Technology News and Industry Knowledge

Despite the U.S. falling well short of President Biden's goal of getting 70% of adults partially vaccinated by July 4, the AB InBev flagship will deliver on its promise of a free beer. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/budweiser-recreates-independence-day-speech-as-vaccination-push-continues/602657/

Whatever your conversion KPIs are — moving more people into your database, boosting form submissions, closing more sales, or driving up LTV — there’s still time to achieve exceed them. Spend a few focused hours at SMX Convert — online August 17 — to learn actionable tactics for optimizing CTAs, employing psychological triggers, and leveraging qualitative data to drive more conversions… all for just $99 . The agenda is live and ready for you to explore! This one-day intensive kicks off with an opening keynote about the psychology of disappointment , featuring Michael Aagaard, Senior CRO Consultant. Then, choose your focus — SEO or PPC — and attend structured, tactic-rich segments that grow your knowledge step by step. SEO sessions include: Part one: Identifying top converting queries at every stage of the customer journey Part two: Driving the funnel through content marketing and link building Part three: How optimizing navigation and CTAs can boost organic visibility a...

The experiment was run in a market where users are particularly hard to reach via traditional targeting methods due to strict adherence to privacy laws. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/audi-denmark-claims-70-conversion-rate-for-cookieless-test-leveraging-exc/602634/

More people now say last summer's protests influenced which brands they support, but diversity-related tactics are resonating less, an Engine Insights survey found. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/attitudes-toward-brands-evolve-again-1-year-after-a-racial-reckoning-began/602619/

Growing multiple brands under one umbrella allows companies to more effectively and efficiently scale them by providing resources and knowledge. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/the-rise-of-dtc-holding-companies/602630/

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, sharing your knowledge and helping your colleagues is what it is all about. Since the early days of search marketing, sharing knowledge with your colleagues and helping your friends in your industry has been what has made this industry so great. Back in the early 2000s, we had old-fashioned online forums where we’d go to share what we are seeing in search.  We’d ask our colleagues for help with challenging technical SEO issues or maybe after a friend’s affiliate site got pummeled by the Google Florida update in 2002, we offered support and guidance. We were and still are a very tight community. We’ve expanded to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and heck, even Clubhouse. But this just...

John Mueller, a Google search relations representative, posted a new video in the AskGooglebot series answering the question: how long does SEO take for new pages? The answer started off with the classic John Mueller response of “it depends,” but he dug deeper into a more precise answer. How long does it take. It can take “several hours to several weeks” for Google to index new content or updated content, John Mueller said. But sometimes it can take longer due to either technical issues with your website or because GoogleBot is busy doing other things; like indexing more important sites. So, it varies. For example, we know that news sites, like this one, can be indexed within minutes by Google. Indexing doesn’t mean ranking. You can be indexed and at the same time your indexed pages won’t necessarily rank. Google issued a disclaimer of sorts saying forcing something to be indexed does not mean that page will be shown prominently in Google Search. No guarantee to be indexed. Ther...

If you want to reach into people's brains, hearts and pocketbooks in 2021, you must have a strong, well-designed audio presence, writes music producer Lucas Murray. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/liberty-liberty-liiiberty-liiiberty-anatomy-of-a-sonic-logo/602228/

Beginning in August 2021, financial services marketers in the UK will need to be verified by Google in order to show advertisements to people seeking financial services online. The verification process will include proving that the advertiser is “authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority” or qualifies for an exemption such as “advertisers that do not promote financial services, but that have a compelling reason to target users who appear to be seeking financial services.” Prevent financial product scams. The move to verify financial services companies is a measure to “help prevent scammers exploiting our platforms,” said Ronan Harris , Vice President and MD, Google UK & Ireland. The goal, Harris said, is to protect users, publishers, and advertisers. Globally, Google has also introduced advertiser identity verification “which requires advertisers to submit personal legal identification, business incorporation documents or other information that proves who they are and th...

Google said it has “significantly expanded” the help guide it has for how Google Search handles various forms on redirects. The redirects and Google Search help document use to be a few paragraphs long, but now it goes into much greater detail. What is new. The old page had general advice on the important of using server-side 301 redirects when communicating to Google Search that a page has moved. It also linked to some guides on how to set up those redirects on Apache and NGINX servers. That was the bulk of it, if you want to see a screen shot of the old page, I have one here . Google has expanded this document to include much more robust sections on why redirects are important and how they are handled for each type of redirect. This includes: Permanent redirects 301 308 meta refresh HTTP refresh JavaScript location Crypto redirect Temporary redirects 302 303 307 meta refresh HTTP refresh Server side redirects Permanent server side redirects Temporary server s...

We're thrilled to welcome Dana DiTomaso back to this year’s MozCon Virtual where she’ll discuss modern web development that puts SEO first. Check out what she has to share ahead of the show!

