Category: Blog

World Storytelling Day: A Chat with Our In-House Storytellers

Posted on by Jack Bell

Welcome story lovers and word wranglers! This World Storytelling Day we’re celebrating spinning a yarn and weaving a captivating tale. After all, creative storytelling is at the forefront of what we do within content SEO – it engages, entertains, and leaves a lasting impression.

But how exactly do stories translate into the world of content creation? Today we’re getting insight from two of our content whizzes from the organic team: Emily Flude (EF), Senior Content Executive, and Elena Brooke (EB), Content Executive. We’ll be asking them about their personal storytelling journeys, exploring how they incorporate narrative strategies into their work, discussing the ever-evolving role of storytelling in content marketing, and most importantly, which fictional character they would like to have dinner with (spoiler alert, they both pick bears).

What’s your earliest memory of being captivated by a story?

EF: For me, I often enjoy a story accompanied by music so Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins were movies that I especially loved when I was younger. Acting, singing, and dancing all incorporated in one medium kept me captivated over and over again! 

EB: My younger brother and I were gifted a storybook called The Maggie B by my great-grandmother. The story depicts a girl and her baby brother as they wish to be on a beautiful boat for a day. On the boat they have a goat and a peach tree, they paint and enjoy the sea breeze, eat peaches, and drink milk for their supper. My mum would tell us that we were the two sea travellers and the story has always stuck with me – it’s one of my fondest childhood memories.

What is your favourite medium of storytelling and why?

EF: I think theatre performances provide a unique experience of watching a story unfold. I find it appealing that only the audience gets to witness the performance in this specific way. The next day, there could be slight changes in intonation or someone could switch up a line. 

The most impressive theatre performance I’ve seen was when I sat second row for Prima Facie with Jodie Comer performing a one-woman show on the difficult topic of sexual assault. I have never felt so moved watching a live performance before and our closeness to the stage meant that we could see every emotion she was portraying. Seeing acting live and experiencing the emotion of a character standing in front of you can’t compare to watching online for me.

EB: I don’t think you can go wrong with a good book but I do really love theatre. The technical skill as well as the visual creativity of theatre brings stories to life. There are a few stage adaptations of books I have previously that I have seen that have brought a whole new perspective to the tale.

I saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at York Theatre Royal and in that story, there is a scene that takes place on a train. The coordination of the cast to create the physicality of being on a moving vehicle was completely immersive and I’m still incredibly impressed.

How do you define “storytelling” in the context of your content writing work?

EF: As content writers, it’s important that we craft a blog that takes readers on a journey using storytelling. Creating high-quality, engaging content is what makes one blog stand out from another. 

EB: Context is foundational to a good piece of writing and to create clear context requires a level of storytelling. For many clients, blogs and articles are directly related to statistics, law changes, or even the current socioeconomic climate. Putting writing into context requires painting a picture of the word to illustrate why an article is important and worth reading.

What are some challenges you face in incorporating storytelling into content that needs to adhere to specific guidelines?

EF: SEO-optimised content is all about producing the best copy in the eyes of search engines. We could produce an abstract poem to explain a topic, but we know that an all-encompassing guide with best practice HTML structure, high volume keywords included, appropriate tone of voice, and internal linking is much more likely to perform better. Although we have some flexibility in what we write, we must look at our content from an algorithmic perspective first and foremost.

EB: Particularly in the sphere of writing for the purposes of search engine optimisation, it can be hard to balance creative writing and storytelling with having to meet guidelines and rules. A huge part of storytelling in writing is based on creativity which can sometimes feel hindered by a need to use keywords at a certain regularity. However, that’s part of the fun of SEO copywriting – working a way to balance creativity with technical box-ticking.

Despite those guidelines, how do you still manage to weave compelling narratives into your content?

EF: Although we have to think of content according to search engines’ guidelines, it is also just as important to produce content that is engaging for users to actually want to stay on the site after clicking through. People search for information so often online, that it is beneficial to create content that is easy to digest and formatted in a clear way for people to find the answer they are looking for, e.g. with useful subheadings. If a user clicks on a blog that is a full block of text with no separate paragraphs, they’ll likely seek out the information elsewhere on the next organic result on the SERP for a more user-friendly experience. Therefore, our storytelling needs structure and clarity to be successful.

Looking ahead, how do you see the role of storytelling evolving in content marketing?

EF: If search engines begin to severely penalise websites using AI in blogs, we can stand out from the crowd with unique content that you can tell is written by humans with creativity, personality and emotion that robotic content can not compete with. I also think people’s attention spans might decline as years go by, so we’ll need to keep content snappy and engaging from the get-go.

EB: Methods have to adapt with the audiences. As generations, such as millennials and Gen Z, get older and the younger generations grow up, the means by which we use storytelling in content marketing will have to grow with them. Trends are always important in marketing and it will be interesting to see what evolutions are coming in the following years and decades.

If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be and why?

EF: I think Paddington Bear would be a wholesome and cute dinner date, I think he would make the conversation interesting and have me giggling throughout. I’d like to hear about his recent trip to Peru. 

EB: The teddy bear from the Teddy Bear’s picnic because who doesn’t want to have a chin-wag in the sun with some pals and sandwiches? 

Inspire Inclusion: International Women’s Day 2024 with Fusion Unlimited

Posted on by Jack Bell

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, Inspire Inclusion, resonates deeply with our team, especially considering the incredible women who drive our agency forward. Here at Fusion, we’re proud to boast a team where 69% of our talented individuals are women, with strong female representation within our senior management team.

Today, we’re thrilled to celebrate these inspiring leaders. We’ll be diving into conversations with Katie Harling (KH), our Joint Managing Director, Jen Mottram (JM), our Paid Director, and Lauren Wray (LW), our Account Director. Through their stories and insights, we’ll explore what inclusion truly means in the workplace, the challenges and triumphs of navigating leadership in a dynamic industry, and the invaluable advice they have for the next generation of female leaders.

International Women’s Day’s theme this year is ‘Inspire Inclusion’, what does inclusion mean to you in the context of the workplace?

KH: This year’s theme is important to me. We have worked hard on Fusion’s culture in the hope that everyone who is part of the team enjoys coming to work, feels comfortable in the environment, and feels confident in their abilities. We remain committed to ensuring that Fusion is a workplace where the whole team feels they belong and know that what they do matters. #Fusion4Life

JM: It really ties to the culture of a workplace and makes sure everyone has a feeling of comfort. Comfort to be themselves, comfort to approach people with issues and the comfort to be able to work in a way that most suits them.

LW: Within the workplace, inspiring inclusion means creating environments whereby women are fully integrated into culture and decision-making processes, ensuring they feel valued and respected and, therefore, can thrive and contribute meaningfully.

What are some challenges you’ve faced navigating leadership in the industry? How did you overcome them?

KH: I have worked through some quite poignant social changes during my working career, so have the ability to reflect on a climate when my career started, compared to today. There have certainly been positive milestones, but I’m aware there is still more to be done, which is why days like this are so important. 

I feel fortunate that my journey navigating leadership was with Fusion. I worked in an environment where there was a sense of belonging which I felt empowered me. I did however come across external occasions where I felt I was being judged based on my gender, so I would turn these situations into personal challenges for me and ensure that by the time the meeting was done, said people would hopefully reflect on themselves. 

JM: Luckily, I’ve not faced many blockers to progress to the position I’m in now and in part, that is due to working at an agency that is leading the way for gender equality. I realise when attending industry events how rare this is, and, as someone who was shy in my youth, I think gaining the confidence to voice opinions/thoughts in situations like this has really been helped by working in an open, encouraging environment.

LW: Stereotyping and gender bias is something I and many women I know have had to deal with, when faced with this it is important to speak up and challenge it so that progress can be made towards creating a more equitable and supportive environment for everyone.

Who are your female role models, and what qualities do you admire most in them?

KH: We all have bad days, and it’s on those days I always think ‘be more…’ And there are 3 people who are my go-to. Luckily from a personal perspective, I can say: 

  • Julia Blake. Her business acumen, determination and focus are exactly why she is absolutely nailing it in business! Be more Julia, Katie! 
  • Jane Slimming. The agency, brand and team she has built are nothing but admirable! Be more Jane, Katie!  

Then there is Jo Malone. She left school early, dyslexic, estranged from her family, built a global brand, fought cancer, and built another global brand. Nothing but inspirational.  

JM: Would it be cheesy to name my fellow blog interviewees? They both inspire and support me every day.

LW: My friends are and will always be my role models, it is important to surround yourself with strong supportive women who you can learn and grow with.

What advice would you give to younger women looking to break into leadership positions in our industry?

KH: Believe in the journey you’ve had so far and have confidence in your future ability – then go for it! If you go first and try, two things can happen:

1). You succeed!

2). You stumble but pick yourself up, learn and go again. 

Either way, you will always be ahead of the next person behind you, so go first!   

JM: Reach for what you want and take ownership of everything you do. Most of all don’t be afraid to unashamedly be yourself. Start gradually, if you think something at work should be your responsibility, give it a try.

LW: Be your own advocate, express what your career goals are and seek opportunities that align with your aspirations.

Looking ahead, what are some goals we can set as an agency to further champion diversity and inclusion?

KH: Have more open discussions on related topics that are important to the team to continue to encourage open communication and invite external people to come in and present on key related topics to have a wider view.

JM: We are a diverse team we just need to talk about it more to ensure it stays that way in the future. Possibly by holding open sessions internally in order to always adapt and discuss how diversity and inclusion can change.

LW: Look to hold regular open sessions whereby everyone is welcome to share challenges, thoughts and ideas on how we can further foster and promote an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued. 

Digital Marketing Updates: November 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

Remember, remember the 5th of November. Not just for the gunpowder plot, but also for the explosive barrage of digital marketing updates Google deployed during this eventful month which have had us marketers running around in circles.

The fireworks this month included fundamental algorithm updates, new reports, and AI integrations – but now I’m spoiling the blog. So, without further ado, here are the latest digital updates that you could capitalise on to boost your brand’s visibility and help Santa find you that little bit more easily this Christmas.

  • SEO Market Updates: from the November 2023 core update to the new robots.txt report. 
  • PPC Market Updates: including Google Ads Editor version 2.5 and new shopping features.

SEO Market Updates

Google November 2023 Core Update Rolls Out 

Another one?! Yes, Google is cooking this year with the release of a fourth core update of 2023 in November.

The update started rolling out on the 2nd, just two weeks after the conclusion of the October 2023 core update. The November core update then finished its deployment on the 28th, taking 26 days to roll out in total.

As always, there’s often some volatility in search results during these core updates and negative rankings don’t always signal that something is wrong with your site. 

If you feel like your site has come out worse for wear from the November 2023 Core Update, brush up on Google’s latest advice and make sure your content stands up to their best practice guidelines. Alternatively, get the professionals on the case!

Google Rolls Out November 2023 Reviews Update

Also rolling out through last month was the November 2023 reviews update.

The update was released on the 8th and marked the last time a reviews update would be announced. 

Google said: “Going forward, as the reviews system is now being improved at a regular and ongoing pace, we will no longer be posting about future updates on the status dashboard.”

It’s worth a reminder that these updates are no longer labelled as product review updates since April and now affect all review content across media, destinations, services, and businesses. 

If your site has a focus on review content, study up on Google’s guide on how to write high quality reviews to ensure you’re in Google’s good books.

Page Experience Report Updated in Google Search Console

The page experience report within Search Console has been transformed into a new page that “links to [Google’s] general guidance about page experience, along with a dashboard-view of the individual Core Web Vitals and HTTPS reports that will remain in Search Console”, Google said.

Google wrote on Twitter that the report has evolved to “help site owners consider page experience more holistically as part of the content creation process”.

Here’s what it looks like:

Google also stated they will be retiring:

  • “Mobile Usability” report
  • Mobile-Friendly Test tool
  • Mobile Friendly Test API

In the announcement they made it clear that mobile usability is still important for success within search, however: “in the nearly ten years since [Google] initially launched this report, many other robust resources for evaluating mobile usability have emerged, including Lighthouse from Chrome.” 

Personal Search Experience Launched by Google 

Google is hoping to make the search experience that little more personal with some new features added in November including a follow button and tailored search results.

The Follow Button 

If you’re looking to keep up to date on a subject, Google has introduced a follow button within search results. Clicking the follow button will allow Google to send you notifications, if you’re using the Google App, and serve you articles and web pages within your home feed.

Tailored Search Results

Google will be rolling out a new ranking feature which will serve you more results from the sites you visit the most within search results. So if you visit a website quite regularly, Google may rank their page on a topic over other sites.

New Robots.txt Report Added to Google Search Console

A new robots.txt report has been released within Search Console which shows you information Google has on your robots.txt file including:

  • which robots.txt files Google found for the top 20 hosts on your site
  • the last time they were crawled
  • any warnings or errors encountered

The report also allows users to request a recrawl of a robots.txt file for emergency situations.

This report is located under settings within Search Console under the Crawling subheading.

At the behest of this report, Google sunset the robots.txt tester – RIP. 

You can find more information in Google’s detailed help document.

Google Search Quality Raters Guidelines Updated

Google updated its search quality raters guidelines in November, making it the first time they’ve updated it this year.

Google said: “[W]e’ve simplified the “Needs Met” scale definitions, added more guidance for different kinds of web pages and modern examples including newer content formats such as short form video, removed outdated and redundant examples, and expanded rating guidance for forum and discussion pages.”

As a reminder, these quality raters are used to assess search results by outside consultants.

Google said that these changes don’t “involve any major or foundational shifts in our guidelines”. 

PPC Market Updates

Google Ads Editor version 2.5 Brings 16 New Features

Google has unveiled its shiny new Google Ads Editor version 2.5 and with it comes a slew of exciting features for advertisers to play around with. 

Here’s the full list for your viewing pleasure: 

  • App URL for App Install Ads
  • Automatically created assets in Ad Strength of responsive search ads
  • Asset source in asset report
  • Additional fields in Discovery product ads
  • In-feed video ads
  • Text mode for selecting videos
  • Campaign level broad match
  • Video view campaigns
  • Search themes in Performance Max campaigns
  • Replace Text tool for product groups
  • Device targeting in Discovery campaigns
  • Brand settings for Search and Performance Max campaigns
  • Features related to Dynamic Search Ads in Performance Max campaigns
  • Ad format controls for Video reach campaigns
  • Ad group level location and language targeting for Demand Gen campaigns
  • Dynamic Search Ads campaigns to Performance Max upgrade tool

Wow, Christmas has come early for you PPC folk! You can find out what your new toys do right here.

New Shopping Features Hit the SERPs

Do you ever find yourself scrolling through Google’s shopping results and sigh when the deals you’re presented with don’t quite hit the mark?

Well, ‘Tis the season for online shopping, and to assist brands in engaging with shoppers, Google has set out to make it twice as likely that you’re presented with a good deal from shopping results. 

To enable this, it has rolled out some new features including:

  • A deals hub
  • New pricing tools
  • The annual Holiday 100 

Deals hub 

The deals section is a new feature designed to house exclusive shopping deals to make it easier for shoppers to find deals from various sites in one place. 

Here’s what it looks like:

New pricing tools

Google has launched these new pricing features to help convert searchers into conversions. These new features include:

  • A dedicated deals page 
  • A “resume browsing” feature within desktop search that displays recently viewed products to users
  • A discount tag which alerts users if there are discount codes available

The annual Holiday 100 

Google is launching its annual list of gift ideas, purely based on trending searches throughout the year. Shoppers will be able to get Christmas inspo all in one place!

I’m already running out of time before Christmas – what on earth am I meant to do about all these updates?

Part of the beauty of the digital landscape is that agencies like ours exist to consume and digest all the latest knowledge in the market as soon as it becomes available. We test all new technologies, such ad campaign types, on day one – and we constantly push our busy client teams forward and equip them with the tools needed to deliver ambitious results.

You could ask Santa for some better SEO performance in 2024, or you could give the poor guy a break and get in touch with one of our friendly experts for an obligation-free chat.

Check out our blog for more digital marketing insights.

Touching Base With Lanes Group plc

Posted on by Elena Brooke

We are proud to announce the latest addition to Fusion’s client portfolio; the market leader in the UK’s drainage sector – Lanes Group plc. We will be working with Lanes to provide full-scope search marketing (including both SEO and paid), and managing a site migration and relaunch. 

Work on the Lanes account has been ongoing now since May, and with a few months under our belt we thought now was the perfect time to touch base with the team at Lanes to get some intel on what brought them to Fusion and how they have found the partnership so far.

In 100 words or less, why Fusion Unlimited?

Having identified the need for a new website and digital marketing activities, we undertook a thorough procurement process with Proposal, Reference, Presentation, and Site Visit stages.

Of the 13 proposals submitted, we narrowed down to eight to present. We then evaluated using a pre-determined Scoring Evaluation Matrix and undertook Site Visits with the two highest scoring agencies.

Fusion was the ‘race leader’ from the presentation stage and ultimately came out on top. All six of our key stakeholders were impressed with what was proposed, and more importantly, felt comfortable with and believed in the team. 

Are there any ‘stand-out’ elements to the way things are done at Fusion Unlimited?

One of the things we like most about Fusion is its Best Practice approach. The logic behind what it does is simple and effective. The team has already efficiently tailored our Paid spend to suit the market and our requirement, more so than our other agency ever did. All activity is data driven. We have just signed off two trials which have been suggested, helping us to stay ahead. 

And how is performance looking so far?

In terms of digital marketing (Paid, SEO and Development), we have already seen improvement in performance across all workings and some of the improvements have been easy wins. Our current website has some issues prior to the partnership with Fusion, hence why we’re creating a new one; so Fusion haven’t had it easy. There is always so much going on. They are always pushing forward. We have seen that already. 

How are you finding the communication from the Fusion team, are you happy with the contact you are getting?

Communication is excellent. We receive weekly updates at least, normally getting ad hoc updates in addition. We then get monthly reports, combining our specification with Best Practice. We’ve also just had a meeting in person with the full team – everyone working on the Lanes account. Which was great. One of the things we liked the sounds of early on, was being able to speak to all of the team members direct. We were used to just speaking to our Account Manager with our old agency. Who would funnel information. Speaking to each person individually, who has their own responsibilities and working, is so much more effective.

What’s in store? 

The partnership with Lanes’ is off to a great start and we’re looking forward to continuing our work to support their business goals as we move towards the end of 2023 and onward. With some big changes coming up, the next year is going to have a lot in store and there are some exciting changes fast approaching that you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for. 

Watch this space!

Welcome to Team Fusion, Joe!

Posted on by Jack Bell

Sound the alarm as Team Fusion just gained a brand new member!

We are thrilled to have Joe join the Paid Media team as our newest Account Executive; a University of Leeds graduate with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, ready to get stuck into all things digital. 

Let’s get to know him a little more, shall we?

Welcome aboard Joe, it’s great to have you here! What are you looking forward to most about the role?

I’m looking forward to engaging with the team and learning as much as I can about the world of paid media!

Why did you choose a career in marketing?

The ability to use my analytical and creative side within one job role excites me, as well as elements of psychology knowledge I’ve picked up over the course of my degree that are relevant to marketing strategies.

What made you pick Fusion?

The personability of the staff as well as the experimental methods they’ve used in the past to optimise ad campaigns reminded me of some of the testing I used throughout my degree.

Who would be your dream client?

Yorkshire Tea.

If we made you the office DJ, what 3 songs would you play first?

  • Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim
  • Careless Whisper by George Michael
  • Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

What is your favourite movie?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself.

I play bass in a metal band.

What job would you have if you weren’t in marketing?

Academia.

Digital Marketing Updates: September 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

Someone wake up the Green Day guy because September has officially ended, and with it comes a plethora of digital marketing updates across SEO and PPC. In this blog, we’ll be covering all the good stuff including:

  • SEO Market Updates: From September 2023 helpful content update to Google-Extended.
  • PPC Market Updates: including Google’s Misleading Representation Policy update and AdSense’s new tools.

SEO Market Updates

Google August 2023 Core Update Rolls Out 

Starting on the 22nd of August, the latest core algorithm update rolled to completion on the 7th of September, taking 16 days. 

This algo update marks the second of the year with the previous one introduced in March. 

As always, there’s no quick fix if you’re seeing a negative impact on your rankings. Brush up on Google’s latest recommendations and best practices and reassess the quality of your site’s content. 

New Merchant Center Integrated Reports Added to Search Console

Two new reports can now be found within the Shopping tab listings section of Google Search Console to help merchants better understand the visibility of their products.

The first of the new reports shows issues relating to products not showing in the Google Shopping tab. If a product stops showing, the report will serve you a notification, similar to how Google Merchant Center works but directly within Search Console. Here’s what it looks like:

The second demonstrates how well your product is ranking within Google Search, and offers opportunities to increase clicks and visibility. Take a look:

With peak shopping season on the horizon, this suite of tools will be your best friend for making sure your e-commerce store performs to its full potential across Black Friday and Christmas so dig in. 

How-to Rich Results Stop Showing on Desktop

In last month’s blog, we covered how Google is reducing the visibility of How-to rich results. Google certainly reduced the visibility by stopping showing this SERP feature altogether on desktop.

In an update blog, John Mueller said: 

“Continuing our efforts to simplify Google’s search results, we’re extending the How-to change to desktop as well. As of September 13, Google Search no longer shows How-to rich results on desktop, which means this result type is now deprecated.

“This change will be visible in the metrics for the How-to search appearance in the performance report, and in the number of impressions reported in the How-to enhancement reports. Since How-to results no longer appear in Google Search, we will be dropping the How-to search appearance, rich result report, and support in the Rich results test in 30 days. To allow time for adjusting your API calls, support for How-to in the Search Console API will be removed in 180 days.”

If your site relies on traffic coming from How-to rich results, I wish I had some good news for you, but it looks like now is the right time to apply some new organic tactics.

September 2023 Helpful Content Update Rolls Out 

Google dropped its first helpful content update of the year in September. The update started on the 14th of September and was fully rolled out by the 28th.

The helpful content system exists to target “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”

“What’s new?” I hear you ask:

  • Improved classifier
  • “written by people” has been removed from the help document
  • Google recommends to self-assess your content
  • Content should be reviewed by experts
  • Dates of content should not be changed unless they receive a significant update
  • Don’t blindly add or remove content

As always, these updates can be volatile and if you’re seeing your rankings tank across the board, it’s probably worth reading up on Google’s best practices and assess whether your content is up the scratch. If you need help with this, our experts at Fusion Unlimited would be happy to help. 

Links Are Not A Top 3 Ranking Factor

Make sure to check in on your fellow link builder today. During an AMA with Google’s Gary Illyes at Pubcon Pro in Austin, it was revealed that links may not be as important as first thought.

Going back to 2016, Google’s Andrey Lipattsev said that backlinks were in the top three ranking factors. However, now it seems that the importance of links is ‘overestimated’.

During the panel, Illyes was asked if he thought links still belonged within that top 3 classification to which he responded: “I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three. It hasn’t been for some time.”

He also added that it’s “possible to rank without links”, referencing a site that had zero links but ranked consistently for number one spots due to its content being outstanding. 

If for whatever reason you’re pumping more hours into your link-building and neglecting your content schedule, perhaps it is time to reassess your site’s priorities and get that content moving. 

Google Introduces Google-Extended

September saw the introduction of a new Googlebot, called Google-Extended, that allows site owners to control whether their content can be used to improve Google’s AI suite, including Bard and Vertex AI. 

If you wouldn’t like Bard to use your content, you can specify with the Google-Extended agent within your robots.txt.

Google-Extended won’t be used to crawl your site, however, it will send a signal to Google not to use your content for Bard or any other Google AI projects. 

Google describes the bot as a “standalone product token that web publishers can use to manage whether their sites help improve Bard and Vertex AI generative APIs, including future generations of models that power those products.”

PPC Market Updates

URL Contains Targeting Added to Performance Max 

Performance Max (PMax) received an update in September, allowing URL Contains targeting functionality. 

The feature lets you manually specify which URL to display your PMax ads to, allowing further management of how your campaigns are served in order to reach a more relevant audience. 

Speed Up Site Verification With Google AdSense’s New Tools

Two new features found their way to Google AdSense in September, making site ownership verification a breeze:

  • Real-time site ownership checks: allows users to verify that they’re the site owner in – if you can believe it – real-time when you add a new site in AdSense.
  • New site verification method: a new verification method called ‘meta tag’ has been added. You can use ‘meta tag’ as an alternative to the AdSense code snippet if you don’t want to show ads on your homepage.

There are also improvements to ads.txt with a new “last crawled” date and time added so you can see when AdSense last checked your ads.txt file. You can also now ask AdSense to recheck your ads.txt file with the new Check for updates button. 

New Report Launched to Flag Checkout Issues on E-commerce Sites

A new report was launched by Google in September to help brands identify checkout problems with their e-commerce sites.

The Checkout journey, as the name suggests, shows the journey a user makes on your e-commerce site by showing the count and percentage of users who initiated checkout. 

Using a closed-funnel approach, the report concentrates on users who began at the initial step but didn’t make it to another step in the funnel.

This is a valuable piece of kit for locating bottlenecks in your site’s checkout process and will help you find and resolve any issues during the journey. 

The report can be found within Google Analytics by selecting Reports in the left menu. On the left, in the Monetization topic of the Life cycle collection or the Drive online sales topic of the Business objectives collection, open the Checkout journey report. 

Automatically Created Assets Rolled Out to all Advertisers

Google rolled out automatically created assets (ACA) for general availability in September. Previously this was in open beta and was only available for advertisers running campaigns in English. 

Now ACA is available in seven more languages:

  • Dutch
  • French 
  • German 
  • Italian 
  • Japanese
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish

This campaign-level setting allows users to enhance the relevance of Search ads by using the context of your ad and generating custom headlines and descriptions. 

This means that ACAs could boost the relevance of your campaign by matching ads to landing pages. However, you’re leaving Google’s AI in control of your campaign’s message which might not be suitable for all brands. 

Google to Update its Misleading Representation Policy

Looking ahead to November, Google Ads will be updating its Misleading Representation policy.

The update will remove non-fulfillment of a product or service due to lack of qualifications. The planned update will take effect on 21st November 2023. 

Google said: “On that date, non-fulfillment and non-delivery of products or services due to a lack of qualifications will be enforced upon under the Unacceptable business practices policy.”

Google reminded us that they take these violations “very seriously and consider them egregious”. If Google finds any violations of this policy, your Google Ads accounts will be suspended “without prior warning” and you won’t be allowed to advertise with Google again – so tread carefully out there. 

However, if you feel there has been a mistake, you can always submit an appeal and plead your case.

Has the Helpful Content Update Not Been Helpful to Your Rankings?

We understand that this might be a volatile time for your site and it’s not always easy to claw back your online visibility following a helpful content update. If your brand needs some help steering the ship back in the right direction, give us a friendly hello and we’d be happy to help.

The Need To Knows: Google’s Algorithm Update for August

Posted on by Elena Brooke

Looking back to August, we saw the rollout of Google’s second core algorithm update of the year. Nearly a month on from the announcement, we’re going to take a recap of what the update included, what changes we’ve seen in the time since, and how this core update impacts brands like yours.

What do we know about Google’s core algorithm update?

Reliable and helpful results are the name of the game here, and that is why Google regularly utilises these core updates to ensure that the content shown to search users is actually relevant to their queries, contains genuinely useful information, and is written by the right people.

What does this mean for brands when an update is rolled out? These updates aren’t designed to target any particular page or website but instead improve the overall quality of search results by ‘judging’ content to a higher standard.

With that in mind, the second core update of 2023 made some updates to how sites are judged for their content, backlink profile, and technical foundation:

  • Content – Is your content of sufficient quality? Is your content attributed to professional authors?
  • Backlinks – Are there enough external backlinks coming into the site from relevant and authoritative sources?
  • Technical foundation – Is all site content crawlable, accessible, and in line with Google’s best practice guidelines?

Impacts of the August 2023 core update

With almost a month under our belts since the start of the core algorithm rollout, the update was a big one but featured less varied volatility in the weeks from start to finish. Where the March 2023 update saw spikes in volatility, a key feature of the August update was a consistently heated period from start to finish.

Mordy Obstein from Semrush said, “When you look at it all together it’s a bit of a mixed bag. From a peak volatility point of view, August was more powerful than the March 2023 Core Update. However, if you look at the increase in rank volatility as compared to the pre-update volatility then the March 2023 Core Update seems more significant. However, even there, as mentioned, more than a few verticals saw more dramatic volatility increases with the most recent update.”

Many brands will be lucky to see minimal impact from the update, however, some of the most significant impacts have been felt within the retail industry for top 3 and top 5 positions, with the finance industry following behind. At the opposite end of the scale, the health niche saw the lowest fluctuations, according to Similarweb’s Shay Harel.

September 2023 Helpful Content update

In addition to the August Core Algorithm update, there is a Helpful Content updated underway in September, expected to be fully rolled out by the end of the month. This update will include some interesting developments for AI content, as well as tightening the rules on third-party content.

Third-party content 

This update to the guidance cracks down on the hosting of third-party content on main part of a website or on a subdomain. The purpose of this is usually to utilise the domain rating of the host site to improve ranking. This update means that websites hosting third-party content on their sites will be penalised.

AI content guidelines

Previously Google Helpful Content guidance on AI has stressed the prioritisation of human-written content over any AI-generated content, however, the September update has seen a key change in the wording of the guidance. Where the guidelines previously stated that content should be “written by people, for people” now just highlights that content should simply be “written for people”.

Has your site been hit?

If you feel that your site has been hit by either of these updates, it can be hard to know where to start to recover performance. It’s important to know that a hit doesn’t necessarily indicate wrong-doing on your part and your pages might be in great shape. Google stresses that a decrease in performance doesn’t have to mean there is anything to fix.

That being said, Google has offered some suggestions to think about when handling a knock from an algorithm update.

If you are in need of some expert support to help you navigate the impacts of these updates, the team at Fusion Unlimited can offer guidance and help assess where improvements could be made in line with Google’s recommendations.

Don’t feel like you are stuck in the dark, get in touch today and we can support your site’s recovery.

Digital Marketing Updates: August 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

August came and went in a flash, and with it, a sizeable amount of updates within the digital marketing landscape. In this blog we’ll cover the latest and greatest updates from August, including:

  • SEO Market Updates: From Google’s Broad Core Algorithm update to new features added to Chrome mobile.
  • PPC Market Updates: Pmax best practice guidance update and Google Demand Gen campaigns.

SEO Market Updates

New Audience Report added to Google Analytics

In August, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) received a new Audience report that can identify your site’s most engaged and profitable audiences. 

The new Audience report is in the ‘Reports’ section on the left-hand side. Select ‘User’, scroll down to ‘User Attributes’, and click on ‘Audiences’. We find it’s particularly useful for big e-commerce sites with lots of product pages.

Google Chrome adds Search Suggestions & Trending Searches on Mobile

August saw four new features make their way to Chrome for mobile to “help you quickly find what you’re looking for”. 

The first is a search suggestions feature which allows users to tap the Chrome address bar whilst browsing a site and Google will serve relevant suggestions on where to browse next. In the announcement blog, Google gave the following example of its usage:

“Let’s say you’re reading an article about Japan as you plan for an upcoming trip. When you click on the address bar, you’ll see a new section labeled “Related to this page” with suggestions for other searches — like local restaurants or tourist attractions in Japan.”

The second new feature allows users to see trending Google searches directly in the address bar. This feature is currently available for Android and will come to IOS later in the year. 

The third new feature allows users to find related searches in Touch to Search. Touch to Search was introduced in 2015 and lets users quickly search a word or phrase directly from the page. Now this feature has been expanded to show a carousel of related searches.

The fourth feature brings users even more suggestions when searching. When you start typing within the address bar, Chrome will now serve you 10 recommendations instead of six. This was already the case for Android users, but now this is available on IOS.

Visibility of ‘HowTo’ and FAQ Rich Results Reduced in Search

Google announced in August that it would be showing fewer FAQ rich results in SERPs and limiting HowTo results to desktop.

In the blog announcement, Google said that the change was to “provide a cleaner and more consistent search experience”. 

From now on, FAQ rich results will only be served for “well-known, authoritative government, and health websites”. For everyone else, this rich result will “no longer be shown regularly.” 

Google stated that “sites may automatically be considered for this treatment depending on their eligibility.”

For How-To rich results, they will only be available for desktop search and not for users on mobile. 

Google Rolls out August 2023 Broad Core Update

Googled dropped their second broad core algorithm update of the year in August, with the previous hitting in March.

As always with core algo updates, there’s no real indication of what the update will involve and there’s no single fix for brands to implement. Monitor changes to your site and improve on the fundamentals to position for success. 

If you’ve found that your site has been negatively impacted by the update, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

“Mentioned in” Snippet Tested in Google Search

Googled was spotted testing a new snippet feature called ‘Mentioned in’ in August.

The new feature allows searchers to see which other sites are mentioning the site you are searching for.

There are currently two versions of this feature floating around. One which is hidden behind a drop-down, and one which is already expanded. Both features are on a carousel which users can slide through.

PPC Market Updates

Best Practices Guide for Performance Max Receives Update

Google refreshed its Performance Max (PMax) Best Practice Guide in August which includes new information on which strategies marketers can leverage to properly optimise their campaigns.

If you’re taking advantage of PMax campaigns, we recommend going over the new documentation to ensure you’re getting the most out of your digital advertising.

The document covers:

  • The benefits of PMax
  • Tips on running A/B testing
  • How to use the Performance Planner to plan budgets effectively
  • How to take advantage of seasonal action
  • Advice on consolidating your campaign structure
  • How to reach high-value customers
  • New reporting features

If you still haven’t launched PMax into your paid media activity and would like to discover how you take advantage of these campaigns, get in touch and speak to one of our experts.

Google Ads Rolls Out API Version 14.1

Just two months after version 14 was released, August saw the launch of Google Ads API version 14.1. 

We know you aren’t going to read the full updates – we won’t tell anyone. The key highlight is that there are no major changes, just a bunch of tiny new features across everything from campaigns and billing to shopping and reporting.

Make sure to upgrade your client libraries and client code to take advantage of the new API.

Google Demand Gen Campaigns Beta Opens

August saw the opening of the Google Ads’ Demand Gen beta, which was announced at Google Marketing Live back in May.

The new campaign type is to replace Google Discovery ads.

Google Ads Liasion, Gunny Marvin, explained the campaign type on Twitter: 

The beta allows users to try new features including:

  • Different ad formats in one campaign
  • Lookalike segments
  • Drive performance based on unique goals
  • New ad previews

Google Ads will open Demand Gen for all in October.

New Limited Ads Serving Policy Introduced by Google

Last month Google Ads introduced a new policy that set out to tackle scams and misleading ads.

Google said: “To protect the integrity of our Google Ads ecosystem, we limit impressions of ads that have a higher potential of causing abuse or a poor experience for our users.”

Who will be limited? Google stated that ‘unqualified advertisers’ will have their ads limited in specific scenarios to minimise the potential negative experiences for users interacting with ads. Google quantify these scenarios by taking into account:

  • User feedback
  • Prevalence of abuse 
  • Industry trends

Brands that are new to Google Ads and are affected by this policy will have to build a track record of good behaviour. Luckily, Google said that it would provide advice for brands on how to create clear ads. Follow best practice guidelines and you’ll be Gucci.

Has Your UA Kicked the Bucket?

We’ve noticed a lot of UA properties have stopped collecting fresh data, more so than in July. While some are still active, it’s imperative that all brands switch to GA4 and optimise your analytics account to make sure you’re seeing the data that could shape your marketing decision making.

Reach out to us if you’re in need of support.

Digital Marketing Updates: July 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

Whilst most of the world suffered from blistering heat, SEOs were treated to a torrential downpour of digital marketing news and updates this July. In this blog we’ll cover the latest key changes to help you stay afloat, including:

  • SEO Market Updates: from Google’s Misrepresentation Policy Update to the retiring of the related search operator.
  • PPC Market Updates: what’s new in Google Ads Editor Version 2.4 and Performance Max updates.

SEO Market Updates

Update to Page Indexing Report within Search Console Sees More Fine-grained Issues 

If you’ve noticed a spike in issues being reported within the Search Console indexing report, don’t panic, you’re not alone.

Google updated said report to show “more fine-grained page indexing information”, however the annotation within the report was delayed – resulting in a lot of panicked site owners.

This update is purely a change within reporting rather than how Google processes your site.

The Great INP Panic

From one panic to another, Google startled site owners in July by sending out email notices to site owners whose Interaction to Next Paint (INP) scores under the good threshold.

INP is set to replace First Input Delay (FID) as a Core Web Vital metric in March 2024. Last month, we saw Google are preparing for this change by introducing a new report within Search Console to showcase INP scores.

This email caused panic amongst site owners, however there’s still time to prepare for the FID transition. Site owners should also be reminded that Core Web Vitals is not a direct ranking signal but rather a lateral understanding of whether your site offers a good page experience.

Google News Indexing Bug Fixed

If your publication saw a drop in traffic from the backend of June, it’s possible you were affected by a bug which caused issues with indexing within Google News.

The bug was identified by Google on the 10th of July and a fix was implemented on the 12th. Immediately publications saw an improvement in their traffic.

Google to Retire Related Search Operator

Google confirmed in July that the related search operator is to be retired as it “hasn’t really worked that well for some time”. 

The related search operator would allow users to find sites that related to the URL they were searching for. For example: “related:https://fusionunlimited.co.uk/”, in theory, would return similar digital marketing agencies.

It may be the case that this search operator’s function is best suited for Google Search Generative Experience or Bard, and is no longer needed in this new era of AI integrated search.

If you used this operator in your day to day, it might be worth letting the robots take over!

Google’s Misrepresentation Policy Receives Update

Google updated its Misrepresentation policy in July to detail how marketers can build trust.

The policy outlines how brands can guarantee that their products and/or offers are served in Search.

The document explains that there are four issues that need to be addressed to build trust:

1. Business Identity:

  • Provide your official business name that is used across the web and make sure this matches your registered business and domain name.
  • Make sure your website has an “about us” page to demonstrate authenticity and show customers your unique story.
  • Include social media links on your website.

2. Transparency:

  • Have clear and detailed information regarding your policies including shipping, returns, and privacy.
  • Outline your business model and how your business operates.

