Much like the majority of 2016, December has had its ups and downs. It was the month of truly atrocious Christmas jumpers, we’ve eaten our weight in Christmas chocolate and have finally seen Star Wars: Rogue One. Liam Neeson took it upon himself to play the role of a really weird Santa Claus and we’re still not sure how to feel about it, but the good news is that our very own Jonny eventually got over the fact that Margot Robbie got married to that British guy…
With 2016 becoming a thing of the past we are looking forward to what 2017 has to bring. From the number of #newyearnewme statuses to the January sales and Brighton SEO, one thing’s for sure – it won’t be a quiet year. UK retailers took £24 billion in December 2015 with 27% being online sales, which was predicted to rise by 11% this December. Once again it has also been a huge month for the Digital Marketing, SEO and Social Media industry. So, without further ado here are 10 things that happened in Digital Marketing in December;
Google Search Console’s Enhancing property sets will cover more reports.
During May this year, Google announced a way to track mobile app, mobile site and desktop’s combined visibility in Search Console via property sets. This meant that these properties could be grouped together to show an overall clicks and impressions in a single report. This month they announced that they were adding property sets to more features; you are now able to add any verified properties to a set, and other features such as mobile usability report and double-check rich cards. We’re pretty excited to see how much easier this makes everything, especially when it comes to those damn reports… You can find out more here.
Buzzsumo Revealed the Most Viral Content of 2016
On 7th December content analyst site Buzzsumo revealed the most socially shareable content of 2016. However, they decided to place an embargo on games, forms, vines and YouTube videos due to their power across multiple social media platforms and millions of shares they receive. From scientific studies to the Happy Chebacca (sic) and Donald Trump, it was an eclectic year of content. It is also a great spring board moving forward for 2017 – will basing future content on these themes have as much of a success rate? Read more here.
Google Addresses Fake News Sites – Specifically Holocaust Denial Sites.
Last month Google and Facebook announced that they would alter their algorithms to fight against fake news sites, and the results have happened fmuch quicker than expected. After being under scrutiny for listing a Holocaust Denial Site as the first result for the question, ‘did the Holocaust ever happen’ they tweaked their algorithm to show factually correct sites that confirm that the Holocaust did in fact happen. Google said they are, “built on providing people with high-quality and authoritative results for their search queries. […] We recently made improvements to our algorithm that will help surface more high quality, credible content on the web. We’ll continue to change our algorithms over time in order to tackle these challenges.” Find out more on Search Engine Land.
Instagram Adds Stickers to Stories
On 20th December Instagram announced that users were able to add stickers to their Instagram stories. This means that context can be added to every story, but isn’t available for advertisers just yet. You can add stickers such as the time, or weather which can then be moved and resized. Instagram has added lots of new features during 2016, and it will be interesting to see what else they come up with in 2017. Check out more here.
Search Engine Watch Showcased 10 of the best New PPC Features of 2016
This year both Google AdWords and Bing Ads welcomed some much needed changes to their platforms, helping navigate towards the complicated process of PPC – hallelujah! Search Engine Watch describe some of these changes as unicorns, because they’re just so damn magical and truly understand the frustrations that come along with PPC & AdWords. Check them out here.
Christmas Discounts may Potentially Spell Trouble for Online Retailers.
This month Search Engine Watch released an article stating that the 2016 holiday shopping season had smashed record breaking sales, but The NPD Group said that due to the larger discounts offered by retailers, there was a much larger financial gap fill. In short, although online took up the majority of the sales percentage, it may not have been a good thing, because higher discounts meant less money was being made. We’re unsure of what to think, but definitely interested to see what the outcome is! Find out more here.
Entrepreneur Released 3 SEO Trends for 2017
It’s no secret that SEO and Digital Marketing is an ever changing game, and we’re finding all the SEO predictions for 2017 really interesting. Entrepreneur predicts that in 2017 content will become fresh and innovative in order to avoid penalisation due to duplication. They also think that user experience will impact the success of SEO and Google’s search results. Whilst we feel like these are a little too obvious their explanations as to why is great. Have a look here.
Google Doodle Marked First Day of Winter Solstice
Google Doodle marked the first day of the Winter Solstice on 21st December with their adorable rock family shivering under a blanket of snow. This adorable Google Doodle was shown for the Northern Hemisphere, and the Southern Hemisphere had a squirrel jumping all over the rock family. Have a look here.
Search Engine Watch has a Look at Influencer Marketing in 2017
Earlier this year, Search Engine Watch predicted that it would be the year of mainstream influencer marketing, and they predict that it will well and truly explode in 2017. They think that niche social media bodies will be more sought after, with more meaningful experiences and partnerships being forged between influencers and brands. It is always interesting to see how brands and social media influencers can benefit from each other, so we’ll be keeping an eye out. Read more here.
Google Tests Their Own User Ratings for Film and TV
According to our trusty friends at Search Engine Watch, Google is beginning to implement user ratings for movie and TV shows. Users were able to choose the thumbs up or thumbs down sign on the box that offers a description about a movie. What’s interesting is that this rating system differentiates from the one used by Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, as it utilises likes and dislikes rather than statistics or actual ratings. The test was only available on desktop, but we are really interested to see how this goes. It could be a new way to review users and businesses. We’ll just have to wait and see. Find out more here.
What to look forward to in 2017…
2017 is a pretty exciting year for Ricemedia. After our very own Laura Hogan smashed it when she took part in Digital Marketing in Radio, we cannot wait for her to own the stage at Brighton SEO. Have a great New Year!
