Breaking Digital Marketing News (Updated Every Friday)

Digital Marketing News 11/15/2021 – 11/19/2021

This week: yet another algorithm update from Google, WordPress plugin templates affect more than a billion sites and wait until you hear how much TikTok is growing.

Here’s the latest updates for the digital marketing news!

Google Broad Core Algo Rolling Out

This past week, Google started rolling out a new broad core algorithm update.

Yes, right before the holiday shopping fully kicks in.

“Later today, we are releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year,” the Google Search Central account tweeted on Wednesday. “It is called the November Core Update.”

Google’s Danny Sullivan said he expects to see the impact almost immediately. If you haven’t seen any changes by now, check again at the end of the weekend.

The update should take a couple of weeks to fully roll out.

Learn More: Google SEO Algorithm Update History Timeline (Updated Daily)

Google Adds Local News Features

Apparently, the phrase “news near me” is a really popular search term. So popular, in fact, that Google is adding features in response to it.

Here’s what you can expect to see:

• Local News Carousel – As the name implies, a carousel dedicated to local news stories.
• Top Stories Carousel – Local news stories will appear in the Top Stories carousel where you used to see only national news stories.
• Localized Responses – Search results that reflect local interests. For example, if you search for “football,” you’ll likely see info about your local high school and college football teams.
• Local Tweets – Tweets by popular personalities in your vicinity.

Google will also roll out new features to help local journalists, including a Census data map and an update to the Common Knowledge Project.

Google Maps Adds Features for Shopping

Google Maps recently added four new features to help local shoppers:

• Area Busyness – Shows shoppers how busy an area is before they arrive. That’s going to prove important during this holiday season.
• Directory Tab – Displays which stores are in the building. It now works for all malls, airports, and transit stations.
• Grocery Shopping – Allows users to order groceries for pick-up. Works with Kroger’s, Fry’s, Ralphs, and Marianos.
• Restaurant Info – Customers can see new info about restaurants, such as price ranges, amenities, curbside pickup options, and more.

Google also published stats related to local shopping during the holiday season.

Google: Progressive Web Apps Don’t Rank Better Than Traditional Sites

Google’s John Mueller put to rest another SEO myth this past week when he said that progressive web apps (PWAs) don’t rank better than regular sites.

PWAs, in case you’re unfamiliar with them, look and act like mobile apps. But they’re really just websites.

Unlike mobile apps, you don’t need to download and install anything to use PWAs. You access them with your favorite mobile browser.

And some people think PWAs rank better because of their sophisticated nature. But they don’t.

Here’s what Mueller had to say about the subject: “[S]aying going to a PWA will make your rankings better—I don’t think that is the case. It can improve your rankings if you make a better website, but you also have a lot of other things that you need to think about.”

There’s a caveat, though. Mueller also said that if your website is old then you could improve rankings by moving to a more modern framework.

Google: Bolded Text Can Improve SEO

Yes, you can get a better rank with bold text.

The subject came up this past week during a Google Search Central SEO office hours hangout.

Mueller addressed the issue by saying that the search algo tries to understand what’s on the page. One of the ways it determines the nature of the content is by looking at what’s emphasized.

And bold text is one way to emphasize key concepts and words.

“So to some extent that does have a little bit of extra value there, in that it’s a clear sign that actually you think this page or this paragraph is about this topic here,” Mueller said.

He also said that bolded text usually aligns with what the search algo determines the page is about. So it won’t have that much of an effect.

WordPress Plugin Templates Affect More Than a Million Sites

It wouldn’t be a weekly recap without at least one story about a WordPress plugin vulnerability.

This week, it comes to us from Starter Templates. It’s a tool that includes templates for plugins Elementor, Gutenberg, and Beaver Builder Templates.

And it’s got a vulnerability that allows hackers to upload a script that can run in a visitor’s browser and access sensitive info.

As is always the case with these reports, though, the publisher has already fixed the problem. If you use Starter Templates, make sure you upgrade to the latest version: 2.7.5.

