YouTube Shorts: An Introductory Guide

YouTube launched the beta version of Shorts in India on Sept. 14, 2020, prompting some people to ask, “What is YouTube Shorts?”

Then, YouTube rolled out Shorts in the United States on Mar. 18, 2021. And some skeptics began to ask, “Can YouTube Shorts be monetized?”

What is YouTube Shorts?

In the post announcing “a new way to watch and create videos on YouTube,” Chris Jaffe, the VP of Product Management, said, “Shorts is a short-form video experience for anyone who wants to create short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.”

So, what’s the big deal?

As Jaffe explained at the time, “Creation is at the core of short-form video, and we want to make it easy and fun to create Shorts. We’re starting to test just a few new tools for creators and artists with our early beta in India:

• “A multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together,
• The option to record with music from a large library of songs that will continue to grow,
• Speed controls that give you the flexibility to be creative in your performance,
• And a timer and countdown to easily record, hands-free.”

Can YouTube Shorts Be Monetized?

Fortunately, this question was answered on May 11, 2021, when YouTube introduced a $100 million Shorts Fund, which will be distributed over the course of 2021-2022.

Anyone is eligible to participate in the fund simply by creating unique Shorts that delight the YouTube community.

Amy Singer, Director of Global Partnership Enablement for YouTube Shorts, said in a post introducing the YouTube Shorts Fund,

“Each month, we’ll reach out to thousands of creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions.”

(A channel’s Shorts will count toward their monthly performance each month viewers watch them, not just the month they were uploaded.)

Source: YouTube Shorts: An Introductory Guide

5 ways to maximize your Google Search ad spend performance

As we approach the end of the calendar year, marketers are looking to squeeze every ounce of performance from their paid search campaigns. With this focus comes the risk of wastage or ineffective regional campaigns – all putting 2022 budgets at risk.

Join this session to hear five cutting-edge tactics to improve your spend efficiency. Each section will profile use cases, Adthena data and tips for the audience to apply in their day-to-day.

Register today for “5 Tips to Max your Google Ads Search Spend Efficiency and Grow,” presented by Integrate.

Source: 5 ways to maximize your Google Search ad spend performance

Google Answers if Links or Content Determine E-A-T Scores

What’s E-A-T?

E-A-T is an abbreviation for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. They are qualities that Google’s third party Quality Raters are tasked to look for when evaluating websites ranked with new algorithms that are being tested.

E-A-T is an ideal that Google has for sites that are ranked, particularly in search results for sensitive topics like health and finance.

What’s Up With E-A-T?

The person asking the question was trying to find out what SEO or technical factors might be involved with obtaining a high E-A-T score.

John Mueller Explains E-A-T

“So E-A-T is an abbreviation for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. It’s something that comes from our quality rater guidelines.”

Quality Raters Guidelines Do Not Offer Algorithm Insights

Mueller next debunks the idea that the Quality Raters Guidelines (QRG) contain insights into Google’s algorithms and explicitly says that the QRG is not a handbook to Google’s algorithm.

There is No Such Thing as an E-A-T Score

Mueller next makes it clear and without ambiguity that Google does not have E-A-T scores.

He underlines the point that E-A-T is something the quality raters look at but that there’s no SEO related factor involved.

E-A-T is a Guide and Not a Ranking Factor

Google encourages publishers to use the Quality Raters Guidelines as an inspiration for how to critique their own sites.

John Mueller’s comments about E-A-T align with that encouragement, especially for those whose content is on sensitive topics.

The QRG was developed to provide an objective way to rank search results of new algorithms that are under evaluation.

Source: Google Answers if Links or Content Determine E-A-T Scores

Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support

Gutenberg 11.6 landed yesterday. Contributors added dozens of enhancements and bug fixes. Admittedly, there was not a whole lot that excited me as a user about this release.

Typography options for the Post Title block. Nice.

Cropping for the Site Logo. A necessary addition.

Toolbar button for converting old Gallery blocks to the new — still experimental — format. Sweet.

Global Styles Updates

Gutenberg 11.6 adds a navigation component to the Global Styles sidebar. Overall, it feels much smoother working through the top and sub-levels while editing my theme’s styles.

Contributors also updated the old “Aa” icon representing the Global Styles panel with a half-dark-half-light circle button. My immediate reaction was that it was for switching between light and dark modes.

Block Child Theme Support

Templates, template parts, and theme.json files from a child theme should now completely overrule those from the parent. These changes work on both the front end and in the site editor.

Some open questions are being worked through in a related GitHub ticket. The most crucial development is still to come, which will handle merging values between the parent and child theme.json files. For example, it makes sense that child themes should be able to overwrite colors and typography while skipping definitions for layout-related values, falling back to the parent.

Once that is in place, designers will have an easy-yet-powerful way to realize the original vision behind CSS Zen Garden, a project that at least partially inspired child theming’s adoption by WordPress.

Source: Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support

Snap thinks AR will become the new norm in online shopping

Speaking at the TNW 2021 conference, Jacqueline Rutgers, Head of Marketing, Northern Europe – Snap Inc., said that more than 200 million users engaging with AR every day. Plus, 94% of shoppers who’ve used any AR features, will be happy to do it again. She believes AR would be a norm amongst brands:

Leading brands are already leaning into AR to create brand awareness and introduce new products to customers, wherever they are, at scale with measurable results. Some of you might already be doing the same, and doing extraordinary things with AR. But my hope is that soon, it won’t be just some of you, it will be all of you.

Rutgers said that if your favorite sneakers brand is launching a new pair, you can easily try them through AR lenses, and get your friends’ opinion — which, according to her, is seven-time more powerful than an influencer’s opinion.

Plus, AR experiences can give you a conscious choice of engaging with ads instead of removing them.

Source: Snap thinks AR will become the new norm in online shopping

Instagram now lets you add Messenger contacts to groups

Facebook began merging Messenger and Instagram DMs last year. The company said today that more than 70% of Instagram users have opted into this experience.

The company also launched the ability to create cross-app groups on both apps today. This means you can create a group on Instagram DMs with your Messenger contacts, and vice versa. There will also be group typing indicators to show you who’s tying the next message. This makes it easier to include some folks who might not be using one of the platforms.

Facebook is also introducing polls in Instagram DM, so you can decide on the next restaurant you can visit or the next movie you’re going to watch.

For personalization, the company is introducing J Balvin theme on Instagram and Astrology Art Suite on Messenger, which includes stickers and AR effects. This adds to the already existing Cottegecore theme launched earlier this year.

Source: Instagram now lets you add Messenger contacts to groups

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Facebook changes business ad options in reaction to iOS updates

Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos

E-commerce SEO guide: New documentation from Google

With COVID forcing many retailers online, there are more e-commerce options than ever. Google Search Central recently released new guidelines for developers to help improve search visibility for e-commerce sites. “When you share your e-commerce data and site structure with Google, Google can more easily find and parse your content, which allows your content to show up in Google Search and other Google surfaces. This can help shoppers find your site and products,” Google said in the guide.

