in 2018

Gutenberg 13.0 Previews WordPress 6.0 Improvements

WordPress released Gutenberg version 13.0 which includes numerous improvements that bring it several big steps closer to becoming the easy to use website builder it is intended to be.

This update to Gutenberg is an important milestone because the features in this plugin will be included within the core of WordPress 6.0, which is currently set for release on May 24, 2022 and that’s a very big deal in the world of publishing.

WordPress Gutenberg Editor

Gutenberg is a visual style website builder designed to make building websites easier for publishers.

It’s called visual to describe the process of building a site using a drag and drop or point and click interface on a virtual canvas that can be visualized how it’s going to appear as you design it.

Instead of manipulating code, with this style of website building the publisher is manipulating web page elements like the header or footer. Those web page elements are called Blocks.

Gutenberg Blocks

Gutenberg’s design interface is described using the word, blocks. For design purposes, a web page is divided into sections called blocks.

Select Text Across Blocks

An innovative improvement introduced into Gutenberg 13.0 (and into WordPress 6.0) is the ability to select text across multiple blocks. This is important because blocks exist as a way to design what the web page looks like and text is something that’s dropped inside those blocks.

Page Level Patterns

This is a breakthrough feature that moves Gutenberg several strides closer to being an easy to use website builder.

The patterns feature was introduced in 2020 in Gutenberg version 7.8 as an API for developers to use to create layout patterns for sections of a page.

What the latest version of the patterns feature does is enable page templates that can be selected as a starting point for creating a web page layout.

Stack or Row Layout Manipulation

Continuing with the goal of making WordPress easy to design, the new version of Gutenberg allows organizing selected blocks as a layout of blocks or rows.

And from there a publisher can use the contextual menu to further manipulate the design.

Block Border Control

This is a refinement of an already existing feature with a new BorderControl component.

A contextual menu provides a way to control the borders around the block to change the style, color and width.

Source: Gutenberg 13.0 Previews WordPress 6.0 Improvements

Ahrefs has raised $1.5 million for Ukraine

Ahrefs, which provides what it calls an “all-in-one SEO toolset,” has stepped up in a big way to help support Ukraine. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Ahrefs began a fundraising effort on Feb. 24. As of today, the company has raised more than $1.5 million.

How they raised it. Ahrefs added a banner linking to a list of approved charities on its product dashboard. Here’s what it looked like:

Ahrefs told its customers they would extend a subscription for double the amount of whatever was donated. So if someone paid the equivalent of a one-month subscription, that person would get extended to two months. 

Some people who donated didn’t want anything in return from Ahrefs – they just wanted to help. So that $1.5 million number may be low because the numbers from Ahrefs are based on people who sent in receipts for account credit.

On the first day, Ahrefs said they got hundreds of donations from worldwide (in various currencies, from Bitcoin to U.S. dollars), totaling $94,342. On Feb. 28, $125,068 was donated, the biggest single-day total. That was when we learned of Russia’s attacks on Kharkiv and Kyiv.

Why Ahrefs wanted to help. Dmytro Gerasymenko is Ahrefs founder and CEO. He is also Ukrainian. Ahrefs employs 29 Ukrainian people. 

Where the money is going. The $1.5 million is all going to Ukrainian charities. Most of these provide humanitarian help for civilians – delivering water, food and medicine; evacuating and transporting older citizens; and helping find temporary homes for relocated citizens. 

What else Ahrefs is doing to help Ukraine. Starting March 3, Ahrefs blocked Russia and Belarus from accessing its tool. Ahrefs also extended Ukrainian business accounts by six months.

What Ahrefs is doing to help its employees. Ahrefs is providing free psychotherapeutic help to all of its team members. Samokish said the Russian invasion brought a lot of grief to the entire team. 

“Our Ukrainian teammates have been through a lot, from hiding their small children in bomb shelters from Russian attacks to evacuating parents who left their homes and whole lives behind them,” Samokish said. “Some of us lost family members and friends in this war. The horrible news of war crimes toward civilians in Bucha and Irpin was the last straw for many people. Even for those coping well enough to continue working and taking care of families.”

Source: Ahrefs has raised $1.5 million for Ukraine

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Brave Search adds Discussions to search results

Privacy-focused search engine Brave Search is adding conversations from forums to its results with a new feature called Discussions. It is now available for desktop and mobile. 

Why Brave Search created Discussions. Brave said the goal is to provide more conversations around topics. Whereas websites have one point of view, a site like Reddit offers multiple points of view. Reddit also has a built-in way to measure the quality of an answer (upvotes or likes).

“Discussions are the first step to making search more diverse in content, increasing points of view in results, and ultimately helping people find the most useful, relevant info,” Brave said in a statement to Search Engine Land. “People want easy access to a variety of authentic search results. With Discussions, Brave Search is meeting that demand.”

What do Discussions look like. Here’s a screenshot of a Discussion on a search for [LCD vs OLED monitor]:

How Discussions work. Discussions can be triggered in search by questions about products, current events, travel, computer programming, and coding, as well as “highly unique or specific questions.”

Brave Search said its ranking algorithm can detect queries where a discussion forum might give an alternative or complementary viewpoint to the search results. Brave creates a “discussion worthiness” score based on a variety of signals, including:

• Freshness (or recency) of the topic.
• The popularity of the topic on a given forum.
• The quality of the conversation (as measured by user engagement, such as upvotes or responses).

Source: Brave Search adds Discussions to search results

Google tests big changes to featured snippets

Google is testing some significant changes to featured snippets. Both will give searchers a more diverse set of sources in the coveted featured snippet position. 

From the web. A typically featured snippet features text from, and a link to, one website. In this From the web test, Google shows brief excerpts from two or three different websites, linking to each source separately. Google also includes the site’s favicon.

Here’s an example screenshot (shared via Twitter by @vladrpt): 

Other sites say. There’s also another variation of this featured snippet test where Google groups three sites beneath the typical paragraph-style featured snippet, under a heading of Other sites say.

Here’s a screenshot (shared via Twitter by @SarahBlocksidge): 

Hat tip. Barry Schwartz reported on these changes earlier today at the Search Engine Roundtable. 

Source: Google tests big changes to featured snippets

11 breadcrumb SEO best practices for a mobile-first strategy

Their design is archetypal. Their position on the page is seemingly obvious. For years they have proven their value for SEO. And yet, as we have moved to mobile-first indexing, many sites get breadcrumb navigation wrong or have no breadcrumb trail at all.

That is a mistake.

