A lot happened in the digital marketing world in January, SEMrush acquires SEO Training company Backlinko, Yoast SEO integration to Shopify, launch of WordPress 5.9 Josephine, LinkedIn’s new Live Events formats, and Microsoft audience ads expansion. And of course ‘Indexnow’ protocol is officially co-sharing URLs between Microsoft Bing and Yandex.
ICYMI, here’s what happened in digital marketing in January.
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- Meta Will Remove Targeting Options For Sensitive Topics On January 19
- Twitter Adds Spaces Replay Stats For Recorded Broadcasts
- LinkedIn Launches Test Of Audio Rooms, New Formats For Live Events
- Meta Rolling Out A New Hub For Users To Learn About Privacy
- Microsoft Audience Ads Expansion, Updates
- Yoast SEO 17.9 Adds Keyphrase Performance Tracking
- Indexnow Now Officially Co-sharing URLs Between Microsoft Bing And Yandex
- Twitter Rolls Out Spaces Recording for All Users
- Twitter Launches New Program to Help Healthcare Providers Stay Up to Date on Latest Industry Announcements
- Yoast SEO Launches On Shopify
- SEMrush Acquires SEO Training Company Backlinko.com
- Instagram Launches Live Test of Fan Subscriptions
- Instagram Expands Video Remix Option to All Videos
- Twitter Adds New Data Tracking Options to Ad Manager, Events Manager Dashboard
- Instagram Adds Scheduled Live Display On User Profiles
- WordPress 5.9 Josephine Launches With Full Site Editing
Meta Will Remove Targeting Options For Sensitive Topics On January 19
Meta has announced the removal of Facebook Ads audience targeting options across four categories. Starting on January 19, Facebook will remove targeting options in four main categories along with niche segments that are rarely used.
- Health causes (e.g. breast cancer awareness).
- Sexual orientation (e.g. LGBT).
- Religious practices and groups (e.g. Catholic Church ).
- Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, or figures (e.g. political party or political candidate).
Additionally, similar to previous updates, Facebook will also be removing targeting options that have not been widely used because they may be redundant with others or too granular.
Twitter Adds Spaces Replay Stats For Recorded Broadcasts
Twitter’s added some additional context to its Spaces insights, with new data on whole replays for recorded Areas now viewable by hosts.
we’ve been working on Spaces Recordings and if you’re a Host with access, you’ll now see how many listeners joined live AND how many people replayed the recording
let us know what you think! pic.twitter.com/RM70qK2vSL
— Spaces (@TwitterSpaces) January 6, 2022
Hosts will now be able to see how many listeners tuned into the stream live, and how many replays the session has garnered.
LinkedIn Launches Test Of Audio Rooms, New Formats For Live Events
LinkedIn is rolling out a new audio room feature via which discussions can be held on the platform, along with the addition of new tools to its Live Events creation.
LinkedIn says that its new events options will be tested by “a few thousand creators who will host events across different topics and themes”.
Meta Rolling Out A New Hub For Users To Learn About Privacy
Meta announced a new version of its Privacy Center, a one-stop shop for users to learn about the company’s approach to privacy across its platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and how to use the privacy tools it offers.
Those five elements are:
- Security – You can brush up on account security, set up tools like two-factor authentication or learn more about how Meta fights data scraping.
- Sharing – You can visit this guide if you have questions about who sees what you post, or how you can clean up old posts on your profile using tools like Manage Activity.
- Collection – Learn about the different types of data that Meta collects, and how you can view that data through tools like Access Your Information.
- Use – Learn more about how and why we use data, and explore the controls we offer to manage how your information is used.
- Ads – Learn more about how your information is used to determine the ads you see, and make use of ad controls like Ad Preferences.
Microsoft Audience Ads Expansion, Updates
Microsoft announced new enhancements to Shopping campaign reporting, while also expanding some of its other advertising features this month. Microsoft also removed the minimum spend requirement to be eligible to use Customer Match targeting.
Now the Shopping campaigns reports have been enhanced for the products tab with two new enhancements; performance and conversions. Microsoft Advertising also updated the functionality on the grid of the Products tab. These updates are rolling out this month.
Yoast SEO 17.9 Adds Keyphrase Performance Tracking
Yoast SEO has added keyword phrase performance tracking to Yoast SEO 17.9, letting those who use Yoast SEO better understand how posts are ranking over time in Google Search. Keyword position tracking will be available to both free and paid users, though a premium plan with Wincher will allow you to track significantly more keywords.
With the Yoast SEO plugin installed on your WordPress site, this integration allows you to track the performance of keywords and see the progress of their optimizations.
Indexnow Now Officially Co-sharing URLs Between Microsoft Bing And Yandex
The IndexNow protocol gets upgraded with the ability to immediately share data between search engines, meaning if you use IndexNow to submit URLs to Microsoft Bing, Microsoft will immediately share those URLs with Yandex.
Microsoft said that Bing “has already started sharing URLs from IndexNow with Yandex and vice-versa, with other search engines closely following suit in setting up the required infrastructure.”
