Month: September 2015

Facebook To Introduce A ‘Dislike Button’

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Facebook

During a Q&A session at Facebook’s headquarters, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook will be implementing a ‘dislike’ button. Facebook has refrained from using an upvote/downvote system, like the one used on Reddit, in an effort to avoid having posts compete for popularity and visibility.

The introduction of the presently unnamed ‘dislike’ button is not to register users’ dissatisfaction with a particular post, rather the aim is to allow users to show their empathy with a particularly sensitive post, such as news items reporting on the refugee crisis or a bereavement. Speaking of the decision to add the new feature to the site, Zuckerberg said an alternative to ‘liking’ posts of a delicate nature was needed; “what they really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment,”
The feature, which has been requested by Facebook users numerous times over the years, is still in the design process and it is not known when the feature will appear on the site, although Zuckerberg states he hopes it will be “soon”.

Instagram Set to Launch a New Advertising Interface

Posted on by Nicola Fairchild

Instagram Set to Launch a New Advertising Interface

With over 300 million global users, and a user base consisting largely of high-income millennials, advertisers have long been waiting for the opportunity to advertise their visual content on Instagram. Thankfully, this is now becoming a reality for marketers of all sizes…

The benefit of advertising on Instagram

Everyone recognises the value of Instagram as a beautiful, visual hub which allows for real-time content sharing. However, what some may not realise is the potential of utilising the platform as part of a paid strategy.

With organic reach dropping, Facebook advertising has increasingly become an intrinsic element of social media planning – but recent results released by Instagram suggest that money would be well invested in this photo-sharing channel too. Instagram has reported a click-through rate of almost double that of Facebook for August, at 1.50%*. It would seem that this long awaited change will bring big profits for Facebook indeed…

Who can advertise on Instagram?

Previously, Instagram advertising favoured large companies with substantial advertising budgets – much to the dismay of many smaller businesses. The previous method of buying ads was also rather outdated, with ads purchased from Instagram’s sales team. However, Instagram ads are now being brought into the 21st century and will now be available through a new API as well as Facebook power editor.

Unsurprisingly, since Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, the new system is set to be similar to the self-service format of Facebook advertising – allowing anyone to advertise their content on the platform, and have more control over the process. Automation should also help to reduce the costs associated and should present opportunity for both small and large scale businesses (and budgets!)

What do Instagram ads look like?

Instagram ads are available in standard Instagram formats; this includes a 612x612px square image, or a short 15 second video. Additionally, carousel adverts are available – mirroring the introduction of carousel ads in Facebook. According to Facebook, these are seeing great success from an ROI perspective, so are definitely worth exploring within Instagram too:

‘[Facebook] Advertisers have seen carousel link ads drive 30-50% lower cost-per-conversion and 20-30% lower cost-per-click than single-image link ads…’

Instagram ads appear within the feed, amongst other visual content shared by accounts that a given user follows. In order to ensure transparency, a ‘Sponsored’ icon appears in the top right-hand corner, along with your chosen call-to-action at the bottom. When clicked, this call to action takes the user to the URL specified when setting up the ad.

Targeting Instagram ads

As previously mentioned, there are many young and affluent individuals using Instagram – user demographics convey an ideal audience for many companies and marketers. Whilst this generalised overview paints a positive picture – as with any form of advertising – relevant, precise targeting can really help to optimise ad performance.

Up until now, limited targeting has been available on Instagram – allowing advertisers to specify an audience based on basic demographics including age, gender and country. However, the new system will now integrate with Facebook to provide more detailed user insights, enabling marketers to more accurately target their ads to a relevant audience. In turn, this ensures that users are exposed to content that is valuable to them; this is a win-win approach and helps to create greater value for both parties.

Monitoring performance

The Instagram Ads API will offer greater flexibility over every aspect of advertising within the platform – from scheduling, to targeting and optimisation. Arguably one of the most valuable aspects of the new system is the ability to access and analyse detailed campaign performance data. Again, this will be similar to the data displayed in Facebook Ads Manager and will allow advertisers to measure the success of their efforts.

When will it be available?

Whilst the date of when the API will become universally accessible remains unknown, the company are currently in an expansion phase. They are increasing the number of advertising partners that they work with in preparation for the wider launch.