Google Drops Sites Hosted on SiteGround

I really hope your website isn’t hosted on SiteGround.

This past week, Google stopped showing sites from that hosting provider in search results.

Why? It looks like it was a SiteGround DNS problem.

But SiteGround itself passed the buck to AWS Global Accelerator and even to Google itself.

The problem started on Monday and lasted most of the week. Thankfully, things seem to be returning to normal now.

But losing four days worth of search traffic during a busy holiday shopping week is bad news for SiteGround websites.

Instagram Allows Publishers to Delete Posts From a Carousel

Finally!

Instagram now allows you to delete individual posts from a previously uploaded carousel. That’s going to give you greater control of your social media marketing.

Additionally, Instagram added a “rage shake” feature.

Just shake your phone when you’re experiencing technical problems with Instagram. The issue will get reported to technicians.

Report: TikTok Will Surpass 1.5 Billion Users by 2022

According to a new forecast by App Annie, TikTok will cross 1.5 billion users by next year.

That would put the app on top of Instagram, which boasts about a billion active users.

Another thing to keep in mind: TikTok is banned in India. That means it’s doing that well without access to the 1.38 billion people who live in that country.

Imagine how well it would do if India opens up.

Also: TikTok faces stiff competition. Other social media platforms, like YouTube and Instagram, have their own short-form video features.

And yet, TikTok continues to grow.

Homework

Before you eat that turkey, take care of these action items:

• Think about how you can promote your business on TikTok since it’s growing so quickly.
• If you’re on SiteGround, find a new hosting provider. That company will probably face lawsuits that will challenge its ability to finance operations.
• If you use Starter Templates, make sure you upgrade to the latest version and eliminate that XSS vulnerability.
• In your content marketing efforts, put keywords and phrases in bold. That will help with SEO.
• Keep an eye on your rankings. See if the new broad core algo update is giving you problems and make the necessary adjustments.

Digital Marketing News 11/8/2021 – 11/12/2021

This week: YouTube is removing dislike counts, Google might one day give you the option to index your pages immediately, and Pinterest loses 10 million active users.

Here’s the latest in digital marketing news.

YouTube Removing Dislike Counts

YouTube will soon remove the publicly viewable dislike count on all videos.

However, users will still have the opportunity to click that “thumbs down” icon on videos they don’t like. That way, you can still get feedback about the types of content that your target audience doesn’t appreciate.

And negative comments will still appear.

YouTube says it’s “harassment” when users collectively dislike a video. Removing the public count reduces that type of harassment.

The company acknowledges that the decision won’t go over well with everybody.

“We heard during the experiment that some of you have used the public dislike count to help decide whether or not to watch a video,” YouTube said in a statement. “We know that you might not agree with this decision, but we believe that this is the right thing to do for the platform.”

YouTube also says it wants to “create an inclusive and respectful environment.”

Google Begins Testing IndexNow

Looks like Google will join Bing in the instant indexing movement.

The Big G recently began testing IndexNow, a protocol that lives up to its name.

Here’s how it works: when you publish a new article, you just submit it to a site with its URL in a request parameter. Then it’s indexed.

An example submission looks like this: https://www.bing.com/IndexNow?url=my-new-url&key=your-key

Yep. It’s that simple. You don’t even need to complete a form.

It’s not a done deal with Google yet. The company says it’s “testing the potential benefits” of IndexNow.

But Google also doesn’t want to lose market share to Bing. And it needs to stay competitive.

As of now, there’s no timeline for IndexNow to go live with Google. John Mueller says that it probably won’t happen “anytime soon.”

Google’s Page Experience Update Hitting Desktop Sites in a Few Months

Google says its page experience update, currently live on mobile, will roll out to desktop sites in February.

The update will include the same ranking signals, called Core Web Vitals, as the mobile algorithm.

But the mobile-friendliness aspect of the algo will not apply to desktop sites.

Google will also add a new report to Search Console so you can see how your desktop pages are performing once the update goes live.