Twitter Rolls Out Spaces Recording for All Users
Good news for Twitter Spaces broadcasters – Twitter is now letting all Android and iOS users record Twitter Spaces. Users will be able to choose to record a Space when they’re setting one up and the recording will be available for public playback for 30 days after the Space has ended.
Another update on Spaces Recording:
The option for hosts to record is now available for everyone on Android and iOS! When starting a Space, tap the “Record Space” switch to have it available for public playback for 30 days once the Space has ended. pic.twitter.com/fYzaOjQJlF
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 13, 2022
The functionality provides additional value for your Spaces content, which can now be re-shared to generate more interest, while it will also facilitate broader re-purposing considerations.
Twitter Launches New Program to Help Healthcare Providers Stay Up to Date on Latest Industry Announcements
Twitter has launched a new program to increase the use of the app for connecting health professionals with relevant industry insights via a new partnership with Publicis Health Media (PHM).
The partnership will see various major health conferences in the US publish pre-conference insights, updates day-of and post-event, and real-time event content via tweet, providing another avenue for health professionals to keep up to date with the latest news and offerings.
Yoast SEO Launches On Shopify
Like the WordPress version of the app, Shopify merchants can use it to optimise their products and posts to show in organic, non-shopping results. Yoast SEO for Shopify costs $29 per 30 days, unlike the WordPress version of the app, which operates under a freemium model.
Yoast SEO app in Shopify gives you actionable feedback by using bullets:
- red bullets (problems)
- orange bullets (improvements)
- green bullets (good results)
When you change a feedback point on the page the bullets will update to reflect this change. For example, when you get the feedback that your page doesn’t have any images and you add an image, the bullet and its feedback will change right away.
SEMrush Acquires SEO Training Company Backlinko.com
SEMrush announces the acquisition of the Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) training platform Backlinko.com.
The desire to acquire Backlinko was fueled by SEMrush’s commitment to inspiring both the current and next generation of digital marketers. Founder Brian Dean and his colleagues will continue to grow the SEMrush community by creating and curating original content for the SEMrush Academy.
Instagram Launches Live Test of Fan Subscriptions
Instagram Subscriptions is launching in a limited test with a handful of creators, which will provide another monetisation avenue for platform stars.
Those that do have access are able to charge a variable monthly amount for subscription – between $0.99 and $99.99.
- Subscribers-Only Lives – Creators can broadcast exclusive Lives to their subscribers, allowing them to engage more deeply.
- Subscribers-Only Stories – Creators can create exclusive stories, just for their subscribers where they can share behind the scenes, create special polls, among many other options. Additionally, they’ll be able to save these stories to subscribers-only highlights. Subscriber stories will have a distinct purple ring to signify exclusivity.
- Subscriber Badges – Creators will see a subscriber badge next to comments and primary and request inbox messages so they can easily identify their subscribers.
Instagram Expands Video Remix Option to All Videos
Instagram is expanding on its TikTok-like toolset by adding the capacity to remix all videos that people post in the app, not just Reels.
You’ll be able to tap on the ‘Remix this video’ option to create your own take on it, facilitating more participatory consumption of video content in the app.
We love seeing our community get creative with a Remix moment on Reels. 😎
Starting today, we are rolling out a feature where you can Remix any new public video that you see on Instagram. 🙌
Videos posted prior to this launch will not be affected. pic.twitter.com/X8zH7QV8wS
— Instagram (@instagram) January 20, 2022
Users can also choose to switch off remixes in their video settings.
Twitter Adds New Data Tracking Options to Ad Manager, Events Manager Dashboard
Twitter has announced changing the name of its ‘Website Clicks & Conversions’ objective to ‘Website Traffic’, a more generalized header, which will now also include a new ‘Site Visits Optimization’ goal within your available campaign objectives.
Twitter also added a new ‘Events Manager’ dashboard to manage your Twitter Website Tag and its associated web-based conversion events. The new Events Manager overview will provide in-depth insight on tag events, enabling you to better track and utilize the data being gathered from your site visitors.
Instagram Adds Scheduled Live Display On User Profiles
Instagram has added its new display of scheduled live streams on creator profiles, providing additional info in a pop-up prompt to raise awareness of upcoming live broadcasts in the app.
🎉 New Features 🎉
Some fun ones this week:
– Live in Profiles
– Remix VideoLet me know what other features you’d like to see 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/Y0QIR7PgPF
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) January 26, 2022
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri further notes that users can create as many scheduled lives as they like, with a side-scrolling list then added to your profile display.
WordPress 5.9 Josephine Launches With Full Site Editing
The leading content management system (CMS) , WordPress, has announced its new release, WordPress 5.9 Josephine, named in honor of acclaimed international jazz singer Joséphine Baker.
Among the enhancements announced with the new WordPress 5.9 Josephine are:
- Full site editing making it easier to edit WordPress themes without using code (only for themes that support the new feature).
- Ten new blocks for site editing listed under Themes (including next post, previous post, post comments, etc.).
- The opportunity to save theme changes for specific templates or globally across the whole site.
- A new default theme (named “Twenty Twenty-Two”).
- New ways to customise and configure blocks.
Some changes on WordPress 5.9 Josephine developer side, theme.json now supports child themes allowing users to build themes in WordPress Admin without writing code.
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