Technology News and Industry Knowledge

Google has published a list of best practices to help ensure that its search engine understands the products that are being referenced. The list contains an explanation of how Google identifies products, as well as tips for manufacturers, retailers and publishers. How Google identifies products. Google recommends using Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) and brand names when referencing products. This helps the search engine more accurately identify products and match them to offers and relevant searches. When using product identifiers, Google recommends the following: Use unique identifiers. Products shouldn’t share identifiers with other products. The identifiers you use should also be accurate and consistent so that they can be used across the ecosystem, both online and physically. Use verifiable data. Using verifiable identifiers enables marketplaces to check that your product data is complete and accurate. Use widely recognized identifiers. A...

“The content on our platform is about you and what you want in your life,” explained Colleen Stauffer, Global Director of Creator Marketing for Pinterest. “We really tried to harness planning that became way more short-term last year during the pandemic. We wanted to fit people in their current lives and how they planned in the hour.” The pandemic didn’t just change our lives out in the real world, it changed digital lives as well. It modified the demands users placed on familiar tools. For marketers, taking note of these shifts on social media platforms is essential. For the architects of these communities, the trends cut deep into human experience. Before the pandemic, Stauffer was aware of the tendency for users (called “Pinners”) to be “future-looking” in the content they sought out. They might be planning a vacation, or maybe they were redesigning a room in their home. With the pandemic, those same people were now searching out short-term solutions. What quick meal could they pr...

A patience-testing stunt promoting the brand's burger kit suggests Heinz recognizes homebound consumers still don't have much to do. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/heinz-asks-fans-to-wait-57-minutes-for-website-to-load-in-latest-endurance/595785/

Along with two commercials starring Anthony Davis, the "Own Your Ridges" campaign features fellow NBA star Jayson Tatum. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/ruffles-celebrates-individuality-on-social-media-and-in-return-to-tv-ads/595772/

Embracing a broader definition of fitness to include nutrition and mindfulness gives legs to its "Put It All Out There" campaign, especially as some consumers feel the slog of pandemic fatigue. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/campaign-trail-rxbar-embodies-no-bs-philosophy-in-return-to-fitness-root/595679/

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily. Good morning, marketers, or has it been a long night?   Are you up all night worrying about your Core Web Vital scores? Can’t sleep because the Google Page Experience Update is just around the corner ?  Well, go back to bed, it will be alright! I get it but we’ve been through updates like these before. Remember Mobilegeddon , maybe the HTTPS update , or the intrusive interstitials penalty and many like it? They all turned out to not be a huge update that really impacted rankings that much at all. In fact, Danny Sullivan of Google said on Twitter , “It shouldn’t be the case that overnight, we flip some type of switch and there’s a massive change.” He admitted “that’s not typically how rollouts of this nature (such as spee...

Each pack has a printed message and a special code that opens a complementary playlist when scanned with a smartphone camera. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/mms-revives-messages-packs-with-integrated-spotify-playlists/595771/

We’re excited to have interviewed Toronto SEO Expert Joseph Rothstein, from Social Media 55 (SM55), for the next installment of our Featured SEO Expert Series! Social Media 55 is one of SEOblog’s Top SEO companies in Toronto. Joseph is

Posted by Greg_Gifford While Google Posts aren’t a ranking factor, they can still be an incredibly effective resource for increasing local business conversions — when used correctly. This week’s Whiteboard Friday host, Greg Gifford, shows you how to put your best post forward. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! Video Transcription Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Fridays. I'm Greg Gifford, the Vice President of Search at SearchLab, a boutique digital marketing agency specializing in local SEO and paid search. I'm here today to talk about— you guessed it — Google Posts , the feature on Google My Business that lets you post interesting and attractive things to attract potential customers. The importance of Google My Business Mike Blumenthal said it first. Your Google My Business listing is your new homepage. Then we all kind of stole it, and everybody says it now. But it's totally true. It...

The latest evolution of influencer marketing may see brands approach already loyal customers and give them incentives to partner on social content, a new CreatorIQ report forecasts. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-influencer-marketing-will-evolve-as-gen-zs-sway-grows/595517/

Along with creating frequent and exclusive content, the partnership puts TikTok's logo on player jerseys, the first joint patch sponsorship of a professional men's and women's soccer team in the U.S. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/tiktok-taps-into-surging-soccer-interest-with-portland-clubs-deal/595611/

As the platform places bigger bets on non-music audio content, the Spotify Audience Network seeks to help brands more seamlessly run campaigns. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/spotify-unveils-audio-ad-marketplace-as-podcast-ambitions-face-key-test/595688/

Next week's "Hauliday" event features a new livestream shopping element following a period of growth for payment platform Klarna. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/klarna-cosmopolitan-co-host-virtual-shopping-event/595626/

Against a backdrop of major changes to in-store shopping, Catalina claims that Quotient paired predatory pricing with misleading communications to lure away CPG brands. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/catalina-suit-alleges-quotient-used-predatory-practices-in-couponing/595690/

"Zero Sugar, Zero Compromise" leverages contextual targeting to deliver a voice-over customized for moments when men feel like they're compromising. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-pepsi-is-looking-to-balance-personalization-and-reach-with-its-latest-z/595713/

The partnership will support the brand's efforts to advance its social media engagement and e-commerce business after a period of rapid digital growth. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/el-pollo-loco-names-organic-digital-aor-as-chain-accelerates-digital-transf/595659/

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily. Good morning, Marketers, and let’s chat ch-ch-changes, It seems like Google has announced change after change these past few weeks, especially on the Ads side. Most PPC marketers understand the move is toward automation, but the constant updates can make it hard to keep up. The new Partner Program details were released this week. Google is getting rid of Showcase Shopping Ads. The political ad ban was lifted ( including Shopping ads ). RSAs are now the default. And, of course, the transition of BMM keywords to phrase-match. Plus, the Google Ads outage probably didn’t help anyone’s stress level. You get the picture.  It’s all part of the game, at this point, though. In fact, I think so many search marketers enjoy the industry so muc...