…And the Interstitial Penalty Will Apply

Another thing to keep in mind as Google updates its search algorithm for desktop sites: the interstitial penalty will go live as well.

Interstitials are pop-up ads that take up most (or all) of the screen. Visitors trying to read content on a web page need to click and dismiss them to finish reading.

Once upon a time, people called the interstitial ad penalty the “mobile popup algorithm” because it applied to mobile platforms.

That’s about to change.

When the desktop page experience update goes live in February, your pages will take a hit if they’re throwing annoying popups at visitors.

So take heed.

Google: Don’t Create Links to Your Own Site

Here’s some short and sweet advice from Google: don’t create links to your own site.

You’ve heard about the dangers of guest-posting. You’ve read that you shouldn’t add backlinks in directories.

But here’s the overarching principle: don’t create any backlinks at all. None.

That’s the advice Google’s John Mueller gave to somebody who asked him about creating backlinks organically from another website.

“You shouldn’t be creating links to your site in general,” Mueller tweeted. “I’d recommend checking out our webmaster guidelines for more.”

Google: If CTR Implacted Search Rank, All Results Would Be Clickbait

Here’s the latest entry in the never-ending tale called “Click-through rate doesn’t affect page rank,”

Google has insisted for years that it doesn’t use CTR as a ranking signal. But SEOs across the globe remain dubious.

This past week on Twitter, John Mueller once again emphasized the point.

“If CTR were what drove search rankings, the results would be all click-bait,” he tweeted. “I don’t see that happening.”

Google My Business Becomes Google Business Profile

Google has rebranded its business management tool yet again.

Going forward, it will be called Google Business Profile.

Google also says that you should verify your business directly through search results. That way, you don’t need to go into the Google Business Profile manager.

Additionally, Google will sunset the GMB mobile app. If you’re a GMB user, Google will tell you to manage your listing in Google Search or Google Maps.

Google will also roll out call history and read receipts for messaging.

Pinterest Loses 10 Million, Active Users, As Life Returns to Normal

Pinterest gained millions of new followers during the height of the pandemic. Homebound folks looked for new entertainment options, ideas for decor, recipes, and even online sales.

But that was then. This is now.

According to Pinterest’s latest earnings report, monthly active users (MAU) stands at 444 million. That’s a decline of 10 million from the previous quarter.

And the previous quarter saw a decline of 24 million MAU. So Pinterest lost a total of 34 million active users in just the past 6 months.

However, the company’s average revenue per user increased 37% year-over-year. And overall revenue rose 43% to $633 million YoY.

So it’s not all bad news.

Clubhouse Adds Room Recordings

Clubhouse Replays are here.

As the name implies, Replays are recordings of Clubhouse sessions.

If you’re unfamiliar with Clubhouse, it’s an audio-only social media app. People stand on a virtual stage and wax eloquently about whatever topic they want to talk about.

Thanks to Replay, people who couldn’t attend live sessions because of scheduling conflicts can now listen in on your chat by playing the recording.

However, the option to record the audio is left up to you. If, for whatever reason, you don’t want your remarks on record, you can turn off Replay.

Additionally, Clubhouse will add cumulative attendee counts so people can see how many folks tuned in to your chat.

Homework

Lots of news you can use this week. Here are a few action items:

• Think about how you can use Clubhouse to promote your brand and jump ahead of your competitors.
• If you’re creating backlinks to your own site, end that process immediately. It’s against Google’s guidelines.
• If you’ve got annoying interstitials on your desktop web pages, consider removing them before Google applies the penalty in February.
• If your desktop web pages don’t meet the Core Web Vitals standards, get them up to speed (literally).

Digital Marketing News 11/1/2021 – 11/5/2021

This week: Google rolls out a new spam update, more WordPress plugin woes, and Clubhouse adds support for more languages.

Here’s the latest in digital marketing news.

Google Announces New PageSpeed Insights

Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is getting a makeover.

