Welcome to week 52 of Google This Week! 1 year ago we started writing daily Google updates and sharing them weekly on the blog here and each day across our socials. Thankfully, you were as interested in the updates as we were and now we’re celebrating 1 year of Google This Week.
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- Page Experience Update to Rollout in June
- WordPress Proposes Blocking FLoC by Default
- Health Insurance Advertisers Must Pass Google Ads Certification
- Smart Bidding Strategies to be Bundled in Google Ads
- Google Product Reviews Update Has Finished Its Rollout
- Google Launches AdSense Management API Version 2.0
- Google Cloud Launches a Security Solution for Unified App Security with Google Cloud Web App and API Protection
Page Experience Update to Rollout in June
Google will be rolling out the much-anticipated page experience update in mid-June, however, it won’t be fully rolled out (with all features) until the end of August.
Google is also introducing the Page Experience report in Google Search Console, which combines the existing Core Web Vitals report with other components of the page experience signals, including HTTPS security, absence of intrusive interstitials, safe browsing status and mobile-friendliness.
WordPress Proposes Blocking FLoC by Default
WordPress has proposed blocking FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), Google’s third-party cookie alternative, by default. If implemented, this would be a huge blow to Google’s ad-targeting capabilities.
WordPress argues it should treat FLoC like a security concern, stating that “placing people in groups based on their browsing habits is likely to facilitate employment, housing and other types of discrimination, as well as predatory targeting of unsophisticated consumers.”
Health Insurance Advertisers Must Pass Google Ads Certification
Health insurance advertisers in the U.S. are now required to pass Google Ads certification before they can advertise. This is similar to Google’s certification program for online pharmacies.
While this adds another step for healthcare advertisers it will add another layer of protection for consumers. Health insurance providers have until June 2, 2021, to complete the certification and provide proof they are permitted under state law to sell health insurance.
Smart Bidding Strategies to be Bundled in Google Ads
To make it easier to tell which bid strategy is right for your business, Google is changing how bid strategies are organised for Search campaigns. Target CPA and Target ROAS will be bundled with the Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value bid strategies. This means Maximize conversions will have an optional target CPA and Maximize conversion value will have an optional target ROAS.
You will still be able to use Target CPA and Target ROAS as bid strategies, however. Google will let you know before automatically switching your existing strategies to the new fields.
Google Product Reviews Update Has Finished Its Rollout
In previous Google This Week’s we let you know that there was a new algorithm update designed to better reward in-depth reviews “rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products.”
It looks like the rollout has gone smoothly and was completed in the two week framework originally promised by Google.
Google Launches AdSense Management API Version 2.0
Google has launched a new AdSense Management API as well as making changes to the AdSense Host API. This is a big update jumping from version 1.4 up to 2.0. The older version will stop working from October 21 2021.
There are a whole range of new or updated features including updates to a range of field names, the removal of a lot of deprecated functionality and reporting data better aligning with AdSense.
Google Cloud Launches a Security Solution for Unified App Security with Google Cloud Web App and API Protection
Google Cloud has launched a security solution to provide comprehensive threat protection across your web applications and APIs. Web App and API Protection (WAAP) was designed to allow organizations to have a one-stop solution instead of having multiple tools which can lead to gaps in protection as well as increased costs.
The goal is to balance security requirements with ease of use by combining the three leading products Google Cloud Armor, Apigee and reCAPTCHA Enterprise to provide comprehensive protection against threats and fraud.
Thank You for Reading and celebrating 1 year with us!
Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
