In the blink of an eye the Christmas holidays are behind us. Did you have enough rest? Hopefully you turned off your computer and had a little detox from the online world. Are you ready for 2022? We are here with interesting news and updates from the first month of this new year. 

 

Google News – January 2022

Google My Business Security Improvements

Google My Business is increasing the security of its platform by updating its guidelines. From now on, if you add a new owner or manager to your business, the person has to wait 7 days to be able to fully control your Google My Business profile with all its features.

Not all the features will be available for newly added members, e.g. business deletion, ownership transfer, removing other owners and managers.

Google wants to improve the security of their platform and prevent fraud. If you were added a business profile and not all functions were available right away, now you know why.

Find out more about GMB security improvement.

Source: Google My Business Profile Help & Search Engine Land

 

Page Experience Update Coming to Desktop in February

According to Malte Ubl, a software engineer at Google, Page Experience Update for desktop is coming in February 2022.

This can be indirectly confirmed by Google as well, since they have updated the Google Search Console with a new report for page experience for desktop. You can find it on the left-hand side navigation under Page Experience.

Hope your websites are all optimized and ready for the next big update.

Source: Twitter @cramforce & Google Search Console 

Google Ads Improving Experiments

Google decided to further improve the Experiments page in Google Ads. One of the new features is the so-called experiment sync. It represents a new way to sync experiments with their corresponding campaigns. If there are any changes in the original campaign, they are automatically applied to the experimental one as well. Quite handy, right?

Also, the improved workflow offers a new, easier way of creating experimental campaigns. There is no need to create a draft anymore. Moreover, if you are satisfied with the results of your experimental campaign, you can apply changes to your original campaign with just one click!

Find out more about the improved Experiments Page. 

Source: Google Ads Help

 

Google Introducing a New Robots Tag

Google announced a new robots tag called indexifembedded.

Indexifembedded offers more control over the indexation of a website with embedded content using iframe or other, similar HTML elements. This new tag works only in combination with noindex tag.

But when should you use indexifembedded?

For example, you have Site A with an URL address that you don’t want to be indexed, thus you use the noindex tag. However, you want this content to be indexed on Site B if it’s embedded as iframe, then you add indexifembedded to noindex.

Confused? Found are more about the new indexifembedded tag.

Source: Google Search Central Blog

 

Emojis in Google Ads

Google via Twitter has confirmed that they are testing emojis in Google Ads Search. In case you wondered, this is not the first time Google has tried emojis in Search.

However, this was a bit misleading since advertisers weren’t sure if they can start using emojis in ads, although it’s against Google’s guidelines. Later, Google clarified that they used emojis just as favicons to better identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads.

So, nothing changes here, emojis are still against Google’s guidelines, so you should not use them in your ads.

Find out more here.

Source: SEO Roundtable

 

FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM NEWS – January 2022

Meta To Change Ad Campaign Set-Up

Meta (feels weird, right?) announced, that they are about to change the Facebook ad campaign set-up process over the course of this year.

Ads Manager is being transformed into a model called ODAX (outcome-drive ad experiences), which will help advertisers to achieve their desired business outcomes. The new interface will guide them through the setup.

The main difference is in the reduction from 11 objectives to 6 and a fresh-looking new design.

Find out more about the new ad campaign set-up experience.

Source: Meta for Developers

 

Meta To Remove Targeting Options for Sensitive Topics

Meta announced that starting January 19, 2022, they will remove targeting options for some sensitive topics, those being:

• Health causes, e.g., Chemotherapy
• Sexual orientation, e.g., LGBT culture
• Religious practices and group, e.g., Jewish holidays
• Political belief, social issues, etc.

These targeting options are going away on January 19, 2022, but campaigns with these targeting options will continue to serve until March 17, 2022. This should give advertisers enough time to find alternative targeting options.
After March 17, 2022, edits for impacted campaigns will not be possible.

Find out more about these changes here.

Source: Meta for Developers

Instagram Experimenting with New Features

Instagram is testing new features, which should simplify and improve their platform. One of those features is “Edit grid”, which lets you edit and customize your feed on your Instagram profile. You can change the placement of your posts regardless of the time they were posted. This can be useful for profiles that post several pictures to create a big one.

Other than that, Instagram is also experimenting with a “status” feature that lets you set your status for 24 hours (or until changed). This status should inform your followers what you are currently doing, e.g., working, on the road, in the gym. Interesting feature, not sure if useful. It would be seen on your Instagram profile.

Oh, and let’s not forget. Now you should be able to change your feed to chronological order. Does it work for you?

Source: Socialmediatoday.com