Breadcrumbs are beneficial for SEO and usability when optimally implemented for mobile devices. Here’s everything you need to know to get them right.

What is breadcrumb navigation?

Typically, breadcrumbs navigation is a line of contextual links that indicate where the user is on a website. They are a form of secondary navigation, allowing users to trace their path in the site hierarchy. 

When should you use breadcrumbs?

Not all websites benefit from breadcrumbs. They aren’t necessary for sites that:

• Do not contain many nested navigation levels.
• Have no logical hierarchy or grouping.
• Are designed as linear experiences.

For such websites with flat structures where much of the content comfortably sits on the same level, breadcrumbs would offer little value as they wouldn’t contain more than two levels.

This can be true even for large websites. For example, a business news site may offer many topics and thousands of articles, but wouldn’t need multiple levels of navigation.

On the other hand, for sites based on complex hierarchical structures breadcrumbs are essential. The classic example is e-commerce, but its application is much wider.

The question is how to make breadcrumbs helpful to both users and Google. This is an art of its own.

Source: 11 breadcrumb SEO best practices for a mobile-first strategy

Activate customer data by using real-time insights across multiple channels

Brands are struggling to provide a frictionless, personalized experience across the customer journey at a time when loyalty is everything. This is mainly because data about your customers often resides in many different and disconnected sources.

To gain access to real-time insight and achieve a single view of each customer, Trifecta, a subscription meal service, invested in a consumer data platform (CDP). 

The Treasure Data CDP allowed Trifecta to unify data across 14 systems, analyze the customer journey and leverage multitouch attribution models. Having data all in one place in real-time, the meal subscription company can now deliver a tailored customer experience encompassing health-conscious meal plans and workout recommendations via its smart CDP.

The Trifecta team transforms data insights into actionable, tailored messaging and content, and incorporates those insights into its multi-channel marketing plan–from SEO to Facebook ads to email.

Source: Activate customer data by using real-time insights across multiple channels

Microsoft Advertising extends the RSA migration deadline by 60 days

If you are a Microsoft advertiser that has been putting off the transition from expanded text ads (ETAs) to responsive search ads (RSAs) you can relax for a little longer. Today Microsoft Advertising is extending the migration date from June 30 to August 29. These additional 60 days should help those struggling to bring the new modern ad units into their accounts.

The depreciation of ETAs was announced in October, with advertisers losing the ability to create ETAs after the deadline. One important note is that if ETAs exist in the account that was created before the deadline, they will still be eligible to show. This new timeline move will operate in the same fashion where ETAs made prior to August 29 can show after the new date.

Microsoft noted that according to internal 2021 data “advertisers who have adopted RSAs on Microsoft Advertising experience an average increase in clicks by 17% and conversion rates of 11%” though no information on costs or CPAs accompanies those stats.

Source: Microsoft Advertising extends RSA migration deadline by 60 days

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Google Site Kit gains ideas to write about section

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Google Site Kit gains ideas to write about section

Google Site Kit, a tool Google makes for WordPress sites to display Search Console, Analytics PageSpeed Insights, and AdSense data, has a new experimental feature that seems to pull from Google Question Hub.

This was announced in a video by Google’s Mariya Moeva, at the 8:56 mark into that video. Mariya shares a screenshot of an “experimental” section that says “ideas to write about, from actual questions people ask on Search.”

The screenshot. Here is the screenshot in that video:

You may not have used Google Question Hub yet and if not, you are really missing out on a great set of content ideas for your site. But now, if you do use Site Kit with your WordPress site, Question Hub data seems to now be built directly into the tool.

So leverage the content in that section to come up with new content ideas for your site.

Source: Google Site Kit gains ideas to write about section

Google Search Console notices for removing intrusive interstitials

Google seems to be sending out notices through Google Search Console for sites that have intrusive interstitials. The notice tells the site owner to remove those intrusive interstitials in order to “improve page experience” for your site.

What the email says. We spotted a copy of the subject line of the email in the Google Webmaster Help forums and it reads “Improve your page experience by removing intrusive interstitials from domain.com.” We have been unable to find the full email or a screenshot of this notice yet.

Here’s a screenshot of one of the messages (shared by Casey Markee on Twitter):

What are intrusive interstitials? Google says “intrusive interstitials and dialogs are page elements that obstruct users’ view of the content, usually for promotional purposes. Interstitials are overlaid on the whole page and dialogs are overlaid only on a part of the page, sometimes also obfuscating the underlying content. Websites often need to show dialogs for various reasons; however, interrupting users with intrusive interstitials may frustrate them and erode their trust in your website. Intrusive dialogs and interstitials make it hard for Google and other search engines to understand your content, which may lead to poor search performance. Equally, if users find your site hard to use, they are unlikely to want to visit those websites again, including through search engines.”

Source: Google Search Console notices for removing intrusive interstitials

How to handle unprofessional SEO treatment: tips and guidelines

I am what might be called a veteran search engine optimizer. I have many years of experience speaking at multiple SEO events (conferences, webinars, training, and so forth). I often get involved in controversial SEO debates on various social media outlets. 

I have also had my share of bullying. 

However, I have also learned much from other SEO veterans. They have been outstanding role models for people in our industry.

In this article, I want to share what I’ve learned from participating in so many SEO events and my experience on social media platforms. Here is what I have learned about handling unprofessional treatment.

1. Listen to multiple perspectives on any SEO or SEM topic

I know this might seem counterintuitive. If you are in a real-time situation, it is perfectly normal to have an initial defensive reaction. 

Go past this reaction. If you listen, you will likely learn things you might never have thought about or encountered. Listening to and reading about different approaches to SEO can make you a more effective SEO.

I learned this from Danny Sullivan, now Public Liaison for Search at Google. Whenever he put together a session for one of his conferences, he always included a panel of experts with diverse opinions.

2. Be courteous when taking notes

If you are at a real-time or recorded event, learn how to mute your keyboard, even if you have a quiet keyboard. The sound will distract attendees from speaker content, especially if multiple attendees are typing at the same time. Mouse clicks can also be a distraction.

This tip might seem obvious given high school, college, and university settings. With professional events, however, the point is to listen to the speaker, not to distract him or her.

3. Show common courtesy when asking for clarification and challenging an opinion

Nobody has the exact same frame of reference as another person. For example, my frame of reference for SEO is viewing it as a form of communication among content providers, searchers, and search engines. I believe that SEO is optimizing for people who use search engines. People first, technology second.