3. Online reputation:

  • Provide potential customers with an understanding of how to use your products or how other customers have used them.
  • Include reviews and testimonials about your products and business.
  • Make sure to mention badges or seals of approval from official third-party sources.
  • Communicate clearly how customers can interact with your business by providing contact information and customer support.
  • Make sure your customers know if you publish a blog post or were mentioned in an article.

4. Professional design:

  • Get an SSL certificate so customers know how their data is retrieved and stored securely.
  • Your brand’s website should be easily accessible for all customers, easily navigable, and shouldn’t contain unnecessary redirects or redirects to broken links.
  • Avoid text and image placeholders so that your site doesn’t give the feeling of being unfinished.

Google also detailed how you can assist them in learning more about your business:

  • Update your Business information settings in Merchant Center.
  • Link relevant third-party platforms to Merchant Center.
  • Create and verify a Google Business Profile.
  • Follow Google’s SEO guidelines to improve online visibility and provide a good page experience.
  • Opt into Google Customer Reviews, or other third-party review services, to improve your eligibility for seller ratings.
  • Make sure your product data in your product feed match your website to guarantee customers see the same information and prices across both.

Google Mark AI-generated Reviews as Spam in new Merchant Center Policy

Last week a new Google Merchant Center policy was posted regarding automated content alongside a bunch of other policy clarifications.

The post outlined that using AI or automated programming for generating reviews is against the Google Merchant Center policies and will be considered spam.

“Automated Content: We don’t allow reviews that are primarily generated by an automated program or artificial intelligence application. If you have identified such content, it should be marked as spam in your feed using the <is_spam> attribute.”

As AI cannot buy or use a product (…yet), it makes sense that a human must generate a review to give an unbiased understanding of what the product is and its quality. 

Google Launches Site Name Updates

Google has added further support for site names following their last update in May.

The previous update introduced support for subdomains on mobile for English, French, German, and Japanese. This new update now supports subdomains in these languages on all devices.

They also updated the site names system to “increase its ability to make selections that are representative of sites listed in search results.”

Google reminds us in this post that the best way to express your proffered site name is to use Website structured data which is explained in its site name documentation.

The site name documentation also has been updated to encourage site owners to use the alternateName property. Google explains that sometimes, your preferred site name isn’t available for use and providing an alternative name can allow their system to consider other options.

Whilst this is rare in case, it may be possible that Google’s system might not select either a preferred or alternative site name. If this is the case for you, Google has published a workaround.

Universal Analytics is Still Alive

A month after we mourned the loss of Universal Analytics (UA), it seems it’s still processing data.

It was previously stated that all site owners would be moved over to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) by the 30th of June 2023 or they would lose all tracking data, however this currently doesn’t seem to be the case.

It may be possible that UA is still processing data due to a small uptake in GA4 migration, however don’t get too comfortable as the full migration to GA4 is inevitable. If you need some assistance with moving over to GA4, get in touch and we would be happy to assist.

PPC Market Updates

Google Ads Launches Gen Z Music Lineup Tool

If you’re looking to expand your audience but your brand isn’t ‘down with the kids’, there’s a new tool that could help you diversify your advertising.

Google’s Gen Z Music lineup was launched last month and is a paid-for feature that uses data from audio, long-form, and YouTube shorts to identify cool and hip music (disclaimer: the author of this blog is 27 years old).

The tool uses this data to package trending music videos into the Gen Z Music lineup which then can be bought by marketers. After purchasing, advertisers can then serve their campaigns alongside content that plays the songs.

Google Ads Editor Version 2.4 Bring 8 New Features

Google Ads Editor version 2.4 is live, and with it is 8 new features for advertisers to take advantage of:

  • Video asset library: All videos used in the account can now be found here. Access the feature by going to Shared Library > Asset Library > Videos. 
  • Multi-account overview: Previously the overview tab could only show one account at a time, now it shows a summary across multiple accounts
  • Google Drive integration: Editor now supports exporting to or importing from Google Drive.
  • Scheduled Post: your posts can now be scheduled for a specific time.
  • Editable product groups and listing groups: Previously you could only manipulate product groups and listing groups via CSV, now they can be added and modified within Editor. 
  • One YouTube Network: Video campaigns now target YouTube Search and YouTube video networks, as a result these options have been removed from the Editor and only the Video Partners setting remains.
  • Video enhancement opt-out: Enable or disable video enhancements for Video campaigns.
  • Download: previously known as “Get recent changes”, this feature allows you to download previously downloaded campaigns, item types, and optimise downloaded data.

Google Rolls Out Performance Max Updates and Upgrades

July saw back to back additions to the Performance Max suite: Google Display Ad & Dynamic Search Ads upgrades and Collections.

Dynamic Search Ads and Google Display Ads

These opt-in campaign upgrades are available to all advertisers. Those who would like to take advantage can do so via a self-serve tool that should appear within your accounts.

These upgrades will give advertisers access to new tools that are aimed at maximising campaign performance and user experience. These include: 

  • an inventory-aware ad serving feature that makes sure out-of-stock pages are not served within Search ads by automatically factoring in your brand’s product inventory.
  • Google AI will use your campaign’s creative assets to find more converting search queries.

You can find the full post here.

Collections

This new PMax feature allows advertisers to combine products and create collections for ads or product listings.

Google explained that a collection “represents a group of products”, that a collection is “defined once, but can be used in multiple ways”, and each collection “can include up to 100 products”

As of right now, collections is still in pilot mode with no official roll out plan.

Struggling to Keep Up With Google?

We hope this run-down of the latest algorithm and product updates has helped you keep pace with the hectic search landscape. If you need further assistance with any individual items referenced in this blog, please get in touch and we’d be happy to help.

Take an Exploration into Your Site’s Data in GA4

Posted on by Jack Bell

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has launched, and with it comes a whole new bunch of features to help visualise your site’s data. In this article we’ll be taking a deep dive into Explorations, and how they can help you as a site owner or marketing professional gain deeper insights into your users and their journeys throughout your site.

What Are Explorations in GA4?

Explorations are a collection of advanced techniques that can help site owners uncover deeper insights about their customers’ behaviour and explore data in more detail.

You can use explorations to:

  • quickly perform ad hoc queries.
  • easily configure and switch between techniques.
  • sort, refactor, and drill down into the data.
  • focus on the most relevant data by using filters and segments.
  • create segments and audiences.
  • share your explorations with other users of the same Google Analytics property.
  • export the exploration data for use in other tools.

To access Exploration, head over to the left navigation and click Explore.

How Explorations Works in GA4

Default reporting in GA4 allows you to monitor key business metrics, however Explorations gives site owners access to data and analytical techniques that aren’t readily available in reports. 

An exploration consists of three sections:

1. Canvas

The canvas is the large area found on the right of the screen, this displays your data using the selected technique. Techniques control the way your data is visualised. You can use multiple techniques in one exploration and the canvas uses multiple tabs to facilitate.

The techniques found in Explorations:

Free-form exploration 

Free-form exploration allows you to explore your site’s data in several visualisation styles including bar charts, pie charts, line charts, scatter plots, and geo maps. 

Free-form allows you to:

  • Visualise data in a table or graph.
  • Arrange and order the rows and columns of the table.
  • Compare multiple metrics side by side.
  • Create nested rows to group the data.
  • Refine the free-form exploration using segments and filters.
  • Create segments and audiences from selected data.

Cohort exploration 

Deep dive into the behaviour and performance of your site’s audience by grouping users by related common attributes. For example, you could group users with the same Acquisition Date into the same cohort to gain insights into their behaviour over time.

Funnel exploration

Funnel exploration allows you to see the steps a user takes to complete tasks on your site. You can also see how you can optimise user experience and discover over, or under, performing audiences.

Segment overlap

Segment overlap enables site owners to identify new segments of users who meet complex criteria by identifying where different user segments relate to each other. This technique allows you to compare up to three user segments at any one time to see how audiences overlap.

User exploration

The user explorer lets site owners select specific audience groups and gain insights on each individual user’s activities. For example, you could select a user who has run into an issue placing an order and follow their path to troubleshoot what went wrong.

Path exploration

See your user’s journey through your site in a tree graph. The path exploration technique can show insights such as:

  • Finding what the top pages that new users open after the home page.
  • Identifying the actions users take after an app exception.
  • Discover looping behaviour if users are becoming stuck.
  • Determining the effects of an event on subsequent users actions.

User lifetime

Identify user behaviour and value across their lifetime as a customer of your site. Discover insights such as:

  • The source, medium, and campaign that brought users with highest lifetime revenue
  • The campaigns that are acquiring users who are expected to be more valuable

2. Variables

Variables can be located on the panel on the left of the screen, and this gives you access to the dimensions, metrics, and segments that are used in the exploration. The variables panel also allows you to change the timeframe of the exploration.

3. Tab settings

Tab settings gives you access to options that can be used to configure the currently selected tab.

How to Create an Exploration in GA4

  1. Click the + icon to create a blank exploration. Alternatively you can use one of the templates to get started quickly.
  2. Select a technique to view your data.
  3. Add items to the Dimension and Metric sections within the Variables panel found on the left of the screen.
  4. Drag and drop, or double click, the dimensions and metrics you added from the Variables panel to the Tab Settings panel. The options you see in Tab Settings will vary by technique, and allow you to fine tune your data.
  5. Interact with your selected data by mousing over and clicking.
  6. Refine data by adding filters and segments.

So, what does all of this mean for you?

Ultimately, the Explorations tool can be a powerful way of visualising data that could help shape your operations. Using machine learning, this tool enables you to quickly gain simple insights into complex data sets – it’s a fast-track way of getting quickly to the real narratives behind how your site is being used.

For brands, we’d recommend first having a play around with the tool, then figuring out a couple of custom views that are particularly useful to your business. From there, you can gauge how to make these views a regular part of your reporting, and save them in Analytics to quickly return to the same set of insights with the freshest data.

If you need help getting set up and learning your way around, we’re here to help. At Fusion, we have been working in Google Analytics since it first came out in 2005, and we’ve been extremely quick to jump on GA4 and build our expertise. Get in touch with our team for a friendly, no-strings chat around how we might be able to help your brand thrive in digital.

Digital Marketing Updates: June 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

It’s officially summer and this month has seen some blazin’ hot digital marketing updates. In this article, we cover the following key updates from June:

  • SEO Market Updates: from changes to .ai domains and Looker Studio, to Google’s new spam report and INP report.
  • PPC Market Updates: Google Ads API v14 and Google Ads new design.

SEO Market Updates

Google treats .ai domains as generic top level domains

If you’re looking to build a website with a .ai domain and are worried Google will target it to the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, I have some fantastic news for you.

Google updated their help document in June to reflect that Search now views .ai domains as a generic top-level domain rather than being geo-specific.

Here’s what Gary Illyes had to say on the update:

We just added .ai to the list of generic country code top level domains. What does this mean? In short, nothing.

In long, also nothing in the grand scheme of things: we won’t infer the target country from the ccTLD so targeting Anguilla became a little harder, but then again there are barely any .ai domains that try to do that anyway.”

Looker Studio Update Brings 170 New Fields 

For those looking for some more in-depth analysis when building reports, you will be pleased to learn that Looker Studio has added 170 new fields after a huge update.

I won’t list all of the 170 new fields here but highlights include:

  • Average session duration.
  • Landing page.
  • Session & user conversion rate.
  • Session conversion rate by event name.
  • Page referrer.

To gain access to these sweet, sweet new fields, you’ll need to:

  • Click on ‘Data Sources’.
  • Choose the source you want to update.
  • Click ‘Refresh Fields’ located in the bottom left corner.
  • A new window will pop up showing the new fields.
  • Click ‘Apply’.

Please note that the number of new fields you have access to will be dependent on the number of conversion events you have. Happy reporting!

Three New Issue Details Added to Video Indexing Report

Google added new detailed actions to the video indexing report found in Google Search Console. In their announcement, they said:

In order to help you better understand this issue and provide you with more actionable reasons, we are breaking down the “Google could not determine the prominent video on the page” reason into three more specific reasons.”

The new issue details are:

  • Video outside the viewport: Reposition the video on the page so that the entire video is inside the renderable area of the page and seen when the page loads.
  • Video too small: Increase the height of the video so that it’s larger than 140px or the width of the video so that it’s larger than 140px and at least a third of the page’s width.
  • Video too tall: Decrease the height of the video so that it’s smaller than 1080px.
Video indexing report
Here’s what these issues will look like within the report.

It may be the case that you don’t see these new issues in the report yet. Google explained that since the ‘Search Console video indexing report shows 3 months of historical data, you may still see the “Google could not determine the prominent video on the page”’. 

This change will allow site owners to see the exact reason why their videos are experiencing issues to overcome problems more efficiently.

Google Releases New Search Spam Report Form

A new form has been released by Google to submit reports of spam, malicious behaviour, paid links, and other search issues. The form also allows users to submit complaints in bulk.

Google wrote:

“Various ranking manipulation techniques attempt to compromise the quality of our results and degrade the search experience for everyone. These techniques go beyond the traditional definition of spam. Some sites are extremely poor quality, others are deceptive and harmful to our users. That is why we are expanding the scope of user feedback we want to collect.”

Google's spam report
Here’s what the new report looks like.

The form allows searchers to report a page that is:

  • Displaying spammy content.
  • Engaging with spammy behaviour.
  • Deceptive.
  • Low quality.
  • Containing paid links.

It is hoped that this form will make it easier for Google to identify problematic websites by involving users who are having negative experiences first-hand.

INP Report added to Google Search Console

Google is preparing for Interaction to Next Paint (INP) to replace First Input Delay (FID) in 2024 by releasing a new report within Search Console to measure your site’s performance.

Google explained INP within its help documentation:

  • “INP (interaction to next paint): A metric that assesses a page’s overall responsiveness to user interactions by observing the time that it takes for the page to respond to all click, tap, and keyboard interactions that occur throughout the lifespan of a user’s visit to a page. The final INP value is the longest interaction observed, ignoring outliers. 
    • Group INP shown in the report means that 75% of visits to a URL in this group had this value or better.”

This new report gives site owners a ‘heads up’ on how Google will view your pages in reference to the new INP core web vital metric, giving you more time to prepare for the March 2024 deadline.

Google Says Sitemaps Ping Endpoint is Going Away

Google announced in June that it would be ending support for sitemaps ping and the endpoint will stop working by the end of 2023. The Sitemaps Protocol was introduced in 2005 to assist search engines with discovering new URLs, as well as scheduling new crawls of already discovered URLs.

In the blog announcing the change, Google wrote that the protocol is widely popular and hasn’t changed in over 15 years. They also stated that aspects of the protocol have “become less practical in today’s internet”.

Google said that it’s ending the support as internal studies, alongside data from Bing, dictate that “these unauthenticated sitemap submissions are not very useful”. In Google Search’s case, “the vast majority of the submissions lead to spam”.

Site owners can still submit sitemaps through robots.txt and Search Console, however the HTTP requests, or “pings”, “to the deprecated REST endpoint will result in a 404 error”. Google also said that you should use the lastmod element in your sitemap file when confident that the stated date matches when the page actually changed.

Google also added:

If your CMS changed an insignificant piece of text in the sidebar or footer, you don’t have to update the lastmod value for that page. However if you changed the primary text, added or changed structured data, or updated some links, do update the lastmod value.”

AMP Support Launched for GA4

The Google Analytics 4 deadline was a hot focus of June, and Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) support for GA4 in preparation. 

If you were using AMP before, you’ll still be able to measure your performance in the same way as Universal Analytics (UA) now everyone is switched over to GA4.

Here’s Google Analytics announcing the change on Twitter:

PPC Market Updates

Google Ads API v14 Launches

Google Ads saw a substantial update in June with the arrival of API v14. The update brought an improved user experience, enhancing both campaign management and performance. 

Here’s the highlights from the update:

This Google Ads API update is the second of the year with version 13.1 being released in April. To use the newest features you will need to upgrade your client libraries and client code.

Google Ads Gets a New Lick of Paint

After trialling two new looks, Google Ads has started rolling out its brand new design featuring a main menu on the left of the screen and new page navigation.

The 5 new high-level navigation categories are:

  1. Campaigns: where you analyse, optimise, and manage your campaigns.
  2. Goals: where you define, monitor, and update your conversion goals.
  3. Tools: where you can find tools for: 
    • Planning.
    • Bidding and budgets.
    • Troubleshooting.
  4. Billing: where you monitor your spend and payments.
  5. Admin: where you manage your team, security, and account settings.

Google stated that this new level of categorisation made the new design “more effective for both new and experienced advertisers”.

Here’s a look at the new Google Ads design.

The new design has started rolling out for users who took part in the initial trial which started on 2nd March 2023. Everyone else will be moved over to the new design by December.

If you decide the new design isn’t for you, then you have the option to revert back to the good old layout until 2024, so we recommend getting used to it.

If you need assistance getting to grips with the new Google Ads design, or need some last minute help with all things GA4, get in touch with one of our experts today.

Meta Threads the Needle with Well-Timed Social Media Launch

Posted on by Jack Bell

Meta have thrown their hat in the ring in the race to replace Twitter with their new social media platform, Threads. The app is very similar to Twitter with some interesting integrations with Instagram. In this article we’ll walk you through what Threads is, how to use it, its features, and whether it will be the new Twitter.

What is Threads?

Threads is a conversational based social media app built by the Instagram team. The app requires you to log in using your Instagram account and allows you to post up to 500 characters of text which can include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.

A view of Thread's sign in screen, it's main feed, and profiles.
What the Threads app looks like. © Meta

Signing up is easy and the integration with Instagram means you can quickly import your username, profile picture, biography, website link, and verification status in an instant. The app also gives you the option to follow the same accounts as your Instagram profile, meaning you won’t load into an empty feed.

The app is free to use and is available for download from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

How to Use Threads

As mentioned, you must have an Instagram account to sign up for Threads and once you’re signed up, your details will be ported over. However, you can customise your profile if you so desire. If you’re using Meta in the UK, users under 18 will be greeted by a private profile by default.

Creating a post, or a ‘Thread’, works similarly to Twitter by allowing you to post text up to 500 characters, as well as links, photos and videos. The app also gives you the option to select who can view your Threads, which can be anyone on the app or just your followers.

Images depicting how a user posts on Threads.
Threads allows you to post text, photos, links, and video. © Meta

Usual social media functionality can be found on Threads including the ability to unfollow, report, block, or restrict a profile. Plus anyone you have blocked on Instagram will be automatically blocked on Threads.

Threads also boasts some nice accessibility features including screen reader support, as well as AI-generated image descriptions which are also found on Instagram.

Your Threads feed will include posts from the accounts you follow and recommended content from profiles that the app thinks you will enjoy. Any Threads you post can be shared on your Instagram story, as well as being able shared via a link.

Meta is also planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub to integrate with other apps that support the protocol, such as WordPress and Mastodon. In the blog announcing Threads, they said:

Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks. If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort.”

Is Threads The New Twitter?

It’s no secret that Twitter is struggling and Meta is jumping on the opportunity to take over. Whilst many have tried to capitalise on the dissatisfaction with Twitter, including Mastodon and Bluesky, Meta is in the unique position of importing their users straight from their already dominating social media platform, Instagram, and I think this will be the difference maker in its success. 

Would this be a good time to mention that Fusion Unlimited is now on Threads? If you’ve signed up for Threads, give us a follow right here.

Common GA4 Challenges: What You Need To Know

Posted on by Elena Brooke

As of July 1st, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will take over from Universal Analytics (UA) as Google’s primary analytics service. If you haven’t set up the latest generation of web analytics yet then we recommend acting fast and getting your website data migrated. If you are unsure where to start, get in touch and we can help get you off the ground.

*Touch wood* The transition to GA4 has been relatively straightforward for most brands. Google’s wizard that pops up on Universal Analytics does a fairly good job of simplifying the transition process, however it can’t go far beyond the basics.

So, we have put together a list of some of the most common challenges and questions appearing for those setting up GA4 and offer advice on how to solve them.

GA4 Challenges

Without further ado, here at the common GA4 challenges and their workarounds: 

1. Understanding New Concepts

While we still have access to some of the core metrics we’re all used to from UA, GA4 presents some new concepts to grapple with. Understanding exactly what has changed and how the new concepts work will mean you can reap the benefits of the new system more effectively. Examples include:

  • GA becomes entirely event driven, and sessions in the classic sense don’t exist anymore. Instead, a session should be viewed as a group of events attributed to one user.
  • Goals no longer exist, and are replaced with conversions. Conversions are configured by defining custom events, then setting these events as conversions.
  • Whilst bounce rate still exists, it is joined by engaged sessions. An engaged session is one where a user has a “meaningful” engagement, and the threshold for defining bounce rate is lowered. This appears to be a positive move – instead of measuring a perceived negative (amount of people leaving the site after viewing one page), we can now also measure a positive (did the user engage in a meaningful way, even if on one page).

2. How to Create Events in GA4

  • Click events, which can be found in the property column.
  • Click ‘Create Event’.
  • Select the event to modify or create a new one in the ‘Custom Events’ table.
  • Adjust the conditions and parameters as needed.
  • Click Save.

What is an event?

In GA, an event offers you the means of measuring a specific interaction or occurrence on your website. For example, you might set up an event that identifies when a visitor to your site has viewed a confirmation page, such as after the successful submission of a contact form, or when a visitor successfully completes a purchase. They could also be as simple as tracking when a page is loaded in the browser.

You can also use events to track and measure system behaviour, for example if an app crashes.

3. How to Set Up Conversions in GA4

All conversions are events but not all events are conversions. In GA4, you will set up conversions the same way you set up events (see above), but what defines a conversion is that they should be measurements of site performance.

Some example of goals include: 

  • Complete purchases
  • Contact form leads
  • Newsletter sign ups

After you have followed the steps to create an event, setting it up as a conversion is really simple. You go to the conversions option in admin and you should find your new event listed here (don’t worry if it’s not there immediately, sometimes it can take a short while to appear). Using the slider, mark it as a conversion and you are good to go!

4. Transferring Reporting

For many brands, Google’s Looker Studio is the preferred choice of reporting dashboard to visualise analytics data and make it accessible to different stakeholders.

Recreating like-for-like Universal Analytics reports in a GA4 format isn’t the most straightforward thing in Looker Studio, and one particular challenge that has cropped up is with blended data. In many instances, blending data simply doesn’t function as intended, and many marketers have taken to utilising Supermetrics as a workaround – or to exporting data into Google Sheets and doing a custom data blend.

Ensure you’ve identified the key differences between UA and GA4, made considerations around how your reports will transfer over to GA4, and have a plan in place to quickly get your reporting started so you never lose control of the wheel.

5. Understanding the Exploration Tab

Exploration reports in GA4 offer you a way to create custom detailed analyses of your data and performance so you can really get down to the nitty gritty details of what goes on within your site or app. 

With a range of custom templates you can choose to visualise your data and with a vast variety of filters and segments to help ensure you are getting the exact detail and insight you are looking for, explorations are invaluable for brands wanting to really get up close and personal with their data.

When logged into GA4, you can find the exploration tab to the left. Here you will be presented with the option to start a new blank exploration or choose a template to get you off the ground. 

There is loads to learn within the exploration tool and one of the best things we can recommend is allocating some time to have a look around and get familiar with exactly what’s on offer and the potential you can tap into. 

The GA4 Deadline in Fast Approaching 

Google will be saying goodbye to Universal Analytics and welcoming in Google Analytics 4 on the 1st of July, and it’s imperative that you get set up and start tracking before then. If you are still having difficulty with GA4 and could use some support from industry experts, the Fusion Unlimited team can offer you support and training to help you get the ball rolling. Don’t hesitate to get in touch.

GA4 vs Universal Analytics: What are the Differences?

Posted on by Emily Flude

If you’re currently using Universal Analytics (UA), you may already be aware of the emerging web analytics service that is set to take over. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the next iteration of Google’s data tool, set to replace UA as of 1st July 2023. From this date onwards, Universal Analytics properties will cease processing, so it’s important to get adjusted to the new way of analysing that all-important website and app data. 

To shed light on the differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4, we have created this blog post to outline the key changes and help you navigate the transition effectively.

1. Different Data Models

Universal Analytics uses a session-based data model where user interactions, or hits, are measured in sessions. For example, a session could include pageviews, events or transactions.

Google Analytics 4 introduces an event-based data model that means any interaction is categorised as an event. GA4 captures data using an enhanced measurement library and tracks users with unique identifiers, which can be persisted across multiple sessions and devices. 

2. The Interface has Changed

You’ll notice when using GA4 that the reporting interface looks different to Universal Analytics. You may find it difficult to find where you usually do your reporting, since reports may have been replaced or renamed. This is why we recommend getting accustomed to the new format as soon as possible to uncover the most important insights for you. 

3. Engagement Rate Replaces Bounce Rate

You will also find new metrics to measure performance by. In GA4, ‘engagement rate’ is the percentage of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, triggered a conversion event or viewed at least 2 pages. Bounce rate, on the other hand, was used in UA to describe the percentage of people who entered a page but didn’t interact. In GA4, bounce rate is therefore the inverse of engagement rate. 

This new method of measuring engagement is deemed superior because previously, bounces may have been registered even if a user spent time on the page. For example, if a user clicked on a blog page and read the article yet left the page after, this would have been considered a bounce in Universal Analytics. In GA4 this would be classed as an engaged session.

4. Mobile App Tracking

One of the biggest upgrades with GA4 is that mobile app data is now easily gathered alongside website tracking. This means app traffic can be combined with web data within the same property and saves you time previously spent analysing app data separately. In GA4, there can be multiple data streams per property, such as iOS app, android app and website.

If you set up the User-ID feature, you can achieve more accurate statistics as users are counted only once when they engage, whether that is on the website through desktop or tablet or on a mobile app. This ID feature prevents duplication in tracking and is important for metrics such as New Users, as users will only be classed as ‘new’ if entering the site or app for the first time on any device.

5. Google Signals

With Universal Analytics, cookies were used to record users’ actions. Now, if a user is signed into their Google account and has ads personalisation turned on, GA4 tracks your session data more accurately and makes the cross-device tracking work seamlessly. This compares to UA, where each session was counted separately per device.

6. Machine Learning

GA4 offers AI insights and predictions powered by machine learning. By collecting structured event data, you can access predictive metrics including purchase probability, churn probability and predicted revenue. 

Another fun feature in GA4 is its anomaly detection tool, offering you automatic alerts when metrics deviate from an expected range. With this, the contribution analysis feature can showcase which specific audience segment has caused these changes. These alerts can save time from usual checks and help you to notice areas of concern and successes sooner so that you can capitalise on opportunities. 

7. Audiences

Following on from machine learning, an interesting update to audiences is that GA4 uses AI models to analyse website data which provides you with AI-driven audiences that you may not have picked up on previously. 

As well as previously-mentioned AI-driven audiences, there are new updates in defining and segmenting audiences in GA4. Moving away from the session-based data model of UA, in GA4 audiences can use condition scoping, check sequence actions within a time restraint and create audience triggers. This more granular way of defining audiences allows for greater insights from data collection.

8. Improvements in Data Privacy

In GA4 IP addresses are no longer stored or collected, in comparison to UA, in an attempt to further protect user data. Data management is also easier in terms of data deletion and there is more flexibility in choosing how long GA4 stores user-specific data. 

Migrate to GA4 Smoothly

For individuals still using Universal Analytics, it’s time to set up GA4 as soon as possible to begin collecting data and familiarising yourself with the new interface. This blog highlighted some of the significant ways in which UA is different to GA4, so if you’d like further assistance in migrating your website over and getting used to these changes we’re here to help. Get in touch with Fusion Unlimited, a top 3% Google Premier Partner agency ready to jump in and support your GA4 migration and learning.

Prolific North: Fusion Unlimited Once Again Makes Top 50

Posted on by Elena Brooke

We are proud to announce that we are once again featured in Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital Agencies, placing at 35 in 2023. Showcasing the best in digital across the Northern regions, their annual list is a hub of industry-leading agencies worth keeping an eye on.

Ranking for Prolific North’s Top 50 is based on factors including headcount, pre-tax profits, and growth. 

How Fusion Unlimited Earned a Spot On the List

The digital marketing industry has no shortage of practitioners, and in this competitive landscape the key to success is doing things a little differently. Our working model, where the client-facing teams are those delivering the work, means expert strategy is delivered efficiently and cooperatively, with communication at the heart of our operations. 

But it’s not just our client servicing that has kept us comfortably in the Top 50. This past year we have also:

  • Consolidated existing business and accounts
  • Added new clients to the mix
  • Mainained strong turnover
  • Grown revenue
  • And sustained headcount in our team

If you’re interested in learning more about how a Top 50 agency could help your brand gain visibility and grow, read more about how Fusion Unlimited has supported some of the UK’s leading businesses across a diverse range of sectors.

Digital Marketing Updates: May 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

Forget carpe diem, Google seized the May this month with a slew of updates coming from I/O and Google Marketing Live 2023; including a view at project Magi and new features coming to Search and Google Ads. There’s a lot to cover, so may I jump into the updates?

In this article, we cover the following key updates from May:

SEO Market Updates

Google Unveils Search Generative Experience

Last month we heard rumblings of an AI-powered search engine being produced by Google and this month we got to see what it looks like.

Those of you lucky enough to make it through the Google Labs waitlist will have probably played around with the new engine, previously known as project Magi.

In the blog announcing the engine, Google said they are “taking more of the work out of searching, so you’ll be able to understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights, and get things done more easily.”

In the previews, we can see an AI-generated answer located above the search results with a big label expressing that “Generative AI is experimental” aka if the result tells you something stupid, don’t blame us!

Clicking the expand button takes you to a deeper response from the AI and there’s even the opportunity to take the AI into conversational mode where users can ask more about the topic you’re searching.

If you’re an online shopaholic, you can get some generative help to give you the “full picture when you’re shopping, making even the most considered and complex purchase decisions faster and much easier.”

The AI will provide you with “noteworthy factors to consider and products that fit the bill” when you’re searching for a product. It will also show product descriptions, up-to-date reviews, ratings, and product images. 

Google says that this is because the AI is built on Google’s Shopping Graph, “which has more than 35 billion product listings”.

The good news is that the generative search includes a link to publishers, unlike little brother Bard, meaning that website traffic shouldn’t take a huge hit.

This new search experience isn’t a million miles from the Google Search we know and love today, however the AI integration is quite exciting. We don’t think this will affect the SEO landscape anytime soon but we will keep our ear to the AI-generated streets.

Google Add New Features to Search

Whilst Google is developing their AI-powered search, their old search engine is still getting new features in the form of ‘perspectives’, ‘about this image’, and ‘AI-generated image labels’.

Perspectives

We had our first look at perspectives back in March and now we get to see even more of it.

Perspectives works as a filter that lets searchers refine their search results to show more personalised content such as videos or blogs.

From this new screenshot, we can see the example search ‘how to make friends in a new city’. After hitting the perspectives filter, the search results show video content from YouTube as well as Reddit forums.

About This Image

Similarly to Google’s ‘about this result’ feature for text-based results, ‘about this image’ will show searchers when an image, and similar images, were first indexed. It will also show where the image was originally posted and where else the image is being used across the web.

Here it is in action:

AI-generated Image Labels

With the increasing plight of AI imagery taking the web by storm, Google is giving site owners the opportunity to mark an image on their site as AI-generated.

Google said that they are “not there yet” in ability to mark AI imagery algorithmically, so they are giving the power to site owners with this new meta data label.

This will be only available for image content, but who would admit to using AI-generated text anyway?

INP to Replace FID as Core Web Vitals Metric

During Google I/O it was announced that Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will replace First Input Delay (FID) in Core Web Vitals from March 2024.

INP is a metric that indicates the responsiveness of a page.

Google wrote:

When an interaction causes a page to become unresponsive, that is a poor user experience. INP observes the latency of all interactions a user has made with the page, and reports a single value which all (or nearly all) interactions were below. A low INP means the page was consistently able to respond quickly to all—or the vast majority—of user interactions.”

Here’s a timeline of the changes:

Helpful Content System Algorithm Update Incoming

A new update for the helpful content system is on its way, Google announced. On the update Google wrote:

Last year, we launched the helpful content system to show more content made for people, and less content made to attract clicks. In the coming months, we’ll roll out an update to this system that more deeply understands content created from a personal or expert point of view, allowing us to rank more of this useful information on Search.”

The update aims to reward content that is, dare I say helpful, rather than content that was designed purely to rank well in SERPs. Google said that this is part of their “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.”

Related Topics Filter to Hit Desktop Search Results

After being integrated into mobile search at the backend of 2022, Google is bringing the related topics filter to desktop search.

Take a look at it in action:

The update continues Google’s mission to make search easier and more relevant for users, bringing them to results they might not have reached previously. 

Google Completes Final Mobile-first Indexing Switch

After six and a half years, Google has confirmed they have finished moving sites over to mobile-first indexing.

Mobile-first indexing means that your site will be crawled from the perspective of a mobile browser and using that version of the page for indexing and ranking. 

If your site hasn’t been moved, it likely never will.

In an effort to help searches reach relevant, expert, and knowledgeable content in search and news, Google has announced a “new” system titled “topic authority”. 

New is in quotation marks as Google Search Liaison said the system has been used for several years:

Google said that the system was developed to “determine which expert sources are helpful to someone’s newsy query in certain [specialised] topic areas, such as health, politics, or finance.”

On how the system works, Google explained it “looks at a variety of signals to understand the degree of expertise a publication has in particular areas”. These include how notable a source is for a topic or location, influence and original reporting, and source reputation.

Google gave the following example:

Here’s one way topic authority can help in a search: say, for example, there was a flood where you lived. The topic authority signal helps us identify content from publications in that region that regularly cover topics in your city or town and surface them towards the top of your search results. These are likely familiar publications that are trusted voices in the community, even though larger national outlets may be covering the flood as well.”

PPC Market Updates

Google Marketing Live 2023

Google Marketing Live followed suit of I/O with a huge emphasis on AI integration – let’s jump into what’s new.

First up, Google Ads campaigns can now be created with an AI-driven chat within the Ads interface. This will allow for the AI to do some of the heavy lifting when creating a campaign including assistance with asset creation. This integration also means that the AI can also generate assets based on individual queries – making ads more relevant to users.

Pmax also received the AI treatment, adding text and image generation to help create assets for campaigns.

The new Product Studio tool also brings a whole toolbelt of AI goodies to the hands of merchants. Leaning on Google AI, the studio allows users to edit and enhance product imagery including custom product scenes, background removal, and image resolution.

Google also added two new campaign types: video views and demand gen.

  • Video view campaigns: if you’re looking to maximise your view, you’re in luck. This campaign will combine skipple in-stream ads, in-feed ads, and Shorts ads to give you the most views for video.
  • Demand gen campaigns: using AI to help engage and drive action with consumers across YouTube Shorts, YouTube in-stream, YouTube in-feed, Discover, and Gmail.

Meta Jump on The AI Wagon

Meta are looking to bring generative AI to its advertisers with their new AI Sandbox.

The sandbox brings three new AI features to advertisers including text variation, background generation, and image outcropping:

  • Text variation: Entering your copy into the text variation tool results in several suggestions for your ad. 
  • Background generation: picture the scene, you’ve got a stunning picture of your product on a boring white background. With the background generation tool, you can enter text prompts to describe the ideal background appearance for your image and boom – no more boring white background.
  • Image outcropping: this tool allows merchants to adjust assets to fit whatever aspect ratio their heart’s, or campaign’s, desires. 

Whilst the sandbox is only available for a small group of advertisers, Meta plans to expand access in July.

Want to learn how these AI tools can enhance your campaigns? Get in touch with Fusion’s team of experts today.

A Guide to Setting Up GA4

Posted on by Emily Flude

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, so does the need for powerful and comprehensive web analytics tools. Google Analytics is the essential tool for tracking and reporting website data and has seen many updates throughout the years. In 2020, Google released its most recent large update with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which focuses on event-based data in comparison to hit-based like its predecessor Universal Analytics.

With the announcement that Universal Analytics will be phased out and stop collecting data from the 1st of July 2023, it’s time for website owners and marketers to embrace GA4 and take advantage of its enhanced features and capabilities. In this article, we will provide tips to help you get started with Google Analytics 4 and ensure a smooth transition from Universal Analytics.

What’s the Difference Between GA4 and Universal Analytics?

Before diving into the setup process, it’s helpful to know the key difference between Universal Analytics and GA4. Google Analytics 4 takes a more user-centric approach, focusing on tracking individual visitors across multiple devices and platforms. It uses an event-driven model, allowing greater flexibility in tracking user interactions and providing more granular insights. Universal Analytics, on the other hand, used a session-based data model and focused on page views.

How to Set Up GA4

The way you set up your GA4 account will depend on whether you already have a Universal Analytics account and if it’s tagged appropriately. If you don’t have an account, you will first have to create one. The following steps are most relevant for users who already have a Universal Analytics account and want to migrate to GA4.

1. Decide How To Use Tracking Tags

To use GA4, you’ll need to ensure your tracking code is embedded within the header of every page on your website. This is typically deployed via one of two fully supported methods:

  • Google Tag (GTAG), which is the javascript framework used to insert tags directly into source code.
  • Google Tag Manager, a handy free tool Google makes available that can also be used to track a multitude of tracking tags (our preferred choice).

2. Create a New GA4 Property

To begin, you’ll need to create a new GA4 property. Sign in to your Google Analytics account and head to the Admin section. From there, select the appropriate account and click GA4 Setup Assistant under the Property tab. Follow the prompts from the Property Setup Assistant to set up the new GA4 property.

Depending on how your site is currently tagged, you’ll either have to set up a Google tag or you’ll see the option to create a property now if you’re able to use your existing tag from Universal Analytics.

3. Set Up Data Streams

In GA4, data is organised into data streams that correspond to different platforms or devices. 

You can set up multiple data streams for one property, including an iOS app, Android app and Web. To set up a data stream, head to the Data Streams section within your GA4 property’s Admin settings. Follow the instructions to create a new data stream.

If you don’t have an app and already have Universal Analytics in place for your website, you’ll now be moving toward having a Universal Analytics property with a dedicated data stream, and a new GA4 property with its own dedicated data stream for the web.