Where content can appear. The guide says that e-commerce content can actually appear in more results than just traditional search. These include Google Search, Images, Lens, the Shopping tab, Google My Business,\, and Maps. “Product data is the most obvious type of e-commerce related content, but other types of information can also be useful to shoppers at different stages of their shopping journey,” according to the guide. Google recommends promoting content like product reviews, offers, customer service touchpoints, and even live streams.

Adding product data. Structured data can also help your e-commerce products show in Google search properties. The guide recommends the following ways to show Google what your products are:

• Include structured data in your site’s product pages.
• Tell Google directly which products you want to show on Google by uploading a feed to Google Merchant Center.

Read more: E-commerce SEO guide: New documentation from Google

The future of attribution is data-driven

As the industry continues to evolve, last-click attribution will increasingly fall short of advertisers’ needs. The most successful marketers will switch to a data-driven approach. While Google Ads offers data-driven attribution, some advertisers haven’t been able to use it due to minimum data requirements or unsupported conversion types. To help all advertisers take advantage of better attribution and improve their performance, we’re removing the data requirements and adding support for additional types of conversions. With these improvements, we’re also making data-driven attribution the default attribution model for all new conversion actions in Google Ads.

Better performance with better attribution

Unlike other models, data-driven attribution gives you more accurate results by analyzing all of the relevant data about the marketing moments that led up to a conversion. Data-driven attribution in Google Ads takes multiple signals into account, including the ad format and the time between an ad interaction and the conversion. We also use results from holdback experiments to make our models more accurate and calibrate them to better reflect the true incremental value of your ads. And like all of our measurement solutions, we respect people’s decisions about how their data should be used and have strict policies against covert techniques, like fingerprinting, that can compromise user privacy.

More campaigns, more advertisers

Today, data-driven attribution supports Search, Shopping, Display, and YouTube ads. But we know that data-driven attribution can improve advertiser performance, regardless of campaign or conversion type. That’s why we’re adding support for more conversion types, including in-app and offline conversions. We’re also removing the data requirements for campaigns so that you can use data-driven attribution for every conversion action.

Read more: The future of attribution is data-driven

How Dennis Publishing made first-party data core to its business transformation

In a recent session at the MarTech Fall Conference, Dennis Publishing’s chief product & data officer, Pete Wootton, joined Jackie Rousseau-Anderson of customer data platform BlueConic to explain how the company is scaling its first-party data strategy, including the launch of ‘Autovia,’ a business unit that combines the power of content with e-commerce to establish a highly engaged auto buying audience.

The intersection of product and data

“Customer data has become an instrumental part of our business strategy,” said Wootton, adding that the company uses the consented data it collects to understand its audiences, inform engagement, and drive growth in all areas of the business, including advertising, demand generation, subscriptions, and e-commerce. “All of these efforts are predicated on having high-quality first-party data.”

Expanding CDP use cases beyond marketing

At the start of its CDP journey, Dennis Publishing had a very specific vision for how a CDP could empower its growth-focused teams. But as their knowledge of the technology grew, so did the possibilities.

“We started off with an idea of what our initial use cases would look like, but that evolved and changed over time, and we saw opportunities in certain areas that we didn’t when we began,” said Wootton.

Read more: How Dennis Publishing made first-party data core to its business transformation

MUM brings multimodal search to Lens, deeper understanding of videos and new SERP features

What is MUM?

Google first previewed its Multitask Unified Model (MUM) at its I/O event in May. Similar to BERT, it’s built on a transformer architecture but is reportedly 1,000 times more powerful and capable of multitasking to connect information for users in new ways.

MUM enhancements to Google Lens

Google demoed a new way to search that combines MUM technology with Google Lens, enabling users to take a photo and add a query.

Related topics in videos

Google is also applying MUM to show related topics that aren’t explicitly mentioned in a video. In the example above, the video does not explicitly say “macaroni penguin’s life story,” but Google’s systems are able to understand that the topics are related and suggest the query to the user. This functionality will be launching in English in the coming weeks, and the company will add more visual enhancements over the coming months. It will first be available for YouTube videos, but Google is also exploring ways to make this feature available for other videos.

More announcements from Search On

In addition to the MUM-related announcements above, Google also previewed a more “visually browsable” interface for certain search results pages, enhancements to its About this result box, a more “shoppable” experience for apparel-related queries, in-stock filters for local product searches, as well as the ability to make all images on a page searchable via Google Lens. You can learn more about those features in our concurrent coverage, “Google search gets larger images, enhances ‘About this result,’ gets more ‘shoppable’ and more.”

Read more: MUM brings multimodal search to Lens, deeper understanding of videos and new SERP features

More news:

“About this advertiser” initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads

Mozilla tests Bing as the default search engine for 1% of users

Google News app will display non-AMP content

The 5 Paid Ad Channels You Need to Incorporate Right Now

Many advertisers start with Google or Facebook because of their market share, track record, and the habit of thinking of them as “online advertising.”

Between Google limiting search term visibility, Facebook’s audience’s impacted by iOs 14.5 privacy changes, and both network’s auction prices continuing to skyrocket – they might need some help in driving ROI for your business.

In this article, we’ll explore ad channels you might have passed up on or not known about:

• Microsoft: More than just a cheaper Google.
• Amazon: Branding and revenue ecommerce superstar.
• Instagram: Impulse purchases and huge engagement.
• LinkedIn: Premium targeting for B2Bs.
• TikTok: Influencers and trendsetters.

Microsoft Ads

Microsoft Ads (formerly known as Bing Ads) is a robust and powerful advertising channel for B2B and B2C brands. While it’s true most only think about it as the cheaper search cousin to Google, there are lots of innovative ad offerings:

• Auto Ads: Feed-based ads on the SERP which showcase the image of the car and price.
• Shopping Ads: Feed-based ads that showcase the product and price.
• Audience Network: Microsoft’s programmatic display/video offering.

Amazon Ads

Whether you’re using Amazon as a branding tool to help customers discover you or to sell mainly through the platform, there’s a lot of value in this ecommerce channel.

• 49% of internet users use Amazon to start their search for a product.
• 225,000 small businesses made over $100,000 in sales on Amazon in 2019.
• More than 55% of all Amazon sales come from third-party sellers.

Instagram Ads

Instagram Ads are all run through Facebook’s Ads Manager, allowing you to run ads concurrently across both sites to target both respective audiences.

Instagram has specific rules of engagement and often falls down when you use the same creative on Facebook and Instagram.

Be sure your ads:

• Include hashtags in your creative.
• Always have emojis.
• Let the image/video do most of the selling – supporting text is less important than the hashtags.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals. With 61 million senior-level decision-makers on the platform, LinkedIn is a great place for B2B businesses to do their work. On LinkedIn, you can advertise through:

• LinkedIn’s feed.
• InMail.
• Spotlight (highlight key features).

TikTok Ads

TikTok is taking the world by storm and already has more than 1 billion monthly active users.

TikTok leans more towards Gen Z, with nearly 50% of 18-29-year-olds using the platform. TikTok requires engaging and fun video spots to highlight your brand’s value and to inspire purchasing intent.