Source: How to handle unprofessional SEO treatment: tips and guidelines

3 powerful micro-conversion strategies for paid social

Conversions are the key KPI when defining the success of direct response campaigns for both B2B and B2C.

These days, conversions are so top priority that many companies don’t even spend money on brand awareness campaigns in their paid social strategies. 

When marketers get way into the weeds with conversions, they often forget about the benefits, and long-term impact, of micro-conversions.

Optimize top-of-funnel campaigns for website engagements rather than clicks

Decrease your cost-per-landing page view by optimizing for website engagements. Website engagements signal higher intent compared to link clicks. Optimizing toward users who are likely to take action on your website ultimately brings in better quality users with a higher chance of converting than those who just click. To illustrate this strategy, let’s focus on Facebook.

Build High-Intent Retargeting Audiences

Decrease your cost-per-lead by building high-intent retargeting audiences. You can create audiences based on specific micro-conversion actions to improve bottom-funnel conversion metrics. Instead of retargeting based on just website traffic, try retargeting based on a user’s time on specific landing pages.

Capture missed leads

Increase conversion rates by capturing missed leads. Using micro-conversions, you can track users who opened a lead gen form ad or began to fill out a form on your website. We can then take them back a step and offer more resources and brand education to help them convert at the bottom of the funnel.

To illustrate this strategy, we’ll focus on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Source: 3 powerful micro-conversion strategies for paid social

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WhatsApp is bringing polls to group chats: Here’s how it will work

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WhatsApp is bringing polls to group chats: Here’s how it will work

WhatsApp recently launched Communities features on its platform. Now, word is that the company is working on a new feature that will make it easy for WhatsApp users to share their views with others users in a group.

WABetaInfo reports that the Meta-owned messaging app is working on a ‘Group Polls’ feature that will enable WhatsApp users to create in-app polls and share them in group chats. A screenshot of the feature shared by the blog site gives us a closer glimpse into the interface of the upcoming feature. The screenshot shows that a poll will appear as a message in a group chat. However, unlike a regular message, a poll will have multiple options for the group members to pick from. There will also be a ‘Vote’ button at the end of the message that will enable users to cast their vote or in other words to share their selection. Also Read – WhatsApp might soon let you hide ‘Last Seen’ status from specific contacts

Additionally, the report says that all options in a poll, and users’ answers will be end-to-end encrypted. This means no one, neither the group members nor WhatsApp will be able to check users’ responses. Also Read – How to book Mumbai Metro One e-ticket on WhatsApp.

As far as availability is concerned, WhatsApp’s upcoming group polls feature is still under development and it will be sometime before the feature is made available to the beta users of its Android and iOS-based apps before rolling it out to a wider audience.

App Language

Separately, the Meta-owned messaging app is also working on bringing a new feature to its platform that will enable WhatsApp users across the globe to use the messaging app in a language of their choice. The blog site says that the company is working on a feature called ‘App Language’ and that this feature is available to users across the globe who are using WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.22.9.13 of the app.

As per reports the new App Language section will appear in the Settings menu and it will give users access to a host of languages including Afrikaans, Urdu and Azerbaycan among others. This feature was reportedly available for some users in India.

Source: WhatsApp is bringing polls to group chats: Here’s how it will work

3 powerful micro-conversion strategies for paid social

Conversions are the key KPI when defining the success of direct response campaigns for both B2B and B2C.

These days, conversions are so top priority that many companies don’t even spend money on brand awareness campaigns in their paid social strategies. 

When marketers get way into the weeds with conversions, they often forget about the benefits, and long-term impact, of micro-conversions.

What are micro-conversions?

Micro-conversions signal high intent and a strong likelihood that someone will convert on our primary conversion goal, resulting in a significant improvement in conversion metrics when put to use.

Think of a micro-conversion as one small task completion, or a secondary action a website visitor takes, that indicates they will convert.

For paid social, we consider any incremental step a user takes when showing initial interest in a brand as a micro-conversion. That could be:

• Engagement with ads.
• Opening lead gen forms.
• Watching videos XX% of the time.
• Liking/following your brand pages.

What can you do with micro-conversions?

I’ve observed the following results using several micro-conversion strategies across social platforms:

• 60% decrease in cost-per-landing page view 
• 71% decrease in cost-per-lead
• 65% increase in conversion rate

1. Optimize top-of-funnel campaigns for website engagements rather than clicks

Decrease your cost-per-landing page view by optimizing for website engagements. Website engagements signal higher intent compared to link clicks. Optimizing toward users who are likely to take action on your website ultimately brings in better quality users with a higher chance of converting than those who just click. To illustrate this strategy, let’s focus on Facebook.

2. Build High-Intent Retargeting Audiences

Decrease your cost-per-lead by building high-intent retargeting audiences. You can create audiences based on specific micro-conversion actions to improve bottom-funnel conversion metrics. Instead of retargeting based on just website traffic, try retargeting based on a user’s time on specific landing pages.

3. Capture missed leads

Increase conversion rates by capturing missed leads. Using micro-conversions, you can track users who opened a lead gen form ad or began to fill out a form on your website. We can then take them back a step and offer more resources and brand education to help them convert at the bottom of the funnel.

Source: 3 powerful micro-conversion strategies for paid social

WooCommerce Plans to Bring Full-Site Editing Support to Single Product Templates

WooCommerce is moving closer to closing the gap on its full-site editing support with the latest features announced on the Q1/Q2 roadmap. While the e-commerce platform already has support for nearly two-dozen core blocks, it’s not yet possible to use full-site editing for customizing every aspect of a store.

The concept of “Store Editing” is still in the early stages with active development happening in the WooCommerce Blocks repository. Currently, WooCommerce stores are fully functional with block themes with the help of a classic template block.

Further ahead on the roadmap, WooCommerce developers have committed to “blockifying” the Single Product Template, transforming every aspect of the template to be powered by blocks. Ethier shared an early mockup of how that might look.

The ability to manipulate every part of a product listing, without touching any code, is something that was unimaginable before blocks. It is the culmination of everything promised by the block paradigm in the early days of the Gutenberg project.

A blockified single product template will empower store owners who might otherwise have had to hire a developer to make these kinds of changes to templates. Making customization more accessible is the reasoning behind the concept of Store Editing.

Source: WooCommerce Plans to Bring Full-Site Editing Support to Single Product Templates

Connecting individual-level data to drive outstanding results

How do you know when your marketing is excellent, important or had the impact you expected? Ultimately, it comes down to being able to measure marketing performance. Marketing performance is the key to knowing where to spend the next marketing dollar. 