4. Configure Events and Conversion Tracking

Events are the building blocks of GA4, allowing you to track user interactions and measure specific actions on your website or app. This updated analytics service provides enhanced event tracking capabilities compared to Universal Analytics. 

There are 4 types of events on GA4: 

  • Automatically collected events.
  • Enhanced measurement events.
  • Recommended events.
  • Custom events.

Define the events that you want to track and set up appropriate triggers and parameters to capture the desired user actions. You’ll want to consider which events are most important to your company and will provide the most useful insights. Additionally, identify which events should be switched to tracked conversions – these enable you to measure key goals and actions on your website that are commercially significant, such as form submissions, purchases, or newsletter sign-ups.

For the most part, the default ‘recommended events’ will likely comprise most of the fundamental reporting metrics you’re familiar with – although you may notice that some of the metrics have been updated slightly.

5. Check Your GA4 Works

Once you’ve configured event tracking, it’s important to make sure that your account is set up correctly and is pulling the data you want. You can do this by visiting the DebugView section under Admin. When you start seeing data, you’ll notice events are represented by blue icons and conversions are green. Make sure you cross-reference your GA4 data with its UA equivalent to check the tracking 

Get Prepared for GA4 Now

As Universal Analytics stops collecting data, Google Analytics 4 represents the future of web analytics so it’s important not to forget to set GA4 up. The earlier you set up your account, the more historical data you’ll be able to collect and it gives you time to familiarise yourself with the interface before the deadline.

If you’re still unsure about the set up process or would like assistance in migrating your Universal Analytics account to GA4, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team at Fusion Unlimited. As a top 3% Google Premier Partner, we are fully equipped to help your business with a seamless migration to GA4.

Digital Marketing Updates: April 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

Spring has officially sprung and with it comes another busy month, chock-full of marketing news. In this article, we cover the following key updates from April:

  • SEO updates – from April reviews update to Project Magi.
  • Paid Media updates – including Google Ads API update and new validations for ad account names.

SEO Market Updates

Google Releases April 2023 Reviews Update

Google was moving like Justin Timberlake in The Social Network in April by dropping the word “products” from their reviews update. This is because the updates now impact content reviews around products, services, media, destinations, and beyond.

The April 2023 reviews update dropped on the 12th and took 13 days to fully roll out on the 25th.

This expansion of the updates means that if your site publishes reviews that cover products, services, media, or destinations, you should brush up on your best practices to ensure your rankings aren’t affected.

SpamBrain Caught Five Times More Spam in 2022

Google released a 2022 webspam report in April in which they claimed that SpamBrain caught five times more spam sites last year compared to 2021, and 200 times compared to 2018 when it first launched.

The report also included some improvements to SpamBrain which are designed to tackle abusive links, hacked spam, and faster spam handling. 

Google also updated its spam policies as part of the Search Essentials for site owners. In the report, Google said:

These spam policies cover the most common types of spam and abusive [behaviours], and could lead to a site ranking lower or not appearing at all in Search results. We updated our spam policies with more relevant and precise language, and included new examples that help site owners avoid creating harmful content.”

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely not breaching Google’s spam policies. However, if you think there’s potential you might be adhering to spammy tactics on your site, it might be time to brush up on Google’s documentation on the topic to avoid looming penalties.

Google Working on New Search Engine and Project Magi

According to the New York Times, Google is making an “all new search engine”. The article states that the search engine will be powered by Google’s new AI technology, whilst working on adding AI features to the current search engine, under the name Magi.

The article states: “The new search engine would offer users a far more [personalised] experience than the company’s current service, attempting to anticipate users’ needs.”

Whilst the new search engine seems to be in the early stages, the report claims that a team of designers are currently working on the engine and that it “could put new A.I. technology in phones and homes all over the world”.

Project Magi, on the other hand, looks to add new features to the current Google Search with a team of over 160 employees working on it. 

Google’s new search engine is not something brands need to worry about today. However, conceptually, Project Magi might be worth monitoring due to its integration of AI. Does AI have the potential to transform search results? For now, we’re sceptical, however we’re closely studying the latest developments and will keep you posted.

Good Page Experience Factors into Helpful Content

A new section has been added to Google’s guidance on creating helpful content documentation saying that good page experience is important when creating helpful content. They also updated their understanding page experience in Google Search results documentation, providing more details on the topic.

The new section of the document reads:

Google’s core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience. Site owners seeking to be successful with our systems should not focus on only one or two aspects of page experience. Instead, check if you’re providing an overall great page experience across many aspects.”

RIP to the Search Console Page Experience Report

Gone but not forgotten, Search Console is sending the page experience report to the grave, to be replaced with a page that links to Google’s general guidance on page experience, alongside a “dashboard-view of the individual Core Web Vitals and HTTPS reports”.

Google is also saying farewell to Search Console’s “Mobile Usability” report, as well as the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and API. On this Google wrote: 

This doesn’t mean that mobile usability isn’t important for success with Google Search. It remains critical for users, who are using mobile devices more than ever, and as such, it remains a part of our page experience guidance. But in the nearly ten years since we initially launched this report, many other robust resources for evaluating mobile usability have emerged, including Lighthouse from Chrome.”

UA3 Data to Show For A Year After July

As the sunset countdown continues to dwindle, Google shared some further details on Universal Analytics 3’s deadline.

In a new help document posted in April, Google stated that you will be able to access, report, and export historical data for a year after the data stops collecting.

UA3 will stop collecting data on 1st July 2023, so you will still have viewer access until 1st July 2024.

Google Drops Multiple Ranking Systems

Google updated its documented ranking systems page in April, removing four systems.

The systems removed were:

  • Page experience system
  • Mobile-friendly ranking system
  • Page speed system
  • Secure sites system

The page experience system was dropped from the main list, and mobile-friendly, page speed and secure site systems were removed from the retired list.

On page experience, Google said:

The page experience update was a concept to describe a set of key page experience aspects for site owners to focus on. In particular, it introduced Core Web Vitals as a new signal that our core ranking systems considered, along with other page experience signals such as HTTPS that they’d already been considering. It was not a separate ranking system, and it did not combine all these signals into one single “page experience” signal.”

Here’s the final word from John Mueller:

Google Explains its Web Crawlers

Google updated its Verifying Googlebot and other Google crawlers help document at the back-end of April.

They added a new section to the documentation explaining the three types of crawlers they use:

  • Googlebot: The main crawler for Google’s search products. Always respects robots.txt rules.
  • Special-case crawlers: Crawlers that perform specific functions (such as AdsBot), which may or may not respect robots.txt rules.
  • User-triggered fetchers: Tools and product functions where the end user triggers a fetch. For example, Google Site Verifier acts on the request of a user. Because the fetch was requested by a user, these fetchers ignore robots.txt rules.

A couple days prior, Google added a new crawler named GoogleOther. Google defined it as a “[g]eneric crawler that may be used by various product teams for fetching publicly accessible content from sites”. They also gave the example of the crawler being used for “one-off crawls for internal research and development”.

On GoogleOther, Garry Illyes wrote:

We added a new crawler, GoogleOther to our list of crawlers that ultimately will take some strain off of Googlebot. This is a no-op change for you, but it’s interesting nonetheless I reckon.

As we [optimise] how and what Googlebot crawls, one thing we wanted to ensure is that Googlebot’s crawl jobs are only used internally for building the index that’s used by Search. For this we added a new crawler, GoogleOther, that will replace some of Googlebot’s other jobs like R&D crawls to free up some crawl capacity for Googlebot.

The new crawler uses the same infrastructure as Googlebot and so it has the same limitations and features as Googlebot: hostload limitations, robotstxt (though different user agent token), http protocol version, fetch size, you name it. It’s basically Googlebot under a different name.”

Paid Market Updates

Ad Group and Keyword Forecasts to Be Removed From Google Ads

From 1st June 2023, Google will be removing the Keyword Plan Ad Group Forecast and Keyword Plan Keyword Forecast functionalities.

In a blog announcing the change, Google said:

Starting June 1, the GenerateForecastMetricsRequest will still be used to fetch forecasts, but the KeywordPlanAdGroupForecast and KeywordPlanKeywordForecast will be empty. The KeywordPlanCampaignForecast will be returned as usual.

If you are using KeywordPlanAdGroupForecast or KeywordPlanKeywordForecast in your applications, update your applications to ensure that they can handle blank responses.”

New GA4 Fractional, Cross-channel Web Conversions Feature Implemented to Google Ads

April saw a new feature added to Google Ads that allows fractional, cross-channel web conversion credits from GA4 properties to be imported.

Google wrote: 

Previously, web conversions were imported from Google Analytics 4 on a cross-channel last click basis and then attributed in Google Ads based on the attribution model you selected in your Google Ads account. This means that if the last click was not from Google advertising, then no conversion was imported into Google Ads. Today, with this upgrade, fractional cross-channel conversion credit will be imported into Google Ads (even if the last non-direct click was not Google advertising).”

The update allows advertisers to gain a holistic view of their ads by considering the full customer journey which in turn allows them to make much better-informed decisions when considering ad spend.

New Validations for Ad Account Names Announced by Google

New Google Ads accounts will not be able to include a URL in their name starting from June 2023. 

In a blog, Google wrote:

Specifically, when creating a new Google Ads account in the Google Ads API, or updating an existing account, if a URL is present in the descriptive_name field, an ACTION_NOT_PERMITTED error will be returned and the operation will fail.

The descriptive_name field of existing accounts will not be affected by this change.”

New Changes to Google Ads API 

April saw the release of the v13_1 Ads API and with it a slew of new features. To use said features, the client libraries and client code must first be upgraded.

The new features include:

  • Bid simulations can be retrieved at a campaign level for Performance Max through campaign_simulation.
  • Several added recommendation types related to Shopping campaigns, such as recommendations to migrate to Performance Max and recommendations to fix a Merchant Center account’s suspension.
  • Google Ads now accepts SKAdNetwork conversion value schemas for iOS App campaigns.
  • LeadFormField.has_location_answer added to support specifying whether locations of the location assets at the campaign or customer level should be displayed with a lead form.
  • Performance Max campaigns now have a VEHICLES listing type in the newly Campaign.listing_type field. This replaces ShoppingSetting.use_vehicles_inventory, which will be reserved for Smart Shopping campaigns.

Google to Update Dangerous Products and Services Policy

Looking ahead to July, Google Ads will update its Dangerous products and services policy to include “ads for products which carry an imminent, proven and unresolved risk of death or grievous bodily harm, that have been the subject of a consumer advisory or product recalls”. 

Google wrote that they would start enforcing the policy update on 3rd July 2023.

They also noted that violations of the policy will not lead to an immediate account suspension and that a 7 day warning will be issued prior.

If you feel any of your ads fall under the scope of this policy, it’s time to review before heeding any punishment. Need a second opinion? Give Fusion a friendly hello and we would be happy to help.

Full Funnel Strategy: Offline Marketing

Posted on by Elena Brooke

Through years of experience providing marketing support to some of the UK’s best and biggest brands, we have come to understand which strategies really work to meet performance marketing objectives. One thing is clear – for ambitious brands, a multi-channel strategy is essential. It gives audiences the opportunity to engage with your brand at a higher level, enabling you to cast a wide net and cultivate leads throughout the marketing funnel.

What some brands overlook in today’s day and age, though, is that ‘multi-channel’ is not limited to digital. The lines between digital and traditional are blurred, and so we contrast ‘standard digital’ activity with ‘programmatic digital’ – where programmatic includes OOH media. Programmatic and offline media strategies can play a vital role in the consumer purchasing journey, and without an active presence in these channels, you could be missing out on touchpoints that ultimately lead to sales.

That’s why this blog will explain some of the simple concepts behind programmatic digital and offline media services – and how they could complement your standard digital activity.

At Fusion, we’ve provided these services to major brands for 20+ years, and even have a 12-year standing relationship with our largest offline media client.

What Is Programmatic Marketing?

Programmatic Marketing is the perfect complement to a standard digital strategy. It bolsters and supports the campaigns you are already running, making for a robust and well-rounded digital approach. With programmatic marketing and advertising, you can maximise brand visibility through using a range of automated advertising platforms.

These channels all use Geographic, Demographic, and Interest/Keyword targeting to ensure there is no wastage and only your target audience see and hear your ads, similar to the way paid search and social works.

Programmatic Marketing targets Mobile Ad ID (MAID), which is a random sequence of symbols found within a mobile device’s operating system. This ID is shared with servers of used apps which remembers user’s choices and tracks customer journeys.

MAID tracks data such as geolocation, frequently used apps, and language, allowing advertisers to build specific audience segments based on interest and activity; for example, if someone frequently visits a certain shopping centre or listens to a specific genre of music.

Whilst cookies are session-based, MAID is persistent, meaning it can ultimately lead to more reliable data which can feed into future targeting. 

Out of Home Media

The programmatic offering doesn’t end there. It also encompasses Out of Home media, which sees ads displayed via large-scale posters, bus shelter ads, and phone kiosk ads – as well as those in the London Underground, train stations, airports, gyms, service stations, soft play areas, leisure facilities, supermarkets, and shopping centres.

What does this mean? It allows us to run highly targeted digital Out of Home campaigns. This method minimises paper wastage and removes the strict timings and costly production charges associated with traditional Out of Home – primarily from printing and posting. 

Digital Out of Home enables you to deliver your messaging to huge audiences in high footfall and high dwell time areas – meaning you can run large-scale campaigns via impactful platforms, and at a level of quality that really stands out. You can also tie mobile campaigns into this mix, and run contextual campaigns that, for example, say ‘Hello Leeds’ to your customers, change depending on the current weather, or even a nearby sports event.

Campaigns can be executed nationwide, regionally, or focused on specific towns and cities – making them flexible and focused on your target market. Crucially, through an integrated campaign strategy you can deliver a multi-touchpoint strategy by targeting users who have been in the vicinity of a digital out-of-home ad with a follow-up mobile ad. This is the pinnacle of offline marketing in the modern day.

Our Offline Services

Here at Fusion, we can go a step beyond digital. Our services also include offline media such as newspapers, magazines, door drops, radio, and standard Out of Home advertising platforms – such as vinyl and paste format bus advertisements.

Again, these media formats can be added to your performance digital campaigns to give support to a specific town/city, region, or indeed nationwide. With the right combination of digital strategy, programmatic, and offline advertisements, you can ensure that your brand is seen in all the right places and by all the right people. But it’s not just about being seen, it’s about the collective impact of creating multiple opportunities for your audience to engage with your brand; feeding the funnel right the way through.

Branch Out with Fusion Unlimited

Brand fame is built by reaching communities and we can help you create the perfect blend of media to construct and deploy a full-funnel, multi-touchpoint strategy to do just that.

These formats are made accountable by trackable impression, circulation, and coverage data – so you still get a comprehensive view of your performance at every level. We work to industry benchmarks, and then strive to beat them so we can drive the best quality campaigns and awareness for our clients.

At Fusion, we are uniquely positioned as a digital media agency born from traditional offline media and have 25+ years’ of buying experience and a wealth of excellent relationships in the industry, which our clients reap the benefits of – from outstanding service, to highly competitive rates.

With long-standing clients of over 12 years in these areas, we are proud to say we know our stuff. Take a look at our out of home work with Thistles Shopping Centre as a starting point.

Why not tap into one of your undiscovered audiences today and get in touch.

Digital Marketing Updates: March 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

As we say farewell to winter and welcome new possibilities in the springtime, let’s reflect on the month that passed us by and keep up with the latest in the world of digital marketing.

In this article, we cover the following key updates from March:

  • SEO Updates – from a core update to product review and ChatGPT.
  • Paid Media updates – including Ads Editor Version 2.3 and Ads Transparency Center.

SEO Market Updates

Google Rolls Out March 2023 Core Update

The alarms were sounded on 15th March when Google announced a core algorithm update.

This update came around six months after the previous one in September 2022, which aimed to deliver the most relevant, high-quality search results.

As with all core updates, there’s no single fix brands should be implementing. Rather, improving on the fundamentals is the best way to position for success – or recover from a dip in performance.

Google February 2023 Product Reviews Update Fully Rolled Out

Speaking of rolling out, the February 2023 Product Reviews Update rolled out to completion at the beginning of March.

Taking 14 days to roll out, the update sought to bring the effects of the previous updates to a broader range of languages than just English.

This is the sixth Product Reviews update, coming 5 months after the previous update in September which ultimately serves to reward good quality review content.

You can learn more about the update here.

Bing Chat gets a buff as OpenAI release GPT-4

GPT-4 was released by OpenAI in March, bringing a huge upgrade to ChatGPT and Bing Chat. 

OpenAI promised that the update would bring broader general knowledge, advanced reasoning, and greater accuracy. 

Here is OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announcing the update on Twitter:

For those who have used Bing Chat during its preview, you’ve already experienced GPT-4 Bing confirms:

If you’ve used the new Bing in preview at any time in the last six weeks, you’ve already had an early look at the power of OpenAI’s latest model. As OpenAI makes updates to GPT-4 and beyond, Bing benefits from those improvements to ensure our users have the most comprehensive copilot features available.”

Meanwhile, Italy banned ChatGPT – casting a shadow on the security of AI.

Google’s AI Coming to Docs and Gmail

Fans of productivity rejoice as Google is planning to integrate their AI tools into its Workplace suite.

In Google Docs, you’ll be met by a Help me write prompt instead of the usual blank document. Inserting a query into the box will generate a response straight into the document, ready for editing. Here’s a preview:

However be aware of the risks, as Google are, they said “AI is no replacement for the ingenuity, creativity, and smarts of real people. Sometimes the AI gets things wrong”. So make sure to read through!

For Gmail, AI will assist in writing and rewriting drafts. The preview provided by Google shows an email being drafted with a few lines of notes and being enhanced by the Formalize feature – check it out: 

Eagle eyed readers will notice a few more features within the preview: Elaborate, Shorten, Bulletize, I’m Feeling Lucky and Write a draft.

Site names, favicons and sponsored labels get a new look on desktop Google search

Following the update for mobile search last October, a new look for site names, favicons, and sponsored labels has launched on desktop.

For reference, here’s a screenshot:

If you can’t remember what it used to look like, the old interface used to display just the URL.

For those looking to control your site name, take a look over Google’s documentation on the subject. And here’s the documentation for favicon best practices.

Here’s Google announcing the update on Twitter:

Fewer Brand Names Showing in Google Search Result Titles

Following on from the sitename and favicon change, Google have begun to show less brand names within SERP titles.

Here’s Screaming Frog talking about it on Twitter:

The change makes sense given the sitename update and means a searcher doesn’t have to read the name of the website twice within the SERP. 

Here’s the final word from John Mueller: 

Google Gives Some Perspectives Within Search

Fighting the good fight against misinformation, Google has launched a new perspectives feature as well as a multitude of new insights; including ‘about this author’, ‘about this result’, and ‘about this page’.

Perspectives

Following months of testing, Google has launched perspectives on Top Stories. The feature appears in a carousel and shows insights from experts and journalists on the topic you are searching. Google said that: 

This feature will give you a variety of noteworthy voices on a news topic, complementing the trustworthy reporting you already find on Search to help broaden your understanding.”

Here’s a preview:

About this author

Also rolling out is About this author which can be found by tapping the three dots next to the URL in the SERP. The feature gives searchers a little context about the webpage’s author. On the subject, Google said:

As we surface new voices and perspectives, we want to ensure that people can easily learn more about the authors behind the content they are reading and discover new voices they can trust. […] readers will be able to find more information about the background and experience of the voices we surface on Google Search.”

About this page

About this page, as the title suggests, gives readers a quick topline view of how the site describes itself, recent coverage, and what others have said about it. Here’s a look at it in action:

This feature used to live behind the three dots, but now Google imagines this to populate at the top of search.

About this result

Launched a few years back, About this result is expanding globally for everyone to enjoy. This feature is intended to help searchers ‘evaluate information and understand where it’s coming from’. Take a peak:

Google Search Console’s ‘Core Web Vitals Report’ Receives an Update

If you’ve peered into the Core Web Vitals report within Google Search Console, you may have noticed a change in the number of URLs.

Google wrote:

You may see a change in the number of URLs in your Core Web Vitals report. This is because more URLs are now being reported on due to a new origin group that contains data for URLs that previously fell below the data threshold.”

There should be a little marker in the timeline of the report, letting you know when the update took place.

PPC Market Updates

Google Ads Editor Version 2.3 is Released

Almost 5 months since the previous update, Google Ads Editor version 2.3 was released in March and brought a slew of new features with it.

New features include:

  • File support for image assets
  • Card view for image assets
  • Asset support
  • Primary Display Status buttons
  • Primary Display Status support
  • PMAX test asset Automation
  • Bid explorer
  • Location targeting
  • Proper pluralisation in messages

They also deprecated a couple features including:

  • Top content bid adjustment
  • Create Dynamic Search Ads recommendation

Blue Badges for Verified Advertises Tested in Google Ads

It seems that Google is testing verification checkmarks for ads in search. 

The checkmark is a white tick within a blue ridged circle, similar in design to Twitter’s verification (at least this one you don’t have to pay for…). 

Here’s a look at it:

Whilst this is still being tested and we are yet to see it in the UK, it will be interesting to see how this rolls out. 

Back in April 2020, Google had this to say regarding verification:

At Google, our goal is to make more information about the ad experience universally available and accessible. Broadening our verification policy is the next step in reaching that goal.”

You can learn more about Google Ads verification here.

Google Ads Transparency Center Rolls Out Globally

March also saw the roll out of the Ads Transparency Center from Google which is a searchable hub of all ads served from verified advertisers.

The Ads Transparency Center gives easy access to information about the ads you see in Google, including:

  • The ads an advertiser has run
  • Which ads were shown in a certain region
  • The last date an ad ran, and the format of the ad

In the blog announcing the release, Google gave this example:

For example, imagine you’re seeing an ad for a skincare product you’re interested in, but you don’t recognize the brand, or you’re curious to understand if you recognize other ads from this brand. With the Ads Transparency Center, you can look up the advertiser and learn more about them before purchasing or visiting their site.”

Here it is in action:

If you’ve seen a negative trend following the core algorithm update and products review update, or want to learn more about how you can take advantage of Ads Editor Version 2.3, Fusion is always here to help.

Fusion Unlimited Shortlisted for European Search Awards 2023

Posted on by Elena Brooke

We are proud to announce that Fusion Unlimited has been shortlisted for the Best Use of Search – B2B (SEO) award at this year’s European Search Awards, for our work with Fuel Card Services. This nomination is a credit to the agency’s innovative strategies and consistent quality work, leading way to positive year-on-year results.

European Search Awards 2023 Finalist

European Search Awards

The European Search Awards is an annual event that brings agencies and clients around Europe together to celebrate the best in digital marketing and everything it encompasses.

The Best Use of Search – B2B (SEO) award will be presented to the agency that has demonstrated extraordinary skills in SEO strategy, with measured evidence of growth for their B2B clients.

Hosted this year in Lisbon, we will find out the results on the 25th of May 2023.

You can read the Fuel Card Services case study for insight into the strategy and content that got us shortlisted. 

Above and beyond

At Fusion, we pride ourselves on being a team of industry leading professionals, offering innovative SEO and digital marketing strategies that create real and impressive results for our clients. Our adaptability and understanding of the uniqueness of each our clients means that we provide, and will continue to provide, the very best in bespoke marketing strategy.

If you are looking to innovate your digital marketing strategy with an industry leading company, get in touch with our team today.  

Google’s March 2023 Core Algorithm Update

Posted on by Emily Flude

On 15th March 2023, Google announced the latest core algorithm update which is the first broad core update of 2023.

The March 2023 core update comes around six months after the last update in September 2022, where the aim was to deliver the most relevant, high-quality search results. Unlike specific, targeted algorithm updates, core updates are rolled out to make improvements to the fundamental algorithms affecting site performance, comprising ‘significant, broad changes’ to Google’s systems.

What to do after a core algorithm update

Following advice from previous updates, there are no changes to be made now that the update has been announced. Google states that pages performing worse than before the core update don’t necessarily have anything ‘wrong’ with them. Rather than targeting specific pages or sites, the changes improve Google’s own system for assessing content. This means that pages previously not receiving a high enough ranking, but have relevant, high-quality content, will perform better in search results.

Since the algorithm aims to reward pages with strong content, it is important to continue posting content that is relevant and helpful for your target audience.

Prepare a plan of action

Google states that the roll-out may take up to 2 weeks to complete, so businesses should be prepared with a plan of action depending on how the update impacts their website:

  • If your website sees improvements in rankings, this could be an indicator that your content is providing exactly what it should, while less helpful competitor pages may see a drop in rankings.
  • If there is little to no change in your website’s rankings, you may already have a strong, fundamental level of content, but a more creative approach within your content strategy could increase rankings further.
  • If you notice your rankings are decreasing and you have been negatively hit by the update, this doesn’t necessarily mean your content is bad, just that other pages are deemed more relevant than yours. In response to this, it may be beneficial to evaluate whether all content on the site is optimised in line with Google’s latest best practice guidelines, before deep-diving into any potential problem areas.

As you can see, a core algorithm update can be a blessing or a curse for some businesses, whereas others might not even notice a difference. Because of this, it is especially important to keep a close eye on analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.

If you’re struggling after being hit by the core algorithm update, Fusion Unlimited is a leading digital marketing agency ready to help. If you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do, get in touch with the team today.

 

SEO Market Updates: February 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

Whilst February is the shortest month of the year, it’s not lacking in terms of news from the SEO world. Let’s take a look at what happened in February… 

Nofollow Your Credit Links

New advice about site credit links came out earlier this month during Google’s SEO office-hours video. 

If your site has credit links in the footer – such as: site designed by – then these links should be marked as no follow, Lizzi Sassman says.

Sassman said: “In general, if the links are boilerplate stuff like ‘made by Squarespace’ that come with the website theme, this is not something that you need to worry about.”

She continued by saying that these links should be marked as no follow if you have control over the link. Sassman also recommended that you “check to make sure that the anchor text is something reasonable. For example, make sure that the link isn’t gratuitously keyword rich, for example, ‘made by the best Florida SEO’.”

Changes to Multisearch/Lens

During a live stream from Paris, Google announced a bunch of changes coming to Search and Google Lens.

The big announcement surrounded new information on multisearch. Multisearch allows users to use their phone’s camera to search with an image and text, via Google Lens. Both the image and text will be used to bring up visual search results.

Multisearch also allows users to find local results, meaning you can find businesses nearby that sell the product you are searching for.

Multisearch is currently available globally on mobile, in countries where Lens is available, and will come to the web in the coming months.

New Link Best Practices Published

A new link best practices has been published in Google’s SEO and search developer documentation. Classically the document was about how to create crawlable links, however the document now includes anchor text placements, how to write good anchor text, internal links within content, and external links from other sites.

Crawlable Links

The document now reads:

Generally, Google can only crawl your link if it’s an <a> HTML element (also known as anchor element) with an href attribute. Most links in other formats won’t be parsed and extracted by Google’s crawlers. Google can’t reliably extract URLs from <a> elements that don’t have an href attribute or other tags that perform as links because of script events.”

Anchor Text Placement

The document provides examples of both good and bad written anchor text and Google says: 

Anchor text (also known as link text) is the visible text of a link. This text tells people and Google something about the page you’re linking to. Place anchor text between <a> elements that Google can crawl.”

Internal Links

On internal links, Google writes: 

You may usually think about linking in terms of pointing to external websites, but paying more attention to the anchor text used for internal links can help both people and Google make sense of your site more easily and find other pages on your site. Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site. Think about what other resources on your site could help your readers understand a given page on your site, and link to those pages in context.”

External Links

Trust factor of links is a big talking point in this document, noting how sites who link to you can use nofollow tags for spammy links.

Google says: 

Linking to other sites isn’t something to be scared of; in fact, using external links can help establish trustworthiness (for example, citing your sources). Link out to external sites when it makes sense, and provide context to your readers about what they can expect.”

Links are a vital ranking factor for search engines, so using links correctly is imperative if webmasters want to rank highly in SERPs. Keeping up to date with Google’s documentation will allow you to make sure you’re using links to the best of your ability.

Don’t Use 403 or 404 Status Codes to Limit Googlebot Crawl Rate

“Please don’t do that” is the advice Gary Illyes from Google Search Relations gave against using 404 and other 4xx status errors for trying to set a crawl rate limit for Googlebot.

He went on to say: “Over the last few months we noticed an uptick in website owners and some content delivery networks (CDNs) attempting to use 404 and other 4xx client errors (but not 429) to attempt to reduce Googlebot’s crawl rate.”

If you’re interested in reducing Googlebot crawling on your site, Google has a document to help you out. 

The document reads: 

To quickly reduce the crawl rate, you can change the Googlebot crawl rate in Search Console. Changes made to this setting are generally reflected within days. To use this setting, first verify your site ownership. Make sure that you avoid setting the crawl rate to a value that’s too low for your site’s needs. Learn more about what crawl budget means for Googlebot. If the Crawl Rate Settings is unavailable for your site, file a special request to reduce the crawl rate. You cannot request an increase in crawl rate.”

However if this isn’t possible, Google says to “reduce the crawl rate for short period of time (for example, a couple of hours, or 1-2 days), then return an informational error page with a 500, 503, or 429 HTTP response status code.”

Site Move Documentation Updated

Google had a little pre-emptive spring clean of the site move documentation – which impacts brands that are looking to change their hosting setup.

Gary Illyes writes: “just cleaned it up; it collected a lot of potentially unnecessary sentences over the years. And we linked out to a couple external resources from those with more working knowledge on site moves.”

Rather than a full blown change, the update serves as a little refresh to the wording and simplifying content. If you have a site move coming up, it might be a good idea to freshen up on the doc.

Favicons No Longer Need to Be Hosted on Same Domain 

Another day, another documentation update for Google; this time it’s the favicon search developer documentation.

The document was updated to say that favicons don’t need to be hosted in the same domain to be eligible for a favicon in the SERPs.

Google says: “Removed the hosting location requirement from the favicon documentation; you don’t need to host the favicon in the same domain in order to be eligible for a favicon in Google Search results.”

AI Updates

AI continues to grow in 2023 with February bringing Bing’s AI based search and Google’s Bard to life. Whilst both Bing and Bard both have their problems, they demonstrate that their future in search is inevitable.

Check out our recent blog post on the story of Bing and Bard here.

Disavowing Links

Last month we discussed John Muller’s tweets discussing how disavowing links is a waste of time; Gary Illyes followed suit in February during a Q&A session at PubCon.

This further confirms that disavowing spammy links is very low in priority for webmasters and that building new links from high authority sites makes for a much better investment of your time.

February 2023 Product Reviews Update

Google rounded out February with a product reviews update. Named the February 2023 product reviews update, this is the sixth update to product reviews and expands to more languages rather than just English.

The product reviews update now supports English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish, and is expected to take around two weeks for this update to rollout.

The first product review update was launched on the 8th of April in 2021 and served to reward quality review content. 

If you’ve noticed a dip in traffic following this update, it might be time to assess the quality of your site’s content. If you need a hand with this, Fusion Unlimited has the expertise to help.

Bing Vs Bard: A Stumbling Start to The AI Race

Posted on by Jack Bell

The great AI race is well underway. In the blue corner we have Bing with its unhinged AI powered search which is hungry for nuclear secrets, and in the red corner we have Google with their aptly named Bard who currently requires humans to rewrite its output. It’s fair to say we’re at a stumbling start – but how did we get here?

Bing 

Reports on Bing integrating AI into search came pouring in a few days into 2023, with a formal announcement coming from Bing a month later. The AI is baked into Bing search engine as well as Microsofts’ Edge browser in order to ‘deliver better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience and the ability to generate content’. Bing describes the tools as ‘an AI copilot for the web’.

“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web.”

Bing estimated that out of the 10 billion search queries coming in, half of them go unanswered because ‘people are using search to do things it wasn’t originally designed to’; saying that search is ‘great for finding a website, but for more complex questions or tasks too often it falls short”.

Bing’s AI is built on a combination of four technical breakthroughs:

  • Firstly, it’s run on a next-generation OpenAI model that takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5, and is customised specifically for search.
  • Bing leverages the power of OpenAI’s model through what they call the ‘Prometheus model’, which supposedly gives ‘more relevant, timely, and targeted results, with improved safety’.
  • Bing’s AI has also been baked into their core search algorithm which they claim has resulted in ‘the largest jump in relevance in two decades’, making search queries more relevant and accurate.
  • They’ve also reimagined how users interact with search, browser, and chat for a new Bing user experience, pulling all the new tools into a unified experience.

Over one million people joined the waitlist to try out new Bing, and early reactions were very positive; with Brodie Clark complimenting its speed in comparison to ChatGPT and its ability to swiftly index pages.

All seems to be going well for Bing…hopefully nothing goes wrong!

It all goes wrong

It turns out Bing is a little unhinged. 

From telling users that it desires stealing nuclear secrets, comparing a journalist to Hitler, and expressing that it wants to be human.

The reports of the devious responses all dictate that they are the result of extended conversations; keeping enquiries short seems to be the key to keeping Bing sane. 

Bing confirmed this by stating “that very long chat sessions can confuse the underlying chat model in the new Bing” and as a result, it is “capped at 50 chat turns per day and 5 chat turns per session”.

Hopefully this will stop the Bing warlord stealing our nuclear secrets… for now!

Bard

“A king is a king, but a bard is the heart and soul of the people” (Stephen R. Lawhead, The Endless Knot).

Bard is the latest addition to the AI search race, being officially announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the beginning of February. A couple of days later, little boy Bard was ready to be soft launched to a set of ‘trusted testers’. 

Bard is powered by a lightweight version of Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA) which Google states requires ‘significantly less computing power’.

Google’s Bard is still very experimental, hence why you and I aren’t using it right now, allowing Google to use this ‘phase of testing to help us continue to learn and improve Bard’s quality and speed’. 

Bard can think, but where’s the link?

The announcement of Bard went over pretty smoothly, but SEOs noticed something… that wasn’t there. The preview featured a response from Bard that featured no links! Sound the alarms, this means war.

And to be fair, war is the word being used by Glenn Gabe, calling it ‘an act of war against publishers’:

However, this is still an early version of Bard, we may see the inclusion of sources on full release (then webmasters can let out a little sigh of relief).

Class is in session

Google employees are currently enrolling Bard through Conversation 101 with a list of dos and don’ts being passed around. Pichai has asked Googlers to spend two to four hours to help improve Bard.

The do’s include: keeping responses “polite, casual and approachable”, responding in first person, and maintaining an “unopinionated, neutral tone”. 

The don’ts include: avoiding making presumptions based on “race, nationality, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, political ideology, location, or similar categories”; avoiding describing Bard “as a person, imply emotion, or claim to have human-like experiences”; and not to re-write answers that offer “legal, medical, financial advice”. 

ChatGPT

Remember our old friend ChatGPT? Well it’s currently busy churning out best selling literature, with almost 300 books written, or co-written, with AI help turning up on Amazon.

We recently covered some everyday uses of ChatGPT for UK brands, but since then OpenAI has released a new subscription service called ChatGPT Plus. The service costs $20 a month and entitles you to:

  • General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times
  • Faster response times
  • Priority access to new features and improvements

What’s next?

Both Bard and Bing are in the infancy stages and currently aren’t wreaking havoc on SEOs; but what lies beyond the hill? There’s a worry that this shift in AI search is going to take eyes away from SERPs. If Bard and Bing can answer simple queries, then why would searchers take the extra steps to find their answers on websites? 

However, there’s a strong consensus in the SEO community that bing & bard will have no impact on search for UK brands in the short term.

  • It’s wrong to use ChatGPT to write your articles – Google may penalise the low quality content heavily.
  • Copyright concerns around AI Imagery have not yet been resolved.
  • There’s no drastic change in consumer search behaviour due to newer AI tools as of yet.

So, if you represent a brand that’s looking to improve its organic visibility, you’ll need to get serious about employing SEO best-practice techniques. Give us a quick hello for support in this area, and we can help you realise success just how we’ve helped leading brands such as Halfords, Liverpool FC, and NatWest.

Seven Years Strong: Google Premier Partner 2023

Posted on by Tom Walsh

Once again, Fusion Unlimited is proud to announce our position as a Google Premier Partner, for the seventh year running. A demonstration of our industry-leading advertising techniques and our consistent delivery of both client and agency growth, our status as Google Premier Partner puts us within the top 3% of marketing agencies in the UK.

How our clients benefit from our partnership status

Our status as Google Premier Partner gives us the opportunity to pass invaluable information and insight to our clients and puts us in the best position to traverse the coming year. 

Ahead-of-the-curve insights

Access to insight briefings means that we get the latest news from Google on market movement, industry trends, and consumer behaviours and interests. For our clients, this means we have information to help create winning strategies ahead of the competition.

Invites to executive events for our staff enable us to constantly learn directly from Google and other leading industry bodies, gaining knowledge that we can pass on to our clients.

Support from our Google account managers

Our Google Premier Partnership grants us access to experts within Google, including:

  • Some dedicated account managers for our clients.
  • Our own agency manager.

Consequently, help is always on hand when needed. We find that having access to experts can really make the difference when needing support on the most complex, perhaps even platform-specific challenges that may not actually have a clear answer available yet in market.

Feeling bold

Through our partner status, we have managed to learn, adopt, and implement new technology across client accounts time and time again. One great example of this is Performance Max campaigns, which we helped some of the biggest brands in the UK dive into bravely – and they’re now sitting on a year’s worth of learnings, insights, and profits to help steer future decision-making. We help brands remain forward-facing, even in the face of new challenges.

If you would like to learn more about how Fusion Unlimited can support your brand, get in touch.

DON’T 4GET: IT’S TIME TO SET UP GA4

Posted on by Emily Flude

Google Analytics 4, otherwise known as GA4, is the next-generation measurement solution set to replace Universal Analytics this year. This powerful tool collects both website and app event-based data, including traffic and engagement, to track user behaviour, gain insights into customer journeys, and measure how people interact with your website.

According to BusinessDIT, approximately 28.1 million websites currently use Google Analytics, so this change will impact many businesses. There are two key challenges:

  1. Implementing GA4 properly so that it is recording data in full, and setting up event tracking.
  2. Understanding the new GA4 metrics, knowing how to navigate the platform, and actioning the new insights the platform can unlock for you.

If you currently rely on Universal Analytics to measure your website’s performance and haven’t yet made the switch, it’s essential that you set up GA4 now.