In its first application, Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) technology enabled the search engine to identify more than 800 variations of vaccine names in over 50 languages in a matter of seconds, the company announced in a blog post on Tuesday. Examples of search results for vaccines, powered by Google’s MUM. Image: Google. What is MUM? First announced at Google I/O , MUM is built on a transformer architecture, like BERT , but is touted as being 1,000 times more powerful and is capable of multitasking to connect information for users in new ways (such as the aforementioned identification and matching of vaccine names across languages). During its unveiling, Google SVP Prabhakar Raghavan provided the following as examples of tasks that MUM can perform simultaneously: Understand and generate language. Train across 75 languages. Understand multiple modalities (enabling it to understand multiple forms of information, like images, text and video). Why we care. This is o...

The decisions speak to the difficulty regulators will face in reigning in tech companies that offer free services on the internet. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/federal-judge-tosses-out-facebook-antitrust-suits-citing-failure-to-prove/602569/

As of late July, advertisers will no longer be able to create new broad match modifier (BMM) keywords with the +keyword notation, Google Ads announced Tuesday. Existing BMM keywords will keep serving under the updated phrase match behavior announced in February. An example of BMM and phrase match keywords under the new treatment announced in February. Image: Google. We were warned. When Google Ads first announced that it was expanding phrase match to include BMM traffic , the company also stated that after the new behavior rolled out worldwide, advertisers would not be able to create new BMM keywords. However, advertisers can still edit attributes of their BMM keywords, like status or bid, but editing keyword text will require changing the keyword to phrase match. Google’s tools and tips to transition your keywords. Google recommends consolidating duplicate keywords and switching your BMM keywords to a different match type so that it’s easier to manage your account in the fut...

As outdoor sports fans return to pre-pandemic activities, the sweepstakes uses nature-themed messaging to promote the sustainably brewed beer. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/michelob-ultra-pure-gold-foots-baggage-fees-for-outdoor-enthusiasts/602551/

As part of parent company PepsiCo's work to advance racial equality, the brand will support and showcase "changemakers" that are driving culture. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/doritos-gives-platform-to-black-creators-with-5m-commitment/602552/

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, why do you think Google released all these updates so close to one another? Just to recap: The June core update finished rolling out on the 12th. The page experience update started rolling out on the 15th and will continue through to the end of August. Last week, Google also rolled out part one of a two-part spam update; the second part rolled out yesterday (more on that below). And, there will be another core update in July. Phew. This makes it much more difficult for SEOs to identify the cause of ranking fluctuations. “I don’t think they did it intentionally,” Barry Schwartz told me, “I think they are a big company and when things are ready to be released, they release them.” It’s also possible that delays co...

You’re probably expected to manage tens or hundreds of thousands of keywords at a microscopic level, so you don’t miss a thing. And the difficulty only multiplies the more clients you have in your agency portfolio. Yet, there is so much you can do with your SEO retainer time for one client. So many man-hours pass on routine campaign management and monitoring tasks. Time that you could invest in increasing the value of that account by spotting the next business opportunity . But it doesn’t have to be like that.  It’s clear that you create the most value by doing strategy for your clients — and tracking every development affecting their keywords is crucial for the campaign’s performance. So you need a process that helps you leverage the agency’s resources and automate the most labor-intensive parts of the job while controlling strategic interventions on execution.  Here’s how: Before execution: Segment your keywords strategically. You can start thinking about an effi...

Searchmetrics crawled over 2 million URLs, crunched the numbers, and performed correlation analysis across the top 20 organic Google search positions to get a sense of how websites were performing before the Google Core Web Vitals Update. As well as the 3 Core Web Vitals, they looked at 12 additional related ranking signals to offer deeper insights into what websites are doing well. The study includes real best and worst-case examples plus highlights many areas where websites could benefit from healthy speed gains and UX improvements. When using the information in this study, SEOs, UX designers and web developers can understand, with facts, what Core Web Vitals is about and what it means for the websites they manage. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download the Searchmetrics Core Web Vitals Study. The post Less than 4% of websites passed all Core Web Vitals tests. Is yours one of them? appeared first on Search Engine Land . Via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc

Brand-driven search is so much more than the URLs you see ranking for your brand name. It’s an ongoing process that will result in higher conversions and more predictable buying journeys.

Russ was brilliant, funny, courageous, and empathetic. His impact on the SEO industry was incredible. He will be missed beyond words.

