Christmas Roundup 2022 – SEO and Marketing News

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Dec 9, 2022 / by
Christmas Roundup 2022 – SEO and Marketing News

It’s (almost) the most wonderful time of the year and 2022 is officially putting the brakes on. As ever, we’ve loved bringing you all the top SEO news stories this year but rather than spend the next thousand words casting a rose-tinted eye over the previous 12 months, let’s look ahead at the news and trends making digital marketing headlines right now. See you all next year!

HTTP/3 doesn’t affect SEO

Google Search Advocate John Mueller debunked a theory that the faster speed of HTTP/3 can directly impact a website’s SEO during the November 2022 edition of Google’s SEO office-hours Q&A session.

According to Mueller, Google primarily uses HTTP/1 for web crawling. Googlebot supports HTTP/2 but only uses it when there’s a clear benefit over HTTP/1. Support for HTTP/3 is likely a long way off. Websites that choose to adopt it early won’t see a direct improvement in search rankings.

Google shares new info about vulnerabilities found in Chrome

Google security researchers are sharing new information about vulnerabilities detected in Chrome, Firefox, and Windows. In a blog post, Google and Threat Analysis Group (TAG) detail steps taken since discovering a commercial spyware operation with ties to Variston IT.

Based in Barcelona, Spain, Variston IT claims to provide custom security solutions. However, the company is connected to an exploitation framework called “Heliconia.”

Heliconia works in three ways:

  • It exploits a Chrome renderer bug to run malware on a user’s operating system.
  • It deploys a malicious PDF document containing an exploit for Windows Defender.
  • It utilizes a set of Firefox exploits for Windows and Linux machines.

The Heliconia exploit was used as early as December 2018 with the release of Firefox 64. New information released by Google reveals Heliconia was likely used in the wild as a zero-day exploit. Heliconia poses no risk to users today, as Google says it cannot detect active exploitation. Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft fixed the bugs in early 2021 and 2022.

Microsoft’s PPC predictions for 2023

Microsoft advertising has made three predictions for product categories that will increase ad clicks in the new year and advises how to optimise campaigns accordingly.

According to a global study run by Opeepl, peoples’ number one most popular New Year’s resolution is to get healthier, which they plan to accomplish through diet and exercise. Looking at upcoming health trends, Microsoft Advertising has shared the three most significant product categories.

1. Organic food up by 20% – Clicks on ads for organic food will spike during the week of January 14, resulting in 20% growth from the same week in December.

2. Sports apparel searches up in December/January – Searches for sports apparel will begin to rise in early December and continue through January.

3. Fitness and nutrition searches come in waves – Unsurprisingly, searches for fitness and nutrition are expected to rise in the new year. However, Microsoft Advertising advises an “always-on” approach to targeting this category, as search interest will spike several times throughout the year.

Elon Musk shares his vision for Twitter 2.0

Twitter CEO Elon Musk reveals six ways he plans to turn Twitter into an “everything app,” which includes long-form tweets, encrypted DMs, user-to-user payments, and more. In a series of slides prefaced with the title “Twitter 2.0,” Musk presented his plans at an internal meeting.

The slides reveal the following goals for the future of Twitter:

  • Advertising as Entertainment
  • Video
  • Longform tweets
  • Encrypted DMs
  • Longform tweets
  • Relaunch Blue Verified

Musk published the slides on Twitter without further context, making it difficult to read too far into his plans for the company. But things haven’t been looking too good for the Tesla billionaire right now.

Google launches new search, shopping, and maps features

Google has announced a boatload of new search features across Google Search, Google Lens, Shopping and Maps all aimed at bringing search to more users in more helpful ways. These improvements cross over Multisearch, Google Leons, Google Shopping and Google Maps.

Twitter rolls out 3 new ways to advertise

In more Twitter news, the social media platform is launching three new advertising options designed to get people to visit and take action on businesses’ websites.

Twitter’s new ad products include:

  • Website Conversions Optimization
  • Dynamic Product Ads
  • Collection Ads

In a blog post, Twitter says its new ad units “will drive mid-to lower-funnel results for advertisers and improved relevance for people on Twitter.”

Cyber Monday broke records this year

Cyber Monday in the US this year brought in over an 8% increase in sales since FY21. Globally, sales hit $46.2 billion, a 2.4% increase YoY. Black Friday also saw an increase this year of about 12%. This brings total sales for the weekend to around $68 billion. The figures are not adjusted for inflation, which plays a big part in the cost of goods also increasing.

Google Search adds new spam policy

Google has added a new spam policy named “Policy circumvention.” In short, if you find ways to get around the current spam prevention measures, Google may take action on your content, site, or account.

If you violate this new policy, Google may restrict or remove the content from showing up in search or for some search features. In short, it sounds like any action you take to bypass the other Google Search spam or content policies. This includes creating new sites, using other sites or other methods to distribute that content, maybe on third-party sites or other avenues.

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