Although it lends itself easily to B2C brands, TikTok can be really powerful at building brand sentiment for B2b brands. TikTok ranks as the second-biggest app in terms of consumer spend.

Cost? It averages around $0.19 per click or $10 per thousand impressions.

Source: The 5 Paid Ad Channels You Need to Incorporate Right Now

Should robots.txt support a feature for no indexation? Take the survey

With over 20 years of experience in SEO, “I have never encountered a situation where a publisher wanted to have a page indexed that they block for crawling in robots.txt. Not even once have I seen that,” I tweeted in response. “It’s common practice for me to educate people that they have a choice: (1) block crawling, or: (2) prevent indexation, when what they want to do is both. Note: definitely more of an issue for larger sites where crawl budget is an issue.”

Will Critchlow of Search Pilot agreed, “100% agree. I can see the conservatism of not changing a long-standing standard, but I have never seen, and can’t think of a situation where you’d want to block crawling but allow indexation.”

Source: Should robots.txt support a feature for no indexation? Take the survey

WooCommerce Blocks 6.0.1 Release Notes

A new version of WooCommerce Blocks has been released! Version 6.0.1 is now available for download from GitHub and WordPress.org.

What’s New in the Checkout block?

The new iteration takes the existing design of the Checkout Block and converts it to use Inner Blocks. What this means for the end-user is that instead of having a fixed layout Checkout Block, they are instead given a checkout constructed out of many smaller blocks, with more control over each.

Terms and Conditions Block

We heard your suggestions, and took the opportunity to also introduce a Terms and Conditions block. This block was one of the main motivations for this update to the Checkout block. To create a Terms and Condition block, we needed to make the editing experience easier.

The block can function as a required checkbox, or just as text.

Extending the Checkout block

The Checkout block can now be extended by introducing third-party blocks inside it. Developers can create blocks that forced into the Checkout layout or optional (like the Terms and Conditions block). Keep an eye on this blog as we will share a guide into how to extend the Checkout block soon.

Global Styles for reviews blocks

WooCommerce Blocks 6.0.0 adds the ability to style the All Reviews, Reviews by Product, and Reviews by Category blocks:

Updating the styles can be done a block basis using the new sidebar panels:

Or, if you’re using a theme that supports full site editing, you can update them on Global Styles panel in the Site Editor:

Source: WooCommerce Blocks 6.0.1 Release Notes

WordCamp US 2021 Kicks Off Online in 48 Hours

WordCamp US, WordPress’ largest flagship event in the Western Hemisphere, is set to kick off on Friday, October 1, at 11:45 AM EDT. The single-day event will include sessions, workshops, networking events, virtual sponsor booths, and musical interludes. Get ready to be inspired by new ideas and learn about the latest and greatest capabilities in the exciting frontier of blocks.

In preparation for the event, attendees can view the schedule, star sessions they want to catch, and email, link, or print them. The event features two simultaneous tracks, one focused more on development (Columbia) and another for less-technical topics (Yukon).

Unlike many previous years, WordCamp US will not include Matt Mullenweg’s annual State of the Word address. This year the event will be capped off with a presentation from WordPress’ executive director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, titled “Grow Your Story,” where she will discuss “trends seeded in 2020” and future growth opportunities for the community. Haden Chomphosy said there will be a State of the Word later in the year, possibly “at a hybrid in-person/live broadcast format (in December),” but the details are still being worked out.

Source: WordCamp US 2021 Kicks Off Online in 48 Hours

Social media scam: Twitter bots are tricking users into making PayPal and Venmo payments into fraudsters’ accounts

Fraudsters are using Twitter bots to trick unsuspecting tweeters into making PayPal and Venmo payments to accounts under their control.

The bots appear to be activated when a legitimate user asks another for their payment information, presumably discovering these tweets via a search for keywords such as ‘PayPal’, ‘Venmo’, or other services.

They masquerade as the other user by scraping their profile picture and adopting a similar username, before supplying them with false payment information in the hopes the original tweeter will pay into this account.

By way of example, Twitter user ‘Skye’ (@stimmyskye) posted a screenshot online detailing how they were targeted by a bot.

A screenshot of the Twitter bot in action

Skye noted that the bot blocks the account that it is mimicking, and in their case copied the whole profile and added an underscore to the end of the name.

Big issue

Venmo and other online payment services have become a popular means for users to pay for things such as charity donations or for goods such as the resale of event tickets.

This latest scam, however, is a stark warning against making or disclosing any sort of transaction on a public forum.

Skye’s tweets have already garnered thousands of retweets and likes. They also claimed that this issue is “months, if not years old”.

Pay close attention

Andy Patel, researcher with F-Secure’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, told The Daily Swig that he hasn’t seen this kind of bot during his own research, but reiterated Skye’s advice for users.

Patel said: “Given that the mechanism is automated, I’m willing to bet that the attack is fairly successful.

“A Twitter user would need to pay close attention to what is going on in order to notice what’s happened.”

He added: “Don’t publicly link to your PayPal (or similar) account – deal with payments via direct message instead.”

Source: Social media scam: Twitter bots are tricking users into making PayPal and Venmo payments into fraudsters’ accounts.

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Facebook changes business ad options in reaction to iOS updates

Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos

Website themes can affect SEO to some extent

“About this advertiser” initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads

“To give users of our products even more transparency, we are enhancing ad disclosures with
new advertiser pages. Users can access these disclosures in our new ‘About this ad’ menu to
see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days,” said Google in an announcement today.

As part of the company’s advertiser transparency initiative, Google Ads introduced their advertiser identity verification program as well as their “About this ad” information last year. The new Advertiser Page program takes that transparency for searchers to the next level.

Users can learn more about advertisers and report ad policy violations. “This transparency helps users learn more about the company behind a specific ad. It also helps differentiate credible advertisers in the ecosystem, while limiting the ability of bad actors to misrepresent themselves,” according to the announcement blog. Searchers can report any ad policy violations they believe an ad is breaching. From there a Google team member reviews it and takes the ad down if the violations are found to be true.

Read more: “About this advertiser” initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads

Giving users more transparency into their Google ad experience

Today, people engage with a wider variety of ad formats on more Google products than ever before — from Video ads on YouTube to Shopping ads across Search, Display and more. And they increasingly want to know more about the ads they see. That’s why we’ve been innovating on features like “About this ad” to help users understand why an ad was shown, and to mute ads or advertisers they aren’t interested in.

Last spring, we also introduced an advertiser identity verification program that requires Google advertisers to verify information about their businesses, where they operate from and what they’re selling or promoting. This transparency helps users learn more about the company behind a specific ad. It also helps differentiate credible advertisers in the ecosystem, while limiting the ability of bad actors to misrepresent themselves. Since launching the program last year, we have started verifying advertisers in more than 90 countries — and we’re not stopping there.

Introducing advertiser pages 

To give users of our products even more transparency, we are enhancing ad disclosures with new advertiser pages. Users can access these disclosures in our new “About this ad” menu to see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days. For example, imagine you’re seeing an ad for a coat you’re interested in, but you don’t recognize the brand. With advertiser pages, you can learn more about that advertiser before visiting their site or making a purchase.

