When the digital marketing headlines are flying fast and furious, you can always rely on the news roundup segment that accompanies each episode of the EDGE. The latest features host Erin Sparks and Creative Studio Producer Jacob Mann along with special guest Julie F. Bacchini, President of Neptune Moon. Here’s the bonus news roundup from Episode 365 of the award-winning EDGE of the Web podcast:
August 15th – Another Possible Big Google Search Algorithm & Ranking Update
From Barry Schwartz on Search Engine Roundtable we learn about August 15th – Another Possible Big Google Search Algorithm & Ranking Update. We have both the SEO forums, social media and even many of the trusted rank checking tracking tools all showing huge signs of an update. August 16th – update reverted. Barry reported that John Mueller reported a Glitch on Tuesday
- Erin Sparks: This turned out to be the update that wasn’t. There was suddenly all kinds of volatility and everyone thought for sure there must have been some kind of big update on August 15-16, but by Tuesday John Mueller at Google was saying it was a glitch and everything snapped back into shape. That’s how scary this environment can be.
- Julie Bacchini: I was very happy I’m in PPC and not SEO when that whole thing blew up. This was a glitch, and then there are all the planned changes and “random acts of Google” that SEOs have to deal with. But it highlights that whether you’re SEO or PPC, you have to develop the ability to act fast and adapt quickly to changes. And to have good communication with clients to reassure them as they completely lose their minds when these sorts of things happen.
- Erin Sparks: Yes, you just have to be prepared for the bottom to drop out at any moment. And you have to keep your eye on the dials. SEO or PPC are fields where you simply cannot set it and forget it. And if you are doing that, it’s not good digital marketing.
Google: Heading Tags are a Strong Signal
According to Roger Montti on Search Engine Journal, Google: Heading Tags are a Strong Signal. Google’s John Mueller says that heading tags send a strong signal about the content.
- Erin Sparks: This was interesting to hear John Mueller actually say that headings are an important ranking factor. It doesn’t matter so much about using the H1 or H2 or H3 tags and where and so forth like a kind of outline, but that heading tags are used to understand what the content of a page is about, so not having them would certainly hurt your rank. There’s always been so much back-and-forth on the part of SEOs about how to use these heading tags.
- Julie Bacchini: Well, the whole concept of a headline is so absolutely critical to every single ad you place on any platform, so that makes sense. I was only in SEO back in the very early days when by using an H1 heading tag and some well-placed keywords you could easily get any page to rank in the number-one position. Those were the days!
Google Ads Advertisers Can Now Capture Leads From YouTube
On Search Engine Journal, Matt Southern reports that Google Ads Advertisers Can Now Capture Leads From YouTube Content. Google is bringing lead form extensions to ads on YouTube, allowing advertisers to capture leads while people watch videos.
- Erin Sparks: This seems like a big development for advertisers to be able to collect leads from people watching their company videos before the user ever even visits the company’s website.
- Julie Bacchini: Yes! And it’s about time. YouTube is interesting because it has so much volume and so much traffic and yet lags way behind the rest of the Google ecosystem in terms of what capabilities you have to advertise on the platform. And it’s tricky because users are there to watch different things and might not be interested in clicking away from what they’re watching to visit a website but might fill out a quick lead form if it doesn’t take them away from the screen they were on. It’s low friction, which is great.
- Erin Sparks: One brand experienced a ten-fold increase in leads by using this. Wow!
Connect with Julie Bacchini and Neptune Moon
Twitter: @NeptuneMoon (https://twitter.com/neptunemoon)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neptunemoon
Website: https://neptunemoon.com
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