That’s because the current version doesn’t clearly differentiate between lab data and real-world data.

The lab data section of PageSpeed Insights shows stats gathered from Google’s bot that crawled your web page.

The real-world section shows stats collected as actual humans visited your web page.

Further, PageSpeed Insights in its current form uses code that’s 10 years old. It’s time for an upgrade.

Here’s what you can expect to see in the coming months:

• A more intuitive UI that clearly separates lab data from real-world data
• Info about how the Core Web Vitals scores are calculated
• An updated look and feel

There’s no formal release date as of yet.

Google Rolls out a New Spam Update

Time for another war on black-hatters.

This past week, Google’s Danny Sullivan confirmed that a new spam-fighting algo started rolling out.

The update should take a week to complete.

This is the fourth spam-busting update for 2021.

As is usually the case, if you follow the webmaster guidelines, you probably have nothing to worry about.

I’ll monitor the ramifications of the update and keep you posted.

Google Updates “Deals” Results

Just in time for the holidays.

Google recently released a new set of search results when people look for deals.

Search strategists view words like “deal,” “sale,” and “discount” as SEO gold because they demonstrate intent to purchase. Marketers who optimize ecommerce pages for those words stand a great chance of getting a visit and landing the sale.

Now, people who search for those “deals” related terms will see a dedicated feed of… deals.

Google will display matching Shopping products with a “deals” badge in the feed.

The new update also includes reporting and analytics in Google Merchant Center.

More WordPress Plugin Woes

This past week, we learned about a couple of new vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins.

First up: the popular OptinMonster plugin. It’s got a threat that allows hackers to upload attack scripts and take over the site.

WordPress security analysts at Wordfence found that OptinMonster implemented the WordPress API so that unauthenticated users could gain access to admin features.

OptinMonster has since fixed the problem. Make sure you have version 2.6.5 or later.

Next: Jetpack found a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability when analyzing the WordPress Facebook Feed plugin.

If you use that plugin, make sure you upgrade to version 4.0.1 or later.

Google: Penguin Algo May Demote an Entire Site

Once upon a time, we were led to believe that the Penguin 4.0 algo update simply devalued spammy backlinks. It didn’t “punish” sites that tried to benefit from those links.

Well, that might not be the complete story.

This past week, during a Google SEO office-hours hangout, somebody asked Google’s John Mueller the following question: “Is the penguin penalty still relevant at all or are less relevant/spammy/toxic backlinks more or less ignored by the ranking algorithm these days?”

“I’d say it’s a mix of both,” Mueller replied.

He went on to explain that the software ignores any spammy links it finds. However, if Google can’t isolate and ignore those links, then the software will lose trust in the targeted website.

And, when that happens, Google will penalize the website with a drop in visibility.

Mueller added: “Usually you would only see this kind of a drop if it’s really a strong and a clear pattern that’s associated with the website.”

Google: Maximize Video Exposure With a Dedicated Page

Google recently updated its video best-practices guide with this advice: create a dedicated page for each video.

According to the Big G, that’s how you’ll get “maximum exposure.”

Additionally, Google said to make sure that your video “is the most prominent subject on the page.”

In other words, put it above the fold.

Google pointed out that if you want your video to appear in Google Search, Key Moments, and other rich results, you’ll need it at that top spot.

Finally, Google noted that it’s okay to put the video on both a dedicated page and its original page.

Google: Update Your Sitemap Often

Google’s John Mueller advised a webmaster this past week to keep his sitemap “often updated.”

The webmaster took to Twitter to ask Mueller the following question: “Hi John. I’ve a sitemap with over 250k pages (multilin.), split in 18 XML-files. The XML’s are all updated frequently (most 26/27 Oct) and have high-priority pages in it but Google doesn’t read them as often. Should I make less files? Or put all important pages together?”

Here’s how Mueller replied: “Putting the newer URLs into a single “often updated” sitemap file is probably a good idea here. If all 250k pages update regularly, it’s always going to be a challenge though.”