Improving transparency for ads on Google

Enhanced ad disclosures build on our efforts to create a clear and intuitive experience for users who engage with ads on Google products. More than 30 million users interact with our ads transparency and control menus every day, and “About this ad” has received positive feedback on its streamlined experience. Users engage with our ads transparency and control tools on YouTube more than any other Google product. To help our users make informed decisions online — no matter where they engage — we will roll out the “About this ad” feature to YouTube and Search in the coming months. 

Read more: Giving users more transparency into their Google ad experience

Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes

Executing Marketing with Purpose in your advertising is an important way for marketers to overcome barriers in the moments that matter, and to connect with people.

New attributes from Microsoft Advertising allow businesses to indicate their dedication to “responsibility, how your brand values align with the values of your customers, and how your brand is being inclusive,” said an announcement from Vi Nguyen, Crystal Zhang, and MJ DePalma.

“Marketing with Purpose Business Attributes allow you to communicate quickly and easily how your brand is ‘for someone like me.’ They allow you to be authentic, which is the key attribute to building trust with customers,” said the blog.

Marketing with Purpose. This initiative is exclusive to Microsoft Advertising and follows the lead the company has taken with its Marketing with Purpose playbook and course. The idea behind the initiative is to “build a brand that’s welcomed into people’s lives by earning genuine trust, upholding their values, and inclusively advertising.”

Attributes included. The attributes advertisers can choose from fall under four main categories: inclusion, environmental, community/social responsibility, and accessibility. Within those categories, there are 32 attributes that a business can choose.

Read more: Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes

The greatest hidden cost to marketing success: Ineffective communication

Marketing leaders know that success today increasingly comes down to agility. Now more than ever, brands must quickly and compellingly engage audiences across a growing number of channels to drive results.

But one critical—and overlooked—factor hampers the ability to deliver on these goals: ineffective communication. When communications break down, it creates tremendous costs for marketing organizations by eroding engagement with customers and prospects, decreasing alignment around brand messaging and goals, and preventing productivity and growth. For example, even well before the pandemic, poorly written communication was costing businesses a staggering $400 billion annually in lost productivity.

This is particularly true in functions like marketing that rely on clear, consistent, and engaging interactions and content to achieve outcomes. And now, new customer and workforce demands are amplifying the cost of poor communication on marketing teams—and the opportunity that awaits should they overcome it.

Read more: The greatest hidden cost to marketing success: Ineffective communication

Google Ads announces machine learning-based data-driven attribution models in new privacy landscape

“In a move away from last-click, data-driven attribution will soon be the default attribution model for all new Google Ads conversion actions,” tweeted Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin on Monday morning. As Google works toward a move privacy-focused search experience for users, it’s also adjusting the available attribution models for advertisers.

“[Data-driven attribution] uses advanced machine learning to more accurately understand how each marketing touchpoint contributed to a conversion, all while respecting user privacy,” according to an announcement from Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM Buying, Analytics and Measurement, Google Ads.

How it works. “Data-driven attribution looks at all the interactions—including clicks and video engagements—on your Search (including Shopping), YouTube, and Display ads in Google Ads. By comparing the paths of customers who convert to the paths of customers who don’t, the model identifies patterns among those ad interactions that lead to conversions,” says the about page.

Read more: Google Ads announces machine learning-based data-driven attribution models in new privacy landscape

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Mozilla tests Bing as the default search engine for 1% of users

Google News app will display non-AMP content

Google to enforce unique product identifiers on free merchant listings

Facebook changes business ad options in reaction to iOS updates

“The social networking giant has repeatedly argued that Apple’s changes would impact small businesses that relied on Facebook ads to reach their customers. But it was not successful in getting any of Apple’s changes halted. Instead, the market is shifting to a new era focused more on user privacy, where personalization and targeting are more of an opt-in experience,” said Sarah Perez for TechCrunch.

New communication options. The new features include expanded click-to-chat options from ads where “businesses can choose all the messaging platforms where they’re available to chat, and we’ll default the chat app in your ad based on where a conversation is most likely to happen,” according to the announcement.

More sophisticated advertising tools. “We’re also introducing File Manager, a new feature that allows businesses to easily create, manage and post content within Facebook Business Suite. Lastly, we’re making post testing available in Facebook Business Suite to let businesses test and compare multiple versions of a post to see which one people are more likely to engage with,” said the announcement from Facebook.

Source: Facebook changes business ad options in reaction to iOS updates

“About this advertiser” initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads

“To give users of our products even more transparency, we are enhancing ad disclosures with

new advertiser pages. Users can access these disclosures in our new ‘About this ad’ menu to

see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days,” said Google in an announcement today.

As part of the company’s advertiser transparency initiative, Google Ads introduced their advertiser identity verification program as well as their “About this ad” information this past year. The new Advertiser Page program takes that transparency for searchers to the next level.

Users can learn more about advertisers and report ad policy violations. Searchers can report any ad policy violations they believe an ad is breaching. From there a Google team member reviews it and takes the ad down if the violations are found to be true.

What type of advertiser info is displayed? “[The advertiser page] will be generated based on the approved ads running and the information in their account. In terms of information about the advertiser, we will continue to show the advertiser’s name and location,” a Google representative told us.

YouTube has highest ad control adoption. “Users engage with our ads transparency and control tools on YouTube more than any other Google product,” added the announcement. 

Source: “About this advertiser” initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads

Twitter Adds Bitcoin & GoFundMe As Tipping Options

Twitter is expanding its tipping feature to more users and diversifying the ways in which users can receive monetary contributions.

Twitter’s “tip jar” was introduced back in May as a way for users to earn money directly from other users. First access was given to select groups of English-speaking professionals and content creators.

Now, simply referred to as “Tips,” the feature is available to everyone on Twitter with an extensive list of payment options to choose from.

Twitter Tips – How Does it Work?

Twitter Tips lets you add links to third-party payment services on your Twitter profile.

When Tips is turned on, your profile will display a special icon letting others know you have the feature enabled. The icon looks like a cash bill.

People can tap on the icon to send you money or Bitcoin off-platform via the third-party payment services you selected.

Currently, Tips is only available to users on iOS. This is how to set it up using the iPhone app.

How to Set Up Twitter Tips

On iOS, go to Edit Profile. Then tap Tips to turn the feature on.

You will be asked to consent to Twitter’s General Tipping policy to turn on Tips on your profile.

From there you’ll be brought to the Tips settings screen. Toggle Allow tips to on and then choose the third-party service(s) you’d like to use.

Now you can enter your third-party service username(s). Note that your username on that service will be publicly linked to your Twitter account.

Payment Providers

Twitter Tips can be sent and received via the following third-party payment services:

Bandcamp

Cash App

Chipper

Patreon

Razorpay

Wealthsimple Cash

Venmo

Source: Twitter Adds Bitcoin & GoFundMe As Tipping Options

NEWSWordPress Ninja Forms Vulnerability exposes millions of sites

Failure in sanitizing these inputs and restrictions on who can input the data can lead to WordPress Ninja form vulnerability. This is exactly the case here.

