Happy spring, marketers. This month, read about a new Google algorithm update and stats about AI Overviews in search, plus new user options to hide ads on Reddit.
Updates by Casey Anderson
Conversations around our most-used social media platforms have become increasingly prevalent in the current political climate, with staunch critics and everyday users growing frustrated with the business leaders and their agendas.
Enter BlueSky. The latest Twitter-style social app that, for the moment, offers a refreshing alternative to issues that have plagued “X”. People like it for its user control and lack of algorithmic intrusion. For now, users are also finding in BlueSky a reprieve from targeted ads.
BlueSky’s plan is to implement a subscription model to transition from venture capital funding, but as the digital evolution typically goes, advertisers should be on the lookout for the addition of some form of advertising.
In this industry, we know how important it can be to be an early adopter. And if you too want to be ahead of your competitors in a brand-safe platform, there are a few steps to take now.
Sick of seeing ads come across your sub-reddits? Reddit is rolling out a “Hide” option for users who don’t want to see feed-based advertisements. This is part of Reddit’s efforts to provide the most relevant content for its users.
When a user takes this action, an advertiser’s account can be blocked from that user for up to a year. So while the hide feature is something users may appreciate, it does hinder advertisers in some ways and will require them to be more intentional with audience segmentation and creatives in order to remain visible.
As of March 21, Google confirmed that Demand Gen campaigns will include more granular reporting to accompany a new feature which allows advertisers to choose specific Demand Gen channels.
Back in January, Google announced that it would start letting advertisers control which Demand Gen channels they want ads to run on. This was limited to choosing between YouTube, GMail and Discovery which didn’t allow for great segmentation or reporting.
Since the announcement, Google has been rolling out more segmented options for each channel, for instance, you can choose all YouTube or specify by Shorts, in-Stream, or in-Feed. Google says that users who manually choose their channels will also benefit from similarly granular reporting metrics.
Updates by Brett Woodward
According to a study by Ziptie and Also Asked, Google AI Overviews (AIOs) appeared on 79% of the 155,107 searches they tested for US logged-in users. These queries were questions using the words “who”, “what”, “when”, “which”, and “how”.
AIOs appear to show more consistently for logged-in users, and with them appearing on 4 out of 5 questions searches, your typical information search is very likely to feature them. It’s not just queries framed as questions either. Just about any informational search is fair game. For example, “concussion protocol” will also return a comprehensive AIO.
With AIOs being included more frequently, sites are seeing traffic declines for high ranking informational content that had historically driven clicks. We’re adjusting to a new normal at this point, as AIOs don’t appear to be going anywhere. And because they don’t always cite the highest ranking pages as sources, it’s become a headache for sites that drive traffic with informational searches.
We don’t recommend abandoning standard SEO best practices to try to get cited in AIOs—this feature is still new and changing every month. But it is worth discussing with stakeholders so they’re aware of the trend.
Besides making constant smaller tweaks to the search algorithm throughout the year, Google makes a few larger “core” updates in 2-4 times a year. Core updates are used when Google rolls out bigger changes to ranking based on their goals to improve results.
The rollout began on the 13th of March and some folks noted declines in search performance over the two weeks it took to complete. This core update has been billed in part as one to address and potentially temper the skyrocketing increase of forum sites ranking highly in Search. SEO thought leader and watchdog Lily Ray noted stark performance drops to several forum sites around the time of the update, although Reddit (who has a partnership with Google) appears to be gaining even more momentum.
Programmatic content also appears to be taking a hit. Sites using AI to generate large quantities of content with the primary goal of ranking rather than providing value to users are likely in for a bumpy ride.
As always, if you see search performance drop during or just after a core update, don’t panic. The first few weeks can often be a little volatile, so it’s best to hang tight and see if trends level out before committing to any changes in strategy.
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