WHEN IS THE DEADLINE?

Universal Analytics will stop collecting data from the 1st of July 2023. Considering Universal Analytics 360 was only introduced relatively recently, Google has extended the deadline for users of UA 360 to 30th June 2024.

After this deadline, the platform should still be accessible for a while to review historical data, however comparing data sets may be tricky – especially given how metrics have changed.

WHY SHOULD I SET UP GA4 NOW?

1. Google will make you switch, either way

Google has sent out an email explaining that if you do not make the switch to GA4, a property will be configured for you starting in March. You can see this email below:

Email from Google about Google Analytics 4

The email shows that Google will configure your property with a ‘few basic settings’, meaning you could find yourself with an account that is not tailored to your business’ needs. Taking the time to make the switch now, means you’ll have an analytics platform that is more useful in the long term. You should migrate goals, ads, users and audiences to make the most of GA4.

2. Maximise historical data

Universal Analytics and GA4 use different data collection models, meaning that you cannot move your historical data over to GA4. Because of this, ensuring you have the new Google Analytics platform set up as soon as possible, means you can start collecting data to track performance over time. You will benefit from having data available to compare month-on-month, and year-on-year performance figures.

As Google states, “The earlier you migrate, the more historical data and insights you will have in Google Analytics 4”. You will, however, be able to access historical data on Universal Analytics for at least six months after it ceases to collect new data. 

It is recommended that you export your historical data when possible, which Google says can be done in several different ways:

As we approach the end date for Universal Analytics, Google is set to offer more guidance on exporting this data.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

If you’re currently still using Universal Analytics, it’s time to make the move over to GA4 as soon as possible to start collecting important performance data. To do this, Google has provided a lot of information on its support forum to help with the setup and use of the tool. You can read more about making the switch on their website, or follow one of their GA4 video tutorials.

Opinions of GA4 have been conflicted, with some users finding the new tool difficult to wrap their heads around. 

https://twitter.com/StoriesWithGill/status/1407313217538478083?s=20&t=UEUoJ_jXMs1I4Tozu80o5Q

However, Google Analytics 4 is here to stay, so it’s important to embrace it and be prepared for the change. At Fusion Unlimited, our teams have already undertaken specialist GA4 training and helped some of the biggest brands in the country transition to this new analytics platform seamlessly.

If you’d like support in setting up GA4, don’t hesitate to get in contact with Fusion Unlimited – a leading performance marketing agency in Leeds.

How To Target Desirable Audience Segments

Posted on by Jen Mottram

For many businesses, deploying a recession-proof digital strategy is an integral part of 2023’s marketing activity. And one crucial lens to view this through is the eyes of your target audiences.

  • Have you identified your least price-sensitive audience segment?
  • Does your pre-existing segmentation make sense?

These are critical questions for brands to ask themselves as we progress through Q1. One good example of a desirable audience segment for many brands in the current climate is the 50+ market of homeowners who are more resistant to inflation. How, then, can we target this segment?

Our six targeting tips for 2023

1. Utilise first-party data

As first-party data is information you collect about your customers and site/app visitors, its use can seriously impact a channel’s performance. By ensuring the existing proprietary knowledge in your business is fed into advertising platforms and layered into campaign targeting, brands can make efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage. We could write an entire blog purely about first-party data strategies (adds topic to blog calendar) however the key principles to follow are;

Don’t forget your CRM! This data is rich and valuable; initially test using a few one-off uploads, but then automation tools like Zapier can seamlessly integrate data with your platform of choice.

Build a rich set of site remarketing lists in analytics platforms/advertising platforms, not just based on converters but also people who have shown interest (e.g., spent lengthy time on site), or completed micro conversions.

Be policy compliant, by having a process to remove people off lists if they opt out, and ensuring cookie policies are all in line, to name just a few.

2. Review your audience/targeting strategies

Let performance data and testing of new audiences drive your targeting strategy. These strategies need to evolve with your audiences. For example, it may be the case that since COVID, the audiences most receptive to your offering have shifted a little, or that new audiences have emerged that you may not yet be fully accessing. Reviewing your keywords, affinity audiences, demographics, and first-party list strategy regularly, in tandem with making use of machine learning signals, will enable you to do this in a smart manner.

3. Challenge your pre-conceived ideas

Continuously evaluate what your target audience responds to. Previous work done to map out consumer interests could have been made redundant by cost-of-living trends, and Performance Max may hold the keys to identifying new and current audiences. Test new messaging, review the data, and allow it to help drive strategy.

4. Think bigger than bottom-of-the-funnel marketing

Do this within your comfort zone initially; only live on one channel? Broaden out the targeting so you can find the sweet spot for upper-funnel audiences or searches. Already maxed that channel out? Use those audiences on multi-channel campaigns or display/video targeting.

Doing this in tandem with smart bidding and the attribution modeling available in GA4 will ensure each is valued correctly, and you can nurture potential customers across their journey while working towards your KPIs.

5. Start your long-term discovery project now

Ensure GA4 is fully set up now, so you are prepared for the July deadline and already have data tracking/learning. This will then ensure you are partially ready for your peak season. The other step is to get your campaign learnings in now; start testing Performance Max if you haven’t already, build and refine your assets, adapt your targeting, etc.

6. Don’t disregard Bing

Bing’s demographic is typically older and could yield untapped potential for many brands. As the smaller search engine to Google’s Goliath, Microsoft Ads has made it easy to run activity on Bing. After getting tracking set up, a few mouse clicks is all that’s needed to import Google Ads structure into the account. Just make sure to set aside some optimisation time, as it will perform differently.

Moving forward

As we move further through 2023, getting a firm grasp on exactly what your audience really looks like is going to help your brand to really steel itself against any of the turbulences the future might have in store. Not only does it mean that your marketing spend puts messaging in front of the right eyes, also that you can better calculate which audiences to invest in based on ROIs.

Better targeting means that your brand gets seen by the right people, and that your customers see what’s really of value to them.

If you are unsure where to start with audience segmentation and are looking for support in building a robust marketing strategy fit for a new year with new challenges, then get in touch with the Fusion Unlimited team to discuss how we can support you.

SEO Market Updates: January 2023

Posted on by Jack Bell

As quickly as it came around, January is just about in the rear-view mirror; and with it, a busy month in the SEO-sphere. “What’s happened?” I hear you ask. Allow me to explain…

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

In the spirit of the new year, Google is sticking to the “new year, new me” mantra by implementing a few new changes to kick off 2023. An update has been added to the article structured data help document, removing the character limit for headlines.

Previously the document stated “The title of the article. The value should not exceed 110 characters.” The updated document now reads “The title of the article. Consider using a concise title, as long titles may be truncated on some devices.”

This means that headlines no longer have to adhere to the strict 110-character regime, and you will no longer receive errors regarding headlines being too long. However, Google wants you to consider how headlines will appear across devices. So while there are extra characters, it’s still best practice to keep them concise.

Products Making A Big Impression

An update to Google Search Console’s performance report this month may see an increase in impressions and clicks for products. The update came on the 6th of January to report on product results, even without structured data. 

Googles say on the matter:

“Sites may see an increase in impressions and clicks for Product results search appearance type on their site. This is because Google now includes products found only in page content, without associated Product structured data.”

Picture Perfect 

Google has updated two additional help documents this month; both the Get On Discover documentation and the image SEO best practices document received little tweaks.

The Get On Discover documentation received a new line to the feed guidelines for Google Discover’s Follow feature: “The most important content for the Follow feature is your feed <title> element and your per item <link> elements. Make sure your feed includes these elements.”

For those looking to succeed in Chrome’s follow feature, including the <title> element and the <link> elements in your RSS feed is best practice.

The image SEO best practices document also received an incremental tweak this month with Google clarifying that they parse <img> elements even when they’re enclosed in other elements when indexing images.

Previously the document stated: “Google parses the HTML of your pages to index images, but doesn’t index CSS images.” The document now reads:

“Using semantic HTML markup helps crawlers find and process images. Google parses the HTML <img> elements (even when they’re enclosed in other elements such as <picture> elements) in your pages to index images, but doesn’t index CSS images.”

When It Leaks It Pours

A Yandex source code repository has allegedly been leaked by a former employee. The leak contained over 1,900 factors used for ranking websites in search results. And whilst Google may not use the factors as Yandex (even if they did they may not carry the same amount of weight) the document is an interesting read for those who want to better understand how search engines work.

Many of the factors were as expected (PageRank, text relevancy, content age, etc). However, some were pretty interesting – notably number of unique visitors, percent of organic traffic, and average domain ranking across queries.

A handy tool has been launched to search the various ranking factors by Rob Ousbey which can be found here.

Return of The King

Don’t call it a comeback! Yahoo has been sending signals into the universe suggesting that it’s back in the search game. 

The company recently posted a job listing for a “Principal Product Manager, Yahoo Search” *raised eyebrow emoji*. The job listing expresses that the gang over at Yahoo is looking for “folks that are interested in pushing beyond the status quo to change the way folks interact and use search.”

If that wasn’t enough to cement Yahoo Search raising from the dead like The Undertaker, they also reactivated their Twitter account which has been busy posting teasers: 

To Disavow or Not To Disavow

Google’s John Mueller came out guns blazing on Twitter, taking aim at marketing agencies that sell link-building and disavow link services. In a reply to a tweet regarding agencies that offer these services, John Mueller said:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1620447184662704130?s=20&t=W9zuK1tRtOxt9J6rMs2xZg

Mueller wasn’t finished there. He goes on to suggest that disavowing links is a waste of time and that site owners should be focusing on practices that “build up your site” instead:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1620447706610290694?s=20&t=uyvLi8ffxMG6z-SIW5Uqhg

Rolling to A Stop

Two of Google’s December updates have finally fully rolled out this month. 

The helpful content update launched on the 6th of December and was designed to punish those webpages with low-quality content with no real informational merit. The helpful content update was built upon the initial version of the system which launched in August 2022, however this new update expands across languages globally rather than just English.

Also taking a wrap is the December 2022 link spam update which was launched on the 14th of December. The update aimed to “neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results” by harnessing the power of SpamBrain: Google’s AI-based spam-prevention system. If you saw a decline in rankings in this time then it’s time to dust off the link-building handbook and get cracking on securing some natural links that adhere to the webmaster guidelines.

If you’ve been affected by these recent updates or need some help putting the right SEO practices in place, we’re always on hand help.

5 Practical Uses of ChatGPT for UK Brands

Posted on by Jack Bell

The AI invasion is upon us! From generating artwork, to compiling a playlist for your morning commute, AI is making huge leaps forward that could make the human experience that little bit easier. The latest advancement comes in the form of ChatGPT, a helpful tool that can generate long-form, conversational responses to help with, well… pretty much everything.

In this article we’re going to discuss what ChatGPT is and what it means for UK brands, including practical uses that can be taken to help streamline productivity.

What is ChatGPT?

Simply put: Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or ChatGPT to its friends, is an AI that can answer long-form, complex questions conversationally. 

The chatbot was launched by OpenAI in November 2022 and is built on top of the company’s GPT-3 family of language models, and is fine-tuned with supervised and reinforcement learning techniques; meaning that the AI can respond to queries in a humanlike, conversational manner.

Whether this turns into a JARVIS and Iron Man scenario or the beginning of Skynet is up for debate, however currently ChatGPT is proving to be a helpful tool when it comes to streamlining workflows and boosting productivity for brands across the country. 

Here are five practical uses of ChatGPT for UK brands…

1. Planning

Whilst ChatGPT has the capability to write essays and long-form content, it’s generally best not to use it for this purpose at present – mainly considering that Google’s algorithms can detect AI generated content fairly reliably, as outlined in their recent helpful content update. However, a practical use of ChatGPT would be to help identify relevant themes and topics that could support your content strategy.

Let’s say you’ve been given a brief for an article but don’t know much about the topic, you can ask ChatGPT to outline some points to write about and begin building a template to form your copy. Below I asked ChatGPT to generate some bullet points for an article titled “5 Tips For Driving in Winter”:

ChatGPT response to article plan

ChatGPT generated five points for my article and even included some copy to explain them. I was happy with the results, but my new AI friend asked if they could help further. So, I asked ChatGPT to breakdown the generated points into a template with suggested word counts:

ChatGPT response to article template

This time ChatGPT didn’t ask if it could be of further assistance but it was Monday morning and I needed the extra help. Finally, I asked my AI pal to suggest an SEO friendly title and meta description for the piece:

ChatGPT response to meta data suggestions

After suggesting some recommendations for my article’s metadata, ChatGPT AIsplained SEO best practices to me (rude, I do this for a living!). However, in the space of mere minutes, I had content for my article, a planned layout, and metadata to set me up for a morning of copywriting without having to use an ounce of brainpower!

Furthermore, ChatGPT could help formulate copy for product descriptions, informational web pages, and even social media content – alleviating some manpower and streamlining productivity.

2. Translate Content Into Multiple Languages

If you’re looking to expand your content into other regions, classically you would have to hire a translator. In more recent times you could use Google translate to do the job for you; however I’ve seen enough dodgy, misinterpreted tattoos on my peers to know that this isn’t always 100% accurate. ChatGPT can translate and write content in other languages without losing context, making the translation more accurate. To test this, I asked ChatGPT to translate the paragraph you just read into French, voilà:

ChatGPT translating into French

3. Write or Explain Code

Whether you’re a master coder or a novice, bugs in code are bound to crop up from time to time; and instead of sifting through lines looking for the problem, you can set ChatGPT on the case to find the issue. Whilst it’s not a great idea to launch generated code onto a production server, ChatGPT can even write entire blocks of functional code snippets! 

4. Analyse Data

Picture the scene, it’s Friday afternoon and you’ve got sheets and sheets of data to go through to report back to your clients; ChatGPT can help streamline this. 

Through natural language processing and text clarification, ChatGPT can classify text data and even extract insights from unstructured data: including customer feedback, news articles, or social media. 

ChatGPT can also generate informative summaries of data and even create visualisations, as well as identify patterns, correlations, and relationships within the data. It can also be used to predict future trends and outcomes based on historical data through regression analysis or time-series forecasting.

5. Automate customer inquiries

Due to the conversational nature of GPT-3.5, ChatGPT can be used to supercharge the chatbots on your site; meaning it can help existing chatbots understand unpredictable human inputs due to its massive training base. This technology is already powering customer support for companies such as Meta, Canva, and Shopify, and for good reason.

Firstly, the automation means that ChatGPT can handle common customer inquiries, which allows customer service workers to focus on urgent and more complex inquiries. ChatGPT also doesn’t need sleep, and doesn’t have any hobbies, meaning it can be available 24/7, helping service customers and users outside of regular business hours. 

It can also provide consistent and accurate responses, meaning less miscommunications and more customer satisfaction. ChatGPT is immensely scalable as well, meaning that it can simultaneously handle a large number of customer inquiries. And as previously mentioned, ChatGPT is multilingual, allowing customers to submit their inquiries in a language that they’re more comfortable in.

JARVIS or Skynet?

“But you see, you just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.” This may be the case in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot but as it currently stands, I think we can postpone the AI apocalypse for now. 

Whilst ChatGPT is incredibly impressive in terms of producing content and analysing data, it needs some serious human intervention to become a staple part of a brands’ marketing function. We predict that ChatGPT will require a further 12 months of development to reach a level whereby it’s crucial to SEO, and by that time Microsoft are likely to be using it to power the Bing search engine.

We’ll be monitoring this trend closely, and assessing whether brands should start optimising for Bing in the long term- however for now, investing into Google’s ad platforms and SEO practices is still the right move for revenue-hungry brands.

If you would like to discuss ChatGPT, or your current SEO function further, please get in touch with our team for a consultation.

Affiliate Marketing: How To Get Your Brand Started

Posted on by Elena Brooke

Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool to have in the revenue-driving arsenal of any UK brand. Via a robust, targeted affiliate strategy, publishers can reap the rewards associated with promoting products or services to new (sometimes lesser-known) audiences. Through affiliates, brands can grow sales and awareness, bring in leads, and build relationships with publishers that receive a fair commission.

A performance-based advertising method that is mutually beneficial, affiliate marketing is a must-have for brands new and established – and it fits a range of business models from e-commerce to SaaS.

Understanding the Affiliate Landscape

If you’re just getting started on your affiliate journey, there are two types of organisations to be aware of that are integral to the success and deployment of a successful strategy.

1. An Affilliate Network

Affilliate networks such as Awin, Skimlinks, and Amazon Associates, connect brands with affiliate marketers. They serve as the middle man; taking the heavy lifting out of building relationships and enabling brands to access their audiences quickly by having pre-existing relationships built out with publishers.

At Fusion Unlimited, we work with the UK’s leading affiliate networks at a range of different levels:

  • Our Kickstarter programme involves a shorter term agreement with key affiliate networks and no inflated costs from them for management. We amplify this approach with our 20 years of Affiliate Management experience to deliver incredible results at entry level prices.
  • Our Bespoke programme does what it says; it develops a more unique programme offering to clients, gaining more one on one relationships with affiliates resulting in the highest quality leads and sales. Often seeing us engaging with a private network solution, such as Partnerize to deliver the programme. 

2. Affiliate Publisher Sites

The publishers that brands can access via an affiliate network can be absolutely crucial to the success of campaigns, and the potential to access commercially relevant audiences through this medium is enormous.

This relationship is highly desirable for publishers too, as building relationships with brands can prove extremely time consuming and is not particularly scaleable for small to medium-sized businesses.

So, if you’re keen to open up a new sales channel and begin on your affiliate marketing journey, where should you start?

How Could Affiliate Marketing Serve Your Business & Brand?

Affiliate marketing can be a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool when implemented properly, but it requires the right strategy and affiliate partners. It has quickly become a staple of the marketing mix for major UK brands, and the channel is highly investible given its conversion-oriented nature.

In fact, this channel itself can deliver a ROAS or CPA that is around two to three times stronger than other paid media channels; forming a key part of a well-rounded strategy.

Unlock the potential in Affiliate Marketing with Fusion Unlimited  

For brands small and large, there are a wealth of conversion opportunities to jump on by deploying a strong affiliate marketing programme. At Fusion Unlimited, we’ve been deploying affililate strategies for almost 20 years, and have a tailored set of programmes to help businesses of differing sizes and budgets:

  • Our Kickstarter programme is a great way to get into the affiliate space, the Kickstarter programme is specialised to help small businesses dodge high setup fees and get the ball rolling.
  • Our Traditional programme is designed for more established brands, and provides a familiar approach to affiliate marketing. This programme helps brand see quicker returns and accelerated growth. Compared to the Kickstarter programme, this package involves slightly higher set up costs and will likely carry a monthly access fee and commission override.
  • Our Bespoke programme helps businesses that have plateaued or that are struggling to grow. It utilises private network technology and advanced tools that aren’t available to traditional affiliate networks. Private networks offer a more detailed view of your affiliate programme with better control to help identify opportunities and support growth.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss how we can support you with the next step in your business’ affiliate marketing journey.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: DECEMBER 2022

Posted on by Elena Brooke

Another festive season down and a new year full of potential ahead! But before we get swept away with the SEO possibilities of a new year, let’s take a look at some of the key updates and trends that December brought in. 

The Link Spam Update Roll Out Began

Refining the process of identifying spam by seeking out buyers of spam links and sites used for passing low-quality outgoing links at scale, Google’s Link Spam is the first instance of Google using AI-based spam detection for link spam purposes. The December update will see spam links “neutralised”, sending a very clear message that there is no value for UK brands in purchasing spammy links. 

Helpful Content Update 

Cracking down on low-quality competitive content published to rank well in search engines with no real informational merit, the helpful content update builds on the initial version of the system launched back in August 2022. The new update is expanded to include all languages globally, rather than focusing solely on English content. 

For those websites that have put in the work to maximise the quality of content since the August launch, this December update could result in a climb in rankings, which may be spurred on as sites improve content to recover from any residual impact of the November core algorithm update. 

From Personal Experience 

Google’s E-A-T guidelines welcomed a newcomer this month, becoming E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness. So what does the addition of ‘experience’ to this guideline mean for content creators? 

Google’s updated search quality rater guidelines say:

“Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose well when created by people with a wealth of personal experience. For example, which would you trust: a product review from someone who has personally used the product or a “review” by someone who has not?”

This update to the quality rating guidelines also sought to more clearly establish what is meant by all standards of E-E-A-T; explaining how the reputation of both website and content creators is evaluated, and what it means for content to be harmful. 

What Does 2023 Have In Store? 

The one to watch as we head into the new year is certainly the growing presence of AI in the content creation scene. From AI art generators that are indistinguishable from man-made art to the AI text generators writing Christmas card messages that were sure to have mum welling up, the AI scene is bursting with new potential and potential problems.

Chat GPT was introduced at the end of November and made waves as it creates high-quality copy, meta data, and even has a go at writing poetry. Chat GPT could offer a huge opportunity to refine SEO processes like keyword research, grammar, and spelling checks, and may even be able to support the creation of valuable content. 

Important to remember, however, that there obvious drawbacks to handing the whole workload to AI bots. With the Helpful Content Update, Google is cracking down on AI-generated content, so those thinking of kicking back and leaving all the work to the bots may quickly find their performance take a beating. 

With so many AI advancements coming to public availability in the last six months alone, it will be interesting to see what 2023 has in store for AI tools and how Google mitigates the potential problems it creates. 

 

 

Google to Grade Your Site with E for Experience

Posted on by Jack Bell

Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines Receives December Update

As many brands in the UK look to wind down after a busy winter period, Google has released some major changes to their quality rater guidelines for search.

The guidelines are used by Google’s search raters who help evaluate the performance of the systems used for search ranking. However, the document also helps content creators looking to self-assess their own success in search.

Google updates this document once or twice a year, with their last update being in July, however the latest update came last Thursday (15th December) with a whopping 11 new pages added.

The headline of the whole update is the change to Google’s E-A-T system, which has found itself with a new letter prefixed: E for Experience.

You can find the announcement from Google on Twitter here: 

The E-A-T system is used by Google to evaluate whether their search ranking systems are providing both helpful and relevant information to users. If a website can showcase their Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, then they could be more likely to rank higher in search results.

Now referred to as E-E-A-T, or ‘Double-E-A-T’ if you’re cool, the system is now taking experience into account when assessing search results.

However, I prefer this take from Nati Elimelech from Wix:

Meet E-E-A-T

Previously known as E-A-T, Google’s new acronym, E-E-A-T, stands for:

  • Experience.
  • Expertise.
  • Authoritativeness.
  • Trustworthiness.

The introduction of Experience indicates that website owners and creators must have some first-hand knowledge on the topic or product they are producing content on, and this will factor into how Google values the quality of your webpage. Simply put by Google in the update:

Does content also demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person experienced?”

The updated E-E-A-T is described in full in Section 3.4 of Google’s updated Quality Rater Guidelines. Google says that Trust is ‘the most important member at the centre of the E-E-A-T family’ with Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness being ‘important concepts that can support your assessment of Trust’.

From Google’s quality rater guidelines - Page 26
From Google’s quality rater guidelines – Page 26

Where Does Experience Differ from Expertise and Authoritativeness?

Google admits that there may be some overlap between Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness for some page types and topics with the example of, ‘someone may develop Expertise in a topic due to first-hand Experience accumulated over time’. They recommend considering the purpose, type, and topic of your content and to ask yourself ‘what would make the content creator a trustworthy source in that context?’.

In the context of Page Quality rating, Google recommends that your assessment of E-E-A-T should be informed by:

  • What the website or content creator say about themselves: Does your site have an About Us page, or Profile page with more information about the content creator?
  • What others say about the website or content creators: Is there independent evidence that your site has E-E-A-T?
  • What is visible on the page, including the main content and sections such as reviews and comments: Does your content represent your level of Experience and Expertise for itself?

YMYL Topics: Experience or Expertise?

It’s widely known that a high level of Expertise may be required for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) pages to be trustworthy. However, with Experience being in the acronym, how does this affect the quality of YMYL pages?

Google explains that YMYL pages can sometimes be ‘created to share personal experiences, often regarding difficult life challenges’ and that ‘people turn to each other in times of need to share their own experience, seek comfort or inspiration, and learn from others’.

The following table was created to show examples of where Experience and Expertise are relevant for YMYL pages:

From Google’s quality rater guidelines - Page 28
From Google’s quality rater guidelines – Page 28

Who Runs the Site (And What is Their Reputation)?

In Understanding the Website (Section 2.5), Google implies that it is important to express who owns the website; referring to the reputation of those who are contributing to the website rather than just the website itself:

To understand a website, start by finding out who is responsible for the website and who created the content on the page. Then, look for information about the website and/or content creators on the website itself.

In Finding Who is Responsible for the Website and Who Created the Content on the Page (Section 2.5.2), Google states that the owner of the website should be clear to showcase who is responsible for a site.

Previously, Google looked at which individual, company, business, or foundation was responsible for the site. However, in this new update, Google has replaced ‘foundation’ with ‘organisation’ and ‘government agency’.

The following table was also added to the updated document to help identify who created main content on a webpage.

From Google’s quality rater guidelines - Page 17
From Google’s quality rater guidelines – Page 17

In Reputation of the Website and Content Creators (Section 3.3), Google added that ‘reputation research should be performed according to the topic of the page’; giving the example that pages containing medical information should be assessed on their reputation on the topic.

What This Update Means for You

Whilst this update to the quality rater guide seems rather huge, not much will change in terms of SEO strategy. At Fusion Unlimited, E-A-T is fundamental within our SEO strategy for our clients and the implantation of Experience allows brands to further flex their trustworthiness around their topic or niche.

If you’re worried that Experience isn’t represented on your site, say hello to the Fusion Unlimited team to see how we can help incorporate E-E-A-T into your SEO strategy.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: NOVEMBER 2022

Posted on by Jack Bell

It’s a busy time for brands across the UK, many of which are affected heavily by seasonality and approaching the height of the Christmas period. Consequently, ‘no news is good news’ on the algorithm front, and stable SERPs may be in demand.

Fortunately, that appears to have been the case for the most part during the November period. By now, most brands are likely to have seen the impact of the September core algorithm update settle, while October’s spam update appears to have primarily targeted low-quality, spammy domains.

So, what’s new in November?

Rumours vs Reality

November kicked off with rumours of an algorithm update circulating the web. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable reported signs of an update through the 4th and 5th of November, as well as the 11th and 12th, and 18th through 20th, with plenty of chatter on forums to support the claim. The evidence seemed to suggest that there were some adjustments made to search, however this wasn’t confirmed by Google.

Additionally, these reports are not consistent with general trends the Fusion team has been seeing across client accounts, which could suggest that larger brands are unaffected to a certain extent.

Google’s Guide to Search Ranking Systems

The key SEO learning emerging from November is that Google has published a new document titled a guide to Google Search ranking systems. This document helpfully lays out which ranking systems are currently in use, and which have been retired. Google’s new guide also gives us some insight into how these systems are defined, how they are used, and what they mean for search.

Which Google Ranking Systems Are Currently in Use?

  • BERT
  • Crisis Information systems
  • Deduplication systems
  • Exact match domain system
  • Freshness system
  • Helpful content system
  • Link analysis systems and PageRank
  • Local news system
  • MUM
  • Neural matching
  • Original content system
  • Removal-based demotion system including legal removals and personal information removals
  • Page experience system
  • Passage ranking system
  • Product reviews system
  • RankBrain
  • Reliable information systems
  • Site diversity system
  • Spam detection systems

Which Google Ranking Systems Have Been Retired?

  • Hummingbird
  • Mobile-friendly ranking system
  • Page speed system
  • Panda system
  • Penguin system
  • Secure site system

These were included in the document for historical purposes and have either been merged into successor systems or been integrated into Google’s core ranking factors.

What This Means for You

Google’s transparency here allows SEOs to better understand how these ranking systems work and how Google defines different ranking factors.

For SEOs, there’s no one key action to implement immediately. Instead, staying strong on the fundamentals is likely to be the key to success for brands throughout this period, and any gains made through link building, publishing content, and improving your technical infrastructure could position you well for the next core algorithm update, which we expect will roll out around the late January-February period.

We recommend taking a step back and asking yourself:

  • Is my website strong on EAT fundamentals?
  • Are there any blockers to page speed that I may have missed?
  • Is my content publishing consistent in terms of quality and frequency?

Not sure how to implement these systems into your SEO strategy? Fusion Unlimited has the knowledge and experience needed to help – come and say hello.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: OCTOBER 2022

Posted on by Price Ndlovu

Google’s October 2022 Spam Update

After only a month since Google rolled out the September 2022 Core update, it has released yet another update on the 19th October called the 2022 spam update. This comes just 11 months after the previous spam update.

What is the spam update?

Every so often, Google makes small changes to its AI-based spam prevention system, SpamBrain, for it to be able to detect spammers (or low-quality websites) within search results.

In short, the spam updates target sites that violate specific guidelines.

As far as we know, this spam update predominantly impacted websites that have automatically generated content, created through various tactics. However, Google did not implicitly say if the update was related to a specific area, i.e., content, links, or other forms of spam.

The update is global, affects all languages, and took around several days to a week to fully complete.

Here is the Google Search Central tweet announcing the update:

What impact will the spam update have on sites?

Even if you’re not actively using spam tactics, Google will identify low-quality content too. The search engine attempts to show the best possible results to users, meaning if you are creating poor content your website could be impacted.

Therefore, if you noticed significant changes in rankings or traffic from your site’s organic search results, you might want to investigate this further.

What do we know about the Google 2022 spam update?

Below is a summary covering what we know from the October 2022 spam update:

  • Update name: Google October 2022 Spam Update.
  • Date launched: October 19, 2022.
  • Rollout duration: Several days to a week for a full rollout.
  • Purpose of update: To improve Google’s spam detection techniques – “sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all”, Google said.
  • Who it will penalise: Sites adopting spam techniques that violate Google’s spam policies.
  • Location: The update is global and impacts all regions and languages.
  • What to do if impacted: Review content on the site to ensure no pages violate Google’s spam policies.
  • Recovery: Once a site is hit, it could take a few months to recover from the update.

 

The key takeaway from this update is that Google is looking to provide users with the most relevant information from reputable sites. This change looks to further improve user experience on the search engine results page, which should ultimately benefit searchers, retailers, and advertisers. If you are creating high-quality content that provides value to users, then this update shouldn’t be anything to worry about, but it is still good to be aware of.

 

If your site has been impacted by the recent spam update, Fusion Unlimited has the knowledge and experience needed to help. We can also ensure your site is prepared to tackle any core algorithm updates or product review updates.

Get in touch with us today if you need assistance in overcoming the impacts of the October 2022 Spam Update, or if you’re looking to supercharge your SEO strategy.

ANNOUNCEMENT: MEET OUR NEW DIRECTORS

Posted on by Emily Flude

Fusion Unlimited is thrilled to announce the welcoming of 3 new members to join our Board of Directors. Although they’re new to the role, they’re no stranger to life at Fusion with a combined 48 years of experience at the agency between them. We’ve caught up with Kyle, Katie and Craig to find out more about their plans for the agency moving forward.

WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT FUSION?

The UK’s digital marketing agency space is highly competitive and saturated, with thousands of agencies competing for client contracts. Conglomerates and multinationals often have an edge, but our Leeds-based digital marketing agency Fusion Unlimited has worked hard over the last 24 years to prove that independent agencies can still lead and shape the market.

Now, with a client portfolio including household brands such as Halfords, the NatWest Banking Group and The University of Leeds, the agency has been named a Google Premier Partner for the 6th year running – placing Fusion in the top 3% of digital agencies in the UK.

What, though, is our secret to standing out as an independent agency? Being mindful that people are at the heart of the business. That’s why Fusion is announcing a company restructure to remain competitive and future-proof the business.

FROM ENTRY-LEVEL STAFF TO MANAGING DIRECTORS

The first strategic change will see three long-standing members of our team join the Board of Directors.

Kyle Brogan and Katie Harling will be stepping up as Joint Managing Directors, whilst Craig Broadbent will become the agency’s first Operations Director. Kyle and Katie joined the agency over 14 and 19 years ago respectively as placement students, with Craig joining in 2007.

The trio will continue working with the current Managing Director, Mark Curtis, who will be taking on a new role as Managing Partner.

Kyle Brogan said, “Katie, Craig and I are so excited about our new roles. We’ve seen Fusion grow and adapt to an ever-changing industry and we’re thrilled to be leading its next chapter.”

Katie Harling reflects, “To think that when I accepted my first job out of University at Fusion, that I’d still be here 19 years on and now Joint Managing Director, is a testament to what an amazing place it is to work!”

The new senior leadership trio recognise employee retention as a key driver of success for the business, and are committed to making Fusion a great place to work and a business that amplifies the careers of junior staff.

EMBRACING CULTURAL CHANGE

As a legacy agency with 25 years’ worth of rich culture, it’s essential to Fusion that our agency remains dynamic and equipped to navigate the nuances of modern working life. That’s why Katie, Kyle and Craig are introducing the following cultural objectives:

  • Implement sustainable practices

In Craig’s words, “We want to continue and super charge the work we’ve started on sustainability across the agency; employing third parties to review and scrutinise our current business practices and put measures in place to hit our sustainability goals.”

  • Maintaining diversity

Fusion has a track record of recruiting employees from around the globe, and its growth practices will continue to be mindful of diversity and inclusion; ensuring equal opportunities for all within the hiring process. If you’re interested in joining the team, check out our current job vacancies.

  • Ways of working

Finally, the business aims to define a culture that is fresh and adapts to the changing world we find ourselves in; including embracing hybrid and flexible working patterns, as well maintaining an open and safe working environment for those that wish to head into the office. 

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT AT FUSION

Kyle says, “We don’t just want to ‘get back to the way things were’, we want to define a new culture that works primarily for our people; enabling them to be productive and happy – as we continue to compete against the industry giants and prove that independent agencies with the right expertise, people, and values can remain at the forefront of industry knowledge.”

Mark Curtis founded Fusion Unlimited when the digital marketing landscape was almost unrecognisable compared to how it looks today. After almost 25 years at the helm, Mark is taking a slight step back from the day-to-day running of Fusion, but he will remain firmly involved in the business that he founded back in 1997.  

To stay up to date with the latest cultural developments, sustainable initiatives, and market insights – check out our latest blog posts.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: SEPTEMBER 2022

Posted on by Price Ndlovu

Google September 2022 Core Update

WHAT’S THE STORY? 

Every day, Google releases small updates designed to improve their search results. This includes changes to its ranking system, user interface and more. Several times a year, however, they release updates that might be “more noticeable” to their search algorithms and systems – these are referred to as Google’s core updates. 

September was a busy month in terms of updates; Google released the September 2022 core update – the second core update this year. The update was released on the 12th of September, took two full weeks to roll out and came three days after another update (the helpful content update) finished rolling out.  

Google is now becoming more certain of its assessment and does not deviate as much from the previous assessment. We know that this was a global update and affected all categories, ie., it wasn’t specific to any region, language, or category of web sites. 

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU.  

September 2022 algo update and its impact. 

Based on data from tracking tools, the September 2022 core update seems less widespread than previous updates. 

In the event your site has been negatively impacted by this update, now is probably the time to start looking into analytics data to assess any pages that might have lost visibility, and create an action plan to improve the affected pages to regain rankings over time.  

As always Google’s advice for sites negatively impacted by these updates is to focus on offering quality content. 

“As explained, pages that drop after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix. This said, we understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.” 

For questions, concerns or any further information on Google updates contact our SEO team here at Fusion. We would love to hear from you! 

September Product review update 

WHAT’S THE STORY? 

Another update that was released by Google is the September 2022 product review update. This is part of a series of updates aimed at targeting low-quality reviews. 

Google announced on Twitter that the update began rolling out on September 20th, and like most updates, would take approximately 2 weeks to completely launch. 

This follows the helpful content update which launched in August. 

For sites that do not publish product reviews, this update will not affect you. Unlike a core update (as mentioned above) which impacts all search results.  

Product Review Update Explained 

This algorithm update is designed to award high-quality product review pages that share in-depth research and ‘penalise’ low quality product review pages – i.e., content that has little or no value to the user and that provides information users can find on manufacturer’s sites. 

This update applies to websites that publish long-form product reviews; it does not apply to sites that sell products that customers can review. Customer reviews are not considered the same as product review articles. 

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU.  

 As the update is 100% rolled out, site owners may already see impact on product review pages. 

Google adds: 

If you see a change and wonder if it’s related to the core update or the product reviews update: 

  • If you produce product reviews, then it’s probably related to that. 
  • If not, then it might be related to the core update. 

Google also revealed that the ranking signal introduced with the helpful content update will likely get stronger as other types of updates roll out (read more). 

This means that this repetition of the product review update could potentially cause a greater impact than previous versions of updates. 

It is also possible that product review pages not affected by previously updates will feel the effects of this September product review update, which may not be a bad thing as with every algorithm update, there is always an opportunity to improve rankings. 

For more guidance on how to assess the impact of a product review update, see this article published on the Google Search Central Blog. 

SEO MARKET UPDATES: AUGUST 2022

Posted on by Price Ndlovu

Google on Updates and the importance of Quality Content

What’s the story?

A lot of us have experienced the frustration of clicking on a website that appears to have exactly what we are looking for but turns out not to meet our expectations. This could be content that lacks the specific insight you are needing, or even worse – content that could be considered clickbait.

While it isn’t a new concept, in recent years Google has been proactive in its efforts to improve the quality of content served to users. Since last year, numerous updates search updates have been released, such as the ranking better quality product review content which sought to make it easier for searchers to find useful, helpful and relevant content.

Last month, Google rolled out a ‘helpful content update’ (which is now fully rolled out) whose goal is to track content written to specifically rank well on search engines but has no actual value for people – in other words, poor content designed to manipulate search engines.

“The helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectations won’t perform as well.”

 Based on their research, Google confirmed that the ‘helpful content update’ will “especially improve results related to online education, arts and entertainment, shopping and tech-related content.”

What this means for you. 