If marketers can’t quantify the outcomes of their initiatives, it will prevent them from continuing to receive funding for their marketing budgets. And those outcomes have to be told in a way that the business will understand, care about and believe.

In order to do so, marketers must first align their marketing goals and their marketing outcomes. The focus must not only be on successful execution, but also on accurate measurement. Once you have the data, you have to act on the results so that you drive better audience management, better activation, better modeling and an overall better customer experience. 

How do you go about improving marketing performance and reducing cost per conversion as the ecosystem shifts and the effectiveness of third-party cookies continues to decline?

Join Acxiom’s Dana Goff, head of financial services strategy practice, and Gloria Ward, director of Identity Strategy, as they share real-world experiences on how to quickly access and leverage usable insights, create a long-term replacement campaign measurement and improve multi-touch attribution (MTA) results – with more visibility, more matches and better underlying data. 

Watch the informative MarTech session and learn how you can connect individual-level data across website visitors, conversions, paid media, direct mail and other channels. You’ll also learn the three main components for measuring marketing performance and how you can cut through the noise in a very technology-dense industry.

Source: Connecting individual-level data to drive outstanding results

Wix wants to help businesses sell tickets to their live events

In addition to its website builder, Wix is also making it easier for business owners and venues to create customized seating maps for their in-person events.

Hosting a large event for coworkers or customers can be a daunting task, especially for small businesses. Fortunately with the Wix’s new Seating Map Builder, business owners can now create a customized seating map according to their specific venue and create different types of tickets to match their seating map.

From tour buses to campsites and churches to clubs or big venues and even dinner parties, the company’s latest builder aims to simplify the process of creating, managing and monetizing events for business owners.

Seating Map Builder

Both business owners and venues themselves can create detailed maps of a venue and price tickets based on the location of each seat using Wix’s Seating Map Builder.

However, they can also build the map with any variation of seating for their events including tables, rows of seats, areas with general seating such as a standing room only area, reserved VIP sections or even a combination of any of these. When customers go to purchase their tickets, they’ll be able to see all of the available seating, hover over a seat to see its price and click to select the seats they would like to purchase.

Source: Wix wants to help businesses sell tickets to their live events

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Pinterest for WooCommerce extension turns products into shoppable pins

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Pinterest for WooCommerce extension turns products into shoppable pins

Use WooCommerce? If so, there’s a new way to put your products in front of Pinterest users. 

The new Pinterest for WooCommerce extension turns all of your products into shoppable product Pins, regardless of what types of products you sell. It also automatically updates product details, such as pricing and availability.

After installing the extension, your product catalog will show up in the feed of Pinterest users, as well as when they search and browse for products. 

Merchants will get performance data on all interactions with your products so you can track best-selling items or most saved items, Pinterest announced in a blog post. This is tracked through the Pinterest tag, which will be automatically set up for you.

Connect your WooCommerce store to Pinterest. Here’s how to do it:

• Download, install and activate the plugin in your WooCommerce store.
• Go to Marketing > Pinterest > Get started.
• Follow the prompts to connect your Pinterest business account.
• Sync your products to Pinterest.
• Add the Save to Pinterest button to your site.

Availability. In addition to the U.S., Pinterest said that the extension is available now in these countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. 

Source: Pinterest for WooCommerce extension turns products into shoppable pins

YouTube Adds New Connected TV Capabilities

Connected TV has been an emerging platform for advertisers for the past two years, partially due to the pandemic.

With more people staying in and working from home, over 72% of households use a smart TV to watch Connected TV.

Getting into CTV (Connected TV) advertising used to be difficult, especially for small businesses. Because of technological advances, getting started with CTV is easier than ever.

To help you invest in CTV with confidence, YouTube partnered with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings last year for easier measurement alongside other media.

New Measurement Capabilities

Investing in a new platform can cause hesitation. To help mitigate concerns, Google announced “Later this year, YouTube CTV and YouTube TV will be available in Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR) in the U.S.”

Co-Viewing Measurement

The trend of watching TV together has not declined. In one of the studies with Nielsen, 26% of users over the age of 18 are watching YouTube TV together on the same screen. This is in comparison to 22% on linear TV.

This is known as “co-viewing”. With co-viewing still the norm, how do you measure that impact?

Measuring co-viewing has been around for years, which is why the partnership with Nielsen will include co-viewing metrics in ad reporting for YouTube TV. Specifically, co-viewing will be included in Nielsen’s DAR guarantees ad reporting in the United States.

Managing Ad Frequency

Frequency for CTV has not been available previously. For traditional Display and YouTube campaigns, you have this option currently.

Google announced that you can now manage your CTV frequency across YouTube, YouTube TV, and other connected apps moving forward.

Why Is This Important?

co-viewing metrics are important because you’ll be able to get a more accurate picture of the total audience you’re reaching.

Additionally, co-viewing metrics can help you more accurately forecast an upcoming CTV campaign or report on past campaigns.

Additional metrics included will be:

• Reach
• Frequency
• Additional impression metrics

Source: YouTube Adds New Connected TV Capabilities

4 tips for successful TikTok videos from TikTok

Many brands are just now discovering TikTok. If you’re struggling to understand how it works and how your brand can make the most of it, TikTok has some video tips.

TikTok has shared the following four video best practices for brands.

1. Go full-screen. TikTok advises using a 9:16 aspect ratio for videos. In the past, TikTok has said vertical videos perform best on TikTok.

2. Tell a short story. TikTok recommends a length of 21 to 24 seconds. The company also advises never to publish a video that is shorter than 10 seconds. (TikTok videos can be up to 10 minutes.) Another past tip from TikTok: use video captions. These can help add context to the story in your video.

3. Use high-resolution video. The minimum should be 720p.

4. Audio is essential. TikTok says it can be any kind of audio. But the more relevant, the better.

Best practices aren’t everything. Says TikTok: “While there are endless ways to create a ‘good’ TikTok video, finding your brand’s unique voice and direction will ultimately set you apart, and the rules are just tips and tricks to get you there.”

TikTok says its users pay attention to brands that provide fun, entertaining or culturally-relevant experiences. So when formulating your strategy, make sure you keep all these things in mind. 

To help brands or creators who are just getting started, TikTok has just unveiled the TikTok Creative Sandbox. It provides additional tools and resources.

Source: 4 tips for successful TikTok videos from TikTok

Reddit Makes Comments Searchable

Reddit is rolling out a series of updates to its search capabilities including the ability to search comments and return more relevant results.

For the first time in Reddit’s existence, everything is searchable. You can use its on-site search bar to find users, posts, communities, and now comments.

