PING — Top Digital Marketing Stories — July 2018

The month of July brought in few enhancements from the search engine and social media space. Let’s have a look at some of the key updates which we thought might be most relevant to digital marketers.

Search Engine News

Google’s Search Console Index Coverage Report is more accurate now!

Google has switched to a more accurate index coverage report generated by Google search console. It will not make any changes to your site but will make the accounting system more accurate. Google had planned to switch to this new system and therefore, from July 14 to August 1, it was not able to record the index coverage data. An estimated value of this duration based on the values of August 1 is considered for the record purpose. This is the first update since the launch of the index coverage report.

Google My Business Insights will provide a performance report of your posts

You can now check out a summary view of your post insights. It will help you determine how well your posts are performing with your target audience. To access this feature, you can click on Posts Tab located on Google My Business dashboard. You can choose to view insights for an individual post, all posts from the last week, or all posts from last month. The post insights give information on the number of clicks, views and how that has changed over the period. However, the percentage will not be visible in case the post received no views, you have no new posts, or your percentage change is over 99.99%. This new feature is available on GMB desktop browser, mobile website but is currently not available on the App.

Get a notification in Google My Business when your new listings go live

Now when your new listings go live, Google sends out a notification. However, you will receive this notification only if your business account has less than 100 listings. You also need to set your language preference to US English to receive this notification. Anytime, if you wish to unsubscribe, you can do so from the settings menu.

Bing Ads introduces Security Badge Annotations

If you have secured your website using reliable third-party antivirus like McAfee or Norton, you can now highlight it on your website using Bing Security Badge Annotation. It will also enhance your credibility and click-through rates. It is important to note that it will appear only on US search results on a desktop device.

Know the search queries used to locate your business on Google My Business Listing

The recent update from Google My Business will help you analyze the common terms and search trends that are followed to reach to your business. You can access information from the Insights Tab and learn about the queries that your customers are raising to reach to you.

Now use “Call Now” Button to Posts at Google My Business

You can now add a “Call Now” button on your posts created in Google My Business. When someone taps on the button, the call will automatically get connected via the number provided in Google My Business Listing. Currently, there is no provision to change that number. The button also prompts the user to leave a review for the business. This means that the business should provide exceptional customer service so that the customers leave positive reviews about the company on the page.

Social Media Updates

Twitter tells how it ranks tweets

To make tweets relevant to its users, Twitter ranks the following categories higher: Tweets from people, the user is interested in, and Tweets that are popular or trending. Alternatively, tweet that intends to manipulate or divert the conversation is ranked lower.

Created your twitter account when you were underage? Your Twitter account will be locked out.

Twitter is locking out all the accounts that were created when the user was underage, regardless of their current age now. If you have recently updated and revealed your date of birth which specifies that you were below 13 years of age when you created the account, then Twitter will lock your account.

YouTube introduces the ‘Explore’ tab to discover videos based on your viewing activity

YouTube is testing its “Explore” feature in iPhone

to enhance user experience. With this feature, the user will be able to see video recommendations based on their viewing activity. So, what is the difference between the Home Tab and Explore Tab? Home tab features video from the channels the user frequently watches or has subscribed to whereas the Explore tab will show the recommendation from different and unknown creators.

YouTube introduces hashtag feature

YouTube will now display hashtags on videos which will help users to locate videos on the same topic. Currently, this feature is introduced in the web browser and the Android mobile app but is not available on iOS app. You can find the hashtags in the video’s title in blue colour. You can click on the hashtag to discover more videos which use that hashtag.

Additionally, you can directly search for videos using a hashtag in the search menu. The YouTube video creators can include the relevant hashtag in the description but note that only first 3 hashtags will be displayed above the title. The hashtag can also be used in the video title.

The user must be careful not to violate the hashtag use policies which includes; the user must not use a hashtag to mislead people or for any sort of harassment or to spread provocative hate speech. The user must also refrain from using 15 or more hashtag per video. If the hashtag policies are violated, then YouTube can take strict measures like ignoring the hashtag, removing the video from the search result or video termination.

It would be interesting to see what August brings in to the digital marketing world. We will be back next month with the latest happenings in the digital world. Stay tuned!