Two vulnerabilities were the result of a single REST API validation issue in the Permission Callbacks. However, it is a part of the authentication process which restricts access to REST API Endpoints to the authorized users.

Two vulnerabilities have relation to the permissions callback error in the implementation. There is simply nothing wrong with WordPress REST API. But how the plugin makers are implementing it can lead to many problems. The two vulnerabilities are Sensitive Information Disclosure and Unprotected REST API to Email Injection.

The Sensitive Information Disclosure vulnerability allows the registered users and subscribers to export every form that includes all the confidential information. The Unprotected REST API to Email Injection vulnerability takes place due to a faulty permission callback that fails to check the permission level for the registered attackers.

Source: NEWSWordPress Ninja Forms Vulnerability exposes millions of sites

Keanan Koppenhaver Acquires WP Pusher and Branch

WordPress developer Keanan Koppenhaver announced today that he has acquired WP Pusher and Branch from Peter Suhm. WP Pusher, a product we have covered for the past six years, allows users to deploy plugins and themes from popular code hosting services like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. In 2018, Suhm expanded his offerings to include Branch, a Docker-based continuous integration service for WordPress. Both products were selected for the TinySeed Startup Accelerator, a remote accelerator that funds early-stage SaaS founders to live for a year and focus full-time on their startups.

Source: Keanan Koppenhaver Acquires WP Pusher and Branch

More Young People Are Taking On Remote Jobs They Couldn’t Before COVID

Remote working has enabled graduates to accept employment opportunities in areas they were perhaps unable to access or afford in the past, with almost a third of young people accepting jobs they couldn’t before, because of a long commute to the office, and almost a quarter (24%) of graduates saying the main benefit of working remotely is flexibility in where they live.

The research shows the opportunity for universities and government to capitalize on remote working as a way to level up countries and improve social mobility for young people.  26% of graduates in the North-West were able to accept a job based in a different city from where they live because of remote working, while 31% of those in the Midlands were able to do the same.  

While remote working and higher education have the potential to do a great deal for levelling up, particularly after COVID-19 with 77% of graduates saying the pandemic has widened inequalities, this must come with a balance for graduates.  

The research shows face-to-face time in offices will still be an important part of a graduate’s career development.  Almost half (49%) of young people questioned fear that continued remote working will put them at a disadvantage in their careers, while previous research indicates that 40% of graduates would prefer a mix of office and remote working, with only 6% of graduates wanting to work 100% remotely.

While this is the start of a positive trend, there is still more to be done to tackle the brain drain from rural regions into big cities.  The research from Bright Network’s 500,000+ members has shown an ongoing regional divide with 63% of students saying they would most ideally like to work in London, and nearly 40% of students who studied in Northern Universities moving to London after their studies.  

Source: More Young People Are Taking On Remote Jobs They Couldn’t Before COVID

More News:

Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos

Website themes can affect SEO to some extent

Shopify Makes it Easy to Market to Specific Countries

Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos

Google is negotiating deals with Instagram and TikTok to index their content in search results, according to a new report.

The Information has the early details of Google’s talks with Facebook and ByteDance — parent companies of Instagram and TikTok respectively.

“Three people who were briefed about the discussions” tell The Information that deals are being worked on to get Google the data it needs to index and rank videos.

The deal is said to be similar to the one formed between Google and Twitter in 2015, in which Google was granted access to a “firehose” of tweet data for immediate indexing.

Prior to forming a partnership with Twitter, Google did not index and rank individual tweets in search results the way it does today.

Now it’s so common to run into Twitter content in Google’s SERPs it’s difficult to remember a time when tweets weren’t discoverable with a simple search.

Should the reported negotiations between Google, Instagram, and TikTok pan out, then short-form video content could end up being as common as tweets in search results.

Source: Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos

Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes

New attributes from Microsoft Advertising allow businesses to indicate their dedication to “responsibility, how your brand values align with the values of your customers, and how your brand is being inclusive,” said an announcement from Vi Nguyen, Crystal Zhang, and MJ DePalma.

“Marketing with Purpose Business Attributes allow you to communicate quickly and easily how your brand is ‘for someone like me.’ They allow you to be authentic, which is the key attribute to building trust with customers,” said the blog.

Marketing with Purpose. This initiative is exclusive to Microsoft Advertising and follows the lead the company has taken with its Marketing with Purpose playbook and course. The idea behind the initiative is to “build a brand that’s welcomed into people’s lives by earning genuine trust, upholding their values, and inclusively advertising.”

Attributes included. The attributes advertisers can choose from fall under four main categories: inclusion, environmental, community/social responsibility, and accessibility. Within those categories, there are 32 attributes that a business can choose.

How to set it up. “These attributes can be set at the account level and used to decorate text ads and product ads,” said the announcement.

Source: Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes

Important security patch released in WooCommerce

What actions should I take?

After updating to a patched version, we also recommend disabling Directory Listing on your web server, if it isn’t already. This feature displays a list of every file in the web directory when there is no index file present. You can check if this is active by visiting <domain>/wp-content/uploads in a browser. If you’re not sure how to disable this, please contact your web host directly.

How do I know if my version is up-to-date?

If you are running a version of WooCommerce that is not on this list, please update immediately to the highest version in your release branch. Once you update to any of the patched versions of WooCommerce below, WooCommerce Admin should update automatically.

Patched versions of WooCommerce

– 4.0.3

– 4.1.3

– 4.2.4

– 4.3.5

– 4.4.3

– 4.5.4

– 4.6.4

– 4.7.3

– 4.8.2

– 4.9.4

– 5.0.2

– 5.1.2

– 5.2.4

– 5.3.2

– 5.4.3

– 5.5.3

– 5.6.1

– 5.7.0

Why didn’t my website get the automatic update?

Your site may not have automatically updated for a number of reasons. A few of the most likely are: you’re running a version prior to one impacted (below WooCommerce 4.0.0), automatic updates have been explicitly disabled on your site, your filesystem is read-only, or there are potentially conflicting extensions preventing the update.

How can I check if my reports were affected?

You can check your site’s reports to see:

Visit <your-domain>/wp-admin/options.php and search for the woocommerce_admin_report_export_status field. If it is present, it is possible that one of the report files may have been downloaded.

Visit <your-domain>/wp-content/uploads in a browser. If you receive a list of files, rather than a blank page, it is possible that a report file may have been made public.

Source: Important security patch released in WooCommerce

Remote working jobs row shows how much tech has changed

Tech has changed over the last decade or so. While the overall number of people working in the average tech department hasn’t changed very much, the composition of that team has changed quite radically.

Once it was the hardware that mattered. Many organisations ran most of the technology they needed themselves. They had email servers and web servers and all manner of hardware in the data center or in the basement. All of that kit had to be looked after by an army of engineers.

The advent of cloud computing has changed all this, of course. The corporate data center is shrinking, and few organisations would see the point of building their own finance system or anything like that, preferring instead to buy it from the cloud.

This shift has changed the make-up of the IT department. It’s now much more focused on delivering the breakthroughs that can make organisations stand out and succeed. For the CIO and all the other managers that means that having excellent people skills and being able to align the team with the right business outcomes is vital.