It is also now possible to create adverts that appear on Instagram through Facebook Power Editor when using the Mobile App Installs or Clicks to Website objectives. In the coming weeks, we can’t wait to begin testing the performance of these ads across a number of clients…

 

*Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/instagram-ads-exceed-facebook-click-140623223.html

Fusion SEO Market Updates: August 2015

Posted on by Joshua Carter

August

Panda 4.2 update still in progress”

In July 2015, Google announced a “slow-rollout” of Panda, saying that the latest update would be continuous and occurring over a larger space of time than previously. For this reason, it was suggested that websites might not notice ranking increases or decreases immediately.

Panda 6

After a month of Panda 4.2, reports from webmasters have been mixed, with many sites as of yet seeing little to no influence.

Other webmasters have noticed short term ranking increases or decreases occurring over 1-2 week periods, only for a site to return to it’s pre-Panda standing. This has led to some to speculate as to whether the 4.2 update has been “reversed”.

However, it’s more likely that these ups and downs are simply due to the slower nature of the 4.2 refresh; in fact, Google warned that this rollout may result in ranking fluctuations. As such, webmasters shouldn’t accept any ranking changes attributed to Panda 4.2 as permanent, and should anticipate subsequent fluctuations as the refresh continues.

Going “mobile only” is fine

Websites only operating with a mobile versions, and without desktop, will not see adverse ranking effects, so says Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller.

This statement follows the mobile friendly update rolled out earlier in the year, after which not having a mobile friendly site could have a negative effect on a sites search rankings.

Muller states that “you definitely do not need a specific desktop website in addition to a mobile website”, so long as you“ make sure that desktop users can still see some [of your sites] content”.

This means that so long as sites optimised for mobiles and tablets are still usable on a desktop device, it isn’t a necessity for a separate desktop site to be created. However, a mobile site must still be properly optimised along Google’s outlines in order to rank well within mobile results.

Google clarifies position on soft 404 response codes

404 Error Small

It’s common knowledge that pages returning a 404 error code are not crawled by Google. In fact, Google even recommends to 404 pages that contain “bad links” pointing to them if these links can’t be removed.

However, it’s not widely known how Google treats so called “soft 404s”; pages that should be returning a 404 code, but actually return a 200 “ok” status code.

Recently, Google’s Gary Illyes and John Mueller both gave the similar responses when asked about soft 404s. Illyes said that soft 404 responses are treated like 404s, and thus pages where they occur are not indexed.

However, Mueller expanded on this a little, stating that whilst soft 404s aren’t indexed (and thus any links pointing to them have no influence on a sites ranking), Google first needs to work out that a page is a soft 404; something that Mueller states can be “difficult”. As such, before a soft 404 page is identified, it will be indexed, potentially carrying on equity –positive or negative – from links pointing to it. Once identified, as Mueller states that Google only indexes pages eliciting a 200 response, the soft 404 page will no longer be indexed.

Moz releases 2015 search ranking factors study

SEO software company Moz has released it’s annual search study, based on a survey of “over 150 leading search marketers” giving their “expert opinions on over 90 ranking factors”. Factors were rated on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being most influential and 1 being least.

Moz - Search Rankings 2015

The study shows that links remain a strong perceived ranking factor, with link features rated both 1st and 2nd highest by those surveyed. Keyword related factors were also rated as strong, coming in at 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th, whilst engagement was rated as the 5th most important ranking factor.

,p>Although the results are taken from a relatively small pool, they do serve to reinforce the importance that basic SEO factors can have on a sites ranking. Again, just because a factor is rated lower (e.g. social) doesn’t mean it’s influence is negligible; good rankings come from a range of these factors combined, rather than time invested solely in one area.

Google’s business model restructured

Alphabet - Business Model

On August 10th 2015, Google CEO Larry Page announced the formation of “Alphabet”, a public holding company for Google and it’s subsidiary businesses. Whilst Google will still be the largest business under the Alphabet umbrella, the restructure will result in a “slimmed down” and more streamlined Google. Following the restructure, Page will become CEO of Alphabet, with Google’s current Product Manager Sundar Pichai taking his place.

Alongside the creation of Alphabet, Google has received a brand update. The company has revealed a new logo and logo icons, and is slowly revealing updated search results pages. So far, there has been a large focus on mobile usability, mainly on Google’s own Android devices.

It’s unlikely that the restructure or re-branding process will have any direct SEO implications. However, the introduction of new usability features suggests that further prerequisites for mobile usability or schema mark-up could be implemented in future.

Image sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_Inc.#/media/File:Alphabet_Chart-vector.svg

https://moz.com/search-ranking-factors