Welcome one and all to another digital marketing monthly round-up from Ricemedia! In these strange and uncertain times, you can still rely on this monthly update of SEO news.
Usually we start the blog with a bit of fun looking at the latest world events, but with everything on standby because of the Coronavirus outbreak, normality is on hold. All that matters now is our health, and that we continue to follow the government guidelines of staying home to save lives.
Marketing in the Coronavirus still continues and the Ricemedia team is supporting businesses from home through this pandemic. There were still some important developments during March, so grab a cuppa, take a seat and let us take you through the latest digital marketing news.
1. Google Makes Premium Version of Google Hangouts Free
With the pandemic sweeping the globe, a lot of businesses have sent their staff home to work, where possible. To support the changing working dynamic, Google has made the Premium version of Hangouts free until 1st July so businesses can continue to communicate effectively. The premium version has a higher limit of 250 participants, live streaming audience of up to 100,000 on a single domain and the ability to record all meetings and save them in Google Drive. It’s certainly worth using right now, and it wouldn’t surprise us if Google extended the deadline until the world can go back to normal.
2. We explored what Coronavirus means for E-Commerce
As countries enter full or partial lockdowns, with shops, bars and restaurants closing to encourage social distancing, people are turning to online stores. Users are more engaged with what’s online as post and deliveries continue to home addresses. While it might seem like the right choice to pause marketing during a pandemic, there are actually things you can do with your E-commerce site to stay at the top of your game. Find out more in: What Does Coronavirus Mean for an E-Commerce Business?
3. Google Adds Extra Schema Support
Google is adding extra support for businesses during this time with a new event schema. The property, called ‘eventStatus’, allows site owners to indicate whether an event is cancelled, postponed or rescheduled. When users search for a particular event, they will be shown the current event status and Google doesn’t drop its ranking.
4. We shared our top CRO tips for Landing Pages to Increase Conversions
Conversion Rate Optimisation is a fast and effective way to turn the visitors to your website into converting customers. If you’ve got a 1% conversion rate on your website, that means only 1% of your website visitors are purchasing a product or service from you. To improve this, we have some quick wins you can do to push this rate up with our 7 CRO Tips for Landing Pages to Increase Conversions.
5. Google My Business Optimisation Considered The Most Valuable Marketing Service
According to a BrightLocal survey of local marketers, they now consider Google My Business optimisation as the most valuable service, overtaking website optimisation. With more users finding and contacting businesses through Google’s search pages, having a well optimised GMB profile will help your customers find you easily. The survey still found that SEO is the best method for attracting new clients and Google rankings is the most important thing to businesses.
6. Google to Review all Photos and Videos Before Posting on Google My Business
Moving forward, all photos and videos posted onto a GMB profile will be reviewed by Google before being published. This new approach will lead to a delay on media being posted on your GMB, but it will stop inaccurate media being submitted from user generated content. Overall, we think this is a good thing for everyone, as GMB profiles need accurate media to be valuable to both users and businesses.
7. We Shared our Best Tools for Remote Working
Ricemedia, along with many other businesses, are currently remote working away from the office. To ensure we continue to deliver the services our clients expect, we’re relying on our online tools more than ever before. We use some excellent tools, so we thought we’d share them with you. Check out our 5 Best Tools For Remote Working.
8. Google Assistant can now read entire web pages
Stepping up its accessibility options for users, Google Assistant can now read entire web pages aloud. It’s also a great option for those who want to consume long articles and news content in a way that’s akin to a podcast. Words are also highlighted as Google goes down the page, making it easy for you to follow if you wish. Just make sure you have quality content on your site, as it may be read aloud for plenty to hear in the near future.