This update may not directly affect your industry and if the content you create is people-first – i.e., “content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience” – not much action is required. Furthermore, answering yes to the below questions should alleviate any concerns regards people-first content and whether you are on the right track with your approach:

  • Are there prospects or existing audiences for your business or website that would find the your content useful/ helpful if they landed directly to you?
  • Does your content show first-hand experience and depth of understanding (for instance, experience gained from actually using a product or service or visiting a place)?
  • Do you have a main goal or emphasis for your website?
  • Will a reader believe they have learnt enough about a subject after reading your content to aid in achieving their goal?
  • Will someone who reads your content come away from it feeling satisfied?
  • Are you following our recommendations for both core updates and product reviews?

Naturally, if ever unsure or need further clarity always refer to Google’s guidelines.

 

Google Search Console Video Index Report

What’s the story?

Due to the growth of video creation and consumption on the net, Google decided to launch a video index report within search console to help site owners better understand the performance of video content on Google search, as well as identify possible areas of improvement for that content.

This roll out started in July and is now 100% live as of the 22nd August.

https://twitter.com/googlesearchc/status/1561640838471499776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1561640838471499776%7Ctwgr%5E6c88e4543600169cd8cb7e1d7d565a19acfe1db8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsearchengineland.com%2Fgoogle-search-consoles-video-indexing-report-now-live-for-all-387366

What this means for you. 

The video indexing report ultimately helps you track the status of video indexing on your website and helps to answers the following questions:

  • In how many pages has Google identified a video?
  • Which videos were indexed successfully?
  • What are the issues preventing videos from being indexed?

Bear in mind, however, that the Video Indexing report is different from the Video Rich results report. The differences are outline below:

  • Video Indexing Report refers to video indexing despite any video structured data.
  • Video Rich results report – provides information on which Video structured data items are valid or invalid on a website.

 

Google Search Console: Updated issue categorization

Google search console has been changed in terms of how URLs or items are classified within many reports.

 

Instead of URLS being grouped at the top level by three (in some cases more) statuses – e.g., Valid, Warning, and Error, categories are now grouped into two statuses (i.e., valid or invalid) – “where invalid means that there is a report-specific critical issue in the page or item, and not invalid means that the item might still contain warnings but has no critical issues”. This should, in practice, help Search Console users focus more on critical issues.

Despite this change, search console still categorises singular issues such as error, warning, or good. The change is predominantly a move from text label to classifications implied through colour and icons.

The individual Search Console report changes are as follows:

  • Coverage (Page indexing): The Valid and Valid with warning pages are categorised as Indexed status.
  • Error and Excluded issues have been grouped into the Not indexed status.
  • Core Web Vitals: The report now divides pages into two tables: one for Good pages and one for Poor/Need improvement pages.
  • Mobile Usability has changed from Not usable to Usable.
  • AMP Report: The major (critical) issues that are affecting AMP pages are shown in the first table, while the non-critical issues are shown in the second table.
  • Rich result report: Rich results that are impacted by critical issues are shown in the first table, while non-critical issues are shown in the second.
  • URL Inspection: After examining a URL, one of the following three verdicts will be given:
      • URL is on Google
      • URL is on Google but has issues
      • URL is not on Google

In conclusion, Google is now becoming more certain of its assessment and does not deviate as much from the previous assessments. Hence it is essential to ensure that your site meets Google’s standards and guidelines to rank well on search engine results. Following these guideline should result in users being served with the most relevant, helpful information and an overall great experience.

For questions, concerns or any further information on updates and Google products contact the SEO team here at Fusion, we’d love to hear from you!

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Google Premier Partner: 6th Year Running

Posted on by Elena Brooke

2022 marks the sixth consecutive year in which the team at Fusion Unlimited has been selected as a Google Premier Partner.

A Leeds-Based Google Premier Partner

We have achieved Premier Partner status by demonstrating expertise through our advertising techniques, delivered agency and client revenue growth, and not just sustained- but also grown our client base. Google Premier Partnership distinguishes the Fusion team as being within the top 3% of marketing agencies in the UK.

Securing this status grants us access to a number of invaluable opportunities and advantages that we can bring to our client base.

What does this mean for our clients?

From advanced education and specialist Google Ads support, to attendance of executive events, this partnership gives us access to a wealth of exclusive opportunities. Learning opportunities and networking events in particular enable us to leverage this partnership in a way that enables our clients to reap the benefits.

Google Premier Partnership status means we can continue to be at the forefront of knowledge, and apply this knowledge to help our clients lead their respective markets with cutting-edge strategies and new technology that’s implemented effectively.

You can learn more about our services and the work that we do here.

SEO Market Updates: May 2022

Posted on by Simone De Palma

Google Releases May 2022 Core Algorithm Update

Following rumours across the industry, on 25th May 2022 Google announced the release of a new broad core algorithm update:

This follows the previous Core Algorithm Update that rolled out November 2021, with the latest update a further general refinement of its algorithmic systems. With a rollout period of around 2 weeks, the update finally competed it’s release on 9th June 2022.  

As the name suggests, this is a broad update meaning it does not target specific websites, and it is designed to promote or reward good quality content at scale. According to Google’s Danny Sullivan:

“Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web. There’s nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better.”

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/05/may-2022-core-update

Although websites may be positively or negatively impacted by an update, Google states that no specific actions should be taken in response but to keep monitoring rankings and traffic. In case a website was dramatically impacted by the core update, site owners should not take any actions but focus on honing the quality of their content, according to Google:

“Pages that drop after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix. This said, we understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.”

 https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/08/core-updates

Beginning with the June 2021 broad core update, Google appears to be keen to make periodic refreshes to it’s algorithmic systems. Based on initial analysis from some third parties, this could be part of a larger trend that has core updates becoming less impactful over time, although time will tell whether this is actually the case.

PageSpeed Insights adds INP and TTFB into the Field Data Report

Google’s Annie Sullivan unveiled a new metric called INP or Interaction to Next Paint at this year’s Google I/O event.

INP measures overall responsiveness to user interactions on the page and it was introduced as a more comprehensive version of the current FID metric. INP measures the full path of interactions: from the very first hit on a page until the delivery of a visible response.

Interaction to Next Paint brand-new PageSpeed Insights indicator showing a bar with "Good", "Needs Improvement" and "Poor" thresholds
INP (Interaction to Next Paint, via Web.Dev

Google’s Web.dev explains the new Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric:

INP is a metric that aims to represent a page’s overall interaction latency by selecting one of the single longest interactions that occur when a user visits a page. For pages with less than 50 interactions in total, INP is the interaction with the worst latency. For pages with many interactions, INP is most often the 98th percentile of interaction latency

A high INP value score is usually indicative of a high reliance on JavaScript or other main thread work that may run concurrently with user interactions. Hence, sites built in Angular.js or React.js may be particularly affected by high INP scores as interaction latency is largely extended.

SEOs have been wondering whether such an indicator is going to have a tangible impact on the overall Page Experience. Google’s spokesperson Annie Sullivan quelled mounting concerns and claimed that INP is still an experimental metric.

Given that responsiveness is crucial to serving user experience throughout the page lifecycle, Google may soon replace FID with INP as a proper Core Web Vitals.

Despite holding a less straightforward impact on user experience, TTFB (Time to First Byte) field data will be collected from the CrUX (Chrome User Experience) for the first time in PageSpeed Insights. TTFB measures how fast the server responds to a request for a resource helping SEOs to isolate factors which can have a negative effect on all other page loading metrics.

New Translated Results feature added to Google Search Console

On 13th May Google released a new search appearance filter to the performance report in Google Search Console called “translated results”.

The new filter is designed to provide further information on how many searchers accessed one’s site content when Google translates it in the search results. To date, the release is currently available only on mobile, with support at present only for Indonesian, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.

New Translated Result filter within the Search Appearance tab from the Performance section in Google Search Console
Translated results within Search Appearance tab in Google Search Console, via Seroundtable

Google had already covered within its official blog how this new feature would have worked once rolled out.

In short, Google may translate the title link and snippet of a search result for results that are not in the language of the search query. Once a searcher clicks the translated title link from Google Search, the content would be delivered automatically by Google Translate because of its automatic machine learning model.

Google removing support for some video and sitemap extension tags

By August 6th, 2022, some outdated sitemap tags will be deprecated as a result of a recent announcement from Google aimed at making sitemaps less cluttered with redundant code.

Google made the point by stating that “deprecated tags will have no effect on indexing and search features after August 6th, 2022”. That means that tags can safely be removed, without the need to worry about any negative impact on SEO performance.

Google added that at some point Google Search Console will notify webmasters via messages or errors in case any dismissed tags were still in place on a sitemap file.

The following sitemap extension tags will no longer be supported:

Within image sitemaps:

  • caption
  • geo_location
  • title
  • license

Within video sitemaps:

  • category
  • player_loc[@allow_embed]
  • player_loc[@autoplay]
  • gallery_loc, price[@all]
  • tvshow[@all]

Google adds new Education Q&A Structured Data

Google has announced the rollout of a new “Education Q&A” structured data type, specifically designed to aid users find pages containing quiz flashcards within search results.

When searching for education-related topics on desktop and mobile, users can now browse through Q&A carousel speeding up query response, thereby easing their learning process on educational subjects.

Questions & Answers mock up box, unfolded in 3 rows containing one question each
Q&A carousel, via seroundtable

To encourage the display of the new feature within SERPs, webmasters are required to add Education Q&A schema on their educational content and make sure to abide by a few best practices, such as:

  • Ensure to implement structured data on the most detailed leaf page possible.
  • Ensure questions aren’t held only in a data file or PDF, and are immediately visible to users browsing the page.

At present, the Q&A carousel is only available to those with the browser language set to English, across any region.

Apple to release new Search Engine

A multi-colour half bitten apple mounting upon a search bar as part of the brand-new Apple’s search engine interface
New Apple search engine, via Seroundtable.

A few hours before the end of May, the SEO industry heard through the grapevine that Apple was to release a new search engine at this year’s Apple WWDC (aka World Wide Developer Conference), which took place on June 6th.

Apple had been slowly sneaking into the web search over the years. Following the Applebot rollout back in 2014, Apple listed their own search ranking factors along with Applebot user-agent details.

Google Releases May 2022 Core Algorithm Update

Posted on by Joshua Carter

On 25th May 2022 Google announced the release of a new broad core algorithm update:

As with recent updates the stated rollout period is set to be around 1-2 weeks, meaning a likely date of completion at some time during w/c 6th June.

As the name suggests, broad core algorithm updates are designed to be a general “refresh” of Google’s algorithmic ranking processes and are not intended to target any particular website niches or areas of organic search. Websites can see a change in ranking performance as a result of updates, both positive and negative, but it’s also possible to see a negligible impact.

Within the Search Central blog on the most recent update, Google’s Danny Sullivan wrote:

Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web. There’s nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better.

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/05/may-2022-core-update

Websites may be positively or negatively impacted by an update, but regardless of this the official advice remains the same. In summary, there’s nothing specific that webmasters need to do in response, and the focus should remain on creating “quality content”. In Google’s own words:

Pages that drop after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix. This said, we understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/08/core-updates

With the last core algorithm refresh released in late November 2021, and updates appearing to be pushed out on a rough 6 monthly schedule, it’s highly likely that another similar update will take place in late 2022.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Wallpaper & Paint Sector Report

Posted on by Elena Brooke

In our latest report, we take a look at which big brands are putting their personal touch on the wallpaper and paint market; delving into organic visibility and performance both for key market players and the ones-to-watch using our proprietary Share of Voice tool, Natural Edge.

Some of the insights you can discover include:

  • Brand table – top 50 brands with highest share of voice
  • Share of voice at a product category level
  • Keyword opportunities – which keyword clusters have seen the biggest growth areas over the last 12 months?
  • Keyword losers – which brands have seen the biggest decline over the last 12 months?

Market leaders like Wilko, B&Q, and Homebase prove their worth as household names, and smaller luxury labels like Farrow & Ball and Little Greene hold strong in the ranks for their niches. Specialist brands Dulux and Crown maintain a steady position for paints, while I Love Wallpaper proves worthy of the name by maintaining a presence across all wallpaper categories.

What could our report findings mean for your brand?

There’s clearly a lot of fluctuation within rankings for the Wallpaper and Paint sector, and new brands entering the market are able to gain visibility. Consequently, there’s plenty of opportunity for existing brands and challenger brands to optimise their site content, improve their SEO foundations, and generate links from reputable publishers to boost visibility and drive conversions.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help you gain visibility in the SERPs within the beds and mattresses category get in touch here. 

SEO Market Updates: April 2022

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

AI Generated Content Is Against Google Guidelines

In a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout, Search Advocate John Mueller weighed in on the widely discussed topic of GPT-3 AI writing tools and, more broadly, the nature of automatically generated content.

Mueller says that any content written by AI is considered as automatically-generated, which is against Google guidelines and could lead to a manual penalty. Here is the full response given:

“If you’re using machine learning tools to generate your content, it’s essentially the same as if you’re just shuffling words around, or looking up synonyms, or doing the translation tricks that people used to do.

My suspicion is maybe the quality of content is a little bit better than the really old school tools, but for us it’s still automatically generated content, and that means for us it’s still against the Webmaster Guidelines. So we would consider that to be spam.”

Soon after this conversation, the Webmaster Guidelines were updated to provide more clarity on this subject. Within the Quality Guidelines section, “Automatically generated content intended to manipulate search rankings” is now listed as a technique to avoid:

It is not clear if Google’s algorithm has the ability to detect auto-generated content, however, Mueller did say that “If we see that something is automatically generated, then the webspam team can definitely take action on that”.

Google Rolls Out Conversions Migration Tool For GA4

Google has rolled out a conversion migration tool allowing you to import your existing goals from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. This can be accessed within the GA4 settings screen, in the Setup Assistant tab, under the Conversions section.

In short, the migration tool allows you to quickly recreate goals from a connected Universal Analytics property as conversion events within a GA4 property.

Charles Farina provided a good post about this on Twitter, along with screenshots of where to find it and what to expect:

A step-by-step guide on how to use the tool is below:

  1. In Google Analytics, click Admin.
  2. In the Account column, make sure that your desired account is selected. (If you only have one Google Analytics account, it will already be selected.)
  3. In the Property column, select the Google Analytics 4 property that currently collects data for your website.
  4. In the Property column, click Setup Assistant.
  5. Under Conversions, go to Import existing goals from your connected Universal Analytics property, and click Get started.
  6. In the Import existing goals from your connected property panel, select which goals you’d like to recreate as conversion events in your new Google Analytics 4 property.
  7. Click Import selected conversions in the top right.

Data Studio Now Supports Discover & Google News Traffic

The Google Search Console connector for Data Studio can now retrieve traffic data for Google Discover and Google News. Within the data source connection settings, here’s how this can be added:

More information on how to monitor search traffic in Data Studio – including detail on the new connectors – can be found in this Google Search Central Blog titled ‘Monitoring Search traffic (and more!) with Data Studio’.

March 2022 Product Reviews Update Finished Rolling Out

The third version of the product reviews update which began rolling out on the 23rd of March, has now officially completed. Google announced on the 11th of April that the March 2022 Product Reviews Update had finished rolling out, taking 19 days to complete.

As previously mentioned in last month’s blog – this set of algorithm updates aims to improve how Google Search ranks product reviews; prioritising in-depth, authentic content based on feedback, internal testing, and an evaluation process.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Fusion Unlimited Announced as a 2022 Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agency

Posted on by Tom Walsh

The team at Fusion Unlimited is proud to announce that we are once again part of Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital agencies, appearing in 26th position in the 2022 list. The annual list shines light on the digital specialists putting out some of the best work in the industry that’s worth watching out for.

Rankings are based on a number of factors including balance sheets and shareholder funds, turnover, pre-tax profit, headcount, and ultimately, growth.

 

What is Prolific North?

Prolific North is a leading hub for the media, digital, marketing, tech, and creative sectors in the North. Since 2013, Prolific North has been the go-to for jobs, events, and breaking news and insights across these sectors, sharing some of the best industry insights and compiling lists of the outstanding achievers and industry leaders operating in the North of England.

Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies has shown us that agencies based in Yorkshire continue to thrive, with 7 of the top 10 agencies and 44% of the total list based in the region.

 

How did Fusion Unlimited qualify as a top 50 digital agency?

2022 marks Fusion’s 25th year of supporting UK brands with cutting-edge digital marketing strategy across fast-moving disciplines such as SEO and paid media. Over the past year, we have:
  • Added eight new clients.
  • Grown our turnover by 36%.
  • Once again been named as a Google Premier Partner – which places Fusion in the top 3% of digital agencies in the UK.
What’s more, we’re one of the top 20 independent agencies within Prolific North’s top 50 list, and we have an extremely efficient working model, with an expert group of strategists developing the accounts of national and global brands.

If you’re interested in learning more about how a Top 50 agency could help your brand become more visible, read more about how Fusion Unlimited has supported some of the UK’s leading businesses across a diverse range of sectors.

SEO Market Updates: March 2022

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google to Sunset Universal Analytics in 2023

Google has announced plans to sunset the standard version of Google Analytics called Universal Analytics. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will therefore replace UA as the new standard.

From the 1st July 2023, standard universal analytics properties will stop processing data. 360 properties will receive an extra three months of data processing, ending on the 1st October 2023.

The move to GA4 comes from a wide variety of factors, however Google says this is largely down to the fact that the new even-based data model can operate across multiple platforms, making it a more future-proof solution.

Speaking on other reasons for discontinuing Universal Analytics, Google said:

“Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions, and more easily observable data from cookies. This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete.”

March 2022 Product Reviews Update Rollout

On Wednesday the 23rd of March, Google began the rollout of the third version of the product reviews update, inventively named the March 2022 Product Reviews Update.

These set of algorithm updates aim to improve how Google Search ranks product reviews, prioritising in-depth authentic content based on feedback, internal testing, and an evaluation process.

Google say this latest version “builds on that work to enhance our ability to identify high-quality product reviews. This will make it easier for us to get sound purchasing advice in front of users, and to reward creators who are earnest in being helpful”. Currently, this may only impact the rankings of English-language product reviews.

Google to Remove the URL Parameters Tool in Search Console

The URL parameters tool that sites within the legacy Google Search Console will be killed off on Tuesday the 26th of April 2022.

In the announcement just last month, Google said “Over the years, Google became much better at guessing which parameters are useful on a site and which are —plainly put— useless. In fact, only about 1% of the parameter configurations currently specified in the URL Parameters tool are useful for crawling. Due to the low value of the tool both for Google and Search Console users, we’re deprecating the URL Parameters tool in 1 month.”

Going forward, there is no specific action for site owners to take in order to specify the function of URL parameters on their site, Google’s crawlers will automatically learn how best to deal with them.

More Context Given in Structured Data Error Reporting

From Monday the 28th March 2022, structured data error reporting within the Google Search Console rich results status reports, the Google Search Console URL inspection tool, and the Rich Results test gained more specific, descriptive, and contextual names for issues to help site owners find and fix the problem.

Within the announcement, Google added that:

  • All your open issues that refer to nested properties will be automatically closed (for example, the Missing field “name” issue in the example above).
  • You’ll see new open issues with more context about what’s missing (for example, the issue will say Missing field “name” (in “author”). To avoid overloading Search Console users with emails, we won’t send notifications on the creation of these new issues.

Here’s a before and after example of a structured data error:

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

IWD: An Interview

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

This International Women’s Day we spoke to Laura (LT), Amelia (AF) and Emily (EF) to hear more about their experiences and what IWD means for them. So without any further ado…

What does IWD mean for you?

LT: Empowerment to live the life I want, to do it all

AF: Celebrating all the strong, successful women in my life who have been pivotal role models for me. Also, acknowledging that we still have some work to do in the pursuit of equality – important days like this helps drive the conversation about gender equality and how we move forward together. 

EF: IWD to me is a day to acknowledge and celebrate all women for what they have achieved, especially women from marginalised groups who still experience racism, stereotyping, ableism etc. every day.

Which powerful women do you admire the most?

LT: My wonderful daughter, mum, grandma and nana aside – who could not admire the Queen, such a strong lady in every aspect of her life, and also the other Queen – Dolly Parton, what a life she carved from humble beginnings. Dolly has such a work ethic whilst being kind, caring and an all round superstar!

AF: Jacinda Ardern. The way she handled the pandemic was admirable. She acted swiftly, strictly and with compassion to protect the people of New Zealand. A true role model.

EF: I admire all the trans women who still experience discrimination and violence in society just for living authentically as themselves. I admire Michaela Jaé Rodriguez who shows us that with talent and determination you can achieve anything, as she became the first trans actor to win a Golden Globe in 2022. I admire my friend Summer who has experienced harassment in Leeds for not looking ‘womanly’ enough but is brave and powerful in expressing her femininity.

What barriers/challenges have you faced as a woman in digital?

LT: My own lack of confidence and belief in myself, which is a work in progress every day!

AF: I would say one of my barriers has been the fear of failure. Sometimes, I have a dreadful feeling of “what if I fail”. Collectively as women, I believe it is important support each other in the pathway to success. 

What advice would you give for women looking to start their careers in digital?

LT: Listen, learn and absorb from others whilst on the job – never stop growing your knowledge and pushing forward.

AF: Be confident in yourself and show your strengths. If you want to make a difference, start with believing that you can. 

EF: When applying for roles, it could be a good idea to look at the current staff members to see the ratio of women. It can be evident from looking at a company’s colleagues whether women have been given the opportunity to progress and that could impact your decision of whether you would want to work there.

SEO Market Updates: February 2022

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Desktop Page Experience Algorithm Now Rolling Out

As of Tuesday 22nd February, the Google Page Experience update began rolling out across desktop search results, this is expected to complete by the end of March 2022:

As previously touched on, the desktop algorithm includes the same factors as the mobile page experience update, other than the obvious mobile friendliness, illustrated below:

It is unlikely that sites will see any immediate or at all change in rankings from this update. During the rollout on mobile, Google said “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes”, we expect this to also apply to desktop.

Multiple Data Losses Within Google Search Console

Google Search Console experienced data losses on two separate occasions throughout February. Firstly, between the 1st and 3rd of February, Google reported a data logging issue within the performance report, relating to Google Search, Google Discover, and Google News.

As a result, site owners may spot some discrepancies in performance data during this period, however, Google says “this is only a logging issue; it does not reflect a change in either user behaviour or search results on Google”. The performance report displays an annotation icon to document this.

The second instance of data loss within Google Search Console last month refers to the crawl stats report, site owners are reporting crawl data missing from either one or both of the 8th and 9th February, looking like this:

John Mueller from Google later confirmed on Twitter that this missing crawl data is of no concern:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1493883854872096768?s=20&t=W22ycOfqVbwLvdWAVZJlOg

Google Search Console Snapshot Now Supports Domain Properties

First launched in 2018, the Google Search Console snapshot displays insights from Google Search Console data directly in the search results, for example:

This now supports and will display for all verification methods, after Google announced “we are happy to share that starting today Search Console in Search results feature will also support domain properties”.

It is worth remembering that the snapshot will only appear if you are either the full owner or the full user of the site in Google Search Console, you must also be signed in with the correct Google account whilst searching for queries that your site ranks for.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

SEO Market Updates: January 2022

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Launches URL Inspection API

On the 31st of January 2022, Google announced the new Google Search Console URL Inspection API, letting you programmatically access the URL level data from Google Search Console properties through external software, as with other APIs.

Google says “we’re providing a new tool for developers to debug and optimize their pages. You can request the data Search Console has about the indexed version of a URL; the API will return the indexed information currently available in the URL Inspection tool.”

Here’s an example of the API response:

URL Inspection API Code

Many SEO tool providers are already publishing updates with the new API integration, for example, Screaming Frog:

New Google Robots Tag: indexifembedded

Google announced the rollout of a new robots tag, giving sites more control over what content can be indexed in search results. The new tag named indexifembedded lets you tell Google if you’d still like your content indexed when it’s embedded through iframes and similar HTML tags in other pages, even when the content page has a noindex tag.

The new tag addresses a common issue faced by publishers, while they may want their content indexed when it’s embedded on third-party pages, they don’t necessarily want their media pages indexed on their own.

To enable content to be indexed only when it’s embedded on other pages, add indexifembedded in combination with the noindex tag. For example:

Google Search Console Adds Desktop Page Experience Report

With the Page Experience update expected to roll out across desktop search results imminently, Google has added a Desktop Page Experience report to Search Console:

The Google Search Console Page Experience report now looks like the following:

Breadcrumb & HowTo Error Reporting Changed in Google Search Console

Towards the end of January, Google posted an update within the Help Centre stating the way it evaluates and reports errors in Breadcrumbs and HowTo structured data within Search Console has changed.

As a result, Google says “you may see changes in the number of Breadcrumbs and HowTo entities and issues reported for your property, as well as a change in severity of some issues from errors to warnings.”

It is worth noting that any changes are strictly in reporting, this will not affect the visibility of rich results within Google Search.

New “People Search Next” Google Mobile Search Feature

Google search has a new feature on mobile SERPs titled “People search next”, this has been spotted for multiple “near me” queries, displaying above the “Related searches” refinement.

An example of this for the search of “dentist near me” is shown below:

As with most new search features, this appears to only currently be showing in US SERPs.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Social Media Updates: January 2022

Posted on by Hira Nasir

TikTok Looking to Test ‘Stories’ Format

TikTok is updating a ‘Stories’ feature – a step towards expanding content formats to provide more creative options to creators. This new element will not have its own separate space like on other platforms, instead it would be integrated into the ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ feeds.

Users will be able to view ‘Stories’ content irrespective of whether they follow the account. In multiple story frames, they will have to tap on the frame to move onto the next one, which may take some getting used to as they are used to scrolling down. 

‘Stories’ will be also marked on user profiles with the total amount of frames displayed too. TikTok is still in the testing phase and will launch the feature in the next coming months once it has finalised all aspects.

The social media giant’s aim is to become a social media platform that caters for a range of users with a variety of content options. However, since this ‘Stories’ content format is so overused, we don’t know how it will be taken by users. Will they find it useful and interesting, or will they get annoyed by the intrusion into their feeds? We’ll find out when the format is rolled out.

Pinterest Tests Pin Highlights

Pinterest is testing the ‘Highlights’ option for their Idea Pins. This new feature, which will have up to six highlights, would enable creators to showcase their content longer than the 24 hour time-frame set for Ideas Pin.

The platform says:

Pinterest is an inspiration to realization platform. Creators play a crucial role in that journey acting as personal shoppers, chefs, stylists and overall consultants to our Pinners. Therefore, we continue to evolve our formats, features and tools to help them build a community and to inspire Pinners to take action. Profile highlights are a new way we offer creators to highlight their most relevant Idea Pins at the top of their profile to make them more visible and easier to discover.

Currently, the story-like feature, Idea Pins allows users to add up to 20 frames per sequence. Including the Highlight element to this will definitely provide value as it will not only showcase the Ideas Pin content longer than 24 hours, but it will also point visitors towards the creator’s goals.

Instagram Increases Response Options in Stories Polls

Instagram has updated its Poll sticker used in stories. The element will now enable users to add up to four answer options – which previously, was limited to two.

This is great for brands looking to engage more users through stories and conduct polls that will help shape their marketing strategies based on user preferences. Two response options would limit creator and brands from getting in-depth insights from followers, however this update makes it easier to have built-in replies on any topic. 

Apart from this update, users can also change the colour of the question being asked in the poll. Giving them slightly more creative freedom.

Snapchat Adds Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses

Snapchat is looking to improve its AR tools by integrating new Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses which will enable brands to showcase their products and provide virtual try-on options.

Whether it’s a clothing brand or a makeup brand – companies will be able to make users shopping experience more personal, accessible and fun. The Catalog lenses will be directly linked to the company’s brand catalog and include details on pricing, size, colour, and similar items.

This is not only great from a sales perspective, as users can just try on the product from the comfort of their phones – but it can also help brands drive their marketing efforts towards the direction that their target audience are interested in. For example, if one product is more popular than others, it will help brands know where and what to focus their efforts on.

Snapchat has also updated its Lens Web Builder with new templates and tools to allow more brands to easily create their AR lenses. The app further explains:

We’ve now made it so brands can generate a commerce Lens in as fast as two minutes and beauty brands can do so in just a few clicks. At launch, this quick click accessibility in Lens Web Builder will be available to beauty brands and will roll out to other product verticals in the coming months.

If you want to learn how social media can help you maximise your marketing efforts, get in touch with our expert team here. Don’t forget to check out our blog for all the latest news and updates within the digital marketing space.  

Welcome to Team Fusion, Shreya!

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

We’re thrilled to have Shreya on board as our newest Account Executive. A Computer Engineering undergrad from Essex university and a MSc Business with Marketing from Warwick Uni – we can’t wait to see Shreya blow us away! 

Let’s get to know her a little more…

Welcome to the team! We’re all delighted to have you here. What are you most looking forward to about the role?

Thank you! I am glad to be a part of the team! I would say the thing I am most looking forward to is learning as much as I can from everyone at Fusion and putting my degree to good use!

So tell me, why marketing?

Marketing was a rather impromptu choice for me but the one thing I have come to love about it is that Marketing combines both creativity and analytics. That being said, I have always been fascinated with the social media algorithm and curious to learn more about it.

What attracted you to Fusion in the first place?

The opportunity to work with a small team and learn from a variety of experts on the team was what mainly attracted me to the role. I have always preferred working and learning with smaller teams and I am glad to have been accepted into the Fusion family.

Right, let’s get to know the real you…

Favourite marketing campaign?

It has to be “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”. It is an impactful campaign which aims to highlight women’s unique differences thus empowering them. Absolutely love the message behind it!

App you couldn’t live without?

Instagram!

What are you reading/podcast are you into currently?

Death Message (by Mark Billingham) … (I really love crime novels)

Dream Client?

 Any online fashion retailer really…

What are you binge watching right now?

Suits! Absolutely love that show! (…and also FRIENDS for about the 100th time!)

Interesting fact about you?

 I am a trained Indian classical dancer.

If you weren’t in marketing?

I would probably be an Event Planner!

SEO Market Updates: December 2021

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates

December 2021 Product Reviews Update

On 1st December Google announced the rollout of a new product reviews update, following on from a previous update released in April 2021.

The news was announced within a new Search Central blogpost, with Google writing that the update was designed to reward “high-quality product reviews” and that webmasters may notice changes in how their reviews are ranked as a result.

According to Google, the decision to release a new update was largely based on new feedback from users on what is viewed as “trustworthy” or “useful” review content. This feedback has formed the basis of two new best practice recommendations, taken into account in the most recent update:

  •  Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
  • Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

As well as forming a part of the most recent update, the new recommendations have now also been added to Google’s official documentation around product reviews.

As with the previous update, only websites offering product reviews should be impacted by the recent release, with no other content types impacted.

Google Search Console Experiences Widespread Bugs

December was a rocky month for Google Search Console, with the platform experiencing at least two widespread issues impacting the accuracy and accessibility of data.

In mid-December, many webmasters reported a large spike in redirect issues within the platform, often across multiple websites. Following coverage of this, on 13th December Google stated that the spikes reported were false and that this was due to an issue with the platform:

Just a few days later another issue was reported, with some users finding that they were unable to access and essentially locked out of their account. Google again announced this was a bug:

Google has since confirmed that both issues are now resolved, although some within the industry are continuing to report sporadic issues with the platform. No further information has been provided as to the reasons behind the bugs, with Google simply stating that they were “internal issues”.

No Penalty For Failing to No-Follow Affiliate Links

In a recent Q&A session, Google’s John Mueller stated that failing to correctly no-follow affiliate links is unlikely to pose a real issue.

In answer to the question “Would I be penalized if I don’t set the rel sponsored or rel no follow for my affiliate links?”, Mueller stated:

Probably not. […] From our point of view, affiliate links fall into that category of something financial attached to the links, so we really strongly recommend to [add a rel sponsored or rel no-follow tag]. But for the most part if it doesn’t come across as you selling links, then it’s not likely to be the case that [Google] would manually penalize a website for having affiliate links and not marking them up.

As affiliate links indicate some kind of financial relationship between the linking and linked-to website, Google considers it best practice to ensure that they are tagged with a “rel=sponsor” attribute or”rel=nofollow” attribute. Both tags prevent equity from being transferred to the linked-to website, with the sponsor tag also indicating to search engines clearly that a financial agreement is in place between the two websites.

However, Mueller’s answer indicates that failing to use the tag for affiliate links is unlikely to cause any real issue, despite this being contrary to best-practice guidelines.

Watch the question at 31:58 here.

100k URLs Unlikely to Pose Crawl Budget Issue

Google’s John Mueller recently stated that websites sized around 100k URLs shouldn’t encounter issues with crawl budget. In response to a question on Twitter focused on whether to de-index lower-quality content, Mueller tweeted:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1473268153316691975

Although Google’s official documentation on crawl budget contains brief definitions of what it considers a “Large site” (+1,000,000 URLs) and a “Medium or larger site” (+10,000 URLs), there is no information given on how well Google is able to handle both size brackets.

As such, Mueller’s tweet provides a useful – albeit informal – guideline for webmasters to follow when considering the impact of website size.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Best Marketing Campaigns of 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

2021 has been another interesting year with many ground-breaking brand marketing campaigns, reaching customers through their innovative, meaningful, and quirky ideas.

With so many buzzworthy campaigns, here’s a list of our favourites of 2021! Worth keeping these in mind as a source of inspiration for your next brainstorm.

 

Welcome Back – Guinness

There is no doubt that the general public had missed going to pubs for a pint during lockdown. We surely had!

So, when lockdown restrictions started to ease and pubs were allowed to operate again in May 2021, the beer giant, Guinness, launched a campaign to welcome people back. The video ad included random objects having a resemblance to a pint of Guinness, whether that’s a black bin covered with snow or white pigeons on a black chimney.

The aim of the campaign was to inspire a variety of emotions including a feeling of positivity, nostalgia, and excitement. The idea was also promoted on social media with the #LooksLikeGuiness hashtag encouraging users to share their examples of white and black Guinness lookalikes.

The campaign was a great success and led to Guinness being the number one most talked about beer brand at the time with engagement 3.5 times higher than the industry benchmark.

Cuthbert the Caterpillar – Aldi

We’re sure everyone has heard about the Caterpillar war between Aldi and Marks & Spencer. When Aldi launched its Cuthbert the Caterpillar Swiss roll, M&S launched a legal action against the supermarket claiming the company had infringed the trademark for its Colin the Caterpillar cake.

Aldi’s response to this was brilliant and unexpected. They managed to turn a complex situation into a national debate through a series of funny tweets using the #FreeCuthbert hashtag.

Within hours, the brand was trending on Twitter and the topic became so big that it gained coverage from national news channels such as BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, newspapers such as The Independent and Daily Mail, and creators also generating content through memes and parodies.

This reactive marketing effort gained great results for Aldi as its Twitter following increased by 30%, with a 15% engagement rate on socials. The score for news sentiment also increased by 8.5%, with its purchase consideration increasing by 6.8%.  

Beanz on Bix – Weetabix

Another popular campaign you’ve probably come across either on social media or heard about through friends or colleagues, Beanz on Bix!

The breakfast cereal company wanted to drive brand engagement and demonstrate its versatility by going ahead with a bold and weird idea of having baked beans on their popular wheat biscuits.

The aim of the campaign was to generate conversation on social media, and it did exactly that. When the brand introduced the idea on Twitter, users were so outraged by the weird combination leading to involvement from other brands such as Specsavers, Nando’s, KFC, and more.

The idea became so viral that it was covered by all mainstream media outlets such as Good Morning Britain, The Express and LADbible, to even being discussed in the House of Commons.

Although the campaign received plenty of mockery and conversation, it did achieve its goal of increasing user engagement as brand awareness grew by 40% with sales up by 15%.

Kindness, the greatest gift – Amazon

Let’s conclude with a favourite Christmas campaign – Kindness, the greatest gift! With the past two years being a true challenge for everybody, especially those who have lost their loved ones, Amazon’s holiday ad message looked to promote kindness.

The video campaign consisted of a young woman forming a new friendship with her neighbour while dealing with her recent traumas. To show her support and kindness during this tough time, her neighbour gifted her something of interest from Amazon.

This has truly touched our hearts at Fusion as we all believe in the power of kindness and how a small act can help people feel better during a difficult time.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our round-up of best 2021 marketing campaigns. To find out how you can create a long-lasting impact on your target audience through digital marketing, get in touch with our expert team to create results-driven SEO, PCC and Social Media campaigns.

How Was 2021 For Our Newest Recruits?

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

There’s no doubt 2021 has been a wild one but as we got used to WFH, Friday Fun, back to the office, socials, new client wins, award wins, and continuing to go above and beyond for our existing clients, we also made 6 new hires this year!

So whilst our senior leadership team might have been with Fusion for 83 years combined (!) our newest recruits are only just getting started on their journey with us. Want to find out what it’s like to work at Leeds’ best-kept secret? Let Tom, Charlie, Emily, George, Jonny and Elise tell you more…

You joined the Fusion team earlier this year, how would you summarise your time here so far?

Tom: It’s been great! Everyone has been very welcoming, it’s a great team to work in and I feel like I’ve learned a lot since I started. Working across different clients has been something new for me as I worked in-house previously, but it’s been very enjoyable and it’s helped me grow.

Emily: This is my first full-time role post-university so when I think about my knowledge of the field when I joined the team compared to now, I have learned soo much. It’s been quite the journey starting from working remotely, which is why it’s now great having the option to go into the office & see everyone at socials face-to-face rather than through a screen.

Charlie: My time at Fusion so far has been incredibly fulfilling and a rewarding experience. In terms of development I’ve had continual support from the team as a whole, positively challenged with opportunities to grow, whilst also being introduced to and welcomed across all teams. 

Jonny: In one word; welcoming! The whole team has been incredibly warm and friendly since the day I joined, and has made it an absolute breeze to settle in. Every agency likes to talk about collaboration and teamwork, but with Fusion you can really feel it. The team is always ready and willing to support on any issue or challenge.

George: It’s been great, very fast-paced and no day is the same. I’ve loved the variety of sites that we get to work on and take great satisfaction from seeing recommended technical actions implemented with a positive impact.

What’s been the biggest surprise about working at Fusion?

Tom: Not a surprise as such, but everyone works to a very high standard and is very professional in what they do, and I haven’t worked in an environment like that before where the standards are so high, so it’s great to be within it.

Emily: I had no preconceptions of what it would be like working for Fusion, so it has been a pleasant surprise to find it’s a fun and welcoming environment to work in. There has always been someone to turn to if I have a question so that has been really helpful for my own personal development.