Reddit search is also getting smarter, with an algorithm that understands search intent and incorporates new ranking signals.

In addition, Reddit is enhancing its search experience with a whole new user interface.

Here’s more about the Reddit search updates launching today.

Search Reddit Comments

Reddit users now have an easy way to search for comments, and can even refine searches to find comments within specific communities.

Users can now enter a query in the Reddit search bar and use the new Comments tab to browse through replies to threads more efficiently.

More Relevant Search Results

Reddit is making several adjustments to how it returns search results, which are said to make the results more relevant.

The adjustments to Reddit search include:

• Less restrictive matching: 100% of a query doesn’t have to match the text of a post to return results.
• Understanding search intent: Reddit will change how it orders search results based on search intent.
• New ranking signals: Users’ clicks and interactions on search results is now a ranking signal for Reddit search.

New User Experience

Reddit is updating its search results pages on mobile with what it says is a simpler design.

Along with the cosmetic updates, the layout of Reddit’s search results pages has been updated to prioritize posts over other content types.

In an effort to make Reddit search safer for all users, its reducing the number of unexpected results through understanding searcher’s intent.

Early testing indicates users are happy with the new experience. In Q1 of 2022, Reddit saw a 20% increase from Q4 2021 in people using the search bar.

These updates, including the ability to search comments, are available on Reddit as of today.

Source: Reddit Makes Comments Searchable

Google Analytics confirms another reporting delay today

Google Analytics reporting is now delayed for a “majority of users,” Google confirmed just now. Google said this impacts event data for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Analytics for Firebase, where the reporting will be delayed.

Real time reporting is not affected by this issue.

Issue started. The issue started today, April 14, 2022 at 12pm ET and is currently not resolved.

Resolution time. Google said they expect to fix the issue within the next few hours. Google updated us saying “mitigation work is still underway by our engineering team. Efforts thus far have limited further delays. A backlog of events (from up to ~3.5 hours ago) are being processed for a full resolution of this incident. We expect the mitigation and backlog processing to complete over the next few hours.”

What is impacted? Google said analytics event data for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Analytics for Firebase will be delayed. Google added that “only batch jobs and streaming are impacted.” Google said that Realtime data is not affected but this issue.

Google status notice. Google posted a status update saying “We’re aware of a problem with Google Analytics affecting a majority of users. We will provide an update by Apr 14, 2022, 9:30 PM UTC detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change. The affected users are able to access Google Analytics, but may not have access to the most recent data. Beginning at Thursday, 2022-04-14 09:00 US/Pacific, analytics event data for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Analytics for Firebase will be delayed. Thus, far only batch jobs and streaming are impacted. Realtime data is not affected. Mitigation work is currently underway by our engineering team. We do not have an ETA for full resolution at this point. We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption.”

Other issues. Earlier this week, we reported about other Google Analytics issues, mostly with real time data. Those issues, Google said were resolved, but many are saying they are still having issues. Maybe Google is having larger issues with Google Analytics since pushing people to GA4.

Source: Google Analytics confirms another reporting delay today

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YouTube launching new search insights tool

YouTube Search Insights, which was previewed as an experimental feature in November, will become available to all creators and brands by the end of this month, the company announced. 

The tool shows you data based on searches across all of YouTube, as well as just your viewers’ searches. There is also a content gap filter, which shows you searches for which searchers were unable to find a video. These are bucketed by search volume (high, medium, and low). 

Where to find the tool. Head to YouTube Studio. After you click on Analytics, the search insights will be available under the Research tab. Because this doesn’t launch fully until the end of April, you might not see it yet.

Data the tool provides It will only provide aggregated data from the past 28 days on English language search terms from the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and India. The company plans to roll this out to more languages and regions as soon as possible. That’s according to this video published on the Creator Insider YouTube channel.

Source: YouTube launching new search insights tool

Marketers report Meta bug turning off Facebook ads

Many advertisers woke up this morning and upon opening their Meta for Business accounts, found that ads were turned off late last night. Adding to the injury, in many cases the ads turned off were some of the best-performing assets.

Meta has not issued a statement, but if you are running Facebook Ads it would be prudent to log into your accounts and check to see if any of your ads were inadvertently turned off on or around 7 p.m. PST Tuesday.

What to do. Rok Hladnik shared on Twitter an easy way to diagnose if the ads were running and subsequently turned off. To view, simply view ads in ad manager that have been serving, then view “ad delivery.’” Within the ad delivery selector, you will be able to choose the “off”  button to showcase ads that are off.

Source: Marketers report Meta bug turning off Facebook ads

Google Ads launches manager account dashboards

Google Ads today announced that advertisers can now use dashboards at the manager account level. 

What it looks like. The dashboard is broken down into these areas:

• Top Level summary
• Conversions over time
• Top search terms
• Campaign Performance Report
• Search Auction Insights
• Top Locations

Here’s a screenshot from Google:

How to get it. Simple. Go to the Reports menu of your Google Ads manager account and click on Dashboards to get started. 

Additional changes to dashboards. Google said they have also made five improvements. You can now:

• Change date ranges and filters for the entire dashboard.
• Add interactive table cards, rich formatting features, and conditional formatting
• Download higher-quality reports more quickly.
• Resize cards and layouts dynamically based on window size
• Create a dashboard card by copying over existing saved reports

Source: Google Ads launches manager account dashboards

Google’s new highly cited label for top stories is now live

Google’s new highly cited label for top stories in the mobile US English search results are now rolling out. Google announced this feature a few weeks ago and told us it would be rolling out soon, and now it is.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot I took last night on my iPhone (while in New York) of the label showing up in this story. I first noticed this from @JoePawl on Twitter. Notice the “highly cited” label in the top left corner of the story’s image, you can click on the image to enlarge it.

Highly cited label. The highly cited label will help searchers identify stories that have been frequently cited by other news organizations. Google said this will help elevate original reporting that it first spoke about in 2019 as an area Google wanted to improve on. This label will give confidence to searchers that the story is cited by many other journalists and probably offers unique and valuable information that you can rely on. Google said this helps searchers find the “most helpful or relevant information for a news story.” A Google spokesperson told us this label is building on the search company’s efforts for the fact check explorer.

Source: Google’s new highly cited label for top stories now live

Google shares deeper insight into audience signals in Performance Max campaigns

Google has shared additional insight on how advertisers can help steer their most recent Google Ads campaign type, Performance Max. A Google spokesperson gave Search Engine Land additional clarity around ‘audience signals,’ one of the levers that advertisers can utilize when setting up these highly automated campaign types.