But, because the developers and security experts and others that work in tech are so sought after and so highly mobile (have laptop, will travel), that also means that tech is inevitably one of the industries first impacted by changes in working life happening right now. 

In particular, remote working has been the standard option for many office workers over the last 18 months and many are reluctant to change, even if bosses are keen to see desks filled again.

Source: Remote working jobs row shows how much tech has changed

Fake WhatsApp backup message delivers malware to Spanish speakers’ devices

Spanish authorities are warning of a phishing campaign that impersonates messaging service WhatsApp in an attempt to trick recipients into downloading a trojan.

Recipients are being urged to download copies of conversations and call histories from a location that offers only the NoPiques malware.

The NoPiques (“Do not chop”) trojan comes bundle in a .zip archive which, if opened and run on a vulnerable device, results in infection.

Believable phishing campaign

Dangerous emails typically come with the Spanish language subject line ‘Copia de seguridad de mensajes de WhatsApp *913071605 Nº (xxxxx)’, although this can vary.

Messages are written in grammatically correct Spanish, or at least with few errors – unlike many malware-peddling phishing messages in English and other languages.

The warning about the malware campaign comes from Oficina de Seguridad del Internauta (OSI) of the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE).

The alert was promoted on social media by the Guardia Civil policing agency.

Source: Fake WhatsApp backup message delivers malware to Spanish speakers’ devices

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Mozilla tests Bing as the default search engine for 1% of users

“Mozilla is running an experiment on 1% of the Firefox desktop population currently, which sets the default search engine to Bing in the web browser,” said Martin Brinkmann for ghacks.

The search choice is an ongoing issue. We’ve written about search choice before as it’s been a topic of conversation even beyond the search community.

Google is the usual default. “Like all browsers, Mozilla Firefox automatically configures a browser to a default search engine for performing searches via the address bar,” wrote Lawrence Abrams on BleepingComputer. Chrome obviously defaults to Google, but so do Brave and Firefox.

The new test. “The study started on September 6 and it will run until early 2022, likely January 2022. About 1% of Firefox desktop users may notice that the default search engine is changed when the installation of Firefox is picked for the experiment,” explained Brinkmann. Why are they running this test with Bing? Mozilla hasn’t disclosed the reason, but most of their revenue comes from search engine deals.

Read more: Mozilla tests Bing as the default search engine for 1% of users

Google provides some reasons why it won’t use your HTML title tags

Google said it went from using your HTML title tag 80% of the time to 87% of the time in the past couple of weeks.

Google has confirmed that it not only made a change to what title it shows in the search results but also disclosed how much of a change it actually was. For the past few weeks, Google said it was using your chosen HTML title tag 80% of the time. Now Google said it is using as-is title tags 87% of the time, a seven-point increase: “Title elements are now used around 87% of the time, rather than around 80% before,” Google wrote.

Why the change. “We’ve used text beyond title elements in cases where our systems determine the title element might not describe a page as well as it could. Some pages have empty titles. Some use the same titles on every page regardless of the page’s actual content. Some pages have no title elements at all,” said Google. The company then listed off other reasons why it won’t use your HTML title tag:

• Half-empty titles (” | Site Name”)
• Obsolete titles (“2020 admissions criteria – University of Awesome”)
• Inaccurate titles (“Giant stuffed animals, teddy bears, polar bears – Site Name”)
• Micro-boilerplate titles (“My so-called amazing TV show,” where the same title is used for multiple pages about different seasons)
• and more.

Guidance. Google also gave some guidance on how to encourage the search engine to show your HTML titles: “Focus on creating great HTML title elements. Those are by far what we use the most.” Google reshared the help document on titles, that it recommended SEOs read. “Consider the examples in this post to understand if you might have similar patterns that could cause our systems to look beyond your title elements.

Are titles getting better? Time will tell if these changes Google made actually made things better. We saw some SEOs earlier this week saying the titles were starting to look better. Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz recently published a large case study on the title rewrites as well, but it is hard to say when Google made the changes and when the case study data was pulled from.

Read more: Google explains why it made the title change to the search results

What clients need from your marketing agency today

We learned exactly where businesses are looking for agencies to step up to the plate and help. We also discovered that there’s a goldmine of opportunity for agencies who can position themselves as strategic partners and make businesses’ lives easier.

Help set the long-term strategy

SMBs are big believers in the value of a marketing strategy. In fact, 81% say that a marketing strategy was critical to the success of their business during COVID-19, and 71% say they wouldn’t have survived the last 18 months without a marketing strategy.

Still, many businesses scaled down their marketing efforts to survive the widespread economic uncertainty. However, nearly half (43%) say they plan to invest more money into developing marketing strategies over the next year. Yet only 16% of surveyed businesses have a long-term strategy that covers the next year or more. The majority, 81% of companies, only have short-term, three-to-six-month marketing strategies in place.

Expand digital outreach

We heard loud and clear in our survey that businesses want agencies to do more to help them, especially when it comes to expanding their digital reach. From a tactical perspective, improving or building a website, improving lead generation, and expanding outreach was at the top of the list.

Read more: What clients need from your marketing agency today

SEOs experiencing delays in data on Search Console performance reports

“We’re currently experiencing longer than usual delays in the Search Console performance report. This only affects reporting, not crawling, indexing, or ranking of websites,” said the Google Search Central Twitter account on the morning of Tuesday, September 21. “We’ll update here once this issue is resolved. Thanks for your patience!”

Many SEOs have noticed the change in their Search Console reports this morning and have taken to social media to ask if they’re the only ones seeing the issue. “Is there a GSC bug? Apologies if I am late to the party here, but the last day we even have partial data available is the 18th?” asked Tessa Bonacci Nadik, Director of SEO Product at Cox Automotive.

Read more: SEOs experiencing delays in data on Search Console performance reports

How to set up Google Analytics 4 using Google Tag Manager

Google Analytics 4 introduced a new take on the go-to analytics platform for many marketers. Reimagined from the ground up, with a new interface and tweaked primary metrics, GA4 also requires a different setup process to get tracking tags in place.

Google Tag Manager (GTM) provides an easy, templated route to install GA4 on your site as well as create custom events. In this article, I’ll walk through getting GA4 tracking in place via GTM, as well as cover some basic customization options.

Setting up event tracking for GA4 in Google Tag Manager

One of the major improvements that came with GA4 was built-in event tracking. Directly within the Google Analytics interface, you can enable Enhanced Measurement to fire events for actions that previously required manually created events, such as scroll activity, outbound clicks, file downloads, and video views.

Read more: How to set up Google Analytics 4 using Google Tag Manager

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“About this advertiser” initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads

Google News app will display non-AMP content

Speed up your site indexing in Bing

Google to enforce unique product identifiers on free merchant listings

Google will start enforcing the requirements to have unique product identifiers on your product listing feeds with Google Merchant Center tomorrow, September 15, 2021, the search company announced.

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

Enforcement begins tomorrow. Google said “in order to unify the enforcement of UPIs across programs, specifically the enforcement for multiple different products that use the same GTIN, we’re expanding this enforcement and applying it to products listed in free listings.”

