August 2022 – SEO and marketing news

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Aug 26, 2022 / by
August 2022 – SEO and marketing news

The heatwave appears to have settled in for the long haul and the cost-of-living crisis continues to make its presence felt. But the world of digital marketing continues to tick along steadily behind the scenes. In a month when Google suffered a pretty serious outage caused by a software update and Elon Musk started grovelling to the Chinese, we’ve seen a few notable stories reach our inbox. Here are the ones we think are most relevant to our audience.

YouTube adopts reply to comments with video feature from TikTok

YouTube is adopting another feature popularised on TikTok, making it possible to reply to user comments with a short video. Currently an experimental feature, YouTube’s new “comment stickers” are available to creators on iOS to start. If you’re looking to expand your library of YouTube Shorts content, replying to comments can help maintain a regular publishing schedule while keeping your audience engaged.

Google giving third-party cookies a stay of execution

Google is delaying the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome by another year, with plans to start phasing them out in 2024. This is the second extension of Chrome’s support for third-party cookies, which Google originally planned to discontinue this year. Plans changed again last year when Google extended the deadline to 2023. Now the extension is getting an extension. Google apparently needs more time to test its Privacy Sandbox initiative — a less intrusive solution for delivering targeted advertising.

Meta brings automation to small business advertising

Meta is rolling out new tools to help small business advertisers take advantage of advances in AI and automation. When creating an ad through a Facebook page, small businesses can now utilize Meta’s Advantage+ advertising technologies. Advantage+, Meta’s most advanced AI and automation offering for advertisers, was exclusive to full-fledged campaigns. Now, it will be used when running single ads. In addition, Meta is upgrading Advantage+ with new capabilities for shopping campaigns, app campaigns, and more.

Wix integrates Google URL inspection API

Wix is integrating Google’s URL Inspection API directly into the new Wix Site Inspection Tool, providing users with an easy way to achieve and maintain a good search presence. Users can now view insights into how Google is indexing a site and debug technical issues like structured data on a sitewide basis.

Google’s MUM algorithm understands when multiple sources agree

Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) algorithm is now capable of identifying when multiple high-quality sources agree on the same fact. This update to MUM is part of a more significant effort to improve information literacy across the web. A Google-supported survey conducted by the Poynter Institute finds that 62% of respondents encounter false or misleading information every week. To help people separate fact from fiction, Google is applying several changes to search results. The search engine will now fact-check its featured snippets to see if other reputable sources agree with the information.

Yoast SEO update causes fatal errors

Publishers who updated to Yoast SEO 19.5 may have experienced more than they expected. Reports of fatal errors caused by the update soon began surfacing. Interestingly, the error appears confined to specific situations and not across the board. Yoast version 19.5 contains several changes that improve the user experience, fix a validation issue in the Article structured data, and address some minor bugs. A standout improvement is the Front-end SEO inspector that provides an overview of posts and various SEO settings like meta tags and structured data. Unfortunately, a bug also occurred in a specific situation that caused a fatal error.

YouTube claims top spot with teenagers

A Pew Research Centre survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds Facebook usage is down as they gravitate toward video-centric social media apps. The percentage of US teens who say they use Facebook dropped from 71%, recorded in a similar survey in 2015, to 32% in 2022.TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat all eclipse Facebook in terms of popularity with US teens, though neither is at the top of the list. The top spot belongs to YouTube, which is used by 95% of American teens. Results of the survey conducted by Pew Research Centre can assist businesses and marketers with reaching today’s generation of web users.