WDA Digital Marketing Round-Up: 9th – 15th Nov

Main Image of WDA Digital Marketing Round-Up: 9th – 15th Nov

Missed the important digital marketing news and updates from last week? We’ve got you covered with the WDA Digital Marketing Round-Up.

Google

Google Webmasters Central Becomes Google Search Central: Google Webmasters Central is becoming Google Search Central with some of the former properties such as the blog and guidelines to be redirected to the new location.

Google’s Page Experience Update Set to Launch Next May: Google confirmed last Tuesday that the new Google Page Experience Update will launch next May and will see the search engine highlighting results that have a great page experience. The update will also mean that expected user experience for a given web page is considered when ranking the results. The Core Web Vitals report from Search Console is a great place to get a head start on preparing for the update.

As explained by Google… “Today we’re announcing that the page experience signals in ranking will roll out in May 2021. The new page experience signals combine Core Web Vitals with our existing search signals including mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines.”

Googlebot Crawl Update: Googlebot can now crawl with HTTP/2 protocol and their Developers Support Page has been updated to reflect the change that was announced back in September but is now in effect.

Here’s what Google said… “Generally, Googlebot crawls over HTTP/1.1. However, starting November 2020, Googlebot may crawl sites that may benefit from it over HTTP/2 if it’s supported by the site.”

Facebook/Instagram

Facebook Messenger Vanish Mode: With the recent release of the disappearing messages feature in WhatsApp, Facebook has now announced a ‘Vanish Mode’ for Messenger – simply swipe up while in a chat thread to enter and swipe up again to turn back off.

WhatsApp eCommerce Functionality Improved: WhatsApp has made another update to improve eCommerce potential on the platform. They’ve now added a shopping button in business chats to help streamline purchases from the platform.

Here’s what WhatsApp said… “Now you can easily discover something you’d like to buy from your favorite business by tapping on the new shopping button at the top of chats.”

Instagram Redesign: Instagram has redesigned its layout by adding Reels and Shop tabs to the home screen. The updates further put Reels in the spotlight on the app following early complaints from users who said they were difficult to find. We feel the update is a little forceful on Instagram’s part and personally takes away from the UX on the platform.

Social

Twitter Carousel Ads: Twitter has launched a new carousel ad format option that enables advertisers to add up to six images or videos in a single ad. Carousel ads have been extremely popular on Facebook and Instagram as they’re proven to outperform static ads significantly. While Twitter are a little late with adding the format to their ad options, it’s great to see that they now have. According to reports, Twitter ran extensive tests and research prior to launching the format to ensure they’d work well on the platform.

Other

Spotify Acquisition and Podcast Advertising Options Expanding: Spotify has made a major acquisition with Megaphone, a leading podcast advertising and publishing platform. The acquisition comes as Spotify aims to expand its existing podcast advertising options.

Spotify said… “The acquisition of Megaphone represents the next step in Spotify’s expanding the possibilities of this intimate and screenless medium.”

WDA’s Highlight of the Week

Our highlight for this week is the announcement of Google’s Page Experience Update coming next May.

This gives advertisers and SEO’s plenty of time to delve into user experience reports and start improving relevant elements. User experience has been important in SEO for some time now and this just places even more emphasis on it. There have been far too many websites that focus solely on SEO, completely forgetting about the most important thing, the user journey. We’re excited to see what the update brings about and hope to see far better website experiences as a result. It should also provide a wake-up call for businesses that still haven’t optimised their site speed, security and responsiveness.

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