PPC News
Responsive Search Ads Are The New Default
Responsive Text Ads will now be the default ad type created in Google Ads. Advertisers can still create new Expanded Text Ads and edit existing ones. However, there are some significant changes coming up. Google has been pushing advertisers towards responsive search ads since early 2020. The new set up is arguably more complex than before, as the advertiser doesn’t mandate the order in which the ad will appear. Since the advertiser isn’t choosing which order the headlines or descriptions appear in (like in normal text ads) each headline and description must make sense on its own, no matter what combination it’s used in.
Running PPC ads is hugely beneficial to your business online, and many SMEs swear by them. If you run any kind of Google ads you should prepare your campaigns for this new change. While the other ad types aren’t going away, this new default is a signal that they might be soon. Ensure your ads aren’t left in the dust, read more to prepare your PPC campaigns for 2021.
No More Gmail Ads
According to Google from July 1, 2021, Gmail campaigns will be converted to “read only” which means you can’t create any new Gmail campaigns or edit existing campaigns. Instead, Discovery campaigns will have to be your only option for Gmail ads. This type of campaign isn’t limited to Gmail, so can be tricky to get a hang of. Firstly, with dedicated Gmail ads you can implement manual bidding, which isn’t an option for Discovery campaigns. Second to go is device targeting as well as ad rotation.
If you use Gmail ads in your digital marketing strategy you may need to find a new channel to run these campaigns. If advertisers still want to run any ads on the Gmail placement, they are going to have to run Discovery campaigns instead. The benefit of this situation is that you can use this as an opportunity to broaden your marketing horizons and try something new. Discovery ads have their advantages too, read more to find out how to convert your Gmail ads into the latest ad format.
No More Broad Match Modifier
On February 4, 2021 Google announced that the broad match modified keyword type will soon be redundant. Now, phrase match has expanded to include additional broad match modifier traffic. This is a step towards better automation, and could potential save you lots of time on your advertising. Expect your traffic to fluctuate over the next few weeks as the changes are being made.
This change could affect the way you manage your keywords, allowing you to save time. However, you may also see fluctuations in your traffic. Any keywords broad match modified keywords that are still in your account after July 2021 will be converted to phrase match. This can influence your current PPC campaigns if you rely upon broad match modified keywords. Though some advertisers argue that there is very little difference between broad match and phrase match. To find out more about Google’s new keywords click the button below.
WordPress News
WordPress Passes 40% Market Share of Alexa Top 10 Million Websites
Among the top 1,000 sites, WordPress’ market share is even higher at 51.8% and captures a staggering 66.2% for new sites. This could be important to you as if you’re thinking other CMS systems might work better for your website e.g. Wix or Squarespace. WordPress has proven to continuously focus on user experience to ensure it stays the most popular CMS. The WordPress community can’t be rivaled anytime soon, and it’s only continuing to grow. With new SEO features, improved dashboard functionality, and UI updates coming in the future, the platform is only getting better and better.
WordPress is Affordable Website Design’s favourite CMS and the best in our opinion. It’s packed with built-in SEO boosts to help your visibility online. Furthermore, WordPress allows you to easily customise your site and optimise it for mobile use without complication. In addition to these already great features, WordPress allows you to add thousands of different software tools to make your site your own. Finally and most importantly, WordPress maintains a high level of security so you can relax knowing your website is safe.
Website Design News
UI Design Trends for Web and Mobile in 2021
You’ve probably only just caught up with the mad January rush, so now is a great time to review the latest user interface trends. Some small changes across your site could be exactly what your site needs to stay current and fresh in this ever-developing and evolving technology industry. One of the main trends we’ve picked up on is video content, from research to general scrolling, watching a video is so much more accessible and beneficial for a user. If you’re able to demonstrate service through video, you’ll get a lot more interaction from it rather than a piece of text. If you’re able to create unique, eye-catching videos, these videos are most effective in a hero section of your site to draw in the user’s attention immediately.
Whatever the industry you work within, there’s so much competition, especially if you’re an SME competing with bigger companies. Having said that when a user is on your site, you want to ensure the navigation around your site is as easy as possible, you don’t want to confuse which will cause them to go looking elsewhere for the same service you provide.
Website Speed News
Increasing Your Website's Speed Could Save Your Business
A recent survey conducted by Gomez.com and Akamai.com showed that a massive 40% of users would abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Another shocking statistic within this survey also showed that 79% of people who were dissatisfied with website performance are not likely to return to the site again. This means that even though they had found the perfect service/product/solution they were looking for, because of the slow page speed, they’ll leave the site and won’t return again.
It’s now important more than ever to invest some time and money into improving your website speed, even just a fraction of a second could have a huge impact. Your website has the potential to gain many more users and engagement by ensuring the site loads in under 3 seconds.
SEO News
Google Confirms the Total Number of Backlinks Doesn't Matter
The total number of backlinks a website has doesn’t matter to Google. “I would tend not to focus on the total number of links to your site, or the total number of domain links to your website because we look at links in a very different way,” said Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller. Instead, what matters is that the link is from a relevant source.
This is important for you to know, as it means you should try to get one or two good links from a relevant website instead of hundreds of low-quality links.
Removing Blog Comments May Impact Rankings
Removing all comments from a website may hurt search rankings. Google includes comments as a factor when ranking web pages. For instance, the words used in the comments can count towards the total keyword count. Therefore, it is likely that removing comments from a site will impact its rankings.