This enforcement begins tomorrow, Google said, “beginning September 15, 2021, the following enforcement will apply to products shown in free listings.”

What enforcement will occur? Google said it may disapprove product feeds if they do not have UPIs. Google said “different products that use the same GTIN with the same variant attributes will be considered ambiguous and will be disapproved.” This includes “variant attributes” that include condition [condition] and multipack [multipack] for all products, as well as color [color] and [size] for apparel products, the company said. Also, Google said “if a group of products are identified as duplicates, only one will remain active and eligible to show in free listings.”

Read more: Google to enforce unique product identifiers on free merchant listings

How much of the market do you really own?

With 94,000 Google searches per second, search delivers very high intent traffic. By measuring your share of those intent signals, you can gain a reliable and predictive metric for brand share. 

With accurate share of search data, you can answer important questions about your overall market strategy. How does your brand performance compare to that of your competitors? How do different brands within your own portfolio stack up against one another? How much available demand are you actually capturing? 

A quick review of “share of”

Market share is the portion of a market controlled by a particular company or product. It’s usually calculated by dividing the total company sales by total industry sales. Relative market share indexes a brand’s market share against that of its leading competitor. Market concentration, a related metric, measures the degree to which a comparatively small number of firms account for a large proportion of the market.

Use cases for share of search

Les Binet, who has studied share of search extensively, has identified it as a good proxy for market share (or imminent market share growth) because people generally seek information on things they already have or are about to buy. 

That simple correlation is just the beginning. The array of use cases for the share of search metric is surprisingly broad because of the variety of ways you can set up which search terms to include.

Read more: How much of the market do you really own?

Messy SEO Part 2: The importance of canonicalization

This second installment for “Messy SEO” details my process of rectifying the canonicalization issues that arose following the MarTech website consolidation. In Part 1 we discussed fixes for duplicate content issues—redirects. Fixing these issues is expected to address our site’s issue with diluted rankings and a decreased crawl budget.

Proper page canonicalization ultimately serves the searcher in the long run. It makes it easier for them to find the content we’ve created that best meets their needs.

A crowd of canonicals

As mentioned in our introductory “Messy SEO” article, the new MarTech site was born from the consolidation of Marketing Land and MarTech Today. And between the hundreds of pages between each property, there was a large number of canonical URLs. What’s more, they were pointing to now non-existent pages.

Aligning 

In our site’s situation, the pages that used to be housed on Marketing Land and MarTech Today more often than not contained canonical tags pointing to their previous iterations. So, when Google and other search engines crawl these pages they will receive a signal stating that the canonical version of the content lies on non-existent domains. This won’t add more non-existent URLs into the index, but it will make it take longer to remove the versions that are still listed in the SERPS (of which there are many).

What happens to the old URLs?

So, we’ve decided what to do about the current canonical tags. We’re going to be replacing the MarTech Today and Marketing Land URLs with the newly consolidated MarTech URLs. This leaves many URLs out there, both in the SERPS and on the MarTech site itself. 

Read more: Messy SEO Part 2: The importance of canonicalization

Drive revenue and relationships in a buyer-first world

In this live webinar, marketing experts share how you can convert more leads to revenue with connected buying experiences.

Buyers are using a full range of channels to do their own research and make decisions quickly, so it’s up to marketers to play a larger role to support the full buyer’s process to provide the right information at the right time to nurture new and growing customers.

Read more: Drive revenue and relationships in a buyer-first world

Google to enforce unique product identifiers on free merchant listings

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

Enforcement begins tomorrow. Google said “in order to unify the enforcement of UPIs across programs, specifically the enforcement for multiple different products that use the same GTIN, we’re expanding this enforcement and applying it to products listed in free listings.”

This enforcement begins tomorrow, Google said, “beginning September 15, 2021, the following enforcement will apply to products shown in free listings.”

What enforcement will occur? Google said it may disapprove product feeds if they do not have UPIs. Google said, “different products that use the same GTIN with the same variant attributes will be considered ambiguous and will be disapproved.” This includes “variant attributes” that include condition [condition] and multipack [multipack] for all products, as well as color [color] and [size] for apparel products, the company said. Also, Google said, “if a group of products is identified as duplicates, only one will remain active and eligible to show in free listings.”

Read more: Google to enforce unique product identifiers on free merchant listings

More news: Google News app will display non-AMP content

Google News app will display non-AMP content and send readers to publisher pages

As part of the page experience update, Google News will be displaying both AMP and non-AMP web content, the company announced in an email to publishers on Friday. The platform will also no longer render article text from RSS feeds in the Google News app; instead, it will send readers directly to publishers’ webpages.

AMP no longer required. “In the coming weeks the Google News app will improve its support for web content, displaying both AMP and non-AMP web content with more regularity from sites worldwide,” the company said in the announcement. 

The AMP framework was previously a requirement to be included in Google News. Now that Google has gotten rid of the requirement, the platform may be a more viable way to attract readers for publishers that didn’t adopt AMP.

“We’ll send readers directly to publishers’ web pages.” Google News will also no longer render article text provided via RSS feeds. As such, the platform is sending readers straight to the publisher’s content hosted on their own site.

Read more: Google News app will display non-AMP content and send readers to publisher pages

Google search terms report adds historical query data for impressions without clicks

“Still only providing reporting for terms that a significant number of users have searched.” Last year, Google used the following message to notify advertisers that it would limit search terms reporting: “We are updating the search terms report to only include terms that were searched by a significant number of users. As a result you may see fewer terms in your report going forward.” The new query data still only includes “terms that were searched by a significant number of users.”

Additional data from February 1, 2021. The additional data shown in reports will be for queries advertisers received starting on February 1, 2021.

Reporting for historical query data will be limited after February 1, 2022. After February 1, 2022, historical query data collected prior to September 1, 2020, and that doesn’t meet Google’s “current privacy threshold,” will be removed from search terms reports.

“Most advertisers will continue to see most of their queries prior to Sept 1, 2020,” Naresh said, reiterating, “We are only removing historical queries that did not meet the new thresholds for search query reporting that we established in September 2020. We are removing this data as part of our ongoing effort to make our privacy thresholds consistent across Google.”

Read more: Google search terms report adds historical query data for impressions without clicks

Advertisers will now get more data in Google Ads

Google search terms report adds historical query data for impressions without clicks

As of yesterday, Google Ads will show advertisers historical data for queries that received impressions but no clicks in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns, the company announced. 

“Historically, the report only ever showed queries that resulted in a click,” Pallavi Naresh, senior product manager at Google, told Search Engine Land. “We knew that advertisers wanted more data and we had to make investments in our tech stack to show this magnitude of data in Google Ads.”

Nevertheless, this new information could be quite useful for many advertisers. The additional query data could reveal what’s failing to attract the right audience. Advertisers can use this information to build out their negative keyword lists to improve their campaign efficiency.

Read more: Advertisers will now get more data in Google Ads… sort of

Second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing: Nominations open

Search marketing has a diversity problem. Older data from the American Marketing Association shows that most marketing leadership is still majority white, hetero, and male. Meanwhile, the audiences we’re marketing to are more diverse and inclusive than ever.