The interactive videos on Walmart Cookshop saw a clickthrough rate of 8.7% during tests, compared with the industry standard of around 2%. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/walmart-expands-shoppable-video-hub-with-celebrity-cooking-shows/595689/

User experience (UX) is critical in keeping people on your website, an important signal in converting people to customers. What you may not be exploiting to its full potential is the connection between UX and SEO for even better web pages and performance. He

Knowledge is power. It is also a pain when you learn upsetting facts about things you love. For technical SEOs, JavaScript is a hot topic and will continue to be one for quite some time. When it comes to rendering JS on a website, there are a few options for the best way to tackle this problem. Today, we are going to focus on one of those: server-side rendering.  What is server-side rendering? Let’s start by defining “rendering.” Rendering is the process of retrieving a web page, launching the code, and assessing the structure and design of a page. Rendering can occur in a number of ways; client-side , server-side, and dynamic .  Server-side rendering (SSR) is the process of rendering your web pages through your own servers. In client-side rendering (CSR), this process is completed through the user’s browser, while dynamic rendering occurs through a third-party server.  There are two versions of your web page with SSR: the initial HTML and the rendered HTML, known...

Posted by stewartfussell Generation Z's behaviors differ from the cohorts that came before it, creating a new challenge for businesses marketing to consumers within it. Gen Z's presence is also growing in the marketing industry itself and, as such, learning how to work with and appeal to these young people is a critical step to take sooner rather than later.  Who is Generation Z? Social media stars might be the first people who come to mind when you think of Gen Z (also affectionately called Zoomers), but this age group is more than just TikTokers and YouTubers. Although the purported birth years of this generation vary across different sources, Pew Research refers to them as individuals born from 1997 and onward . With that in mind, it may come as a surprise that these Americans now make up about 28.7% of the total population . For context, Baby Boomers now account for a smaller proportion of just 21.8%, and Millennials around 22%. Even more shocking than these statistics...

Starting around February 18, 2021, Google seems to be showing fewer featured snippet results in the search results page. Most, if not all, of the tools that track the Google search results, are showing significant declines in featured snippets showing up. What the tools show. All of the tools that track featured snippets in Google’s search results showed a decline in how often they show up starting after February 18tth. Moz is showing a decline: 7.5% to 4.5% RankRanger is showing a decline: 9.5% to 8.5% SEMRush is showing a decline: 6.9% to 5.1% SEOClarity is showing a decline: 25% reduction Each of these tools track different sets of keywords and featured snippets but they are all showing declines. Why it matters. If your site gets a lot of traffic from featured snippets in Google Search, this may impact your traffic. Keep an eye on your analytics, check to see if your top performing featured snippets are still showing up. If Google is not showing any featured sn...

Google will stop serving Showcase Shopping ads and remove Showcase Shopping ad groups beginning on April 1, the company stated in an email to advertisers sent on February 23. After April 1, previous Showcase Shopping ad layouts will become part of Product Shopping ad groups. Advertisers will retain access to performance data for removed ads and ad groups in their account reports. The email announcing the removal of Showcase Shopping ads. The Showcase Shopping ad help page has also been updated to reflect the announcement. Tip of the hat to Kirk Williams for bringing this to our attention. The history of the format. Google has previously said that approximately 40% of product searches are for broad terms. Showcase Shopping ads, which were first introduced for search in 2016 as a multi-image Shopping format, were intended to provide retailers with a way to “showcase” a curated group of products, and mostly surfaced for broad, non-branded searches, like “summer dresses” (in the...

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Launched in August to little fanfare, the Macy's Media Network aligns with how other retailers are trying to combine existing capabilities in areas like loyalty with advertising sales. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/macys-touts-new-media-network-in-bid-to-sell-35m-plus-in-ads-to-brands/595610/

In a sign the sports calendar is swinging back toward normal after the pandemic spurred last year's tournament cancellation, the avocado brand is teaming up with tortilla maker Mission Foods. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/avocados-from-mexico-brings-back-taco-tip-off-for-march-madness-return/595577/

Nearly half of CMOs think changing economic conditions will spur a positive impact on performance, while nearly two-thirds say it's unlikely they'll bring more agency work in-house in 2021. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/cmos-say-companies-are-more-prepared-to-pivot-than-before-pandemic-study-f/595595/

People can record and share their laugh as part of the brand's 100th anniversary effort that also includes scannable packaging and digital content. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/laughing-cow-crowdsources-laughter-worldwide-to-lighten-mood/595569/

Good morning, Marketers, the first SMX conference of the year certainly set a high standard. There’s a particular feeling you get when attending an industry conference; something along the lines of, “This is a lot of information. I hope I can make the most of it all. I NEED to ask that speaker a question after this session.” I felt those same feelings at SMX Report yesterday. Though, I was able to pull myself together and jot down a few outstanding quotes from our speakers. Check it out in the Heard at SMX section below. There’s so much more beyond those takeaways, like the keynote from our own Carolyn Lyden, featured speaker Colleen Harris’ talk on using Google Analytics data to map digital strategy success, and more. If you’re interested, you can still catch the sessions on-demand by registering right here .  George Nguyen Editor Check out some of our main takeaways from SMX Report “ Striking distance really gives you a sense of . . . the current visibility of our site, ” ...