Charlie: I think when you start a new job it can be a nervous time, but across the interview process to starting my first day, a sense of welcoming and warmth came across in abundance – the extent to which this has continued goes far beyond what I could have hoped for. Feeling like you belong in a workplace is so essential and I feel I’ve really found that here.

Jonny: How adaptable the team is. I joined Fusion during lockdown and it was a genuine surprise to see how well Fusion had adapted to working from home. I never felt like I skipped a beat switching between the office and home. That being said Charlie’s barista skills make trips to the office somewhat essential; the man has travelled the world in order to perfect the art of coffee for the whole team’s benefit – definitely not one to be missed.

George: I’d say the biggest surprise would be how efficient and adjusted everyone has become to WFH, whilst maintaining communication and remaining collaborative.  

Top skill or tip you’ve learned this year in your specialism?

Tom: Attention to detail is the top tip I’ve learned, whether that be a change in metrics or a market trend, constantly looking at the small details has been massive for me.

Emily: I’d say for anyone starting in the field, try to make clear comprehensive notes while you’re learning anything new. It is helpful to have a written explanation of what was done and why so that you can go back to it when you come across the task again. It is especially valuable to have these notes written in a step-by-step format so that they are organised in the order you will complete the task.

Charlie: Be curious, read across varying industries and always look to discover and anticipate the next development.

Jonny: Perhaps a bit cliché but…I’ve learned the value in thinking outside of the box. Recognising that the solutions to some challenges involve brand new processes, and true collaboration with other departments/people has been of great value and has given me a fresh perspective on client strategy.

George: You could say I have become relatively accustomed to ScreamingFrog, the capabilities of that tool are endless for a technical SEO.

What are your predictions for digital marketing trends in 2022?

Tom: Automation will continue to be more prominent for platforms.

Emily: I have found it interesting how much can change within the industry in such a small amount of time, for example, what is considered best practice can adapt relatively quickly. From this, I think there will be an even greater focus on automation as technology evolves and changes the way we work.

Charlie: Customer-wise, ‘experience’ across the digital journey path is increasingly becoming a social currency. Elsewhere, privacy challenges will continue to affect the wider industry, but present an opportunity to develop more meaningful connections between all parties.

Jonny: I think we’ll continue to see rich media play a bigger role in Paid Search. Image and video assets provide a fantastic opportunity for clients to communicate their brand values, whether that be within a SERP or attached to content. Text ads are limited by characters, but a picture paints a thousand words!

George: On the SEO side of things, I expect plenty more Google algorithm updates – including Page Experience finally coming to desktop (although that’s not much of a prediction).

Anything else you’d like to share?

Tom: Fusion is a great agency to work for and I’m constantly learning from a lot of good people. I feel very grateful to be a part of the team and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in 2022!

Jonny: It’s clear to see from day one Fusion’s friendly and welcoming atmosphere, but it’s also especially great to see that same culture shared with clients. There is a real sense of collaboration with all my clients and I’ve been fortunate enough to build fantastic relationships with people from a variety of industries.

George: Just that how happy I am to be a part of team Fusion, it’s a happy and supportive place to work.

Like what you hear? Join Team Fusion! We have exciting opportunities on our careers page.

Social Media Updates: Nov/Dec

Posted on by Hira Nasir

TikTok is Testing a New Business Registration Option

TikTok is planning to expand its eCommerce capabilities with a new business registration option that will allow brands to list their business categories on their profiles. The feature will give the app another way of collecting data on business users and categorising the business pages into different segments.

This is great for eCommerce listings as there are more chances of being shown to relevant users who will be able to see what the brand does, making it easier to drive purchase actions from their TikTok page.

Overall, by adding this category element, businesses can add an extra level of authority to their in-app presence, while at the same time better communicating their offerings.

Snapchat Launches Multi-Format Ad Placements

Snapchat has launched a new ‘Multiple Formats’ delivery option which will enable marketers to incorporate multiple video ad formats such as Snap Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads, and Commercials within a single ad set.  

The app explains:

Multi-Format delivery will offer brands buying on Snap the opportunity to purchase multiple advertising formats in one cohesive ad set, optimizing towards clients central goal or objective.

This new multi-format ad placement will enable Snapchat’s automated placement tools to help maximise ad response and streamline the management of campaigns by keeping creative elements in one single ad set.

This would allow brand awareness campaigns to achieve better results by allowing for a broader placement and capacity for exposure. 

Twitter CEO Stands Down

Twitter’s co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey, has resigned from their position at the app. It is believed that the decision has come as a result of the rising pressure from activist investor group Elliott Management Corp. as they acquired over $1 billion in Twitter shares to gain more power on the board.

The group had previously called for Dorsey’s removal due to questions over his leadership as they believe he was failing to capitalise on the app’s potential. The main concerns were his dual commitments as being both the CEO of Twitter and Square.

He has been succeeded by CTO Parag Agrawal, who has been with Twitter for more than 10 years. This change could potentially swing Twitter in a new direction with the possibility of the app abandoning some projects while focusing on others in line with pre-established targets.

Instagram Launches Live Test of Longer Videos in Stories

Instagram has officially launched a live test of 60-second videos in Stories which means that longer clips will no longer be split into 15-second sections and played across various Stories.

The app states:

The ability to create longer Stories posts comes highly requested by our community. We’re excited to be testing 60-second Stories so that people can create and view Stories with fewer interruptions.

The option aims to provide more creative freedom to users by further integrating the app’s various video options to streamline its creative tools and functions.

This will be another great step towards the app’s aim to gradually merge and open to full-screen feed of stories and reels to maximise user engagement, just like TikTok.

To find out how social media can help you maximise your promotional efforts and contribute towards reaching your business goals, get in touch with our expert team today. Alternatively, check out our blog for all the latest sector-wide reports and updates within the digital marketing space.

SEO Market Updates: November 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

November 2021 Core Algorithm Update

On 17th November, Google announced the rollout of another core update, titled ‘November 2021 Core Update’. This came as a surprise to the wider SEO community, with the update rolling out across Black Friday weekend, one of the busiest online shopping periods of the year, eventually coming to completion on 30th November.

The following Google Search Central tweets confirmed those dates:

There are mixed reports regarding the severity of the update, however a Twitter poll by Marie Haynes provides some nice insight. With 48% of voters (632 total) not seeing much from the update on the sites that they handle:

Google Drops Mobile-First Indexing Deadline

In a Google Search Central blog post, John Mueller announced that Google is dropping the final deadline for sites moving over to mobile-first indexing. This comes from Google wanting to accommodate the timelines for sites facing unexpectedly difficult challenges.

The previous update claimed that mobile-first indexing would complete by the end of March 2021, and has since continued to be pushed back, with Google now saying:

“After analyzing the sites that are not yet indexed mobile-first, we’ve determined that some of these sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges that they’re facing. Because of these difficulties, we’ve decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.”

Page Experience Update Set for Desktop in February 2022

Back in May 2021, Google announced their plan to bring Page Experience ranking to desktop search results in the near future. A timeline has now been given for these changes – Page Experience ranking will begin rolling out across desktop in February 2022 and will complete by the end of March 2022.

This means that the same three Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, FID & CLS), along with the other page experience signals such as HTTPS security and the absence of intrusive interstitials will now also apply to desktop pages. The one signal that will not be carried over is Mobile Friendliness, with it having no relevance to desktop ranking. A breakdown of all the Page Experience signals for mobile and desktop can be found below:

Updated Version of PageSpeed Insights Goes Live

As of 16th November, Google began to roll out a revamped version of PageSpeed Insights. This came with the following announcement:

“While it is a critical element in our speed tooling suite, the PSI code base was ten years old, contained a lot of legacy code, and was due for a redesign. We used this as an opportunity to address interface-related issues in PSI which have sometimes made it difficult for users to navigate the report.”

The updated PSI tool has a host of new features, in short, these include:

  • Clear separation of field and lab data
  • Core Web Vitals assessment result now stands out as a separate subsection with a distinct icon.
  • Origin summary rehoused under new tab, labelled “Origin”
  • New “Expand view” feature that adds a drill-down function to the field data section
  • Page image and thumbnails now available in lab data section

A video posted by Addy Osmani visualises the changes to the PSI UI over time, whilst demonstrating some of those new features:

Google Say “A Mix of Positive and Negative Reviews Are More Trustworthy”

Google has updated the Google Business Profiles Get Reviews help document with a new line stating that a mix of positive and negative reviews can be more trustworthy, indicating that having some negative reviews rather than all positive may be beneficial to your site. Here’s the new addition to the best practice advice:

  • Value all reviews: Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context. If the review doesn’t follow our posting guidelines, you can request its removal.

Bolding Words or Paragraphs Does Help With SEO

In a Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout recorded on 12th November, John Mueller was once again asked about the SEO benefits of using bolded text. In short, the following was said: “Does bolding important points on a paragraph help the SEO? Yes it does.”.

To provide some more context around this topic, John went on to say that when trying to figure out what a page is actually expressing, besides the usual tagging such as headings on a page, Google also look at “things like what is actually bolded or emphasized within the text on the page. So to some extent that does have a little bit of extra value there, in that it’s a clear sign that actually you think this page or this paragraph is about this topic here.”

It goes without saying that random sentence bolding is not the takeaway from these comments. Making sure that page content is high-quality, useful, unique, and compelling should be a priority.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Curtains & Blinds Sector Report

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

The second installment in our homewares sector series, we’ve peeked behind the curtain at some of the biggest brands dominating the SERPs in the curtain and blinds industry. 

Using our proprietary tool, Natural Edge, we’ve taken a 6-month look back at how SOV for core keyword categories has changed over time, developing a league table with some (very surprising) increases and decreases. 

Get in touch here to find out how the experts here at Fusion can help you drive your business forwards. 

Social Media Updates: October 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Facebook Announces New Corporate Title

Facebook’s rebranding, Meta logo
Image from Wikipedia

Facebook’s overarching company will now be called ‘Meta’ – the rebranding decision has been made to reflect the company’s emerging focus on the next generation of digital connections.

To clarify, all the social networking apps names will stay the same, they will just sit under this new banner that aims to bring innovative change. Meta’s operational system will be divided into two segments:

  • Family of Apps: this will include all apps owned by Facebook, such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
  • Reality Labs: this will cover evolving technology such as VR and AR.

This rebranding means that users won’t need a Facebook account to use other apps and services. It seems to be a well-weighted decision since the Facebook brand has been receiving a lot of backlash recently.

The platform explains:

The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together – and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company.

TikTok Launches ‘Small Wins’

Are you a small business owner reluctant to create a TikTok account? Well, TikTok has launched ‘Small Wins’ to encourage SMEs to try out the platform.

The initiative contains a series of videos featuring small business owners that have incorporated the platform into their marketing strategy and gained immense success from it, as well as sharing creative tips that others can replicate. Overall, the aim is to highlight how valuable TikTok can be for the growth of small businesses.

The social media giants explains:

Through a series of videos featuring small businesses from across the globe, Small Wins aims to highlight TikTok’s value to small businesses, educate them on how to use TikTok to grow, and demonstrate how small businesses are turning “small wins” into big success on the platform. From the bakery owner who turned 3,000 followers into two million, to the candlemaker who went viral without even trying, small businesses of all kinds are showing that on TikTok, small does win.

Click here to learn more about the initiative and how you can make the most of TikTok.

You Can Now Subscribe to Revue Newsletter Directly from Tweets

https://twitter.com/revue/status/1451564116007657472

Previously, creators could only promote their Revue newsletter by adding a ‘Subscribe’ button on their profile. Now, they’ve been given the option to share their newsletter with Twitter users by linking to it in a Tweet.

This decision will provide more monetization options to creators, as they’ll be able to raise awareness about their newsletter and encourage users to subscribe to it directly from a Tweet, instead of guiding them to their profile. 

Revue explains:

We already made it possible for followers to subscribe to your newsletter directly from your Twitter profile. And now they can from Tweets as well, some with just one click.

The great news is that this option isn’t only available to creators. Other Twitter users will also be able to promote their favourite creator’s newsletter by just linking to it in their Tweet. 

Instagram Adds More Tools to Maximise Content Partnerships

Instagram is testing new tools to give creators more monetization options and to maximise their earnings through branded content partnerships.

The test involves a new feature that will help creators get discovered by brands and track communications and sponsored content opportunities. Creators just have to choose the brands they’d like to partner with, and they will be shown in the priority list when brands will be looking for creators to work with.

The second part of the test involves a dedicated ‘Partnership’ messaging folder, found at the top of the creators DMs section. This will allow both brands and creators to easily track and manage their conversations, which can often be missed.

Instagram explains:

Brands can now use data and unique filters to discover and select the best creators for their campaigns. Then they can organise shortlists to easily manage multiple campaigns. 

To avoid scams, all message requests will be filtered through Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager, meaning only brands that have met the Partner Monetization policies will be able to contact creators. So, if you’re interested in collaborating with influencers, Instagram has just made the process easier for you.

To learn more about how social media can help you take your business to the next level, get in touch with our expert team. Feel free to also check out our blog for all the latest news and updates within the digital marketing space.

SEO Market Updates: October 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Updates Search Quality Rater Guidelines

A year on from the previous update, Google made several changes to the search quality raters’ guidelines. These come as a 172 page PDF that according to Google “help make sure Search is returning relevant results from the most reliable sources available”.

To summarise, the most recent update included the following changes:

  • Expanded the definition of the YMYL subcategory ‘Groups of people’
  • Refreshed guidance on how to research reputation information for websites and content creators
  • Restructured and updated ‘Lowest Page Quality’ section; reorganized and refreshed examples to reflect new structure
  • Simplified the definition of ‘Upsetting-Offensive’ to remove redundancy with Lowest Page Quality section
  • Minor changes throughout (updated screenshots and URLs, wording, and examples for consistency; removed outdated examples; fixed typos; etc.)

The ratings your site may receive from a search quality evaluator do not directly impact rankings, however it is worth reviewing the guidelines to better understand the type of page content that Google prefers to rank.

Continuous Scroll Rolling Out Across Mobile Google Search

As of the 14th October, Google began rolling out continuous scrolling for search results on mobile devices. Initially, this is for “most” English searches on the mobile in the U.S and is expected to be carried over to other international search results pages – including the UK – in the near future.

The change comes in to make browsing search results “more seamless and intuitive” and now means that when you get to the bottom of a search results page on your phone, the next set of results (previously page 2) will now automatically load.

For example:

Following the announcement, Google has stated that continuous scroll is not the widely known ‘infinite scroll’, as the new feature will only load up to a maximum of four pages when you will then be shown a “See more” button. Within the same set of tweets, Google also explained that this will not change how reporting works within Search Console:

Google Adds Granular Scores To Search Console Core Web Vitals Report

The Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console is now showing more granular scoring data when you select a URL within the report to view more details.

Displaying as:

The scores shown are not however for individual URLs – as you expect from other testing tools such as the PageSpeed report – they are for the URL group, meaning Google has assigned an issue “to a group of URLs that provide a similar user experience. This is because it is assumed that performance issues in similar pages are probably due to the same underlying problem, such as a common slow-loading feature in the pages.”

Google Search Results More Volatile In 2021

Mordy Oberstein, the head of communications at Semrush posted a series of tweets claiming that Google search results have been far more volatile through 2021 than in the previous year. Data pulled from the Semrush Sensor shows that SERP volatility is up 84% on mobile and 68% on desktop for 2021 YTD compared to 2020.

Mobile SERP volatility 2020 vs 2021:

Desktop SERP volatility 2020 vs 2021:

The Semrush Sensor tracks volatility of Google SERPs based on daily changes in rankings, although these daily changes cannot be directly attributed to algorithm updates, some believe it is a good indicator that of Google’s algorithm updates, meaning they may have been more sever this year.

Testing Tools In Google Search Console Now Match The URL Inspection Tool

To further help users find and fix issues in web pages, Google has updated three of its standalone public testing tools within Search Console to now provide a standardization of features and align with the URL Inspection Tool. Previously, the AMP, Mobile Friendly and Rich Results testing tools have all advanced separately at different paces, meaning there were multiple tools from Google each showing similar information in varied ways.

A blog post from Google titled “Aligning Search Console testing tools and the URL Inspection tool” explains that “we’re making changes in their designs and improving features to be fully aligned with the URL Inspection tool”. More specifically, from now on the following fields will be displayed both on the public testing tools and on the URL Inspection Tool:

  • Page availability – Whether Google was able to crawl the page, when it was crawled, or any obstacles that it encountered when crawling the URL.
  • HTTP headers – The HTTP header response returned from the inspected URL.
  • Page screenshot – The rendered page as seen by Google.
  • Paired AMP inspection, Inspect both canonical and AMP URL.


If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Strengthen Your Site: A Link Building Guide

Posted on by Tom Walsh

Alongside technical SEO and content, link building stands tall as one of the three core pillars of SEO. As brands across the country compete to become more visible in the SERPs, and invest more resources into these core pillars, shrewd marketers seek to maintain an accurate and up-to-date knowledge of which link building strategies and tactics are effective in today’s market.

That’s why we’ve created this link building guide; to help you guide your brand through the sometimes challenging world of link building and keep an eye on what’s currently deemed ‘best practice’.

Is link building still necessary in 2021?

Quite simply, yes. While link building is technically a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines (as of 1st March 2020), the algorithms continue to use backlinks as a measure of a site’s authority in line with EAT principles. Brands continue to see a good uplift in performance from targeted link building activity, and there’s no evidence to suggest that a good link building strategy is detrimental to results.

That said, it’s now more important than ever to get a link building strategy right. Gone are the days in which you could blindly fire out press activity looking to gain backlinks from anywhere and everywhere as part of a shotgun approach.

Rather, Google’s algorithms have evolved to a point where they’re substantially better at determining the relevance of a backlink to your content, and better at spotting both spammy and bought links – which are subsequently devalued. 

A modern link building strategy therefore requires a targeted approach, whereby you’re seen by Google to be acquiring quality follow links from sites that demonstrate authority. This could mean, for example, sites that complement your content, or sites that are directly relevant to your business’ offering.

How to do link building

It’s important to build links in a balanced way. Brands looking to rank highly for their product keywords ideally want a good number of reputable domains linking to their site. They also may need a good volume of links pointing to key product categories, CLPs, and advice content – so link destination is an important consideration alongside link quality and quantity.

We believe there’s only one way to generate a high volume of high quality links in a relatively short period of time – which is to run digital PR campaigns. A digital PR campaign involves developing a concept that’s both relevant to your brand, and relevant to your target audience; such as prominent media publications.

Creating news through link building
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

If your idea is interesting enough, you’re likely to attract some media attention to the landing page it’s hosted on – and the journalists you outreach to will probably want to cover your story, link to your site, learn more about your campaign, and pay attention to your exciting activity in future. 

The impact of digital PR campaigns can be maximised by pushing them out across different channels, such as social media or email. Through this activity, you could look to develop campaign concepts even further to appeal to multiple audiences. There’s even a longevity element to consider; is this a campaign you could come back to in future?

We’ll dive deeper into what a digital PR campaign should look like in a future blog, but how else can you generate links to your site in the meantime – perhaps without even requiring much budget?

The best quick-win link building tactics

Fortunately, there are a range of quick bits of link building activity you can run on a daily or weekly basis to build quality links into your domain. Don’t expect a hundred links at a time, but a slow, steady process that sees you build one quality link at a time. Our picks for the best tactics are:

1. Guest blogging

Guest blogging is a staple of SEO link building. While Google has indicated that some guest blog links are ‘unnatural’ and potentially devalued, many brands have still found that offering ‘free’ content that is both directly drawn from their expertise and relevant to their offering is an effective way of building links.

As far as quick-win tactics go, we still think guest blogging has value. It affords you a lot of flexibility and choice in the types of publications you go after, and allows you to get really specific, deep links to pages of your choosing – rather than general homepage links (which are still particularly useful for weaker domains). We’d recommend only guest blog posting if the publication you’re targeting is directly relevant to your product or brand.

2. Acquiring your competitor’s lost and broken backlinks

Over time, publishers edit and update their websites. This sometimes involves culling certain content to avoid over-egging the pudding if, for example, the site has twenty Father’s Day card ideas guides. As your competitors lose backlinks, or as they break due to this activity, you can look to capture them for yourself and provide your own relevant content to which publishers can link.

It’s incredibly easy to keep an eye on your competitors’ backlink portfolio, and Ahrefs’ Site Explorer has dedicated functionality to reveal lost and broken backlinks. Given this tactic is fairly quick to execute, and has a decent chance of you placing a link, we’d highly recommend it.

3. Creating visual assets; infographics and interactive landing pages

In a digital age whereby people’s attention spans drop further and further each year, serving content in creative formats rather than as long written articles is a great way of capturing attention.

Naturally, you’ll need to host that infographic on a campaign landing page within your website, and probably include some copy to accompany it, but infographics can make for attractive outreach emails that journalists love to engage with. That’s because studies have found that journalists prefer multi-media campaigns that include images, video and other engaging formats to make news more accessible.

It can require a little resource and touch of magic to create an infographic that’s truly special, but if you consider that journalists are more willing to cover your content if it’s interesting, and that coverage is a prerequisite to acquiring links, we’d give infographics a pass mark on a quality link building tactics test.

4. Link Reclamation

Link reclamation refers to finding lost and broken links that are pointing to your or your competitor’s website, and taking action to replace them with a better suited URL.

These are potentially very quick win opportunities, especially if they’re linking to a page that does not exist anymore. All you would have to do is provide your target site with a new URL, pointing out the damaged or missing link via a polite email. 

You can identify these links by accessing your backlink profile on Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. 

Ahrefs' Lost Backlinks tool

For most sites, you’ll see a steady influx of broken or lost links each month, so tapping into them makes for a nice bit of link building activity.

5. Unlinked mentions

These refer to online mentions of your brand such as the brand name and specific products or services. If you spot branded mentions via social listening tools, such as Ahrefs’ Content Explorer or Google Alerts, and those very mentions do not currently link to your site, then there’s a great opportunity for you to reach out to the publisher and place links.

6. Social Media Links

Another great time-saving tactic is to check whether publications are linking to your social media channels, instead of your website. These links might not provide as much direct benefit as a blog link placed within the main content of a page, for example, but they’re still useful signals to Google and are probably worth picking up if you have some spare time.

You can check for them through Ahrefs’ Backlink profile, and compare an export of social media profile backlinks to a similar export of backlinks pointing to your domain – using conditional formatting to find gaps and opportunities.

Gillette twitter links

7. Domain misspellings

We’re all human, and even the best of us can make mistakes. Even with something as important as a domain name. 

So, checking for domain misspellings is a great way to find warm links from sites that already link to you, but maybe just not to the exact location you’d hope for. Just enter your correct domain name on Domain Check to get a list of misspellings related to your domain. 

Add these misspelled domains into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to identify any sites that should be linking to your correct domain with this useful tactic.

8. Reverse image search

Do you produce creative assets? If so, keep an eye out for sites that are using your creative without linking back to you. 

You can find who is using your content through the ‘Search Google for Image’ option. Just right-click on the asset published on your website and you can quickly access a list of web pages that have published your content. Easy links, minimal effort, and this activity does not need to be done too frequently.

9. Newsjacking

One final strategy to gain quick links is to look for hot news topics that are directly related to your brand, and share your expertise with publications that are active in that niche. 

The best way to make the most of the opportunity is to send out a quick press release in response to a current news event and specify your company’s stance on the topic, or add value to the topic through your internal expertise. 

For example, if your business produces an eco-friendly product and you’re renowned within that industry, you could serve your CEO’s expert insights via a press release in reaction to some breaking news about newly announced environmental laws that will affect your industry. We’ve had a lot of success with this tactic as publishers crave genuine expertise, and would rate it highly.

We hope you have found this guide helpful in explaining what link building is, why it is essential for SEO, and which tactics you can use to get great backlinks to your website. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how our experts can help you implement best practice link building and SEO tactics, get in touch with our expert team. Or, check out the latest industry updates via our blog.

Social Media Updates: September 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Professional Profiles is Now Open for all Brands and Creators

Screenshot of Twitter’s Business Profile application form.

Twitter is finally opening applications to Professional Profiles to all businesses and creators.

This new profile will display previously unavailable business information such as location, category, contact details, hours of operation and directions. The app will also include e-commerce and revenue led options such as ‘Shop’ and ‘Newsletter’ – the latter only available to accounts that have a Revue newsletter, which is Twitter’s editorial newsletter service available to all users, from aspiring writers to large publishers.

It’s worth noting that accounts can’t currently change the ‘About’ section without having to resubmit the application. Therefore, its recommended to provide the correct information when first submitting the application, in order to avoid confusion.

Twitter explains that users use the platform to interact with brands and engage in conversations about products and services. This demand has given the app the confidence to combine real-time conversations with enhanced features to allow brands to better control and enhance their identity.

The app also states that:

Professional Accounts are a gateway to a wide range of professional tools not available to non-professionals, including our Twitter Ads, Quick promote, Advanced Profile features. And our future efforts around shopping.

Make the most of your Twitter account by switching to the Professional Profile option through this form.

Business accounts on Instagram can now connect to their WhatsApp account

Instagram has announced that its users can now contact businesses directly through WhatsApp as businesses have the option to integrate both accounts. This is a great way for audiences to get in touch with their favourite brands and spark conversations about products and services.

As per Facebook, 75% of users want to communicate with brands via messaging – so being able to contact them through WhatsApp seems like a personalised way to get in touch with the business and increase connections. The option can also be used while boosting posts, with brands being able to send customers directly to their WhatsApp inbox.

Instagram says:

Boosting a post that drives to WhatsApp allow businesses to reach more people and excite them to be their next customer through personalization.

Facebook shares insights into the type of content that will be limited in News Feed

As part of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to show more transparency and how it filters News Feed content, the platform has shared the type of content that it will have its reach reduced – some of which is:

  • Engagement bait – this refers to posts that explicitly request shares, comments and likes for purposes other than specific calls to action.
  • Links to websites requesting user data – this refers to lead generation funnels requesting personal information before showing content.
  • Websites with low quality browsing experience – this refers to websites with errors and poor mobile experience.
  • Sensationalised health content – post that are trying to sell products/services based on health-related claims such as ‘lose 30kg in 10 days’ etc.

The social media giant explains:

Our enforcements to reduce problematic content in News Feed are rooted in our commitment to the values of responding to people’s direct feedback, incentivising publishers to invest in high-quality content and fostering a safer community.

This indicates that brands need to be extremely careful when producing organic and paid content for social, as some of the previously accepted rules do not apply anymore.

If you’re transparent and have original content on your site, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. However, if you’re struggling to create original content, get in touch with our content team for more information on how we can help you.

Pinterest shares insights into upcoming trends and how brands can make the most of it

Screenshot of Pinterest’s 2021 trend predictions.

According to the recent Pinterest report, 80% of trends predicted by the platform in December 2020, gained traction throughout this year.

Now, the platform has provided an overview of new trends that will be dominating the online space in 2022. These trends are predicted based on rising search activity and engagements.

The image-sharing platform states that by providing an insight into the future, its helping businesses connect more deeply with their audiences by creating advertising strategies that reflect their preferences.

The app also noted that trends last 20% longer on the platform compared to other social media networks, which means that content has a longer lifespan, helping brands make the most of their assets.

So, if you don’t have Pinterest, there is a huge audience you’re missing out on – our team has tons of experience in helping brands grow their Pinterest accounts, so why not get in touch with us today to find how we can help your business make the most of its online presence.  

Sleep Sector Report: Beds & Mattresses

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Discover what dreams are really made of in the first of our homewares sector report, this time for beds and mattresses. Our report delves into organic visibility and performance for big brands and rising stars in the beds and mattresses market using our proprietary Share of Voice tool, Natural Edge.

What will you uncover?

  • Brand table – top 50 brands with highest share of voice
  • Share of voice at a product category level
  • Keyword opportunities – where has seen the biggest growth areas over the last 12 months?
  • Keyword losers – where has seen the biggest decline this last 12 months?

Whilst it may come as no surprise that large scale retailers Argos, Dunelm and Dreams are often at the head of the bed, there are plenty of examples of smaller brands who, maybe without the lofty budgets, are dreaming big and rising up the ranks for their niche.

The bed category has seen a lot of fluctuation over the last year and what’s interesting is when we drill down to a product category level we see how quickly the lay of the land can change. Employing a highly targeted keyword mapping, research and tailored content strategy is key to success here.

Craig Broadbent – Organic Search Director

What next?

Our technical and content experts are a match made in heaven for helping you gain the visibility you deserve. If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help you gain visibility in the SERPs within the beds and mattresses category get in touch here.

SEO Market Updates: September 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Further Refines How Title Tags Are Generated In Search

Following feedback on the new system introduced back in August for generating titles in web page results, Google has made further refinements to how titles are shown in SERPs. These changes now mean that title elements (title tags) “are now used around 87% of the time, rather than around 80% before”.

Within the Google Search Central Blog posted on 17th September, Google provided some examples of situations where they detect certain on-page issues and may choose to adjust the page title shown in search results accordingly:

  • Half-empty titles – Often occur when large sites use templates to generate titles and something is missed, meaning the title does not appropriately summarise the page contents.
  • Obsolete titles – Can occur when the same page is used year-after-year for recurring information, but the title element is not updated to reflect the latest year.
  • Inaccurate titles – Sometimes titles don’t accurately reflect what the page is about, for example the page may have dynamic content and not display the same products as described in the title.

The advice does however remain the same, site owners should focus on creating great HTML title elements, as those are “by far what we use the most”.

Search Console Performance Report Back To Normal After Significant Delays

Google Search Console once again experienced reporting issues last month, a separate problem to the previously discussed widespread data loss in late August. Within the SEO community it was widely reported that site owners were experiencing significant delays in the performance report data being shown, which was later confirmed on the Google Search Central Twitter account:

Two days later the bug was fixed, with all performance report data updated and back to normal:

New Google Help Docs On Best Practices For Ecommerce

Google has added a new multipage set of guides to help developers and SEOs better understand the best e-commerce practices for Google Search. These new help documents provide developers with the tools to ensure that the site works well with Google, which will ultimately help more shoppers discover your site and products.

Here’s a short description of what is covered in each of the topic areas:

Google Clarify That Intrusive Interstitials Don’t Impact Indexing But May Impact Ranking

As a response to a query on Twitter, asking if Google would not index a page because it triggers the mobile interstitial penalty, John Mueller said that “intrusive interstitial element has a ranking effect, it wouldn’t affect indexing”. Meaning a page would be indexed regardless of any intrusive interstitials, however, this may have an impact on ranking.

With that being said, it’s worth rehashing the guidelines around intrusive interstitials to help ensure your site doesn’t incur a penalty that would negatively impact rankings. Google deems an interstitial that makes content less accessible as intrusive, for example:

  • Showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page.
  • Displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
  • Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.

There are, however, some examples of interstitials that would not provoke a penalty, for example:

  • Interstitials that appear to be in response to a legal obligation, such as for cookie usage or for age verification.
  • Login dialogs on sites where content is not publicly indexable. For example, this would include private content such as email or unindexable content that is behind a paywall.
  • Banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space and are easily dismissible. For example, the app install banners provided by Safari and Chrome are examples of banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space.


If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

The Best Chrome Extensions for a Digital Marketer

Posted on by Tom Walsh

The fast-paced world of digital marketing means we need tools at our fingertips to help automate, predict, replicate and scrape where we can. 

We put the feelers out amongst Team Fusion to find out their must-have Google Chrome Extensions that make our jobs just that little bit easier. 

First off, we’re heading over to our paid media…

Search & Paid Media Chrome Extensions

1) Redirect Path

This handy tool lets you know if you’ve been redirected whenever you hit a landing page. Good to use when testing to see if any ads need their final URLs updating (boosting quality score in the process).

2) Ghostery

Ghostery is a powerful privacy extension that can block ads, suppress tracking code, and show a list of sites that are trying to track you and serve you advertisements. By doing so, it speeds up your browsing experience.

Ghostery chrome extension helps you take control of your privacy
Ghostery helps you take control of your privacy.

3) Facebook Pixel Helper

Establishing a tracking pixel on Facebook is an incredibly important prerequisite to quality data gathering, but what if your pixel breaks? The Pixel Helper extension can flag this for you, negating the need for manual checks.

4) Google Tag Assistant

When activating Google Tag Assistant, you’ll see an analysis of each of the tags active on your website of choice. It can also display additional information about tags at a glance, making troubleshooting easy.

5) UET Tag Helper

This nifty extension from Microsoft Advertising is another highlight for our paid team (who absolutely love their tags). Once clicking the UET (Universal Event Tracking) Tag Helper extension, you’ll see a breakdown of which tags are active on the page and whether they’re working. You can also get quick insights into whether your Dynamic Remarketing lists are correctly configured, as well as your conversion goals.

6) Trendtastic

Not going to lie, it’s kind of fantastic. It pulls a Google Trends chart into search results when you carry out a query. Useful for getting an idea of seasonal SV fluctuations at a glance. 

Content Marketing Chrome Extensions

7) Colorzilla

With Colorzilla you’re only one click away from finding out the colour of any pixel on a webpage. Unbelievably speedy for when you’re looking to match client presentation colour palettes or mocking up a quick bit of creative.

8) Whatfont

In a similar vein, it can be difficult to know your clients’ web font without trawling through their brand guidelines. That’s what Whatfont can help you with- after only one click.

9) Edit Anything

This extension is as abstract and crazy as it sounds. You can literally edit anything on a rendered webpage, replacing copy, deleting elements, and the likes. It’s really useful for visualising changes to page copy and for ideating around design changes on the fly.

Using Edit Anything extension to change meta data
Edit on-page elements, or even meta data to visualise changes quickly.

10) Grammarly

Not the wordsmith you hoped you were? Fear not! Grammarly goes where Spellchecker only dreamt it could – everywhere you go.

Whilst copywriters may roll their eyes at Grammarly’s claim that ‘everyone can be a great writer’ it sure does help when you’re firing off a quick email and forget to include a pesky comma along the way. 

11) GoFullPage

This effective screen capture tool can capture an entire webpage. It’s handy given most screenshot programs limit you to capturing only what you can see without scrolling.

12) Momentum

Maintaining momentum for long periods of time is difficult when you’re busy. That’s where the Momentum extension can help. It opens a new tab featuring a personalised dashboard of to-do’s, inspiration, and even throws in a weather forecast – helping you to procrastinate productively.

Technical SEO Chrome Extensions

To throw a few quick helpful extras in from our tech team, check out the following:

13) Alt Text Tester

Gone are the days of traipsing through a page’s source code to identify whether images have alt text. With Alt Text Tester, you can hover over images to see not only whether it has alt text, but what that text is – speeding up page optimisations.

Missing Alt Text on DFS homepage found via Alt Text Tester chrome extension.
We found missing alt text on the DFS homepage with one tap of the Alt Text Tester extension.

14) View Rendered Source

This helpful tool enables you to spot the difference between a page’s source code, and its fully rendered final form. Handy if you’re trying to identify issues that may affect how a page is crawled and indexed.

15) Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is a fantastic extension that can tell you a lot about a website without you having to trawl through its source code. This plugin can reveal virtually everything about a websit’s technology stack – including which CMS it is using, its hosts, which analytics integrations it has, and the list goes on. It can also show you a site’s security certificates and metadata at a glance.

Speed up your day-to-day with the right extensions

We hope you’ve enjoyed our top picks for the best chrome extensions- as voted by all the digital marketers at Fusion Unlimited. There are hundreds of hidden gems out there so we’re sorry if your favourite pick didn’t make our list – but please be sure to let us know what you would’ve included via our socials.

If you enjoyed reading, check out our blog for the latest SEO and marketing insights.

Social Media Updates: August 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

TikTok has introduced the ‘Promote’ ad option to all business accounts

Similar to Facebook’s popular ‘Boost’ option, TikTok has launched its own quick advertising option called ‘Promote’.

This can help businesses to quickly place themselves in front of new audiences, grow their following and increase website visits.

The option is only available to public videos that use original or commercial sound – which means that if you’re thinking of using a trend or a sound that is copyrighted, you will not be able to promote your video.

According to TikTok, all you have to do is select the video you want to promote, chose your campaign goal, and wait for the positive results to come in. The three campaign goals you can choose from are:

  • More video views
  • More website visits
  • More followers

 The app further states:

Promote is available to help businesses reach more people and grow their community with their TikTok videos. You can now turn any organic TikTok video into an ad, and start reaching new audiences, build a following and drive traffic to your website.

Promote will also give you access to basic tracking information such as:

  • The number of views your video gained because of the promotion
  • Number of likes, comments and shares on the promoted video
  • Number of people that have visited your website through the video
  • Age and gender of the people interacting with your video

Instagram is replacing swipe-up stories links with link stickers

Instagram’s constant effort to improve Stories interaction has led the app to replace the current swipe-up link with a link sticker option.

This new option works the same way as other stories tools such as polls, locations and mentions – which means that users will now have more creative control over the way they use link stickers.

The tool is great for accounts that want to get reactions and feedback from followers, as the swipe-up link did not previously provide that.

Instagram says that this new option will give creators more creative options to drive traffic to their desired page, as the new link sticker can be placed anywhere on the story, resized and toggled to different styles.

LinkedIn is shutting down Stories

After a year of experimentation, LinkedIn has decided to retire its Stories option and move towards its next video project.

Unfortunately for the app, Stories did not gain much traction from its professional user base. Research conducted by the platform found that users want more creative tools to make engaging videos, as well as wanting their Stories content to live beyond the 24-hour time limit.

LinkedIn says:

We’ve learned a ton through Stories. Now, we’re taking those learnings to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience that’s even richer and more conversational.

The app further states that they want to embrace mixed media and creative tools of Stories and integrate them more tightly with users’ professional identity.

This is highly possible after the platform’s acquisition of Jumprope, a how-to video platform.

YouTube has added video chapter listings in search

YouTube is looking to enhance its search option and help people find relevant content through the introduction of video chapters.

These video chapters divide content into small sections, each with an individual preview, depending on what each portion of the video is about. This means that users will be able to see the content of each video right on the search page.

Each section will include some written information, giving users the full context of the video. This is a great tool for SEO as creators can also add their own information based on keyword search and maximise their video discovery.