But it’s not one and done. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are ongoing efforts and something we need to commit to every day. This is why we’re excited to announce the second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing to celebrate those individuals or organizations who are affecting real change.

We’re elated to announce that this year’s awards will include a guest judge, last year’s winner Areej AbuAli, a pillar in the SEO community and the founder of Women in Tech SEO.

Read more: Second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing: Nominations open

How to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building

Businesses turn to content marketing because it can be an effective method for building brand awareness and guiding customers through their sales funnel. Yet, many have been unable to capitalize on their content marketing initiatives because they haven’t covered all aspects of the customer journey, didn’t keep track of their assets and wasted resources on duplicate content, failed to create unique content or were simply unsuccessful with their outreach efforts.

Understanding the customer and mapping their journey

Your content should exist to serve your brand by serving your audience — that should always be at the center of your planning and execution. “It isn’t so much about what you want to tell your audience; it’s what you understand they want to learn and what’s going to be helpful for them to learn more about your solutions and/or about your industry as a whole”.

What audiences typically search for at each stage of the funnel “We tend to see informational queries when someone is in their awareness phase,” she said, providing the following examples of questions a consumer at the top of the funnel may be asking: “What are the options available to me? What are people saying about those options? How are other people in the market feeling about the information that’s put forth by this organization?”

Cut down on wasted resources by managing your assets. Taking and maintaining an inventory of your existing content helps you understand what assets you already have at your disposal. This can minimize resources wasted on duplicate content by, for example, helping you distinguish what assets can be updated versus what needs to be created from scratch. “Also, knowing what you have allows you to see the gaps and where your editorial calendar can go in the future,” Sangenito said.

Injecting your brand and goals into the content. Brand and market insights can inform how you actually create the content and, consequently, help to shape what that content does for your business: This is where you can insert your brand’s guidelines to ensure a consistent tone across your content marketing. You can also address topical issues in your industry, differentiate your offerings or tailor your content for a specific purpose (like social sharing), for example.

Read more: How to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building

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How to Master Local Keyword Research (New)

Website themes can affect SEO to some extent

Google has recently published a short video. It has answered if website themes can affect SEO or not. The video host John Mueller said yes. A website theme will affect a site’s SEO. He has also noted how this can happen.

Mueller said it is easy to consider website themes just as a bunch of colors on top of a finished structure. But it involves many other things. A theme will impact how a website displays many other elements which are the core of SEO. It can affect Text, headings, images, interlinking of a page, page loading time, and structured data.

As Google says, good themes make it easier for the search engines to have a proper understanding of the content. Mueller further affirmed that the change of a website theme would affect the SEO of a website.

Mueller suggests it is a good idea to test website themes before you choose one. He has recommended trying themes on a test website. It is better to add content from the previous website. He further recommended blocking indexing for a text website so that Google does not crawl it accidentally. He further added, it is better to Review the HTML that you generate from a theme.

Source: Website themes can affect SEO to some extent

Facebook presents ease of funding for SMBs

To support the diverse businesses and to better address the need for cash flow, Facebook is offering new ways to access funding. Now businesses can connect with business resources and groups or networks. Many small businesses are still dealing with financial struggles.

As per a report from Facebook, 60% of SMBs have said that it was difficult for them to pay expenses. A quarter of them has reported that they had to pay off debt, rent, bills, and employee wages.

Facebook is now introducing new programs and tools. It will help to assist businesses in overcoming these challenges. These new inclusions also include the Facebook invoice fast track program and a new funding resource for SMBs.

With the Facebook Invoice Fast Track Program, instead of waiting for a 60-120 days period, businesses can get paid in a few days. This program will help businesses to get payment faster. With its starting on October 1, eligible small businesses in the US will get the opportunity to get immediate cash. They will also get easy payment for the goods and services that they have invoiced for their customers.

Source: Facebook presents ease of funding for SMBs

WooCommerce 5.7 will be released on September 21, 2021

As many folks know, WooCommerce Core adheres to a monthly release cycle, and as a general rule, our aim has been to publish final releases on the second Tuesday of each month. For WooCommerce 5.7, this date will be shifting back by one week to September 21, 2021.

This shift will not be permanent and should not impact the time frame for subsequent releases. We anticipate a return to the customary second-Tuesday release for WooCommerce 5.8 in October. You can read more about the different steps in the WooCommerce Core release process in this article. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to leave us questions in the comments below or reach out to us in the WooCommerce Community Slack.

Source: WooCommerce 5.7 will be released on September 21, 2021

New Go malware Capoae targets WordPress installs, Linux systems

On Thursday, Larry Cashdollar, senior security researcher at Akamai said the malware, dubbed Capoae, is written in the Golang programming language — fast becoming a firm favorite with threat actors due to its cross-platform capabilities — and spreads through known bugs and weak administrative credentials. 

Vulnerabilities exploited by Capoae include CVE-2020-14882, a remote code execution (RCE) flaw in Oracle WebLogic Server, and CVE-2018-20062, another RCE in ThinkPHP.

The malware was spotted after a sample targeted an Akamai honeypot. A PHP malware sample arrived through a backdoor linked to a WordPress plugin called Download-monitor, installed after the honeypot’s lax credentials had been obtained through a brute-force attack.

This plugin was then used as a conduit to deploy the main Capoae payload to /tmp, a 3MB UPX packed binary, which was then decoded. XMRig is then installed in order to mine for the Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency.

Source: New Go malware Capoae targets WordPress installs, Linux systems

Udemy expands corporate learning platform for businesses with new features

Udemy said the Business Pro platform will offer employers new features like Udemy Paths, skills assessments, workspaces, and hands-on labs across critical skills in information technology, software development and data & analytics.

Instructors with Udemy helped design the Business Pro tool to be an “end-to-end learning experience” that helps employees keep up with evolving industry demands through pre-curated Udemy Paths and risk-free practice environments.

Udemy Business president Greg Brown said their customers are experiencing major workplace changes, especially when it comes to upskilling and role development.

“We believe the pandemic has served as a catalyst for the already rapid shift to online learning, and Udemy Business Pro is the next iteration in supporting that shift,” Brown said. “Udemy Business Pro will bring personalized, practical, and hands-on learning to essential technical roles, which we believe will ultimately improve productivity and help organizations build technical teams ready for the challenges of tomorrow.”

Source: Udemy expands corporate learning platform for businesses with new features

YouTube Adds Traffic & Revenue Data to Mobile Analytics

YouTube is bringing more analytics reports to mobile that were previously only available on desktop, which includes data about traffic sources and revenue.

Creators can now stay informed about their earnings while they’re on the go, and see how viewers are finding their videos.

Speaking of revenue, YouTube is giving creators a new way to plead their case if they feel they were incorrectly removed from the YouTube Partner Program.

Here’s more about the announcements from YouTube’s weekly news update.

Monthly Revenue Report

Transaction Revenue Report

Traffic Sources Performance Report

Appeals Via Video

Source: YouTube Adds Traffic & Revenue Data to Mobile Analytics

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