Audience signals as a jumpstart. Last week Ginny Marvin, Google Ads product liaison, indicated that the audience signals are used to “jumpstart” Performance Max campaigns only.

Google, however, added additional context around how audience signals can impact early performance within campaigns. “Including them early in the campaign lifecycle can be useful to help jumpstart performance, but they will also continue to inform our systems over the campaign lifecycle, especially as first-party data, in particular, is updated,” the company said.

So not only can that audience signal help to jumpstart the campaigns, but will also inform throughout the lifecycle of the campaign. Additionally, these signals can help to inform systems over time.

Of course, these audience signals are different than traditional audiences in Google Ads. Performance Max will expand beyond the audience signals provided and by nature there is no way to limit that expansion.

 Knowing that the audience signals are used as directional help, we asked for clarification on when additional campaigns should be created. For example, would it be beneficial to duplicate campaigns and simply change the audience signal in each to see if one helped jumpstart faster? “Advertisers should create one campaign if they’re using the same targeting and assets … you can associate audiences with assets and asset groups, and you can create multiple such groups in a campaign,” Google said. They added that the multiple groups in a campaign “will help consolidate learnings and give ML more data to work with.”

Source: Google shares deeper insight into audience signals in Performance Max campaigns

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Pinterest prohibits climate misinformation in ads, content 

Pinterest Bans Climate Change Misinformation

Pinterest implements a new policy impacting how information about climate change is presented in ads and organic content.

An update to Pinterest’s community guidelines prohibits the sharing of false or misleading information about climate change.

The company says it’s the first major platform to have clear rules around the climate change discourse.

Let’s dive in to see how this policy change can impact your advertising and organic content.

The New Policy

Per Pinterest’s update:

“Our new policy makes Pinterest the only major digital platform to have clearly defined guidelines against false or misleading climate change information, including conspiracy theories, across content and ads.”

What The Policy Means

Pinterest will start removing content about climate change that it believes could potentially harm the public’s safety, trust, or well-being. Content that can be removed includes:

• Deniability of :
  • The existence or impacts of climate change
  • Human influence on climate change
  • Climate change is backed by scientific consensus
• False or misleading information about how to combat climate change, if these solutions contradict scientific consensus
• Misrepresentation of scientific data in order to disintegrate trust in climate experts
• Harmful, false, or misleading content about public safety emergencies, such as natural disasters

Impacts On Advertising

To make it clear to advertisers, Pinterest has also updated its advertising guidelines with this language.

The advertising guidelines updates will prohibit ads about climate change that:

• Contain conspiracy theories
• Have misinformation or disinformation

The goal with this update is to cultivate a community of trusted resources on the platform.

Navigating New Organic Content

Creators who are in these countries are eligible for this series:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Germany
• France
• Japan
• Brazil
• Mexico
• Argentina
• Indonesia
• India

These pins will be called Idea Pins, which give consumers inspiration on tips and tricks, including:

• Thrifting or upcycling
• Minimizing food waste
• Replacing common household products with greener products

Source: Pinterest Bans Climate Change Misinformation

Google March 2022 product reviews update is finished rolling out

Google has confirmed that the March 2022 product reviews update is now finished rolling out. This update has officially completed rolling out over a 19 day period, first being kicked off on March 23, 2022.

The announcement. “The Google product review update is fully rolled out. Thank you!” Google’s Alan Kent wrote on Twitter.

March 2022 product reviews update. As a reminder, the March 2022 product reviews update started to roll out at about 12:00pm ET on March 23, 2022. This update took 19 days to roll out after it was announced. So this update started on March 23, 2022 and lasted through April 11, 2022.

Big update. This update was not as big as the December 2021 update, based on data from the data providers.

More on the March 2022 products reviews update

The SEO community. The March 2022 product reviews update seemed to have a slow start, with some volatility as early as March 23rd but then most of the volatility showed up on March 31st. I was able to cover the community reaction in one blog post on the Search Engine Roundtable. It includes some of the early chatter, ranking charts and social shares from some SEOs. In short, if your site was hit by this update, you probably felt it in a very big way but this was not as widespread as the December update in terms of the chatter within the community.

What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by this product reviews update. We posted that advice in our original story over here. In addition, Google provided two new best practices around this update, one saying to provide more multimedia around your product reviews and the second is to provide links to multiple sellers, not just one. Google posted these two items:

• Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
• Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

Google added the following criteria for what matters with the March 2022 product reviews update:

• Include helpful in-depth details, like the benefits or drawbacks of a certain item, specifics on how a product performs or how the product differs from previous versions
• Come from people who have actually used the products, and show what the product is physically like or how it’s used
• Include unique information beyond what the manufacturer provides — like visuals, audio or links to other content detailing the reviewer’s experience
• Cover comparable products, or explain what sets a product apart from its competitors

Google added three new points of new advice for this third-release of the products reviews update:

• Are product review updates relevant to ranked lists and comparison reviews? Yes. Product review updates apply to all forms of review content. The best practices we’ve shared also apply. However, due to the shorter nature of ranked lists, you may want to demonstrate expertise and reinforce authenticity in a more concise way. Citing pertinent results and including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this.
• Are there any recommendations for reviews recommending “best” products? If you recommend a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, be sure to share with the reader why you consider that product the best. What sets the product apart from others in the market? Why is the product particularly suited for its recommended purpose? Be sure to include supporting first-hand evidence.
• If I create a review that covers multiple products, should I still create reviews for the products individually? It can be effective to write a high quality ranked list of related products in combination with in-depth single-product reviews for each recommended product.  If you write both, make sure there is enough useful content in the ranked list for it to stand on its own.

Source: Google March 2022 product reviews update is finished rolling out

Google Creates Bubble Chart Template For Data Studio

Google has created and shared a free template for visualizing your Search Console data as a bubble chart in Google Data Studio.

This makes it easier than ever to analyze Search Console data with a bubble chart — a task people have been using third party tools to accomplish.

Now, creating a bubble chart is as simple as clicking on a link to Google’s template.

Google designed the chart to help you understand which queries are performing well for your site, and which could be improved

In addition, Google offers tips on how to use the template to isolate your most important data.

This is all shared in the latest installment of Google Search Advocate Daniel Waisberg’s blog series dedicated to Google Data Studio.

Here’s more about the template and how to use it.

Google Data Studio Bubble Chart Template

To utilize Google’s bubble chart to visualize query data you first have to connect Search Console to Data Studio.