The internal shop, which just secured its first Grand Prix win at Cannes Lions, is able to jump on fast-moving trends due to clear strategic mandates, global vice president Tracy Stallard said. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-ab-inbevs-draftline-guides-the-company-and-what-brands-get-wrong-abo/602522/

Google has released the second part of the “spam update” today, June 28. The update comes after part one rolled out on June 23 . “The second part of our spam update has begun today, and it will also conclude later today unless we share otherwise,” Google said. Impact. Both parts of this spam update were “global” updates that targeted both web results and image results, Danny Sullivan of Google told us. The announcement. Here is Google’s two part announcement: The second part of our spam update has has begun today, and it will also conclude later today, unless we share otherwise. — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 28, 2021 Lots of updates going on.  In the past three months, SEOs have had multiple Search updates roll out: The  product reviews update starts  on April 8th and concludes on April 22nd. The  June core update  began on June 2nd and ended on June 12th. The  page experience update  initiated on June 15th and will ro...

While the two come from different backgrounds, both share a focus on "simplicity and speed" and look to disrupt traditional TV advertising. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/mntn-acquires-ryan-reynolds-maximum-effort-in-bid-to-wed-media-creative/602484/

The largest independent media agency in the U.S. hired strategist and social scientist Steve Grant to lead its new human intelligence push. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/horizon-media-embeds-behavioral-science-with-brand-strategy-via-new-team/602460/

Recalling the chain's famous "30 Minutes or Less" policy, a new promotion shows Domino's continued focus on mobile-first partnerships. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/dominos-lets-customers-bet-on-speediness-of-carside-delivery-with-draftkin/602496/

The Coca-Cola brand's summer concert series builds on its 35-year connection to hip-hop culture while evolving to meet consumers changing needs. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/sprite-turns-scannable-bottles-into-tickets-for-virtual-hip-hop-concerts/602459/

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 how did you learn SEO or PPC? I did an informal Twitter poll a bit back and only 2% of respondents learned their craft formally in a classroom (IRL or virtual). The majority — 77% — learned search marketing through hands-on, in the weeds learning. Just 9% had a mentor help them learn. These numbers got us thinking about how critical it is to have a guide to take you through uncharted territory. So today we’re elated to announce the Search Engine Land inaugural Mentorship Program. SEO mainstay Eric Enge brought the idea to us a few months ago, and we’re thrilled to officially launch it today. Applications for both mentors and mentees are live now. We’re capping this first cohort at 5 mentorships and applic...

Carl Loredo, the chain's marketing chief since 2019, said his overall vision is unchanged by the pandemic, while tactics are evolving to meet tech needs. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/wendys-cmo-twitter-snark-rick-morty-1b-breakfast-business/602393/

Only 2% of SEO or PPC professionals took traditional classes to learn search marketing, according to an informal Twitter poll I issued this week. The other 98% of us learned in trial by fire (hands-on), took DIY courses, or had a mentor to help us along the way.  That last one is often key in helping many search marketers level up in the industry. Mentorship is not only beneficial to the mentees, but to everyone involved. In fact, 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and have developed greater confidence, according to research from Moving Ahead . 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and have developed greater confidence. This is why we’re excited to launch the application for the Search Engine Land Mentorship Program in partnership with SEO mainstay Eric Enge (who will mentor one lucky applicant, too!). Inspired by other successful programs in the space (big shoutout to Women in Tech SEO ), thi...

Ever wonder how your various HTTP status codes or how your network or DNS responds to GoogleBot may impact how well your site performs on Google Search? Well, Google has published a new guide and help document detailing how HTTP status codes and network or DNS errors impact your Google Search performance. The document. You can access this document within the Google Search Central documentation area. It is broken down into: HTTP status codes 2xx codes 3xx codes 4xx codes 5xx codes Network errors DNS errors What stands out. To me, there are a few things that stand out to me, maybe as new or interesting: (1) Google will try 10 hops for your redirects and then consider the URL with a redirect error in Search Console. (2) 301 vs 302 redirects; Google has said a 301 redirect is a strong  signal that the redirect target should be canonical whereas a 302 redirect is a weak  signal that the redirect target should be canonical. (3) 200 status codes guarantee that the ...

After buying the network Wondery last year, Amazon Music is trying to round out its podcast advertising tools in a manner akin to rival Spotify. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/amazon-acquires-podcast-distributor-monetization-platform-art19-in-chase-f/602442/

Google kicked the can down the road with its latest privacy decision, but marketers and the ad tech industry can't rest on their laurels, experts said. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/whats-next-ad-industry-google-delays-third-party-cookie-death-analysis/602449/

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, do you hate Google Analytics 4? Chatter on Twitter this week indicates that many marketers are not adjusting well to Google’s change in their reporting platform. One of the big differences is that GA4 is event-based measurement (whereas Universal Analytics had page hits, event hits, ecommerce hits, and social interaction hits). But for marketers, it seems the issue is making the leap (and hopefully getting more data after the beta is complete). “One client starting from scratch looked at GA4 reports rather than GA3 and immediately saw much more data without fiddling with GTM,” said Mark Alves. If you’re still lost, check out Colleen Harris’ SMX Advanced session: “Preparing your website data for Google Analyt...