June 2021 – SEO and Marketing News

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Jun 25, 2021 / by
June 2021 – SEO and Marketing News

While the great “freedom day” of 2021 might have been pushed back to July, there’s still plenty to be optimistic about in June. The sun appears to be sporadically gracing us with its presence, England are doing (fingers crossed) OK in the Euros and according to LinkedIn, it’s never been a better time to be in the digital marketing business.

So, let’s crack on with the good news, shall we?

Could Brave be the search engine that finally dethrones Google?

A new search engine from Brave is currently in preview and testing mode. Its goal is to surpass Google by indexing more of the web, respecting user privacy and finding a way to give publishers proper content attribution. A company that initially created a privacy-first browser and has noe expanded into the search engine market, one of the founders of Brave is the inventor of JavaScript and a co-founder of Mozilla while others are from Mozilla, Evernote and other top companies. So good stock.

Ultimately, however, the main difference between Brave and Google right now is that Brave shows no advertising. Iif it does show advertising in the future it promises to do so in a way that respects the privacy of its users. But these are only words and they have yet to be proven. We’ve seen countless search engines come after Google’s crown in the past and none have been able to claim it yet.

Twitter goes premium

Twitter is launching its first-ever set of paid features as part of a premium subscription service called Twitter Blue. The launch of a subscription offering from Twitter has been talked about for months. It was known to be on the way, but no one knew when it would launch, how much it would cost, or what features it would offer. Details about Twitter Blue leaked two weeks ago, and the official launch confirms users will have access to the same features discovered back in May.

Users who sign up for Twitter Blue will get access to the ability to undo or edit their tweets, bookmark folders to organise their profile and enter into “Reader Mode,” which allows longer tweets to be read like a web article. Twitter Blue subscribers will also have access to exclusive perks such as customisable app icons and colourful themes. Subscribers will also have access to dedicated customer support.

Moz acquired by iContact

SEO software provider Moz has been acquired by email marketing company iContact with plans to continue offering both sets of tools. Moz was launched in 2004 and has since grown to become one of the most popular SEO software suites. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The most important takeaway for Moz users is the brand will remain intact and its software will continue being offered. IContact intends to improve Moz’s current offerings and combine them with its email marketing software.

How does Google rank news?

Google values transparency when it comes to elevating news sources. The company shares more information about what that means in practice. In a blog post, Google details how it assesses transparency in order to determine which publishers to prioritise across surfaces like Google News and the top stories carousel in search results. Transparency is treated as an important element because it helps to ensure visitors can learn more about the publication they’re getting news from, and the authors who are writing it.

Google notes that transparency is a contributing factor in evaluating the trustworthiness and authoritativeness of news sources.  Google allegedly shared the details in an attempt to help publishers understand what it looks for in a transparent news source and how to meet that criterion.

More demand for marketers than ever before according to LinkedIn

LinkedIn says there’s more demand for marketers now than ever, and new job postings are shifting toward remote positions. A LinkedIn report on marketing jobs looks at key hiring trends and insights over the past 6 months. The report finds the demand for marketers grew significantly during the pandemic. Companies recognise they need to change their approach to reaching customers, and they’re seeking the assistance of marketing professionals. In the past six months, the number of marketing jobs posted to LinkedIn has grown 63%. A total of 341,000 marketing jobs were posted to LinkedIn in the last year.

A company spokesperson said: “Disruptive events, like a pandemic and economic recessions, often take a negative toll on hiring demand, but marketing has seen the opposite impact. Businesses are recognising a need to innovate and differentiate in the way they reach potential customers and are looking to their marketing departments to help drive that innovation.”

Google page experience update rolls out

Google’s page experience algorithm update is starting to roll out now and will be completed by the end of August 2021. The update will be slowly rolling out to all users globally. Top Stories will begin using the signal by this Thursday. In an announcement, the company states: “We’ll begin using page experience as part of our ranking systems beginning in mid-June 2021. However, page experience won’t play its full role as part of those systems until the end of August. You can think of it as if you’re adding a flavouring to a food you’re preparing. Rather than add the flavour all at once into the mix, we’ll be slowly adding it all over this time period.”

Sites should not expect to see drastic changes as a result of this update, Google says, and any sudden drops or spikes should be mitigated by the gradual rollout process. Google first announced back in November that the page experience update was scheduled to go live this year. Since then, much information has come out regarding what will be included in the update. It may come as good news to site owners that Google hasn’t thrown in any surprises in the form of new features that weren’t previously revealed.