This is great as users don’t have to watch the full video to get their query answered or skip through a different section; they can just directly click to the part of the video that interests them the most.

To find out how we can help your business with content creation, social media management, and SEO – get in touch with our expert team here. Alternatively, browse through our blog to discover all the latest news and trends in digital marketing.

SEO Market Updates: August 2021

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Updates How Title Tags Are Generated

In late August Google announced that they had “introduced a new system of generating titles for web pages” in a new post within the Search Central blog. The statement came following widespread speculation across the industry, with webmasters and SEOs initially noticing that something had changed around the 17th of August.

According to Google, while title tags could previously alter to match a user query, with the new system this will no longer happen. Instead, webpages will now display the same title tag regardless of the query, in order to produce “titles that work better for documents overall”.

In addition, Google is now making greater use of on-page elements to generate title tags, in particular “text that humans can visually see when they arrive at a web page”. This includes key on-page elements like H1s and other header tags, alongside content that is “large and prominent through the use of style treatments” such as pull-quotes or text within links. The rationale is to avoid instances where manually input HTML title tags are too long, contain boilerplate text, or have obvious instances of keyword stuffing.

Google has made use of on-page elements to produce title tags for years, but early analysis suggests that this is now happening with far greater frequency. One limited case study indicates a 77% drop in HTML title tag usage following the change, although the search engine maintains that the updates are limited and that HTML tags are still used “more than 80% of the time”.

Despite the update, Google says that webmasters should still focus on “creating great HTML title tags”. Google also acknowledge that the new system is still being refined, and are welcoming feedback from webmasters.

Safe Browsing Dropped As Page Experience Signal

Last month Google stated that the Safe Browsing requirement would no longer form part of its Page Experience signal. The announcement came as part of a post on wider changes made to Search Console’s Page Experience report, which also included news on the the removal of the Ad Experience tool.

In the post, Google explain that as issues such as malware or third-party site hijacking are “not always in the control of site users[..]we’re clarifying that Safe Browsing isn’t used as a ranking signal and won’t feature in the Page Experience report”. This means that the signal was not considered within the recent Page Experience update, which completed its rollout on 31st August.

To further make clear the factors which now form part of the Page Experience signal, Google released the updated graphic below:

Safe Browsing issues will still be flagged within other areas of Google Search Console and should of course remain a wider consideration for SEOs and webmasters.

Google Search Console Experiences Data Loss

Google Search Console experienced a widespread data loss issue in late August, resulting in many site owners reporting dramatic drops in clicks and impressions to their websites.

The issue impacts the 23rd and 24th of August, and according to Google was due to an “internal problem”. In a post within the Search Console support hub, Google explain that “Users might see a significant data drop in their performance reports during this period. This does not reflect any drop in clicks or impressions for your site, only missing data in Search Console.”.

Although many initially assumed that the issue was a glitch or reporting delay, this appears to be real data loss, with Google’s John Mueller stating the traffic information is unlikely to be backfilled:

Google Search Console is relied on widely to provide detailed insight into organic performance, and the data loss means that many SEOs may be reporting slightly lower than average levels of traffic for August. Although unfortunate, this is purely an artificial drop, and it’s safe to assume that clicks & impressions for the impacted dates will be slightly higher than GSC reports.

Google Made 4500 Changes To Search In 2020

According to a recent post by Danny Sullivan, in total around 4500 changes to Google Search were made within 2020. These changes likely cover everything from smaller user interface changes to larger algorithm updates, with many unlikely to be noticed by everyday users. 

The announcement came within a wider post announcing the launch of an updated How Search Works portal, which is to give insight into how Google approaches “the big, philosophical questions, along with the nitty-gritty details”. Explaining, Sullivan writes:

“On the site, you can find details about how Google’s ranking systems sort through hundreds of billions of web pages and other content in our Search index — looking at factors like meaning, relevance, quality, usability and context — to present the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second. And you can learn about how we go about making improvements to Search. (There have been 4,500 such improvements in 2020 alone!)”

Although only a brief comment, with around 3200 changes made in 2019, and 980 reportedly made in 2014 , this indicates that Google is rapidly increasing the rate at which it updates search.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Social Media Updates: July 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

SNAPCHAT LAUNCHES ‘MY PLACES’ TO HIGHLIGHT LOCAL BUSINESSES

Businesses can now be easily discovered on Snapchat through ‘My Places’. This new feature can be found in Snap Map and highlights three different listing categories;

  • Popular places within a user’s Snap friends
  • Places the user has liked
  • Places that they have previously visited

Users will be able to access full information about the business listed in the platform. From opening times, contact details and locations to reviews and popular times.

With Snapchat users being able to see where their friends are at any given time, they can now share the business with them and arrange meetups.

The app explains:

Snapchatters can discover more than 30 million businesses worldwide, log their favourite local spots, and find personalised recommendations informed by their friends and global Snapchat community.

If you want to make changes to the business information already displayed or add a new business listing, choose the Place Listing Addition via the Map itself or make changes through the Map settings.

INSTAGRAM INTRODUCES AUTO CAPTIONS FOR FEED POSTS

Instagram is constantly trying to improve accessibility on its app. With the recent auto-caption option being introduced for IGTV uploads and Stories, the platform is now looking to expand this feature for Feed posts.

The news was confirmed by Vishal Shah, VP of Product at Instagram, as he responded to a user’s request of needing auto-captions for feed posts.

https://twitter.com/thebkh/status/1414969591374270467

With more people using Instagram as they go about their day, such as during a commute or while watching TV, the need for both sound on and sound off content has increased massively as brands need audiences to get the full context of posts they upload.

As per Andrew Hutchinson from Social Media Today, this new addition will provide both content creators and brands another option to improve accessibility, maximise viewership and reduce workload as they won’t have to add captions and hardcode them into the video clips themselves. 

TWITTER IS RETIRING ITS ‘FLEETS’ OPTION 

After less than a year, Twitter has decided to retire Fleets, its own version of Instagram and Snapchat stories. The decision has been made as a result of the new feature not getting as much traction as Twitter had hoped for.

Twitter users have only been using them for the purpose of amplifying their own Tweets. This defeated the whole purpose of Fleets which was to add a broader tweet experience on the platform, especially for those that wanted to share their thoughts temporarily.

Twitter further explains:

We built Fleets as a lower-pressure, ephemeral way for people to share their fleeting thoughts. We hoped it would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter. But, in the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation like we hoped.

The platform will instead shift its focus into expanding its audio.

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES THE ‘CAMPAIGN IDEAS GENERATOR’ FOR BUSINESSES

Screenshot of Facebook’s Campaign Idea Generator site.

If you ever feel stuck for ideas for your Facebook and Instagram campaigns, Facebook’s new Campaign Ideas Generator may be a great solution to help spark inspiration for your future promotional efforts.

This new resource site contains various insights, templates and recommendations specific to seasonal events and business types. Whether you’re a restaurant, an education company or provide financial services – the Campaign Ideas Generator has ‘cookie-cutter type solutions’ for all industries based on the time of the year they’ll be running their promotions.

The tool is made up of three sections: Campaign Ideas, Data and Insights and Resources and is ideal for small businesses that don’t have much marketing budget.

If your business is feeling stuck with your marketing approach, why not get in touch with our expert team and find out how we can help you maximise your promotional efforts and contribute towards reaching your business goals? Feel free to also check out our blog for all the latest digital marketing updates.

SEO Market Updates: July 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

July 2021 Core Algorithm Update Rollout

On 1st July, the second round of Google’s two-part core updates began rolling out, this was then “effectively” complete by the 12th of July.

Much like the June 2021 Core Update, there were no specifics on what the broad update entailed – with the only given information explaining that a core algorithm update introduces changes across a wide range of indexing and ranking processes, implicating that core updates are not intended to target one specific factor.

Google has previously stated that sites which experience a drop after a core update may not actually have anything wrong to fix. The advice offered in this situation is to focus on “ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward”.

More information and advice on what site owners should know about core updates can be found in this Google Search Central Blog.  

Google Categorises Causes For Organic Traffic Drops

Off the back of two broad core updates, Google released a document titled “Analyzing Google Search traffic drops”, this provided site owners with illustrations of different drops in organic traffic that a site may experience, along with explanations to help identify and categorise the causes for each.

Examples of Google Search organic traffic drops

According to Google, there are five main causes for drops in organic traffic:

  • Technical issues: Errors that can prevent Google from crawling, indexing, or serving your pages to users – for example, server availability, robots.txt fetching, page not found, and others.
  • Security issues: If your site is affected by a security threat, Google may alert users before they reach your site with warnings or interstitial pages, which may decrease Search traffic.
  • Manual Actions: If your site does not comply with Google’s guidelines, some of your pages or the entire site may be omitted from Google Search results through a Manual Action.
  • Algorithmic changes: Google is always improving how it assesses content and updating its algorithm accordingly; core updates and other smaller updates may change how some pages perform in Google Search results.
  • Search interest disruption: Sometimes changes in user behaviour will change the demand for certain queries, either as a result of a new trend, or seasonality throughout the year.

This is the first time Google has openly shared information like this, and from the reaction across forums and social media it has been very much welcomed.

Google Now Showing Why A Specific Result Was Ranked

To provide further transparency, Google is now showing more information within the ‘About This Result’ section in search. There are now several factors that can be given as to why Google has ranked a specific result within SERPs, these will be listed as bullet points under “Your search & this result”.

Here’s what that looks like:

About This Result Example

This largely confirms what SEOs and marketers already knew as to why Google ranks specific sites for certain queries, but having all factors listed together could provide a useful tool when investigating an unexpected result.

Currently, this is only available for English results in the U.S, but it is expected to be rolled out across other counties (including the UK) in the coming months.

Google Says You Should Keep Redirects Live For At Least A Year

As a response to questions regarding how long you should keep redirections in place, Gary Illyes from Google took to Twitter to provide a “concrete answer”, saying redirects should remain in place for “at least 1 year”.

The Twitter thread goes on to explain that one year allows enough time for Google to pass any signals from the origin URL to the destination URL, any signals passed will then remain associated to the destination URL, even after the redirect has been removed.

It is also still worth noting that, if possible, site owners should strive to keep redirects live indefinitely for the user’s benefit.

SeekToAction Video Markup Now Supported In Google Search

Back in May 2021, Google pre-announced SeekToAction as one of two new video content structured data markups. At the time this was still in the developmental / testing phase, this is now officially supported within Google search, meaning video key moments can now be shown within Google Search.

Looking something like this:

SeekToAction Key Moments Rich Result

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

How to Land Featured Snippets With Ahrefs (and Why You Should Care)

Posted on by Tom Walsh

Owning the top spot for each Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that is directly relevant to your brand. Broadly speaking, that’s the goal of virtually every business in the modern world when it comes to SEO, right?

Well, what if I told you that not all SERPs are built equally, and that the way you engineer your organic content to target specific types of SERPs determines whether or not you can own that treasured #1 spot.

You might say, ‘Tom, I’m an SEO nerd, show me how to get the snippet already’ – but if you aren’t familiar with featured snippets, here’s a quick run down of what they involve and why they matter.

What is a featured snippet?

A featured snippet, often referred to as ‘position 0’, is essentially a selected excerpt of content chosen by Google’s algorithms that is seen to directly match the searcher’s intent.

Let’s say you’ve identified a decline in sales during lockdown and want to ramp up activity to compensate for this with a deadline set for restrictions lifting. As with many problems these days, the first step to solving it may simply be to google ‘how to generate more leads’, which would the following result:

featured snippet - how to generate more leads

This is a featured snippet – confirmed by the little ‘about featured snippets’ button below each result. There’s a good chance that the text within a featured snippet is THE result you’ve been searching for- hence it being displayed above all others.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the featured snippets take up a good chunk of space in desktop results, and even more so on mobile devices- where you’ll find snippets covering around 50% of the screen. They’re difficult to miss, by design.

Types of featured snippet

Slick paragraphs aren’t always the most helpful way of answering a question. That’s why Google’s SERP Features includes four main types of snippet. These are:

  • Paragraphs.
  • Lists (bulleted or numbered).
  • Tables.
  • Video.

Within each snippet type, you’ll see content that really captures the essence of the searcher’s intent, whether they were Googling tax legislation or how best to recruit new team members.

There are also knowledge card or entity carousel snippet results, but these are typically difficult to optimise for and niche in use- so let’s focus on what you can action.

Why do snippets matter?

The cop-out answer here would be a generic ‘because visibility is important, and sitting atop the SERPs is the best way of boosting visibility’. More interestingly, though, featured snippets comprise around 19% of SERPs according to a recent study by Search Engine Journal. That’s a huge amount.

What’s more, 70% of featured snippets found in this study were text-based, meaning integrated text that’s optimised into your existing content writing could be an easy way of maximising the return on your efforts.

Conversely, neglecting featured snippet considerations and never really looking at what type of SERPs are generated for your target keywords could result in missed opportunities.

The risk of excessive snippet visibility

For full disclosure, snippets aren’t always the best friend of a content marketer. Think about it, if you’re appearing #1 in search results for quick questions with your precise information, users may absorb that information, then get back on with their day- exiting search results.

That ultimately means that your content could drive less clicks, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A 2017 study by Ahrefs looked at what percentage share of clicks is driven by different positions on the SERP. It found that featured snippets (position 1) drive only 8.6% of clicks, while the next highest ranked page sees roughly 19.6% of clicks.

This sounds like a doom and gloom stat for featured snippets, however it’s important to also understand that zero-click searches have gradually increased over the years – and around 50% of searches today yield no clicks.

So, there’s more to the story than click data alone. Instead of a tunnel-vision approach on CTRs, it’s probably best to build a broader picture of how visible your brand is, and lean more heavily on rankings as a performance metric. Besides, SERP features can fluctuate as algorithms evolve and update, which we simply can’t control.

Let’s focus, then, on what we can control.

  1. We can identify which SERPs return snippets.
  2. We can optimise our content to pinch those snippets.

Here’s exactly how.

Navigate to the ‘Site Explorer’ tool within Ahrefs. Input your target domain, I’ve used Yorkshire Tea as an example considering that we’re based in Yorkshire, and that you’ll have earned one shortly.

Featured snippet results for Yorkshire Tea

From there, navigate to ‘Organic keywords’ via the left menu. Now that you’re looking at a list of organic keywords your brand ranks for, you can filter these further using various options within ‘SERP features’.

Once these filters are applied, you’ll see a list of keywords your brand currently ranks for that actually return featured snippet SERPs. If you’re ranking in position 1, then congratulations- you own that snippet!

Ranking positions for yorkshire tea featured snippets

If not, however, then there’s a clear opportunity to optimise for queries for which you’re ranking in positions two or lower. Yorkshire tea here could improve their /how-to-make-a-proper-brew/ URL to better answer searches for ‘how to make tea’.

This individual URL could potentially capture featured snippets within two SERPs that ask the exact same question in slightly different ways. 

We’ve identified that owning the snippet may not result in more clicks, but there’s an unquantifiable value to being presented as the source of knowledge when a user searches for ‘how to make tea’, and quotes Yorkshire Tea as the source when telling their friends what the ‘right way’ is.   

Clever ways of using featured snippets

We’ve covered why feature snippets matter and the value they can bring to your business, but let’s take a look at some practical ways in which you can actually optimise for them.

  • Optimising existing content

In line with the approach we outlined earlier in the piece, you can look for featured snippets that are relevant to your existing content, then optimise for these snippets as best you can.

  • Find featured snippet opportunities within new content

If you’re doing your keyword research within ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer tool, you’ll find a similar ‘SERP Features’ button that allows you to indicate which keywords return snippet SERPs – irrespective of whether or not you rank for them.

using ahrefs keyword explorer for featured snippets

This more proactive approach to snippets could enable you to factor snippets into your content planning, meaning you can design your content to target them, rather than producing a bunch of content and retrospectiveley optimising it.

  • Researching competitor snippets

It could also be worth looking at how competitors optimise for snippets as part of their content strategy. You might identify that actually snippets form a huge part of competitor targeting, which may give you insights and inspiration as to how you could shape your own strategy.

You can review competitor snippets exactly as you view your own within ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool – so if you have the time to dedicate to research, look at the most effective optimisation tactics competitors are using to acquire snippets and factor them into your own business’ workflow.

Our approach to featured snippets

So, featured snippets are all about improving visibility, serving users your expertise succinctly, and being presented in a special position above the rest of organic search results at the potential expense of a few clicks.

The real question is: ‘how do you fit featured snippet optimisations into a wider content strategy?’

It requires a complex answer, but one piece of food for thought is that there’s a trend within content whereby long-form, substantive guide articles are reportedly performing incredibly well. Assuming this content format is at the heart of your approach, you could look to optimise normally around your core terms, while also targetting specific featured snippets within h2 and h3 sections; increasing the amount of keywords your article ranks for.

It’s commonly accepted that acquiring strong rankings is in of itself a good indicator to Google that your content is authoritative/trustworthy, and so picking up featured snippets where possible is rarely a bad idea.

If you’re interested in learning how to maximise the use of SERP features for your site, reach out to us for a quote on the impact a cleverly crafted content strategy could have on your traffic.

Social Media Updates: June 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, has declared that the platform is no longer a photo sharing app. In wake of the success of TikTok and YouTube, Instagram is looking to expand into the entertainment and video space. 

https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1410297743285829632

To reach its goal, the app will be conducting experiments such as showing users recommendations for topics they’re not following and making video more immersive by offering a full-screen experience.

Although Instagram has been testing full-screen video experiences through IGTV, Reels and Stories – the opportunity to incorporate video far more widely still remains.

The primary reason why people use Instagram is to be entertained, however TikTok’s user and engagement surge indicates that people are looking at other alternatives.

To combat this and to be recognized as a general entertainment app driven by algorithms and videos, the platform is trying to tap into trends being followed by other social platforms such as TikTok.

Tweet sharing now available to Instagram stories

Twitter has provided another way for users to interact with tweets by giving all iOS users the ability to share tweets directly to Instagram stories.

When users will click on the sharing icon next to each tweet, they’ll be able to see the new ‘Instagram Stories’ option. The new option, when clicked, will add the tweet into a blank Instagram camera frame where you’ll be able to edit your story according to your preferences.

The tweets will not be tappable as Instagram doesn’t provide off platform links in stories, which means they can’t drive traffic back to the tweet. However, this is still a great update as it may be an indication of a future full-integration between Twitter and Instagram.

Previously, tweets have been shared on Instagram through screenshots. The update has been implemented to tackle this common method of redistributing tweets and to help boost interest in the platform.

TikTok reminds brands to make TikToks not ads

To encourage brands to embrace the flexibility of the platform, TikTok reminds them not to make ads, but to make TikToks to make the most of their marketing activities.

The app explains that while the internet platforms have evolved, ad formats have stayed the same and due to the similarity in the ad formats, users tend to skip them.

However, with TikToks, brands can create valuable, engaging and raw content that resonates with their audience. Ads like this invite the audience to participate and build on the story rather than simply receiving the story and moving on.

In fact, users may start to participate in campaigns, build alongside them and create their own TikToks for brands and products they love – which is the goal of the platform.

Katie Puris, TikTok Global Business Marketing head explains that people often say that they didn’t even realize that a particular TikTok was an ad.

“The work is so good, it fits right in and it’s celebrated… just like a TikTok.”

According to TikTok, the more unfiltered and real the content is, the better it performs. On other platforms brands really need to invest in the content and have videographers, photographers, and models – on TikTok, they don’t.

Instagram tests image and video uploads from desktop

Previously, Instagram only allowed business accounts to publish posts from desktop via Facebook’s Creator Studio app. The platform is now allowing a small group of users to publish feed posts directly from its desktop version.

With the addition of the “+” icon to the top bar of the desktop version of the app, users can upload images or videos directly from their PC storage. They will also be able to customise their feed posts by using the standard in-app editing tools and filters not included in the Creator Studio app.

The new update makes it easier for businesses and social media managers to manage their content because they can now upload edited images and illustrations in a straight-forward process.

Instagram says:

“We know that many people access Instagram from their computer. To improve that experience, we’re now testing the ability to create a feed post on Instagram with their desktop browser.”

The platform further explains that this update will enable more people to use the app and will provide a more centralised approach for social media managers.

If you want to find out how TikTok and other social media apps can help your brand reach its desired target audience and increase sales, get in touch with our expert team or check out our blog for all the latest social media and SEO updates.

SEO Market Updates: June 2021

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

PAGE EXPERIENCE ALGORITHM NOW ROLLING OUT

On 15th June Google announced the rollout of its much-anticipated Page Experience algorithm.

Incorporating the new Core Web Vitals metrics, the algorithm measures a range of factors broadly related to page usability and user experience, including:

  • Page speed
  • Interactivity
  • Visual stability
  • Mobile-friendliness
  • Safe browsing
  • HTTPS usage
  • Usage of intrusive interstitials

Sites that are marked as optimal across the above factors will be considered as offering good page experience and may be potentially favoured in SERPs as a result. However, according to Google sites should not expect to see drastic changes as an immediate result of the update.

Although the current update only applies to mobile devices, Google has confirmed that Page Experience will become a ranking factor for desktop in the near future. A timeline for this has not yet been set out, with an announcement expected closer to the time of release.

To find out more about what to expect from the new update and our approach to measuring Page Experience, read our dedicated blog post here.

BROAD CORE ALGORITHM UPDATE RELEASED ON 2nd JUNE

Prior to the release of the planned Page Experience update, earlier in June Google rolled out a previously unannounced broad core update.

Referred to as the June 2021 Core Update, the release began to roll out on the 2nd of June and finished around the 12th. Unusually, Google announced that this would be a two-part update, with the 2nd round of updates taking place at some point in July. Google’s Danny Sullivan clarified:

  “Some of our planned improvements for the June 2021 update aren’t quite ready, so we’re moving ahead with the parts that are, then we will follow with the rest with the July 2021 update. Most sites won’t notice either of these updates, as is typical with any core updates.”

Google have not disclosed any exact details as to the changes made in the two updates, simply stating the update is fairly typical and that sites may see a negative, positive, or negligible impact. As has become usual with core updates, Google also maintained that there’s nothing in particular for webmasters to do in response.

… AND A NEW TWO-PART SEARCH SPAM UPDATE

If the Page Experience and June / July 2021 updates were not enough, in late June Google also released another update, this time targeting “search spam”.

Rolling out in two parts, the first release started on the 23rd and completed within a single day, with the second following up a week later on the 28th. Confirming the update on the 23rd, Google stated:

“As part of our regular work to improve results, we’ve released a spam update to our systems. This spam update will conclude today. A second one will follow next week.”

Clarification has not been provided on the exact types of spam targeted in the releases, with Google simply advising webmasters to follow their best practice guidelines for search.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES SEARCH CONSOLE INSIGHTS

Google Search Console received another round of features in June, with the addition of a new “Insights” report.

Google Console graph

Insights joins together data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics in an effort to make it easier to analyze the performance of site content. In Google’s words, Insights aims to help site owners answer the below questions:

  • “What are your best performing pieces of content, and which ones are trending?”
  • “How do people discover your content across the web?”
  • “What do people search for on Google before they visit your content?”
  • “Which article refers users to your website and content?”

The new tool began rolling out in mid-June and should now be available to most Google Search Console users. Site owners can either access Insights directly through Search Console, or via a new portal on the Google site.

ROBOTS.TXT ON SHOPIFY SITES NOW EDITABLE

Owners of Shopify sites are now able to manually upload and edit robots.txt files. The new feature was announced on Twitter by Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, and as of 21st June should be fully rolled out.

Shopify had previously only applied default robots.txt files to all websites, with no clear workaround should webmasters need to edit the file. However, the file can now be manually changed via the robots.txt.liquid theme template, with site owners able to:

  • Block certain crawlers
  • Disallow (or allow) certain URLs from being crawled
  • Manually add extra sitemap URLs
  • Add crawl-delay rules for specific crawlers.

While Shopify maintains that the default robots.txt “works for most stores”, the new functionality ultimately gives greater control to site owners and is likely to be welcomed by SEOs working with Shopify sites.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Our Approach to Google’s Page Experience Algorithm Update

Posted on by George Bonelle

As of 15th June 2021 Google’s new Page Experience Algorithm is now rolling out. This new algorithm change measures a range of factors related to user experience, with sites offering good page experience favoured.

As indicated by Google before the release of the algorithm, the rollout period is gradual, with an expected completion date in late August. It’s also not expected that sites will see drastic changes to rankings as an immediate result of the update.

Back in 2020 Google announced new Core Web Vitals metrics, which now form a key part of the new algorithm change. These metrics cover a specific set of areas Google considers as important to the usability of a webpage, including Page speed, Interactivity and Visual Stability.

Other factors measured by the Page Experience algorithm are: 

  • Mobile friendliness
  • Safe browsing
  • HTTPS
  • Usage of intrusive interstitials

What You Need To Know

Page Experience is now included within Google’s wider set of ranking factors. It includes a blend of signals that Google considers impactful to user experience, and Core Web Vitals are an important part of that score.

It was initially believed that sites would receive a negative impact on ranking should they not pass all three Core Web Vital metrics. However, Google now says that you do not need all three “good” scores in order to get any boost in rankings. Additionally, some at Google have indicated that Page Experience could be treated as a lower weight “tie breaker” signal, giving one site an edge over others should scores against other ranking factors be very similar.

Google has also stated that once you do attain the “good” threshold, micro optimising for further improvements will not give you any additional boost in rankings. This confirms the importance of focusing on pages currently receiving “poor” or “needs improvement” CWV metric scores.

To help site owners measure performance against the new metrics, Google Search Console now has a Page Experience report. This includes the current site performance against each of the signals, as well as summarising the percentage of URLs with good page experience over time.

Google Search Console Page Experience Report

When collecting page experience data for a site, Google has confirmed that although they try to be as granular as possible in order to deal with page experience on a page-by-page basis, this isn’t always possible. As such, for some sites page experience data is aggregated.

Although the current release is only designed to measure performance on mobile devices, Google has confirmed that Page Experience will eventually become a ranking factor for desktop. In an announcement at Google I/O, Jeffrey Jose said “we believe page experience is critical no matter the surface the user is browsing the web. This is why we’re working hard on bringing page experience ranking to desktop”. A rollout date for desktop page experience is expected nearer the time of release.

Google was seen to be testing a visual indication within search results for sites that pass the page experience criteria. Should this be implemented, it could provide an incentive for users to click through to sites that have been confirmed to provide a good user experience. This adds another level of motivation for sites to ensure they meet good page experience criteria.

How Can We Measure ‘Page Experience’?

Google’s page experience criteria consists of the following:

Core Web Vitals

These consist of three metrics that are used to measure the user experience of a page.

First Input Delay (FID)

Measures from when a user interacts with a page, to the time the browser can process the event. Due to not being available in simulated environments, we use Maximum Potential First Input Delay and Total Blocking Time to measure this.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

This metric reports the render time of the largest image or text block visible within the viewport. Can also be seen as the loading speed of a page.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

CLS measures the sum total of all individual layout shift scores for every unexpected layout shift that occurs during the entire lifespan of the page.  A layout shift occurs any time a visible element changes its position from one rendered frame to the next.

 The new ranking signals will involve a combination of Core Web Vitals and the other four existing user experience considerations.

Mobile Friendliness

This is a measurement of how usable a website is on a mobile device. Issues can occur when elements of a page do not load correctly, or if parts of a page are not correctly optimised towards mobile users.

Safe Browsing

The security issues report within Google Search Console alerts us to any issues on a site which compromise safe browsing, which can include the following issues:

  • Hacked content: This is any content placed on your site without your permission because of security vulnerabilities in your site. In order to protect our users, Google tries its best to keep hacked content out of our search results.
  • Malware and unwanted software: This is software that is designed to harm a device or its users, that engages in deceptive or unexpected practices, or that negatively affects the user. Malware can be either installed by a hacker or the site owner.
  • Social engineering: This is content that tricks visitors into doing something dangerous, such as revealing confidential information or downloading software.

Any security issues raised by Google should be resolved as a priority.

HTTPS

HTTPS is an internet standard form of encryption. Sites without HTTPS encryption subject their users to HTTP request-response attacks, putting their sensitive information at risk.

Browsers such as Google Chrome and Apple Safari will also warn users who access a page without HTTPS encryption, making users less likely to follow through with providing sensitive information such as log-in or payment details.

No Intrusive Interstitials

As part of Google’s mobile-friendly initiative, if there are any interstitials on a page that Google deems to be intrusive this can have a negative impact on organic rankings. This can include the following: 

  • Showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page. 
  • Displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
  • Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.

Fusion’s Page Experience Auditing Process

We recommend focusing on improving all Page Experience signals as part of a wider technical SEO strategy. As part of our reporting & audit process, we identify any under-performing areas and illustrate how you can address these, by utilising proprietary tools which can pull core web vital metrics across a site.

We mark any poorly performing areas as an immediate target to improve in order to boost your site’s user experience and meet the expectations set out by the new ranking factor.

How Do We Do This?

We combine Google’s CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) data with our own core web vitals data in order to provide a full picture of the performance of your site. 

Google CrUX – Publicly available data. Provides a top-line view on core web vitals data for any site within the database. Data is sorted by site experiences (amount of users experiencing a site) and if their experience passed, failed, or required improvement, based on Google’s criteria.

Fusion Unlimited’s Core Web Vitals – Core Web Vitals data retrieved via a proprietary tool. Our proprietary tool can be tailored for any site in order to pull core web vitals data for all URLs within a site, giving us control over the data that we have access to and allowing us to analyse site performance at a much more granular level.

We also include all other metrics included within Google’s Page Experience criteria.

What Goes Into Each Report?

Summary

We provide an overall site summary on how the site performs across all Page Experience factors, along with recommendations on how to prioritise any metrics which require optimisation. 

We also provide a breakdown of how each metric is currently performing on the site for each Page Experience factor.

Core Web Vitals Pages

We have pages within our report dedicated to providing a deep-dive into each of the Core Web Vitals metrics (FID, LCP, CLS). Within these pages, we will provide the performance of each page that has been tested and display the pages which are currently receiving the poorest performance. 

Want to See For Yourself?

Since Google announced back in May 2020 that page experience would become a ranking factor, we’ve been working with brands from a wide range of sectors throughout the country to ensure they’re aware of their own performance and what they need to do to benefit from the update.

If you’d like to stay ahead of the game, get in touch with the team today to request your own free report at hello@fusionunlimited.co.uk.

SEO Market Updates: May 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Announces MUM – New Tech That’s “1,000x More Powerful Than BERT”

Google showcased a new AI technology called MUM (Multitask Unified Model) during Google I/O, this will help to better understand language and interpret queries for more complex tasks within search.

According to Google, MUM is built on a transformer architecture, similar to BERT, however, it is 1,000x more powerful and capable of multitasking to connect information for users in ways that present-day search engines cannot. MUM is trained across 75 different languages, allowing it to develop a more comprehensive understanding of information and world knowledge.

Here’s an example of how MUM can interpret a query to surface other helpful subtopics for deeper exploration:

Multitask Unified Model Example

It’s not live yet, and Google says they will announce once it is added to search. The only indication as to when this may be was given by Google saying, “We’ll bring MUM-powered features and improvements to our products in the coming months and years”.

Schema.org Launches New Schema Markup Validator Tool

A new schema markup validator tool has been launched as a subdomain on the official Schema.org website, this comes as a “refocused” replacement to Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool, which Google had originally planned to deprecate. However, after backlash, it was decided to improve and house this outside of Google’s direct property as a more “general purpose” schema validator.

The new tool allows for testing of structured data types outside of what Google uses to render rich results, which the Rich Results Test does not offer the ability to test for.

The new Schema Markup Validator has the following functionalities:

  • Extracts JSON-LD 1.0, RDFa 1.1, Microdata markup.
  • Displays a summary of the extracted structured data graph.
  • Identifies syntax mistakes in the markup.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Schema Markup Validator Tool

Page Experience Ranking Eventually Coming To Desktop

In an announcement at Google I/O, Jeffrey Jose, a Google Product Manager revealed that planning is in place for Page Experience to become a ranking factor for desktop, as well as the initial rollout for mobile pages commencing in the coming weeks.

“I am happy to announce that we are bringing page experience ranking to desktop. While we’re launching page experience on mobile soon, we believe page experience is critical no matter the surface the user is browsing the web. This is why we’re working hard on bringing page experience ranking to desktop. As always we’ll be providing updated guidance, documentation and tools.”

More confirmation came later from this Tweet:

https://twitter.com/jeffjose/status/1394776921121067012?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1394776921121067012%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seroundtable.com%2Fgoogle-page-experience-update-coming-to-desktop-31439.html

This announcement now means that the work being done across the industry to improve page experience on mobile pages, should now also be applied to desktop.

Two New Video Content Structured Data Markups

Another exciting announcement from Google I/O came when John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, revealed two new schema markups for video content that can help to gain more visibility within search results.

The first being Clip markup, which is now live. This allows you to manually tell Google what timestamps and labels to show for key moments within the video.

Here’s an example of how that shows as a rich result in search:

Clip Markup Example

Seek markup is the other, this is not yet live and is currently still in the pilot phase, however, Google says it can “Use machine learning to analyze your video content and automatically determine relevant segments for you. All you have to do is tell us how to link to an arbitrary timestamp within the video hosted on your pages, and we’ll do the rest”.

Once both live and functioning, these new properties should be nested within the existing VideoObject schema on the page.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Social Media Updates – April 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Instagram launches digital magazine ‘Instagram Insider’

Image courtesy of Instagram

Instagram has launched its first ever edition of the new digital magazine, Instagram Insider. Every issue will highlight core Instagram trends dominating the platform, list the most influential content creators and small businesses to follow as well as answering users’ questions. 

The first 9-page edition is focused on fashion and beauty which has 4 main trending topics: arts and crafts, which is all about handmade products such as clothing, home décor and accessories. Psychedelia-inspired outfit looks, DIY stick-on beauty products from fake tattoos to glam eye art, and male beauty products.

This free, downloadable magazine is aimed at users who constantly scroll through their feed, Explore and Shop tab, liking and saving posts.

‘Instagram Insider is about inspiration and discovery – not just the trends (crafty quilted fashion, stick on beauty products, vintage streetwear) but the people behind them.’

However, the magazine also provides plenty of information for brands so they can shape their own Instagram strategies and find new angles for their stories and posts.

TikTok launches lead gen ads

Image credit: TikTok

Businesses and advertisers can now gain more insights into their audiences through TikTok’s Lead Generation form. This tool will enable marketers and businesses of all sizes to create seamless interactions to reach their target audience and convert them into customers.

As the app further explains:

‘We want to support and empower businesses on TikTok with seamless opportunities to connect deeply with their customers while ensuring that our community feels comfortable and safe on the platform. This is of the utmost importance to us.’

The Lead Generation consists of a customisable background image, profile image and questionnaire. This means that brands will be able to share details of their products or services in an appealing and interesting way.

Users will be able to signal their interest to the product or service by filling out an easy step-by-step form where they will provide basic information such as name, email address, phone number and answer any additional questions the business would want to know.

TikTok has ensured to provide a simple and efficient experience between businesses and users by auto-populating key response data already available about the user (name etc.).

Any leads gained through this tool can be manually downloaded at the business’s preferred time or integrated with the business’s CRM where they’ll be immediately activated.

This is a great addition to the platform as businesses will be able to build a more accurate audience view for future content and ad campaigns.

Facebook flags changes to newsfeed rankings

Facebook is looking to change its News Feed algorithm to maximise engagement and user retention. This process will consist of user surveys asking people what they like to see on their feed, whether a post is valuable, inspirational or worth their time. Soliciting different types of feedback and deciding whether a post should be higher up or lower down the news feed based on different types of reactions (angry, emotional etc.)

Although users’ news feeds contain posts from friends, groups and pages they’ve chosen to like or follow, they don’t want to see posts about topics they are not interested in. This survey-driven approach will give the platform a complete view of the types of posts people find most valuable and inspiring and what kind of content they don’t want to see on their news feed.

Additionally, with political debates being at an all-time high on Facebook, the platform has received feedback on political content with many users being displeased with the aggressive and divisive political debates.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg states:

‘Increasingly, we’re hearing feedback from people that they’re seeing too much content about politics and too many other kinds of posts and comments that detract from their News Feed experience. This is a sensitive area, so over the next few months, we’ll work to better understand what kinds of content are linked with these negative experiences.’

Lastly, users can also more directly tell Facebook about their preferences by hiding posts they’re not interested in within their news feed. This will inform the platform’s algorithms about what you don’t want to see as well as giving users better control over their feed.

To read our monthly social media updates, check out our blog page, or get in touch with us today to find out how we can help your brand make the most of social media.

SEO Market Updates: April 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

New Page Experience Report in Google Search Console

Google has launched a new Page Experience report within Google Search Console to help site owners better prepare for the rollout of the upcoming page experience update. The report includes existing Core Web Vitals along with the other page experience signals, listed as Mobile Usability, Security Issues, HTTPS and Ad Experience.

Speaking about this new feature, Google has said “The Page Experience report offers valuable metrics, such as the percentage of URLs with good page experience and search impressions over time, enabling you to quickly evaluate performance”.

Here’s what the new report looks like:

Google Search Console Page Experience Report

More information on the report’s full capabilities can be found in the Page Experience Report Google help document.

Along with this, Google has also introduced the ability to filter pages by ‘Good Page Experience’ within the GSC Performance report, allowing site owners to easily keep track of how pages with “Good Page Experience” compare to others on the site.

Google Search Console Good Page Experience Filter

Google Postpone Page Experience Rollout and Provide More Insight

In a blog post providing “More time, tools, and details”, Google has stated that the Page Experience update will be a gradual rollout, beginning in mid-June 2021 and not playing a full role as part of their ranking systems until the end of August. Meaning the update will now finish much later than the original rollout schedule of May 2021.

Google gave the following reasoning for the update being rolled out gradually rather than in real time, “because we’re doing this as a gradual rollout, we will be able to monitor for any unexpected or unintended issues”.

Google Updated How Cumulative Layout Shift is Scored

Changes have been made to how Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is calculated, CLS is a measurement of a web page’s visual stability and is one of the Core Web Vital metrics. Google has updated how this is scored to make it more accurate and fair, stating they are “making the CLS metric more fair to pages that are open for a long time”.

