April has been a busy month in the world of digital, and so we’re taking a look back at some of the major digital marketing news for the month, including Google updates, additional algorithms and Google Ads attribution! Read on to find out more…
Google Reviews Update
April saw the rollout of the Google Reviews Update, which started on the 12th of the month. The update takes parts of the EEAT system which was implemented back in December 2022, specifically the part which focuses on Experience, and as such is rewarding sites with quality, authentic recommendations, opinions and analysis given as part of site content, whether that’s on product listings, blogs or anywhere else across the site. The search giant was keen to stress however that it did not look at third party reviews of products or services.
The official line from Google about the Reviews Update is:
“The reviews system is designed to evaluate articles, blog posts, pages or similar first-party standalone content written with the purpose of providing a recommendation, giving an opinion, or providing analysis.
It does not evaluate third-party reviews, such as those posted by users in the reviews section of a product or services page.”
The update finished rolling out on April 25, 2023. For more information about the update, click here.
Page Experience Report Axed
The page experience report which could be found in Google Search Console is being axed! Instead, it will be replaced with content around what Google thinks is a good page experience, with the change due to come into effect in “the coming months” according to Google.
In addition to this, the mobile-friendly test is also being binned, which includes the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and Mobile-Friendly Test API. Despite this, Google did say that the changes don’t mean “that mobile usability isn’t important for success with Google Search. It remains critical for users, who are using mobile devices more than ever, and as such, it remains a part of our page experience guidance,”
However, despite these changes to other elements of GSC, the Core Web Vitals & HTTPS report are staying how they are.
Introducing Google Other
GoogleOther is Google’s new crawler which will be used internally by various Google teams to crawl the public web, according to Gary Illyes.
It respects the same directives and protocols of the main Googlebot crawler and will take some of the stress away from the main crawlers too. Illyes said:
“As we optimize how and what Googlebot crawls, one thing we wanted to ensure is that Googlebot’s crawl jobs are only used internally for building the index that’s used by Search. For this we added a new crawler, GoogleOther, that will replace some of Googlebot’s other jobs like R&D crawls to free up some crawl capacity for Googlebot.”
Of course, another crawler may add additional stress to the load on your own server, so it’s worth keeping an eye on just in case it causes too much stress and slows things down. At this stage, we would advise against blocking it altogether though.
Goodbye Attribution Models…
From May 2023, four attribution models will be disappearing from Google Ads.
On 6th April, Google announced that the First Click, Linear, Time Decay and Position Based attribution models would disappear from both the Ads and Analytics platforms.
On Twitter, Google Ads liaison Ginny Marvin explained the move, saying:
“Use of rules-based attribution models has dropped significantly with the introduction of DDA (data driven attribution) 3 years ago. Fewer than 3% of conversion actions in Google Ads use them now. DDA has the broadest adoption & is available to all businesses, with no data requirements.”
Anyone using any of the four attribution models which are being removed should take action immediately to ensure that their data is measured correctly moving forward. However, as with many changes to Google platforms, there is a sunset period.
In May 2023: Time decay, linear, first click, and position-based models will be unavailable for any new conversion actions in GA4.
In June 2023: The attribution models will be unavailable for any new conversion actions in Google Ads.
In September 2023: Google will sunset all four attribution models across GA4 and Google Ads.
TikTok Shop is coming…
TikTok Shop is now in beta, with selected sellers being invited to be the first to sign up and try it out before its public release.
TikTok Shop is designed to increase sales and brand growth on the platform, by allowing users to purchase products from brands or creators without leaving the TikTok platform. This could be a gamechanger in the world of eCommerce, with as many as 83% of users saying that the platform influences their purchasing decisions. With an audience which is as engaged and ready to purchase as that, TikTok shop is a real opportunity for advertisers to significantly increase their sales and generate a significant return on investment.
New Custom CTA’s For LinkedIn
LinkedIn has started rolling out a new feature for LinkedIn Premium members, which will enable users with a monthly subscription to add custom calls to action (CTAs) to their profile, which will then direct visitors to a specific destination URL.
On the move, LinkedIn said: “For many of our Premium Business subscribers, their LinkedIn profile is crucial for connecting to new business opportunities. That’s why we’re starting to roll out a new Custom Button that provides the option to add a personalized call-to-action to their profile.”
The new Custom Button will be one of six options;
- Visit my store
- Visit my website
- View my portfolio
- Visit my blog
- Request a consultation
- Sign up for a demo
When you’ve decided on which button you want to use, you can then enter a specific URL, which will likely be to your own website (or that of your business). This will be a great way of generating more traffic from your LinkedIn profile, although we’re unsure as to why LinkedIn would want people to go away from their platform – usually social networks want you to spend as much time on them as possible!
That’s it for our quick round up of digital marketing news for April! If you would like to discuss any of the points made or you need help with your ongoing marketing efforts or a new website, then get in touch with us.