Next, open the link to Google’s template in a browser where you’re signed into the Search Console account you want to manage.

The chart will automatically populate with data and render a page like the one shown below:

It may sound deceptively easy, but that’s all you have to do to create a bubble chart of your query data in Search Console. Google has done all the hard work with the creation of the template.

What Am I Looking At?

Here’s how Google’s bubble chart plots query performance:

• The y-axis represents average position
• The x-axis represents CTR
• The bubble size represents total number of clicks
• The bubble color represents device category
• The red reference lines show the average for each of the axes
• Each quadrant shows the four types of query performance

Each bubble in the chart represents a single query and data is pulled from the Site Impression table in Search Console.

Why Use A Bubble Chart?

A bubble chart can be used to find relationships between variables. It shows data as a circle on a graph using an X and Y axis.

The key benefit of using a bubble chart is the ability to chart data with multiple dimensions on the same graph.

In Google’s bubble chart template for Data Studio you can look up a query and see its click-through rate (CTR), average position, and number of clicks all at the same time.

Source: Google Creates Bubble Chart Template For Data Studio

Why your clients struggle with marketing reporting

28% of small business owners have no visibility into how their marketing agency uses their budgeted spending. The last thing your clients want to do is chase down reporting across multiple tools and channels and try and make sense of it themselves.

The biggest value you can provide to your clients as an agency is transparent and actionable reporting. And in this article, we’ll walk through the top pain points small business owners experience and how you can provide the right reporting to enhance trust and retain more clients.

Problem #1: Your clients lack insight into their most effective marketing campaigns and find it difficult to budget for the next year.

If you or your client lack the right tools to effectively manage and gather this data in one place, you have to pull from different reports from different platforms to piece together a cohesive data story. Therefore, the lack of insight makes it very difficult to properly plan next year’s campaigns based on the successful campaigns of this year.

The solution: Build a report with a tool like CallRail’s Multi-touch Cost Per Lead Report. It ties all of your lead sources’ data together across every channel where your client markets. The report will tie in your inbound calls, texts, live chats, and form submission data to attribute leads to online and offline marketing efforts. From there, you’ll be able to see which campaigns earned the most revenue for your clients, and those campaigns will help inform future campaigns. 

Problem #2: Your clients aren’t clear on where their inbound phone calls are coming from and can’t tie them back to the right marketing campaigns.

To understand marketing campaign effectiveness, you need to know where those inbound leads are coming from, whether it was your client’s Instagram ad, email outreach, bus wrap or any other channel. A full timeline of the lead’s journey can be incredibly helpful for understanding campaign success and improving the lead experience, too — turning more leads into customers.

The solution: Build a report that provides insight into the sources and interactions that drive traffic and generate inbound calls, texts and chats. With something like CallRail’s Call Attribution Report, you’ll be able to share the entire customer journey, which campaigns are most successful when it comes to generating new customers and revenue, and which campaigns could use some work in the new year.

Problem #3: Your clients aren’t able to identify which keywords are successful for their marketing program.

A clear understanding of ROI is crucial for marketers in any size organization. With call tracking and analytics tools, you can help your clients figure out which marketing campaigns and keywords are converting leads and driving new business.

But, it’s challenging — not only for your clients but for you and other agencies as well. You might not have visibility into your client’s interactions with their customers and might not be able to fully understand the common language of that business or industry. So, you can see how this makes reporting on certain keywords and phrases difficult.

The solution: Build a report that provides a full breakdown of targeted key terms and phrases that are used the most during your client’s business calls, such as a tool like CallRail’s Key Terms Spotted Report. From there, you can provide your client with a list of calls containing those key terms that were marked as qualified leads. 

Quick tips when building reports

1. Use the right tools and grow with your client and their needs over time. Keep in mind that your reporting will change as your client grows revenue and expands marketing efforts. 
2. Set the right goals from the beginning and establish a baseline. KPIs will help you and your clients track success and identify areas for improvement. And with a baseline, you can easily show growth and prove your agency’s value. 
3. Make sure that your client’s data tells a story. Numbers are great, but what’s the meaning behind them? How do they tie into the bigger picture? Be clear on your reporting to your clients and actionable steps they can take from those reports. 

Source: Why your clients struggle with marketing reporting

National Pet Day: How Our Fur-Babies Are Changing The Way We Work

Who hasn’t spent hours enjoying cat videos, watching a farmer wake up their animals on Tik Tok, or stolen a few quiet moments with their bird, spider, snake, or lizard?

The lives of humans and animals have been intricately intertwined since time immemorial.

It’s no surprise there is a growing trend to include pets at home, at work, and while shopping.

Today, customers are seeking more pet-friendly products and services.

Even workplaces are creating pet-friendly perks to improve morale and work-life balance.

We are doing the same. In conjunction with a company-wide mental health day, Search Engine Journal will participate in National Pet Day Off with hundreds of other companies across the globe.

The goal? To give pet parents more time with their loved ones and promote good mental health.

And we’re not alone.

Pets Are Taking Over Our Lives And Our Workplaces

Animals have traditionally played four important roles at work:

• Working alongside humans: Support animals, farms, drug enforcement, etc.
• The focus of the organization: Zoos, aquariums, pet stores, etc.
• Companion animals brought into the workplace.
• Companion animals at home.

Why Pets Work At Work

We know pets have positive effects on employees and customers. Studies show they increase the number of positive emotions work teams feel and the number of prosocial behaviors during the workday.

But it’s more than just being happier.

Pets help people cope with stress and uncertainty, providing much-needed relief to tense moments.

And anyone whose dog has gotten them out of bed at 7 AM on their day off will tell you many pets thrive on (and even demand) routine, which makes them helpful for getting motivated and starting the day.

Pets often require attention or need to go outside, encouraging employees to take a moment to get outside. Or at least do something different.

This space gives fresh perspectives on problems and maybe even a little creative inspiration.

How To Bring The Benefits of Pets To Your Business

Creating official policies around pets is just one way to become more pet friendly.

Create spaces for them. Google, for example, often encourages its employees to bring their pets to work. And the Doogleplex is worth a look.

Incorporate them into the company culture. Use them as team-building opportunities. It wouldn’t be the first workplace to do so.

Amazon employees can enjoy what the company estimates to be up to 7,000 dogs at their Seattle headquarters on any given day.

Salesforce openly pup-licizes its pet-friendly culture with Puppyforce.

Can’t really have pets in your business? There are still plenty of ways to be pet friendly.

Get creative or include them in your marketing.

