The CLICKTRUST monthly pick – January 2021

News and articles from the CLICKTRUST blog and from around the web that allows us to stay on top of our game. You might want to read them too.

 

CLICKTRUST Brainfood:

Rethinking SEO Audits: How to effectively audit your website

– Lore Dessent

“For a lot of marketers, an SEO audit is synonymous to a long list of checks with the goal of improving a website’s SEO metrics. The issue with this definition, however, is that it falsely suggests that you can use the same format for all websites, neglecting the type of business and their goals. Next to that, it is also wrong to think that a summary mentioning everything that is “wrong” is the way to go. Rather than a list of potential issues, what companies really need though is an action plan with clear priorities. If you want to have a real impact, you have to make sure that your tasks are well-defined and that it is clear for all stakeholders what the expected impact of your suggestions is.”

 

 

General: Data, Privacy & more

Selecting better KPIs for your business: What to consider and how to bolster your most important metric

– Search Engine Land

“Key performance indicators (KPIs) help us cut through the noise and get right to what matters most to our businesses. However, there are many factors to consider before elevating a metric into the almighty KPI slot. And, even after you’ve decided which KPIs will guide your strategic decisions, there are supporting metrics that can help ensure your business is on track to meet your KPI targets.”

The Global PPC Click Fraud Report 2020-21

– Search Engine Journal

“In PPC Protect’s first-ever annual report on the state of click fraud, we dive into first-hand data from our database of almost 1 billion ad clicks and 100 billion data-points to unveil the key takeaways every marketer like you should know about click fraud and your exposure to it.”

3 critical PPC lessons from 2020 for a brilliant 2021

– Search Engine Land

“The tumult of the past several months may be a hidden blessing. Smart PPC pros are now well-positioned to use the tools at their disposal to help brands ride a wave of recovery while adapting to new normals in the way people use search to do commerce. “

How to Do a Content Gap Analysis for SEO

– Search Engine Journal

“A content gap analysis is the process of finding holes in your existing content. It involves identifying missing content pieces that could and should align with the various stages of your target audience’s buyer’s journey.”

 

 

 

Google: Organic, Ads & Analytics

 

Google’s alternative to third-party cookies open for advertiser testing in Q2 2021

– Search Engine Land

“Google announced in October that they’re testing an alternative to third-party cookies called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). This process essentially groups people with similar interests into cohorts to protect the privacy of the individual and allows advertisers to still serve relevant ads while keeping each person’s browsing private. With this testing happening in late 2020, it made sense that Google announced the plan to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome over the next two years.”

Google might remove search in Australia if forced to pay to link to sites

– Search Engine Land

“Of course, if Google left Australia, that would not be great for searchers there. But ultimately, I do agree, if Google had to pay to list links in its search results, it can change search and the web as we know it. It could also have a drastic ripple effect for companies and marketers in Australia (and globally) who rely on Google Search to drive traffic and business to their websites.”

Here’s What Happens When You Change Google Ads Attribution Models

– Search Engine Journal

“Be 100% prepared for what changes when you choose a different attribution model in Google Ads, and how switching can affect optimizations and performance.”

Google adds price drop appearance rich results to search results

– Search Engine Land

“Google has quietly updated the product structured data help documentation to add a section for price drop appearance. In that section Google said it now supports displaying price drop rich results on snippets within English in the US, on both desktop and mobile search.”

What to Do When Google Rankings Drop Dramatically

– Search Engine Journal

“Use this 10-step process to identify why your organic search rankings have dropped so you can resolve issues and get your SEO back on track.”

Gmail Ads Absorbing Into Discovery Campaigns

– Search Engine Journal

“Standalone Gmail ads will be sunset on July 1 of 2021. This targeting type will now be rolled into Discovery Ads, with no option to target them separately.”

Contextual links in featured snippets may present new opportunities and risks

– Search Engine Land

“In November, contextual links began appearing in Google’s featured snippets. Although it’s still in the testing phase, the potential for more links to appear in this high-visibility search result feature has SEOs concerned about what that may mean for their click-through rates, the safety of their brands as well as how they might optimize for it.”

Google My Business launches new performance reporting

– Search Engine Land

“Google is now rolling out new performance reports within the Google My Business Insights section. These new reports have been a long time coming, with hints of it back in August and then again last month. But now, these reports are live for you to access and test out.”

Google’s SMITH Algorithm Outperforms BERT

– Search Engine Journal

“Google recently published a research paper on a new algorithm called SMITH that it claims outperforms BERT for understanding long queries and long documents. In particular, what makes this new model better is that it is able to understand passages within documents in the same way BERT understands words and sentences, which enables the algorithm to understand longer documents.”

 

 

Social: Facebook, Instagram & others

 

Facebook testing brand safety topic exclusions for advertisers

– Search Engine Land

“The idea is to give advertisers more control over where their ads may appear in a user’s newsfeed and means brands will be able to ensure that their products and services don’t show up next to topics the brand doesn’t associate with or believe in.”

Facebook Is Testing A New In-App Screen On iOS 14 To Convince Users To Opt Into Tracking

– AdExchanger

“Facebook began testing a new in-app screen Monday that will appear before the opt-in prompt required in iOS 14 apps by Apple’s upcoming AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) policy.”