August 2019 – SEO and marketing news

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Aug 16, 2019 / by
August 2019 – SEO and marketing news

The epic heatwave has just about subsided and we officially have a new Prime Minister. But the less said about that one, the better. Instead, let’s set our busy minds to the always moving and shaking world of SEO and marketing.

This month, we have another major gaffe from Google, check in on Bing (yes, it still exists) and explore Snapchat’s revolutionary (or terrifying, depending on who you ask) new instant ad creation tool, amongst other things.

Google unable to index new content. Again

Google has confirmed that as of the morning of August 8, it was unable to index new content across the web due to a bug that was “impacting some sites.” The truth, of course, is that it was a lot more than just “some sites.” Indeed, for most of the day, if you searched for content from a popular source and filtered it to only show content uploaded in the last hour, it simply would offer no results.

This isn’t the first time this year Google has encountered this problem. It popped up back in May and the month before, in April, there was an issue where Google de-indexed many sites. For marketers using Google, this is a major setback, but it would appear that the problem has been fixed. For now.

Microsoft ads make it easier to change audience targeting

Microsoft Advertising is rolling out campaign-level associations which will make easier to apply audience targeting. Previously, audience targeting could only be applied at the ad group level.

If a campaign had several ad groups then the targeting would have to be changed on each one individually. Now, audience targeting can be applied at the campaign level,  which means it will be applied to all ad groups in the campaign.

Microsoft acquires e-commerce advertising vendor PromoteIQ

Microsoft has acquired PromoteIQ, an automated vendor marketing platform that enables brand manufacturers to run sponsored ads on participating retailers’ e-commerce sites to generate visibility and revenue. The company offers analytics dashboards both retailers and advertisers to track campaign performance.

Microsoft is looking to pair its AI and machine learning technologies with PromoteIQ’s targeted ad placement capabilities, and expects the integrations to be completed later this year. Additionally, it can help Microsoft Advertising address consistent calls from advertisers for more reach.

Facebook Updates Business Manager

Facebook is rolling out several updates to Facebook Business Manager designed to complement the new features launched earlier this year. With a new design and navigation, users should find it easier to manage assets and permissions in Business Manager going forward. When opening the new Business Manager, you’ll first see a new shortcuts tool which offers fast access to different sections based on previous activity.

Bing is asking for feedback on its Webmaster Guidelines

Frédéric Dubut, web ranking and quality project manager for Bing, is embarking on a journey to refresh the company’s webmaster guidelines. On July 30, he tweeted, “SEO friends! I’m kicking off an effort to refresh our @Bing webmaster guidelines, both the spirit and the letter. Any shady tactics you think are not penalized enough? Any feedback on the document itself?”

You can leave feedback directly on Dubut’s tweet, by reaching out to the @BingWMC Twitter alias, on Facebook or by clicking the feedback button located at the bottom right-hand corner of the Webmaster Guidelines site.

Google says mobile searches now 65% of all searches

According to Greg Sterling from Search Engine Land, a representative from Google speaking at the Engage conference in the US last month said that “mobile is 65% in all searches today.”

In 2015, over 50% of all searches were done on mobile according to Google. But since then, Google has not shared an update to this metric, so this is not an official by any means, but it’s also far from unbelievable. 65% could actually be quite a low estimate.

Snapchat launch 3-step ad creation tool

Snapchat is introducing a new tool that offers an incredibly simple way to create Snapchat-optimised ads. The aptly named “Instant Create” allows users to select an objective, enter their site and select their target market and then publish in a process that should take a matter of seconds. The tool is designed for those with limited resources (and time, it would appear) and can be used by choosing the “Instant Create” feature when beginning an ad campaign.

The idea with these ads is that there is no need to design any creative as it will all be designed automatically by an algorithm that will pull in photos and pictures from your site to create an ad. It’s potentially liberating and disturbing and we’re honestly not sure which side of the coin we fall on.

To check out what was big in the world of SEO, digital marketing and the digital realm in general last month, click here for more news.

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