Fortunately, if you’re using WordPress, your sitemap should get updated automatically. You probably don’t need to take any action.

Clubhouse Adds Support for 13 Languages

Remember Clubhouse? Well, it hasn’t gone away.

In fact, it’s growing.

And now it’s adding support for additional languages.

Starting on Android, the autio-only social media app will include support for 13 new languages: French, German, Indonesian, Hindi, Italian, Kannada, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Malayalam, Tamil, Spanish, and Telugu.

Clubhouse will add support for those languages on iOS “soon.”

Additionally, App Annie says that Clubhouse is up to 32.7 million downloads. About a third of those downloads took place in India.

Clubhouse was downloaded 5 million times in the U.S.

Facebook Adds New Monetization Tools for Creators

Facebook/Meta is helping creators make more money. Especially creators who prefer iOS.

As you probably know, Apple takes a 30% cut of subscription fees and in-app purchases on iOS transactions.

Facebook doesn’t like that. So the company is adding a new feature that will enable subscribers to sign up outside the app with Facebook Pay.

The net result: Apple won’t get that 30% fee. Instead, the publisher keeps all the money.

I’m sure Apple will welcome this news with open arms.

Homework

Getting closer to the holidays. So don’t put off these action items:

• Think about how you can promote your brand on Clubhouse. You might reach people you won’t find anywhere else.
• Make sure your web software updates your sitemap immediately with every new page you publish.
• Put your web videos on dedicated pages so they can get maximum exposure.
• If you’re relying on spammy backlinks to gain visibility in search, disavow those links immediately. Otherwise, you might drop off of search.
• If you’re using the OptinMonster or the WordPress Facebook Feed plugins, make sure you update to the latest versions. Otherwise, your site could get hacked.

Digital Marketing News 10/25/2021 – 10/29/2021

This week: Instagram lets you share links in Stories, another WordPress plugin vulnerability affects a million sites, and it’s earnings season!

Here’s the latest in digital marketing news.

Instagram Lets Everyone Share Links in Stories

You can now share links in Instagram Stories.

Story links appear as stickers. You can add them just like you add any other sticker to your Story.

So it’s not like the “swipe up” thing that you’ve seen with other accounts.

As it stands now, all users have access to share stickers except for brand new accounts.

However, Instagram will disallow link sharing in Stories to accounts that violate its rules.

In the past, only verified accounts with a high number of followers could share links in Stories.

Report: Fastest Cache WordPress Plugin Vulnerabilities Affect 1 Million Sites

If you’re using the Fastest Cache plugin on your WordPress site, pay attention to this news.

According to Jetpack, that plugin includes multiple vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to completely take over your system.

And it affects about a million sites.

Among the threats:

• Authenticated SQL injection
• Stored XSS via Cross-Site Request Forgery (XSRF)

“If exploited, the SQL Injection bug could grant attackers access to privileged information from the affected site’s database (e.g., usernames and hashed passwords),” Jetpack said in a statement. “Successfully exploiting the CSRF & Stored XSS vulnerability could enable bad actors to perform any action the logged-in administrator they targeted is allowed to do on the targeted site.”

Jetpack says to update your version of Fastest Cache if it’s lower than 0.9.5.

Google: Author Isn’t a Ranking Factor

What’s in a name?

According to Google, not much. At least when it comes to SEO.

This past week during a Google SEO office-hours hangout, John Mueller said the author of an article isn’t “a direct ranking factor.”

He also said there’s no “quantifiable difference” when it comes to using a doctor who’s well-known versus a doctor who isn’t well-known.

“So my feeling is purely from an SEO point of view, it probably doesn’t matter either way,” Mueller said.

Google: Buttons Aren’t Links

If you’re using the <button> tag to try to pass rank or for internal linking, I’ve got some bad news for you.

Buttons don’t count as links. At least not according to Google.

Yes, that’s true even if the buttons take visitors to another web page.

This past week on Twitter, somebody asked John Mueller if Google looks at button links the same as href links.