If you allow comments on your website, you need to take this into account before making changes to your site. If you don’t allow comments, you may want to consider the possible benefits of doing this.
New Google My Business Features for Local SEO
Google My Business has released new features to improve your local SEO. If you own a local business, you need to know about those updates so you can get the most out of the platform.
Google has added health and safety attributes to help you capture visitors that want to make informed decisions about the health standards of the businesses they visit.
You can now add the attributes to your Google My Business account such as “appointment required”, “mask required”, “staff wear masks”, “staff get temperature checks” or “Temperature check required”.
Another update is the addition of attributes for online services. With online meetings becoming the norm during the Pandemic, Google now allows you to add the following attributes to indicate that you have virtual offerings, including online care, appointments, estimates and classes.
Core Web Vitals Might Include Noindexed Pages
According to Google’s John Mueller, in some cases, the Core Web Vitals ranking signal might take into account noindexed web pages into their calculations.
The Core Web Vitals are user experience metrics that Google consider when calculating how to rank a page. These include how fast the web page loads, how soon a visitor can interact with a web page and how stable web page elements such as buttons or images are while the page is downloading.
This could be relevant to you if you have noindexed pages on your website. If that is the case, you need to make sure these are still optimised and that they won’t impact the site negatively, for instance by slowing it down.
Social Media News
The Era of a New Type of Social Media
Social media has become more and more about genuine connect and less about marketing in the last year. Young social media users are starting to move away from traditional platforms like Facebook, for new apps such as TikTok. This is because the refined algorithms in new social media platforms make it even easier for users to fill their timeline with content that aligns with their interests. Rather than statuses of random friends from high school. Secondly, SMEs can really use this as an opportunity to extend their brand’s personality directly to your desired audience.
If your SME is looking to target the younger generations, marketing non-stop on your social media won’t cut it anymore. Users are looking for meaningful content and relationships with the brands that they love. Your small business could really benefit from loosening up the tight restrictions of traditional social media and showing more of your brand personality. In addition, The many micro-communities you can find online are one of the best ways to connect with your target audience and get conversions. Meanwhile, you will be developing your business’s online image with the right people and on the right platforms. To read more, click the button below.
Will Clubhouse Be The Next Social Media Platform for Marketers?
Clubhouse is an up and coming social media app that is currently available by invitation only. If you’re one of the lucky few to get access to Clubhouse you’ll know that it’s much different than any social media platform we’ve seen before. It’s an audio chat app where you can drop in and out of different conversations about basically anything. Think Reddit, but with speech instead of text. Therefore, the benefit of this new platform is the authenticity of it, for an SME looking to connect with potential customers at any stage in the funnel Clubhouse is a perfect platform.
The app feels genuine, and while all social media platforms have their downfall, Clubhouse is really benefiting from the invite only system. Unlike other platforms, Clubhouse isn’t filled with bots. Instead, there are real people who are actually interested in what an industry professional has to say. Read more about how Clubhouse could be the next big social media marketing platform here.
10 YouTube Videos That Every Small Business Should Create
Online videos continue to be some of the most effective posts on social media; Facebook, TikTok and Instagram all rely upon video content to pull in the most engagement. Meanwhile, small businesses can also benefit from this boom in popularity. Firstly, by creating optimised video content to be shared on YouTube and other social media platforms. 73% of people say that they are more likely to buy an item after seeing a video about it, meaning you can’t ignore the power of video content anymore. Why not try it out?
As a result, the type of content you can create as a small business will be unique to your industry. In this article, you’ll gain insight into the various content types you can and should be creating. For example, product spotlights or meet the team videos. Above all else, YouTube videos are a great opportunity to connect with your audience, as well as engage them. Don’t miss out! Read more content ideas and tips in this article.
Facebook testing brand safety topic exclusions for advertisers
Facebook ads are a brilliant way to pull traffic towards your site, however, the social media platform has often found itself in hot-water about its advertising practices. The social media giant is testing out a new method of advertising, that would benefit both the consumer and the business. This has arisen after years of privacy concerns have come to a boil. Facebook users don’t want to feel uncomfortable and brands don’t want their ads running to the wrong people. Therefore, Facebook’s new topic exclusions are a way for advertisers to promote their material, without detriment to their audiences privacy.
Why is this important for your SME? When running any kind of display advertising on social media, you’ll have made a specific effort to ensure that the right audience is seeing it. Meanwhile, Facebook’s new exclusions work as powerful negative keywords, protecting your brand’s adverts from appearing on the wrong pages.
Advertisers Need to Know Apple & Facebook's Changes
If you’ve not been keeping up with the on-going feud between Apple and Facebook, you should be. Whether you run Facebook ads or prefer to keep it organic, Facebook and Apple’s upcoming changes will affect the way you do your marketing online. In short, Apple has been implementing certain protection measures on iPhones since they were first created. This and Facebook’s cookie tracking system do not work well together. In February 2021, both Apple and Facebook have announced changes to the way you’ll be able to target your audiences in the future.
Though the two tech giants are yet to come to a conclusion, either way, the outcome is likely to majorly influence your social media marketing. Firstly, event tracking will become more limited, as well as delaying campaign reporting, these are just a few steps being taken to tackle this issue. Furthermore, remarketing will see big changes ahead. Above all else, User attribute breakdowns (demographics, interests, etc.) will be deprecated. To prepare your ad campaigns for these changes, read more by clicking the button below.
