In the midst of a global pandemic, it’s more important than ever to stay on top of what’s happening in the world of digital marketing, and the news roundup segment in each episode of the EDGE can help! The latest features host Erin Sparks and Creative Studio Producer Jacob Mann along with special guest Jessica Bowman, Founder and CEO of SEOinhouse. Here’s the bonus news roundup from Episode 363 of the award-winning EDGE of the Web podcast:
Twitter Outlines Specific Detail of Recent Hack: 130 Accounts Impacted, Personal Information Compromised
From Andrew Hutchinson on SocialMediaToday we learn that Twitter Outlines Specific Detail of Recent Hack: 130 Accounts Impacted, Personal Information Compromised. As its investigation continues, on late Friday night, Twitter provided an update of the latest information about the recent hack which targeted the accounts of several high profile users. To recap the situation, at around 1pm on Wednesday, several celebrity accounts began tweeting out similar, odd messages regarding a Bitcoin giveaway.
- Erin Sparks: Twitter took immediate measures to stop the hack, which affect accounts of high-profile people like Barak Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, and others. And although Twitter got on top of it pretty quickly, people were still swindled out of something like $300,000 worth of bitcoin. What were the people thinking who actually sent money based on a Tweet?!
- Jessica Bowman: This is quite fascinating. Even these huge companies and platforms are still susceptible to hacks. Even mid-sized companies should really be taking a closer look at their security. And this is in spite of the fact that Twitter probably has some of the best security resources at their disposal!
- Erin Sparks: And of course we have to tell people to be careful. Celebrities asking for money via a tweet? Pause and think about things like that before you respond. Hopefully, with a moment’s reflection, you would recognize it was a scam.
Google Search drops tweet carousels after Twitter hack
According to Barry Schwartz on Search Engine Land, Google Search drops tweet carousels after Twitter hack. Google has removed the prominent Twitter carousel of tweets from the Google search result pages after many prominent Twitter accounts were hacked yesterday.
- Erin Sparks: So here is some fallout and ripple effects from something as big as that Twitter hack. You do need to pay attention to your accounts and access to your accounts. And Google did this really fast after the hack.
- Jessica Bowman: Google was very fast to respond. But it also made me wonder how often do they respond and do things that we’re not even aware of. Everyone saw this Google action because the tweet carousel is a very prominent feature. One thing that would be interesting would be for companies to look at their keywords that had Twitter carousels on them and compare traffic before and after the carousel removal, just to see the kind of impact this kind of a Google action can have.
- Erin Sparks: Right. This was a wholesale dropout of the feature. What we don’t know is how often they’re making this kinds of adjustments on a smaller scale. Google is more reactionary than ever and will be removing certain pieces on a particular SERP, and it’s important to know these sorts of things when speaking with executives in companies, because they’re not aware of how this kind of shuffling of pieces around on the board can affect things. They lack context unless you give it to them.
Google’s John Mueller: “Search is Not a Science”
On Search Engine Journal, Matt Southern reports on Google’s John Mueller: “Search is Not a Science.” In the latest episode of Google’s Search Off the Record podcast, the search team discusses the significance of ranking factors.
- Erin Sparks: This is interesting to hear Mueller say things like this, but it also goes with something else he said which is that all things related to search change over time. Part of what he’s trying to get across is that obsessing over specific ranking factors is simply the wrong approach to take in SEO. He also said there are different ways to get to the same result and not everyone needs to try to follow the same blueprint. What Mueller’s saying introduces more vagueness and ambiguity into SEO than most want to consider.
- Jessica Bowman: It certainly seems odd for a company made up mostly of engineers working on algorithms to say search is not a science! You take this message of search being an art into any company and their engineers and they’re just not going to get it. I personally avoid using the word “art,” but I will tell them that it’s a moving target. Mueller is very right to say that search changes over time, and it certainly changes a lot faster than science in general, so I understand where he’s coming from. Then you layer in the fact that so much of how it changes happens behind the scenes with no transparency, and yes, it does feel a lot more like an art than a science, and it takes people with deep knowledge to know how to “paint” SEO strategy for any company. It’s like mixing sound on a soundboard. Google is adjusting all those levers and buttons differently all the time.
Connect with Jessica Bowman and SEOinhouse
Twitter: @jessicabowman (https://twitter.com/jessicabowman)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicabowman
Website: https://www.seoinhouse.com
Book: The Executive SEO Playbook ~ https://www.seoinhouse.com/book
SEO Training: https://www.seoinhouse.com/training
SEO Certifications: https://www.seoinhouse.com/certifications
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