Welcome once more to the Digital Marketing Monthly Round-Up! It was no surprise that the shortest month of the year flew by but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t full of surprises! In world news, New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl, Rami Malek and Olivia Colman took best actor nods at both BAFTAs and the Oscars (with Green Book taking Best Film at the latter) while Kew Gardens recorded the hottest ever UK Winter temperature of 20.3 degrees! The world of SEO, PPC and Social Media was also keeping warm some new developments. Grab a cuppa and see what you might have missed!
1. Ricemedia turned 18!
February was a month of celebrations for us here at Ricemedia. Our SEO and PPC agency has finally come of age as we turned 18. Ricemedia is now old enough to be served at the bar for a drink and we had a proper birthday party to celebrate. The birthday also gave us some time to reflect on our successes and what has happened during our existence which our Head of Content, Coral Luck explored!
2. Google expands Call-Only Ads with more text
Google Ads is always evolving and the latest update will benefit agencies and businesses. The new update will allow Call-Only Ads the option of two headlines and more text in the description – character length for descriptions is expanding to 90 characters. The update aims to make it easier for businesses to fit their name and a call to action all in one ad.
3. Controversy over Featured Snippets reignites
Featured Snippets are gold dust to content marketers and can provide quick wins for websites. Their importance in providing helpful answers to users and increasing organic traffic to websites is apparent. However, there was a complaint during February where Google appeared to show a featured snippet without a clear display of the origin of the information. Users would have to expand the snippet to get the information. Will this be a permanent or this just another Google test? Decide for yourself here.
4. We gained super spreadsheet tips from Spreadsheeto
The work of an SEO and PPC agency involves a lot of spreadsheets to effectively present data for ourselves and our clients. We’re always looking for tips to make our day-to-day spreadsheet tasks easier. The guys over at Spreadsheeto have compiled some handy guides to help you with VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP and IF Function. The step-by-step guides break down each function, allowing you to make the most of each one effectively.
5. Google Search Console now sends out alerts for big ranking & traffic drops
Any help to monitor changes affecting a website is always welcome and Google has added a new feature for Search Console. When it detects a “substantial drop” in traffic to your website from search results compared to the previous week, Google will send you a notification. As the data is captured week-by-week, this is a huge help to businesses and marketers. This way we can react to issues and make changes faster to stop the slide. Find out how it works here.
6. Search Console to combine data from multiple sources
More news from Search Console as new features appear in the newer version of the tool. Having all your data in one document is a huge help to anyone and soon, Search Console will do just that. In practice, it will assign search data for one piece of content to the canonical URL saving you time clicking through numerous performance reports. Find out more right here.
7. We shared why Paid Social will support your marketing strategy
With over 2 billion people using social media around the world that is a huge audience to market a product or service. While you have your other SEO & Digital Marketing tactics find your desired audience, having a Paid Social campaign alongside this will help with your overall strategy. From advanced targeting to how fast it can be to start a campaign, there numerous advantages for getting your campaign started right now.
8. Discovered proven Social Media Marketing Strategies for 2019
Social Media Marketing remains a vital strategy for businesses but as each year goes, there has to be space to evolve. It’s also good to put in place marketing strategies that are proven. The guys over at New Media Services have compiled their 8 Proven Social Media Marketing Strategies that businesses can use to maintain their edge and relevance. From broadening your content and video output to embrace new technology to using live streaming and influencers, their tips will ensure you gain greater engagement with your customers.
9. DuckDuckGo hits One Billion Monthly Searches
Google has dominated the search engine world for a long time, but that doesn’t mean it has no competitors looking for a slice of the market. One of the newer players in search, DuckDuckGo recorded a record of over one billion searches for January 2019. This is a 78% increase year-on-year. It also served over 36 million users on January 29th. The huge growth of DuckDuckGo is promising for the search engine but it has a long way to go to get near the numbers Google regularly reaches.
10. We Revealed Our Top SEO Content Writing Tips
Writing for an audience has a certain set of skills to present ideas effectively to a desired audience. Writing for SEO requires a different set of skills in not only finding your audience but also ranking on Google. Our Content Executive, Emma Battrick has penned her Top 10 Tips For Creating Great SEO Content. From knowing your audience, covering trending topics to considering your readability, her killer tips will help you reach your audience organically.