Source: National Pet Day: How Our Fur-Babies Are Changing The Way We Work

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Google multisearch – search by image and text at the same time

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Google multisearch – search by image and text at the same time

Google multisearch is Google’s latest innovative search feature that let’s you search by image and then add text to that specific image search. Google says this lets searchers “go beyond the search box and ask questions about what you see.”

What is Google multisearch. Google multisearch lets you use your camera’s phone to search by an image, powered by Google Lens, and then add an additional text query on top of the image search. Google will then use both the image and the text query to show you visual search results.

How Google multisearch works. Open the Google app on Android or iOS, click on the Google Lens camera icon on the right side of the search box. Then point the camera at something nearby or use a photo in your camera or even take a picture of something on your screen. Then you swipe up on the results to bring it up, and tap the “+ Add to your search” button. In this box you can add text to your photo query.

Here is a GIF of this in action but you should be able to try it yourself in English, in the United States:

Here is a static image of the flow of how this works:

How is Google multisearch helpful. Google said this feature can help you narrow down your searches, here are some examples of how multisearch can be helpful.

• Screenshot a stylish orange dress and add the query “green” to find it in another color
• Snap a photo of your dining set and add the query “coffee table” to find a matching table  
• Take a picture of your rosemary plant and add the query “care instructions”

MUM not yet in multisearch. Google made a comment in its blog post saying “this is made possible by our latest advancements in artificial intelligence, which is making it easier to understand the world around you in more natural and intuitive ways. We’re also exploring ways in which this feature might be enhanced by MUM– our latest AI model in Search– to improve results for all the questions you could imagine asking.”

I asked Google if Google multisearch currently uses MUM and Google said no. For more on where Google uses MUM see our story on how Google uses artificial intelligence in search.

Available in US/English. This feature is live now for me, and should be available as a “beta feature in English in the U.S.” Google said. Google also recommended you try it with shopping searches.

Source: Google multisearch – search by image and text at the same time

New Google Attribute Helps Businesses Promote Sustainability

Google now allows businesses to display their commitment to environmentalism in their Google Business Profile.

This helps companies capitalize on growing eco-consciousness among consumers in the wake of concerns about climate change and sustainability.

Increasing Number Of Customers Value Eco-Consciousness

In a survey conducted by Google, 82% of consumers reported sustainability as a top priority when making purchasing decisions.

Reflecting this, it has seen “recycling” as one of its most popular searches, with an average popularity score of 81 out of 100.

Queries such as “climate change,” “sustainability,” and “renewable energy” have all also seen significant interest.

A 2021 report by Ipsos, the world’s third largest research company, found 68% of people believe that if businesses do not act now to combat climate change, they are failing their customers.

Companies Can Now Highlight Recycling Capabilities

Since the birth of the environmental movement in the 1970s, one of the key challenges has always been providing access to recycling services.

Recognizing the desire from customers, more businesses are now providing these services.

To help searchers find which stores recycle what and where, Google has added a new recycling attribute to Business Profiles, making it easier for people to find recycling points in search results and Google Maps.

Adding Recycling To Business Profiles

There are currently more than 3,000 Google Business Profile categories, with attributes falling into two classifications: subjective and factual.

Subjective attributes are things like whether a business is good for kids or is casual. These are sourced from the opinions of users who have reviewed the business.

Whereas factual attributes, like recycling, are maintained by the business.

Adding recycling to a Google Business Profile requires only a few clicks. Start by navigating to the info tab and clicking on “From the business – Add attributes.”

Google Remains Committed To Sustainability

Google is not just encouraging other organizations to adopt green practices; the search engine has been carbon neutral since 2007 (the first major company to do so), with the goal of becoming completely carbon free by 2030.

From energy-efficient data centers, to contracts to create nearly 6 gigawatts of renewable energy worldwide, Google has entrenched itself in the sustainability movement.

Source: New Google Attribute Helps Businesses Promote Sustainability

Google may update business hours in local listings with AI

Google said that is can use machine learning and AI to update the business hours of local listings when the search company thinks the hours listed are inaccurate. Google wrote “we developed a machine learning model that automatically identifies if business hours are likely wrong, then instantly updates them with AI-generated predictions.”

Why do we care. This is why it is important to regularly, on a consistent basis, review your business hours listed for your business listing but in Google Business Profiles and how searchers see it listed in Google. If Google changes your business details and hours, you can quickly update it in Google Business Profiles. This is just good local SEO practice in general because your listing details may change through Google’s AI or other edits done by Google Local Guides or searcher’s suggested edits.

How it works. How does Google change your listing with machine learning? Google said it looks at multiple factors to determine if the hours listed for a local listing is accurate. These include:

• When was the last time the business updated their business profile
• What other local business hours are set to
• The Popular Times information for that local listing (real user traffic)
• Street View images look specifically for business hour signs on the door

Then if there is conflicting information, Google may go ahead and update the hours automatically.

20 million businesses. Google said the company is on track to update the business hours of “over 20 million businesses around the globe in the next six months using AI.”

Source: Google may update business hours in local listings with AI

Android antivirus apps caught spreading their own malware

Google has removed a number of fake Android antivirus apps from the Play Store after it was discovered they were being used as a vehicle for malware distribution.

According to cybersecurity experts from Check Point Research, the company responsible for the discovery, at least half a dozen antivirus apps available on the official Android marketplace were being used to spread banking malware. 

The apps in question are called:

• Atom Clean-Booster, Antivirus
• Antivirus, Super Cleaner
• Alpha Antivirus, Cleaner
• Powerful Cleaner, Antivirus
• Center Security – Antivirus (two versions)

These malicious apps were carrying Sharkbot, a malware strain that steals passwords and banking information. It shares push notifications and offers up fake login prompts, through which users share their credentials with the attackers. 

Although all have since been removed from the Play Store, Check Point says they still remain active in unofficial markets. Android users who had downloaded the apps before they were removed are advised to uninstall them immediately.

Source: Android antivirus apps caught spreading their own malware

Top data and analytics trends for the digital-first marketer

As digital-first customer behavior accelerates, marketers have adopted equally critical mandates —customer satisfaction and growth. Because data is central to this dual mandate, we sought to understand how marketers use data to understand customers, build trusted relationships, optimize performance, and maximize the ROI of every investment.

Salesforce’s 3rd Marketing Intelligence Report reveals insights trends on data and analytics from 2,500+ marketers worldwide. Join us as we unpack how data has become central to marketing success.

Source: Top data and analytics trends for the digital-first marketer

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