Welcome to the digital marketing monthly round-up! August has now finished with September set to bring us a new football season and the return of children to schools after a long time away because of Covid-19. August still needs reflecting on and there were fresh developments in the world of SEO! Sit back and grab a drink and let us guide you through what happened in digital marketing in August 2020.
1. Our own Kristine Ford Appeared on BBC Humberside Radio!
If you were waking up in Humberside to the chat and music of the BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show on Friday 28th August, you will have heard our very own Kristine Ford joining Fiona Mills for a chat. Kristine was invited onto the show to discuss the Bank Holiday search trends and compare them to what was being searched during the Spring Bank Holiday in lockdown. If you missed it or want to hear it, you can listen on BBC Sounds with the segment starting at 1:08:00.
2. Find out How to use Google Trends
Keeping with the theme of search trends, there is a website that every site owner and marketer should use to find them out: Google Trends. This tool can give you information on the most popular searches right now and before, allowing you to spot trends, avoid fads and help support your content creation and PPC advertising. Find out how to use Google Trends with Ricemedia today.
3. WordPress Bug Causes 404 Errors for Websites
During a routine update of WordPress, a bug was discovered that caused 404 errors in native sitemaps. This bug affected any sitemap that was generated by the WordPress core system. The bug was a huge problem for those websites that are so big that they have multiple sitemaps. Fortunately, because this update was only seen by those early adopters for testing, the bug was spotted and fixed quickly.
4. We revealed how long it takes for SEO to work
A question we get asked quite often is, how long does SEO really take to work? The answer isn’t straightforward. There are various factors that lead to some digital marketing campaigns working faster than others. Then you have to take search engines and their ever changing algorithms. Find out more in our in-depth look over at the blog.
5. Google lets retailers customise product information in Search Results
Google has control of pretty much everything that appears on its search engine results, based on the information you provide on web pages. However, retailers are always pushing for more control on what product information is displayed in search results. Now, you can with a few new features released by Google. Features such as a “Nosnippet” tag will prevent any snippet appearing in any free listing while you can now adjust the length of snippets and size of images appearing on SERPs. You can find out more about these here.
6. Search Quality raters don’t directly influence rankings
Whenever Google lifts back the curtain and gives an insight into how Google rankings are decided, SEOs sit up and take notice. Danny Sullivan of the search giant recently talked about the influence of search quality raters have on rankings. These raters are a panel of 10,000 users across the world that judge how likely users are to see search results based on Google’s guidelines. With many wondering how much their feedback influences rankings, Sullivan said:
“It’s important to note that this rating does not directly impact how this page or site ranks in Search. Nobody is deciding that any given source is “authoritative” or “trustworthy.” In particular, pages are not assigned ratings as a way to determine how well to rank them.”
It seems conclusive, algorithms are still the main influence on rankings.
7. Instagram Reels Launched to compete against TikTok
TikTok has taken the world by storm in the last twelve months, and it’s got the other social media giants acting on its success. Instagram has now launched its TikTok-like feature called Reels. This allows users to share 15 second clips, add their own audio and use audio from other videos in the same way as TikTok. Popular new Reels will make it to the “Featured Reels” section of the app. It launched in 50 countries across the world and can be found in the latest version of the Instagram app, so users don’t have to install anything new!
8. We explored why your website isn’t showing on Google
Not appearing in Google is a huge problem. With an 86% market share of all search engines, if you’re not on Google, you’re likely not being seen by your target audience. There are various reasons why your website isn’t appearing on Google, whether you’re a new website or an old one. To help you find the source of the problem, we explore all the possible reasons in our blog: Why Is My Website Not Showing On Google?