Here’s how Mueller responded: “Buttons aren’t links and don’t inherently have urls attached to actions, so we wouldn’t use them for crawling or otherwise.”

Microsoft: Bing Checks XML Sitemaps Daily

Here’s some good news if you like to optimize for that other search engine.

Microsoft says Bing checks your site’s XML sitemap every day. At least once.

That doesn’t mean your new pages get indexed right away, though. But you have to wait to get your pages indexed, either.

Fabrice Canel, the PM for the Bingbot Crawler, tweeted this past week that you can use IndexNow to get instant indexing.

Facebook Changes Its Name to ‘Meta’

Last week’s rumor turned out to be true. Facebook is changing its name.

The company’s new name: Meta.

As in the Metaverse.

But keep in mind: that’s the name of the parent company. The name of the social media app that you use to share cat memes with your friends will remain Facebook.

It’s similar to how Google’s parent company is called Alphabet.

Here’s what Facebook has to say about its new name: “The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together – and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company.”

I don’t think that gets anybody too excited about the rebranding, but at least you know something about the rationale behind it.

Twitter Rises to 211 Million Active Users

It’s earnings season! Let’s check in with our favorite digital marketing platforms.

First up is Twitter. The company reported increases in both users and revenue.

Twitter’s Monetizable Daily Active User (mDAU) count stands at 211 million. That’s up 13% from last year.

However, during that time period, Twitter only gained 1 million mDAU in the U.S.

The company’s revenue came in at $1.284 billion for the quarter. That was short of analyst expectations.

But revenue increased 37% year-over-year.

Ad revenue increased 41% to $1.14 billion while total ad engagements rose by 6%.

Facebook Just Shy of 2 Billion Active Users

Next up is Facebook. The company reported an increase of 22 million users in Q3, bringing the total DAU count to 1.93 billion.

However, once again most of the user growth came from outside the U.S. But at least there was some U.S. growth, unlike during the previous three quarters.

Monthly users stand at 2.91 billion. That’s a YoY increase of 6%.

In terms of revenue, Facebook took in $29 billion for the quarter. That’s about the same as Q2.

However, it’s an increase of more than $7 billion YoY.

The lion’s share of Facebook’s revenue comes from users in North America.

Google Ads and Microsoft Bing Ads Earnings Continue to Rise

Google and Microsoft also released earnings info this past week. Both companies saw ad revenue increases.

Alphabet (Google) hauled in $65.1 billion Q3. That’s a 41% increase from the same quarter last year.

Google Ads revenue increased 43% from $37.095 billion to $53.13 billion.

Microsoft took in $45.3 billion in revenue, that’s an increase of 22% YoY.

Microsoft’s advertising business rose 40%.

Snapchat Adds 13 Million More Users

Finally, let’s take a look at Snapchat’s most recent quarterly report.

The company added 13 million DAU in Q3, bringing its total to 306 million.

That’s the first time Snapchat reported more than 300 million active users.

A familiar theme, though: most of that increase in users came from outside the U.S. Snap saw particularly strong growth in India.

The company also saw its first quarter with more than $1 billion in revenue. It’s a YoY increase of more than $300 million.

Revenue per user increased from $2.73 to $3.49 during the same period.

Snap continues to report success with Spotlight, its short-form video option that’s a challenge to TikTok.

The company says Spotlight uploads more than doubled during the last quarter and daily time spent per user with Spotlight continues to increase.

Homework

As the temperature drops, don’t let these action items get cold:

• If you want your new pages indexed right away, be sure to use IndexNow.
• If you’re using buttons as links to pass pagerank, change them to href links. Remember: you can use CSS to make links look like buttons, even if they aren’t buttons.
• If you’ve got the Fastest Cache WordPress plugin with a version lower than 0.9.5, be sure to upgrade immediately. Otherwise, your site is vulnerable to hackers.
• Think about how you can use Instagram Stories to send traffic to your site now that you can include links.