At the end of each month, you can look forward to a summary interesting news from the world of online marketing. We hope you will find this blog series useful.
At the end of each month, you can look forward to a summary interesting news from the world of online marketing. We hope you will find this blog series useful. We also recommend following our FB page Made It Digital to receive the latest updates first.
Google - May 2021
Image Optimization in Google Search
Google’s John Mueller published a series of useful posts on Twitter loaded with a bunch of valuable tips about image optimization in Google Search. Here’s a short recap:
- First, check, whether image optimization is something you should be focusing on. Go to Performance report in GSC and select the image search type.
- If you are changing the URL address of the images, don’t forget to redirect them.
- Filter out the most valuable images landing pages and check for any issues in Page Speed Insights. Do the images have the right dimensions? Aren’t they too big in size?
- Use lazy loading – delay image loading until they are seen on the page. Make images the right size.
- You can compress large images – reduce the size of the image while preserving the quality. Try Squoosh.
- Experiment with new image formats like WebP, but be aware, not all browsers support this format.
Source: https://bit.ly/3nQrU1V
Importance of H1 Headings for SEO in 2021
You can use H1 headings multiple times on the same page. Or you don’t need to use them at all. At least, this is what John Mueller said in this video.
In the past, Google used H1 headings as a ranking signal, like a helping hand. However, this is not necessarily the case today. Google understands the topic on the page in connection with the search query. The whole ranking process is more complex.
But keep in mind – headings are still important. They have a crucial role in segmenting the page, which helps Google to better understand the topic in each paragraph.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google Events Enhancement Report Shows More Errors
Event structured data show rich snippets for event search results in Google, which are enriched with interactive features that can boost click-through rate.
Google is making sure that webmasters are aware of potential spike in errors in Google Search Console’s Enhancement reports. GSC can now detect events entities at all hierarchy levels, not just at the root level.
We recommend check these errors – you might find something that needs some tweaking.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google MUM: A More Sophisticated Algorithm
Google announced a future search algorithm improvement they are currently working on called Multitask Unified Model. This new technology should help to better understand search queries and language itself. It is similar to BERT, but much more efficient. MUM does not only understand language, but also creates it.
It understands 75 different languages and can do many different tasks at once. Thanks to this, it can comprehensively understand information. MUM is also multimodal, so it understands information across text and images – in the future, also across video and audio.
Imagine you take a photo of your boots and ask Google, whether they are suitable for hiking. Thanks to MUM, it can be possible. Science fiction, ladies, and gentlemen!
Language shouldn’t be a barrier anymore. MUM can collect information from multiples sources, including those in different languages. This opens new possibilities of finding relevant and valuable information.
Source: Google Blog
Facebook - May 2021
Facebook Neighborhoods: Connecting Local Communities
Facebook is launching a new feature within the main app called Facebook Neighborhoods – a place for people to connect in the same local community.
To join, users need to create a profile separate from their FB profile, fill in some basic information and confirm their neighborhood. In addition, they can also join nearby neighborhoods.
The main goal is to connect people in local communities. Members can publish posts, meet new people, and get answers in Neighborhoods Questions feed. It’s a great platform for sharing recommendations and tips about interesting places and businesses.
Moreover, admins of local FB groups will be able to add their group into Neighborhoods, making it more accessible. Facebook Neighborhoods is currently available only in Canada and will be launched in some US cities in the future.
Source: Facebook Newsroom
Facebook Keeps Fighting Misinformation
In the past years, Facebook has been working hard on reducing the spread of misinformation and fake news by improving their platform and algorithm. Currently, they are testing a new feature, which alerts users, when they are about to share an article without reading or opening it first. The alert prompts them to read it or do some research around the topic.
The goal is clear – get people to reconsider sharing of untrustworthy articles without actually reading them first.
Twitter did something similar last summer. Based on their data, adding the warning led to users opening articles 40% more often.
Source: Facebook Newsroom & Social Media Today
Instagram With New Upload Option on Desktop
Instagram is testing a new option of publishing posts in the desktop version of the app. A + icon should appear at the top bar that lets you upload images and videos directly from your PC.
The regular customizations will be available as well, like formatting tools and filters.
Users will be able to publish posts to their feed and IGTV in the desktop version, but not Stories and Reels at this point.
Source: Social Media Today
Instagram Introduces Option to Hide Likes
Instagram is introducing a new option for users to hide likes on posts in their feed. This feature has been tested in the future, but without the option for users to customize it.
The idea behind this is that if people don’t see the number of likes, they can more objectively and without bias evaluate each post.
Users will have the option to hide likes on all of their future posts, choose each post individually or remove likes from already published posts. Moreover, there’s an option to hide likes from all users.
There have been some talks, that Facebook might get a similar feature soon.
Source: Facebook Newsroom