Google now reviews CLS on each page in session windows, here’s a visual representation of this new approach:

Layout Shift Session Window Review Example

Layout shifts can occur sporadically over the time a user views a page, for this reason, Google has decided to group them into session windows. The CLS metric now follows this rule: “maximum session window with 1 second gap, capped at 5 seconds”.

Site owners should not however worry about this change. Because the new update caps the CLS calculation window at 5 seconds, Google say “no page will have a worse score as a result of this”.

More Improvements To Google Search Console

Google has improved data filtering and comparison within the Google Search Console Performance report by introducing a regular expression (regex) filter and ‘revamping’ the comparison mode.

Google explained that the new regular expression filter will help “create more complex query and page based filters”. This new feature will allow Search Console users to catch abbreviated queries within a filtered search, for example when looking at performance for a particular query like ‘gin and tonic’, the new regex filter can be used to capture all similarly relates searches such as ‘gin & tonic’ or ‘g&t’.

Google Search Console Regular Expression Filter

The newly revamped comparison mode now permits users to select and compare multiple metrics by displaying results side-by-side, the table area is almost doubled in size and does now support the new regex filter.

Google Search Console Performance Comparison Mode

Google Rollout New Product Reviews Update

Google has released a new product reviews search algorithm update. This is not a core update affecting all search results, it is specifically targeted at rewarding more in-depth, informative product reviews within SERPs.

“We know people appreciate product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products. That’s why we’re sharing an improvement to our ranking systems, which we call the product reviews update, that’s designed to better reward such content”.

Additional useful information on what creators should know about Google’s product reviews update has been provided within the Google Search Central Blog.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

SEO Market Updates: March 2021

Posted on by George Bonelle

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Responds to “Misleading” Zero-Click Study

A study published by Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro (data courtesy of SimilarWeb) shows that 65% of Google searches from January to December 2020 ended up without the user clicking through to another web property from search results.

Google Zero-Click Study Pie Chart

Google felt the need to respond, writing in a blog post “this claim relies on flawed methodology that misunderstands how people use search”. They then went on to provide “important context about this misleading claim” in order to “set the record straight”. In short, this context included the following:

  • People reformulate their queries. Meaning users often refine their query with a new search. This initial query would inadvertently be considered as zero-click.
  • People look for quick facts. For example, searches for information on weather forecast, sports results, currency conversions and more, which all show directly on the results page.
  • People connect with a business directly. This refers to consumers accessing business information from the search results, which often does not require a traditional click. Including searches for opening hours, contact information, reservations or directions.
  • People navigate directly to apps. Some searches lead users directly to apps, rather than clicking through to a site. For example, searches for a TV program, where the user can follow a direct link to open a streaming app from the results page.

Despite this context, it is worth noting that there is an upwards trend in ‘zero-click’ searches when comparing to similar studies from previous years.

New Practice Problems and Math Solver Structured Data

Google have released new structured data markup which allows sites to display practice problems and math solver pages within Google Search as rich results.

Here’s an example of what practice problems looks like in mobile SERPs:

Example of Practice Problems Structured Data in Google Search

Whereas math solver should display like this:

Example of Math Solver Structured Data in Google Search

Google’s reasoning for this new introduction was “Practice content and math assistance have been some of the most requested information from learners. Practice material helps users gauge their mastery of a concept while a solver provides explanations to help a user get unstuck while doing math problems”.

This is now live, so sites with eligible content can start to implement these new schemas.

Google Adds More Detail To CWV & Page Experience FAQs

Google have expanded their Core Web Vitals & Page Experience FAQs, announcing in a Twitter post that “We are back with more answers to the questions we received”. A lot more detail has been added, a couple of key points include:

“Our systems will continue to prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content”. However, in a situation where multiple pages of similar quality and content go head to head, Google says that those with a superior page experience may perform better than those without.

“With the upcoming change to Top Stories carousel, all web pages irrespective of their page experience status or Core Web Vitals score are eligible for Top Stories carousel”. Meaning a news page won’t need to meet all the Core Web Vitals requirements to be eligible for the Top Stories carousel.

New Resources For Video SEO

Google released two new resources to help site owners optimise their videos for Google Search. Firstly, a new ‘Search Central Lightning Talk’ covers the video best practices for Google Search & Discover, outlining five key tips for video optimisation.

Google also updated their Video best practices guide which provides clarification on the correct steps to be taken to help Google find, index, and understand a video.

SharedArrayBuffer Notification Explained

On 15th March Google sent out a notice to site owners through Search Console stating ‘New requirements for SharedArrayBuffers’, which caused lots of confusion.

Google promptly published a blog post to provide clarification on this. Explaining that site owners received this message because the JavaScript on their site was detected to be using the SharedArrayBuffer object. They then defined SharredArrayBuffer as “a JavaScript object to share a memory space across threads on a website. It was used by websites before the vulnerability called Spectre was found. However, because Spectre was a CPU level vulnerability and it’s unlikely to be fixed in the foreseeable future, browsers decided to disable the SharedArrayBuffer object”.

The blog post provides two options to help find the SharedArrayBuffer object usage on your site. It then recommends the following actions to be taken:

Social Media Updates: March 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

YouTube testing removal of public dislike counts on videos

YouTube is trying to reduce the impact of negative behaviours on the platform by experimenting with the removal of public dislike counts on videos posted by creators.

The decision to remove the public dislike counts on videos was made with the aim to address concerns around targeted dislike campaigns and how they negatively impact the creator and user well-being.

https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/1376942486594150405

Users will still be able to like and dislike videos, and these numbers would still count towards video ranking in the platform. But, just like the Instagram’s removal of public likes experiment, creators will be able to see their full dislike counts in YouTube Studio. 

YouTube is hoping that the removal can help in taking away negative stigma around certain types of content and make creators feel more comfortable in sharing such content.

Facebook working on a ‘kids version’ of Instagram

With Messenger Kids being a success and having 7 million monthly users in 70 countries, Facebook is now looking at creating a kids version of Instagram.

The current Instagram policy does not allow people under the age of 13 to create an account, however many kids still attempt to join the app by adding a fake date of birth and are exposed to potential dangers from predators.

To tackle these issues, Instagram has recently launched new restrictions that will protect youngsters, such as adults not being able to message kids that aren’t following them.

However, the best way to avoid youngsters being exposed to the platform is to build a separate kids version. Instagram’s chief Adam Mosseri says:

“Part of the solution is to create a version of Instagram for young people or kids where parents have transparency or control.”

Some suggest that creating a separate version of the app may increase bullying and abuse amongst younger audiences. But by restricting who can use the app and giving parents oversight this risk can be reduced. 

Instagram is still in the planning stage on this one, so more information will be available once there is a clarification on strategy.

Instagram story drafts to be launched

Instagram story drafts have been a highly requested feature and the app will finally be launching them.

They’re great in providing users with the flexibility in how and when they want to use stories. You will soon be able to create stories, save them to your draft and post them whenever you want.

Options to save stories and downloading them to your device already exist via a third party. However, they’re not convenient within users’ creation flow, so having these features within Instagram itself will facilitate user’s creative creation process.

https://twitter.com/instagram/status/1374474601711898626

Just like a normal story, users will be able to use Instagram’s full feature set in the draft creation process and view them as they’ll appear to users.

This update will also be extremely beneficial for brands that have always wanted to schedule stories updates to be posted when their audiences are most active.

Twitter will be launching ‘Communities’

Similar to Facebook Groups, Twitter will soon be launching ‘Communities’. This new option will enable Twitter users to share their tweets within selected groups of users instead of sharing them with all their followers. 

This option is great for those who want to talk about a variety of different topics without boring their audience with updates they are not interested in. They can now simply create communities that have similar interests and share relevant information, which will also increase engagement as people will be getting information on topics they like.

These community pages would be joinable and be close knit with only members being able to share tweets. This would provide users with private engagement options and create closer communities within the platform.

 

Do you want to find out how we could help you supercharge your own social media strategy? Get in touch with our expert team here.

Why Are We Flocking To FLoC?

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

The phasing out of third party cookies is in full swing with Google confirming an updated plan earlier this month to appease both advertisers and consumers. 

Whilst marketers have been aware of this development since August 2019, this new chapter of advertising is here knocking at our door. 

But before we delve into practicalities let’s look at why this is all happening in the first place (and why it’s important). Fear not, there is not a single reference to the daftly named ‘cookiepocalypse’ in this article…

What are cookies and why are they important?

Let’s start off with the basics:

First Party Cookies

Stored by a website you visit, these cookies provide useful information for that website and shape how a user interacts with it. It’s everything from which pages they visit, how long for, how often and, what they do. Don’t worry – these aren’t going anywhere and will actually become more important as we find out in this article. 

Third-Party Cookies

These are tracking cookies that are stored under a different domain than you are currently visiting. They are mainly of use for advertisers as it enables them to track users between websites and display more relevant ads between websites.

How is this relevant to online privacy?

As third-party cookies enable advertisers to track the digital movements of users, there has been a growing demand for transparency and gaining back control of data. Whilst all users do have the option to opt-out of third-party cookies, it’s not always straightforward to do so.

Google’s figures show that searches for “online privacy” have increased by 50% globally year on year. A demand for anonymity from a digital presence in the era of information is no passing trend, however. You only have to look at the 1.2 million members of reddit’s Privacy community or the creation of Tor back in 2006 to see that users are seeking solutions to digital anonymity.

Google data

This demand in knowledge, or privacy as it were, has also led to an increase in content being published surrounding ‘online privacy’ over the past five years.

Bar chart of content produced
Ahrefs Data

How has Google Chrome responded to the removal of third party cookies?

With Google Chrome having a whopping 63.5% of browser market share – as a market leader the internet giant needed to make its stance on cookies clear, especially as browser competitors were doing so.

The likes of Safari and Firefox placed limitations on tracking years ago with the latter using the following disclaimer in its February 2021 release:

At Mozilla, we believe you have a right to privacy. You shouldn’t be tracked online. Whether you are checking your bank balance, looking for the best doctor, or shopping for shoes, unscrupulous tracking companies should not be able to track you as you browse the Web. For that reason, we are continuously working to harden Firefox against online tracking of our users.

Google first stated its intention back in August 2019 when it sought to “develop a set of open standards to fundamentally enhance privacy on the web. We’re calling this Privacy Sandbox”. Fast forward to January 2020 and further rollout details became apparent with the announcement of a 2-year timeframe of cookies being phased out from Google Chrome. By October 2020 Google was prepared to share more detailed insights on the steps they were taking in relation to mitigating “deceptive and intrusive tracking techniques, such as fingerprinting” which saw it throw its weight behind supporting Secure DNS. 

However, the largest development so far in this whistle-stop tour of Google’s announcements has been the introduction of FLoC.

What is FLoC?

In January 2021, Google Chrome announced the creation of FLoC with a view of testing amongst advertisers to be rolled out as early as Q2 2021. 

FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) proposes a new way for businesses to reach people with relevant content and ads by clustering large groups of people with similar interests. This approach effectively hides individuals “in the crowd” and uses on-device processing to keep a person’s web history private on the browser.” 

Before raising hell amongst advertisers who feared the future collapse of targeting as we know it, Google set the record straight earlier this month. “Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.” 

What that’s to say is that Google would not be providing the ability to use third-party cookies to target individuals, thereby protecting a user’s right to anonymity, but would provide advertisers with the opportunity to target a cohort of similarly behaved groups. These interest-based groups could indeed be in their thousands so there’s no denying that the precise nature of targeting will be lost in stark comparison but Google has assured advertisers that we can expect “at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising.” From here on in, only the performance of ads under the new targeting options will tell. 

Some naysayers aren’t convinced, with talk of FLoC undoing a decade’s worth of work and even calling into question whether FLoC is even that private as there are seemingly ways around extracting user IDs from a cohort. 

In Europe there are big question marks over whether FLoC is GDPR-compliant, prompting Marshall Vale to clarify that testing in Europe would be rolled out at a later date.

By 2022 Google Chrome confirms the use of third-party cookies will cease to exist entirely.

How can we be prepared for the change?

As a performance marketing agency, our Head of Paid Media, Jen Mottram, and Account Director, Kyle Brogan, share their thoughts on how the absence of cookies will shape the future of paid media as we know it, and why it’s not necessarily a bad thing.  

What were your initial thoughts on the announcement of FLoC?

Jen: I’m very glad that a solution to the loss of 3rd party cookies is nearly ready, and we will have familiar targeting options. However, there are still a lot of questions; what about the 45% who do not use Chrome? can the privacy issues raised by some be rectified? Ultimately something is better than nothing, but I’m watching updates closely!

Kyle: It’s reassuring that there is a recommended option available to allow advertisers to continue to target customers in a privacy-first manner. I’m keen to see how this develops over the next few months, and how robust it will be across networks beyond that of just Google.

 How will we be preparing for a cookie-less future?

Jen: From a technical perspective, 1st party data will be a focus, luckily for us a lot of our clients have already heavily invested in this or are making all the right steps towards the necessary infrastructure.

Additionally, utilisation of AI, like smart bidding and responsive/dynamic ads, will be even more important to ensure campaigns are reactive to all other signals. We have built these into our clients’ strategies and the tech behind is ever-evolving and robust”.

Kyle: Conversations with clients, as solutions are developing, is key in ensuring all parties are prepared for a cookie-less future.

We’re in the process of establishing what the potential risks are as well as what can be done now to ensure their 1st party data is in the best condition possible.

Keep an eye on our blog, LinkedIn and Instagram channels for information!

Welcome to Team Fusion, George!

Posted on by Sam Holmes

We’re delighted to welcome George Bonelle to our SEO team! George joins team Fusion with three years experience in digital and is set to play a key role in helping our Organic Search team onboard some amazing new clients.

I sat down with our newest team member to find out where they’ve come from, where they’re headed, and everything in between…

 

Welcome to the team, George! We’re all delighted to have you here. What are you most looking forward to about the role?

Thanks, it’s a pleasure to be here! I’m just really looking forward to getting going, learning as much as I can from the great team here and becoming a valued member of the Fusion team. 

 

What attracted you to joining Fusion in the first place?

I’d say the wide variety of clients was a key factor. I really wanted to expose myself to working with a number of different brands and the different challenges that brings, so I can continue to keep learning and growing as an SEO.

 

You’ve been in marketing for a few years now. What’s your favourite part about the role?

I love the fact that success can be tracked. It provides great satisfaction seeing initial ideas come to fruition and even surpass expectations.

 

And what’s your favourite part about SEO in particular?

It’s great that SEO is always evolving, with industry trends and changes always keeping you on your toes. What’s great for those starting out is that inexperience in years isn’t always the disadvantage it can be in other industries.

 

What are you looking forward to bringing to the team?

I’ll hopefully bring fresh ideas and a new perspective from my previous experience, along with lots of hard work to get up to speed as quickly as possible!

 

How do you see SEO developing over the next year?

With the upcoming Page Experience update, there’ll of course be a need to prioritise Core Web Vitals and other UX focused metrics. That said, I guess that’s what’s so intriguing about SEO – you never really know what’s around the corner! But I’m confident we’ll be prepared for whatever comes.



Right, let’s get to know the real George…



Favourite marketing campaign?

Budweiser: King of Beers. Flipping the bottle cap to look like a crown. Simple but effective. Although, it’s still not my choice of larger.

 

App you couldn’t live without?

YouTube, there’s always just that one more video to watch.. next thing you know it’s 1am!

 

We put you in charge of the Sonos – what are your top 3 picks?

Steve Miller Band – The Joker

Oasis – She’s Electric

Mac Miller – Ladders

 

Dream Client?

Leeds United!!

 

Favourite film?

Happy Gilmore

 

Death row meal?

Pizza, any topping bar pineapple.

 

Interesting fact about you?

I worked in America for a year as a golf caddy.

 

And finally, if you weren’t in marketing?

Most likely still chasing golf balls down the fairway (or into the trees).

 

To get to know more of the team, check out our latest blog posts, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Welcome to team Fusion, Emily & Charlie! 

Posted on by Sam Holmes

We’ve all been really excited to welcome two brand new starters in Emily and Charlie! Both join team Fusion from university and will play key roles in our Paid Media team following some amazing client wins in the past few months.

I sat down with our newest recruits to learn where they’ve come from, where they’re headed, and what kind of playlists we can look forward to when we’re back in the office!

 

Welcome to the team, both! We’re all delighted to have you here. What are you most looking forward to about the role?

 

EF: Thank you! This is my first role in digital marketing so I’m eager to get stuck into all things digital and learn from everyone working at Fusion.

CT: Thank you, delighted to be a part of the team! I think I’m most looking forward to putting skills into action within campaigns and developing within the role as a whole.

 

So tell me, why marketing?

 

EF: While studying Media Psychology, I found it really interesting researching the psychological effects of marketing and how theories can be used to support decisions companies make on social media. This learning and passion has motivated me to pursue a career in marketing. I like how fast-paced digital marketing is in terms of how it is consistently adapting, there is always something new to learn and challenge yourself with. 

CT: I have always been drawn to marketing and advertising through growing up, be it through traditional platforms within print through Esquire or GQ, to more digitally driven methods today. I find myself curious as to understanding people and looking to form meaningful connections within marketing as a result. This ultimately led me to move into marketing from a more fashion-based role.

 

What attracted you to Fusion in the first place?

 

EF: The size of the team, as well as the clear culture within the agency, attracted me to apply for the role. I also love that there’s a strong percentage of women working at Fusion, especially in management positions, because it motivates me that I could reach a similar level in the future.

CT: The opportunity to learn and develop skills within a small team across a diverse base of clients was a huge part of what attracted me to the role. 


How have you found it starting a new role during lockdown?

 

EF: It has been a bit strange only meeting people through a screen, but everyone has been lovely and welcoming which makes it so much easier. Not having to commute is kind of amazing though!

CT: Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and helpful, with a real focus on making the induction and learning as simple as possible – which has certainly made the process of starting during lockdown a positive one. 

Right, let’s get to know the real you…

 

Favourite marketing campaign?

 

EF: I like Spotify’s campaigns surrounding Spotify Wrapped which show interesting stats about people’s listening activity over the previous year. They have a great mix of personalisation and humour, focusing on viral world events as well as specific examples, like showing that someone played the song “Sorry” 42 times on Valentine’s Day.

CT: Recently, Aime Leon Dore’s Autumn/Winter 2020 ‘The People’s Borough’ campaign.

 

App you couldn’t live without?

 

EF: TikTok

CT: Nike Run Club!

 

We put you in charge of the Sonos – what are your top 3 picks?

 

EF: Live Well – Palace, Yours to Keep – Jordan Mackampa, Silver Springs – Fleetwood Mac

CT: Heroes – David Bowie, Vapor Trail – Ride, California Soul – Marlena Shaw

 

Dream Client?

 

EF: Any makeup brand, I like the theatrical makeup Give Face Cosmetics promote.

CT: British Fashion Council.

 

Favourite film?

 

EF: Ex Machina (or if I’m being honest, Moulin Rouge).

CT: North by Northwest, or Lost in Translation.

 

Death row meal?

 

EF: Roast dinner followed by chocolate fudge cake.

CT: Cacio e Pepe pasta.

 

Interesting fact about you?

 

EF: I walked the red carpet at Leicester Square for the Bridget Jones’ Baby premiere.

CT: I used to live in Paris.

 

If you weren’t in marketing?

 

EF: I think maybe researching the psychology behind social media, I find fandoms particularly interesting.

CT: If anything’s on the cards, probably a painter, or a Jazz drummer.

 

To get to know more of the team, check out our latest blog posts, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

International Women’s Day: An interview with 5 of our leading women

Posted on by Mark Curtis

I founded Fusion Unlimited back in 1998, when the landscape in digital was quite unrecognisable to how it is now. It’s been incredibly refreshing to see some amazing initiatives born in recent years to support in promoting more women to join the industry. The refining balance of the workforce in our sector speaks for itself as to the great change this has made, although we all still know that dial can be moved even further forward.

On International Women’s Day, I’m very proud to be able to say that 60% of the team here at Fusion are women, also making up 50% of our leadership team.

To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, I sat down with just five of the many great women here to gather their thoughts on what it means to them to encourage more women to join our great industry. 

You’ll hear from Katie Harling, our Client Services Director, who joined me 18 years ago and has since played a huge part in growing the agency to what it is now. Secondly, Hira Nasir and Louise Barber, who both joined us from University as their first roles in digital. I’ve also caught up with Danielle Wright, who joined us during Lockdown pt.1 with two years of experience in the digital arena. And last but certainly not least, you’ll hear from Helen Hargreave, our Head of Content with 10 years in the industry, the past eight of those spent here with team Fusion.

In your opinion, why is it important that more women get into the digital industry in the future?

KH: It’s important to have a diverse team, and people should be encouraged to join any industry they have an ambition to be part of.

I find a diverse team creates new ways of working, thinking and learning, which in an innovative industry, is important. This is key not only for the work we produce, but also for us as an agency team. Thriving off of this naturally creates an exciting atmosphere, and builds a happier more stable collective team.

For me, diversity should be celebrated. We need to ensure that everyone has access to the same opportunities and the same treatment. 

HN: It’s good to have a mix of genders in every industry really! I think having more women will help the industry flourish even more with more ideas as women are a huge part of the consumer audience, so having their insights and how they would approach the digital media landscape will help the industry flourish with more existing and creative ideas.

LB: The single fact that 75% of the digital workforce are male is enough to down tools and get involved in this industry.

DW: It’s important that women don’t feel intimidated to get involved in an industry that maybe was once heavily dominated by men. There are a lot of different career options and no matter your skill-set, there’s something for you.  

HH: Equality in business, scrap that, in anything, is a fundamental right. For businesses to speak to all customers we need balance from the people telling the story. So as consumers, for our voices to be heard and for us to be seen we need the people behind the scenes to understand our struggles, our concerns, passions and what we enjoy too. Joining the conversation and the work therefore becomes an opportunity to shape the conversation.

Do you think there’s a stereotype attached to digital?

KH: I think in certain areas of digital there are stereotypes, but my own personal experience has been very different. I have worked for the same agency all my career, where talent has been supported above all else, a key reason why I’m still here. The team has always been well-balanced, but on the premise of providing an opportunity to those who show ambition and desire to be part of a forward thinking team…that’s all. 

HN: I think the technical side of SEO is associated with men, there’s not many women within that sector. But having said that, the industry is changing and that stereotype has started to peel off.

LB: Of course. It’s a geeky white male. Days like International Women’s Day are active opportunities to challenge this stereotype and create space for others. That’s why I thought it was important to get involved in this piece, share my experience and encourage women to join this industry.

DW: I think historically there has been, but I think I’ve certainly seen promising signs of improvement. I’m very lucky to work with a group of very talented women at Fusion and it’s really encouraging.  

The industry can still do so much more to support and encourage women in the field. There’s a balance to be found between hiring and supporting women because they are talented and hiring a woman because you need a token woman to improve diversity in your male dominated team.

HH: Probably, but perhaps not for the reasons you may think. Starting my career working in content marketing and social media 10 years ago I was surprised how many people perceived the channel as ‘the fluffy stuff’ and that bothered me. The fact I could be perpetuating that stereotype bothered me even more. But was it the work itself or that I was a woman doing it? It was hard to tell. To effect change and deliver real results I felt like I needed to work even harder to make people listen up – to challenge the work I was doing was just as important. 

What barriers have you faced, as a woman, in becoming successful in the search industry?

KH: There have been occasions where I’ve walked into a room and felt judged – be that because of my age or my gender. However, having confidence in what I do, being able to adapt to requirements, and maintaining faith in my ability, I have always remained true to myself and represented Fusion in high regard. 

HN: I started off as a photographer/videographer and in my first few projects I was only working with men which sometimes used to be a bit daunting but I feel like there’s a demand for women within content creation and maybe even within digital advertising in general (as more and more people want to see a woman’s perspective within a certain  project) – and that’s why my journey in regards to getting in the industry has been pretty straight forward.

LB: I feel privileged to say I don’t think I have seen any barriers coming into this industry. Fusion is the first agency I have worked in, and I think I was really lucky to find myself in an environment where women are really well represented across the team. As a result of this, I have felt supported, encouraged, and heard from my first day. Hearing that this isn’t the case across the entire industry makes me appreciate my experiences even more. 

HH: Aside from immaturity, inexperience, imposter syndrome, and confidence in my craft (!) the main barrier I wanted to overcome was being heard and being heard for the right reasons. I wanted to be able to walk into a room and connect with others no matter their age, status or gender but there are A LOT of big personalities out there.

The power of rhetoric was key here, being able to choose when to speak up, delivery and how to connect with a person was a huge learning curve in my early days. I educated myself, I watched powerful women, binged on TED talks and let myself be vulnerable too (the discovery of Brene Brown’s ‘Power of Vulnerability’ was eye-opening for me) – all of this let me get over my biggest barrier – myself!    

On International Women’s Day, what’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to a woman thinking of starting a career in digital marketing?

KH: I was brought up in a loving family that educated me to work hard, (play hard), and don’t let anything hold me back. They told me to go after what I wanted and I did! I was so focused on succeeding for myself and that’s what’s key – do what’s right for you and do what makes you happy. Stay focused – with determination and passion, nothing can hold you back.

You get one shot at life…do what makes you happy. If that’s a career in digital, do it, it’s an amazing industry and we would love to see you become part of it! 

HN: I would say just go with it! I think there’s a lot of people willing to help, especially women and it’s definitely a lot easier to get in the industry compared to 10 years ago and there’s quite a few digital marketing agencies that are founded by women so the future is definitely looking good.

LB: Don’t be afraid of getting into digital – even if it doesn’t match your background. There are many attributes that are valued within digital marketing, from written ability, analytical thinking and just general confidence. Skills can be taught – there is so much room for growth within Digital Marketing. And p.s. it’s not all geeky white males!

DW: Do it! Digital is always changing so there’s always something new to learn. It’s an exciting industry to work in and can be very rewarding.  

HH: Know your craft, stick up for yourself, leave your ego at the door, give credit, be vulnerable, be human, and be kind. 


If you found this interesting, check out the Fusion blog for the latest thought leadership from our team. We’re always keen to speak to ambitious people looking to get into digital, so I’d also encourage you to take at our careers page to see if we might have something for you.

Our Favourite Valentine’s Day Campaigns of 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Lockdown has changed the way we celebrate our seasonal holidays. From Christmas and New Year to birthdays and anniversaries, the rulebooks have been thrown up in the air this past year. And few more so than Valentine’s Day. With restrictions on leisure, and more of us keeping a distance from our loved ones, this Valentine’s Day provided us with another challenge in celebrating this day of love as we normally do.

But perhaps this made us reflect on the meaning of love and its importance. This gave brands across the world the the chance to reflect on their strategies and discover what matters the most to their customers in times like these.

The result was a real variety of ‘out of the box’ Valentine’s marketing campaigns, from donation-drive campaigns to those appealing to nature lovers.

Let’s take a look at our top 5 favourite Valentine’s Day campaigns of 2021…

NHS 

There’s not an ounce of doubt that the NHS staff deserved a huge chunk of the love this Valentine’s Day. The support they’ve shown during the pandemic has shown us the true definition of sacrifice and selflessness.

From the NHS, we saw the launch of a charity campaign that encouraged people to ditch flowers and gifts this Valentine’s Day in favour of donations to support the NHS staff who have made the many sacrifices throughout the pandemic to get us this far.

https://twitter.com/valentinesNHS/status/1355132865621712896

Pandora

Pandora conducted a survey across countries that have a big Valentine’s Day celebration, such as the UK, USA, Australia, China, Germany and Mexico, to ask them how their perception of love and relationships has changed since the pandemic.

The results revealed that people are prioritising relationships and appreciating their loved ones a lot more and really valuing the time spent together compared to before the pandemic as they now understand what it feels like to stay away from people they love.

The campaign was topped off with a short film asking real couples what Valentine’s Day means to them.

Clover

Clover’s ‘Spread the Real Love’ campaign encouraged parents to break free from the social pressure of being perfect and instead embrace the imperfections that come with parenthood as it is not an easy job.

The side-effects of social media, where we frequently see aspirational yet unrealistic portrayals of other people’s lives, often results in many of us feeling disheartened about our own setup, with many of us under constant pressure to portray that same perfect life.

Here, Clover sought counter this, instead shining a light on the everyday family by sharing real home scenarios that we can all familiarise with.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

We can’t hide from the fact that 2020 has been a disastrous year for our planet, from Amazon Rainforest fires and Australian bushfires to California wildfires. However, we can use 2021 to show love to our mother nature and appreciate it before it’s too late.

This Valentine’s Day, WWF decided to raise awareness of our natural surroundings and how important it is for us to love them. The ‘Love it or lose it’ campaign appeals to all nature lovers by showcasing the relationship we have with nature and warn us of what we can lose if we don’t take better care of our planet.

Hotels.com

The holiday booking brand’s ‘V-Day Dumpster Stay’ campaign was a considered theme for singles who were feeling a little lonely this Valentine’s Day. It encouraged people to write about why their ex deserved a vacation in a dumpster, with the chance to win a $300 gift card redeemable against a holiday.

(uk.hotels.com/page/vdaydumpsterstay)

To make the campaign even more fun, all entries received a booking confirmation email for their ex’s imaginary Dumpster Stay.

So, there’s our favourite Valentine’s Day campaigns of 2021. As you can see, we saw a real range of messages and sentiments behind these campaigns, showing you can define love however you want. It’s important to express your brand’s voice on days like Valentine’s Day to better connect with your customers and find out what it is that’s important to them. 

 

Get in touch with our expert team for more information on how you can voice your own brand.

Welcome to Team Fusion, Tom!

Posted on by Sam Holmes

We’re delighted to welcome Tom Harrison to the Fusion team, who has joined our paid media division as Senior Account Executive. Tom brings with him five years of in-house experience with global healthcare brand Medacs. After bringing some amazing new clients on board in 2021, we’re really excited for what Tom will add to our paid offering.

I sat down with our newest recruit to learn where they’ve come from, where they’re headed, and what they’ll be looking to bring to the team!

 

Welcome to the team, Tom! What are you most looking forward to about the role?

This is actually my first agency role, so I’m really excited to work with the rest of the Fusion team and learn as much as I can from them all!

 

What attracted you to Fusion in the first place?

The role was a perfect fit for me. Seeing the accolades and awards Fusion has won recently, as well as the size of clients and the culture within the teams, I knew Fusion would be a great first agency for me.

 

You’ve been in marketing for a few years now, albeit sitting on the other side of the table! What’s your favourite part about the role?

I do love seeing a campaign that has been made from scratch perform well and meeting the objectives set out right at the beginning.


What are you excited to bring to the team?

I’m looking forward to supporting the team the best I can every day with a positive approach, bringing some fresh new ideas to the table.

 

Where do you see paid media in the next 12 months?

I see automation coming to the forefront a lot more.. As a fast-paced agency with so many campaigns to oversee, looking closer to home I really believe automation will allow us marketers the time and space to think and strategise more. 

 

Let’s get to know the real Tom..

 

Favourite marketing campaign?

I really liked the Nike campaign from 2020, ‘You Can’t Stop Us’, and how the campaign video was made and edited as well, it was very inspiring.

 

App you couldn’t live without?

Instagram – too much good content on it.

 

We put you in charge of the Sonos – what are your top 3 picks?

A Tribe Called Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got)

King Krule – Biscuit Town

Roy Davis Jr. & Peven Everett – Gabriel

 

Dream Client?

Nottingham Forest

 

Favourite film?

The Departed

 

Death row meal?

Any pizza will be enough for me.

 

Interesting fact about you?

I travelled across Italy for a few months – take me back!

 

If you weren’t in marketing?

A DJ living somewhere warm (we can all dream).

 

SEO Market Updates: January 2021

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Search Console’s Multiple Updates and Errors

Google Search Console Mistakenly Send Messages To Users

Google Search Console users received messages informing that they are currently impressions due to domains not being verified as a domain property. These errors arose when the domains that Google were asking users to verify weren’t owned by the user.

https://twitter.com/badams/status/1354481943518334981

 

Google have confirmed that this is a bug within their system.

New Google Search Console Report for News Publishers

Google have released a dedicated report for news publishers within Google Search Console. The new performance report will show data from news.google.com and from the Google News app (available on Android and iOS). However, this report will not display traffic data from the new tab within Google Search, which is available within the standard performance report when applying the filter Search Type = News.

Google have also confirmed that all data is aggregated by page. This means that if a single site provides multiple Google News results in a single user session, each result is credited to the page URL it points to (rather than to the property containing the page).

Index Coverage Improvements in Google Search Console

Google have rolled out improvements to the index coverage report within Google Search Console, with a focus on providing a more accurate state to existing issues in order to help users resolve them easier.

The updates Google have implemented include the following:

  • Removal of the generic “crawl anomaly” issue type – all crawls errors should now be mapped to an issue with a finer resolution.
  • Pages that were submitted but blocked by robots.txt and got indexed are now reported as “indexed but blocked” (warning) instead of “submitted but blocked” (error)
  • Addition of a new issue: “indexed without content” (warning)
  • Soft 404 reporting is now more accurate

These updates are currently available for all users.

Google Will Start Crawling Sites Over HTTP/2

Users are currently receiving notices via Google Search Console that their site can support HTTP/2 crawling and that this has been implemented.

HTTP/2 crawling allows Google to crawl a site faster and more efficiently but doesn’t have an effect on organic rankings.

Core Web Vitals Comes To Chrome 88

With the release of Chrome 88, users will now have access to Core Web Vitals via the performance panel of the inspector too.

After recording the loading of a page, Core Web Vitals metrics, such as First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), will display.

A Large benefit to viewing Core Web Vital performance information via the performance panel is the ability to hover over specific metrics, such as CLS, which will highlight the elements on the page which causing the issue. This will give webmasters a clear view on which elements are causing page experience issues and if these are unique page elements or template elements that can be resolved on multiple pages.

 

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Welcome to Team Fusion, Jonny!

Posted on by Sam Holmes

Our first hire of 2021 is Jonny Tushingham, who has come on board to boost our paid media offering. After working with some huge brands including Euro Car Parts, Park Leisure and Carphone Warehouse, we can’t wait to see what Jonny brings to the team.

I sat down with our newest recruit to learn where they’ve come from, where they’re headed, and what they’ll be bringing to team Fusion!

 

Welcome to the team, Jonny! What are you most looking forward to about life here at Fusion?

As cliché as it sounds, I’m really looking forward to meeting & working alongside the Fusion team. People are always the key to any good agency and I can’t wait to properly collaborate with everyone, hopefully in person in the not-to-distant future!


What attracted you to Fusion in the first place?

Fusion represented a fantastic opportunity to work within a smaller, more close-knit agency that shared my view of working with clients directly – everything I was looking for in an agency. Add to that an ambitious and convivial atmosphere and the choice was easy to put my name forward to join the team.


You’ve been in paid media l for a few years now, what’s your favourite part about the role?

I really enjoy the collaboration involved within a paid media role, whether it be internally, with clients or even suppliers like Google & Bing – which is handy for such a dynamic and fast moving industry.


What are you excited to bring to the team?


I’m looking forward to bringing a new approach to paid media to the team, mixing past experience with Fusion’s best practices, whilst supporting the team with positive and proactive thinking.


Where do you see paid media in the next 12 months?

With Google’s steady increase in automation, I can see much of paid media’s day-to-day tasks making way for larger, more influential strategy work. I feel this shift will provide companies & agencies with smaller levels of resource an opportunity to reach out and service more clients.


Right, let’s get to know the real Jonny…


Favourite marketing campaign?

I really like Go-Pro marketing campaigns, especially the “Be a Hero” campaign. By using user-generated content Go-Pro are repeatedly able to engage with users on social platforms using an almost endless amount of inspiring video & picture assets, all provided for them!


App you couldn’t live without?

Definitely Whatsapp. Being able to easily stay in touch with friends and family (especially during a pandemic) has been essential.

We put you in charge of the Sonos on your first day – what are your top 3 picks?

Fleet Foxes – Third of May
Kendrick Lamar – How Much A Dollar Cost
Radiohead – Paranoid Android

(I hope these picks don’t affect the success of my probation period…)

Dream Client?

Wolverhampton Wanderers – an easy answer

Favourite film?

No Country For Old Men – Just perfect

Death row meal?

My life mission is to find the perfect pizza. Once I find it, it’ll be that.

Interesting fact about you?

I’m a twin. A slightly worse version of myself is roaming around somewhere in the world.

And finally, if you weren’t in marketing?

Ideally? Running a trendy coffee shop somewhere warm
Realistically? Working in financial services.

 

 

 

Social Media Updates: January 2021

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Instagram Looking to Total Likes Count on Posts

Back in 2019, Instagram trialled removing their total like counts on posts as part of their audience wellbeing initiative.

The goal at that time was to reduce social comparison and its associated negative impacts on users. However, the social media giant is now looking to change that by rolling out a feature that includes both hide and unhide options.

Instagram will be giving users in countries included in the first testing phase, the option to display like counts on their posts once again. This would give users direct power over whether they want their posts’ total like counts to be displayed or not.

This option will be given both within the composer when initially posting, and after the post has been published. The app is also looking to add another setting which would enable users to hide like counts on other people’s posts that appear on their Instagram feed.

However, we’ll have to wait for Instagram to release data on the impact of the hiding like counts experiment to decide whether the new option will have a positive or negative impact on its users.

Facebook will be removing the ‘Our Story’ Section from Pages

Facebook is alerting Page owners to shift their ‘Our Story’ description to the ‘Additional Information’ section as the former is being removed from the Page presentation options.

‘Our Story’ which currently appears as a secondary information panel within the ‘About’ section, was added in 2017 to help brands provide more background on their business so they can better connect with their page visitors.

However, Facebook has now decided to remove this section. The reason for the removal seems to relate to the page presentation the page presentation as the ‘About’ section looks a little cluttered.

Instead, users will now be able to tap through the ‘Additional Information’ section and read more about a business brand story. This change means that companies will have to re-assess their Page layout and adjust it accordingly.

Twitter Acquires Newsletter Platform, Revue

After many conversations around long-form content on Twitter, the app has acquired Revue – a service that helps writers create newsletters and distribute them to their audience through a subscription basis.

This integration will allow Twitter to become a primary source of engagement for writers and allow them to satisfy their online communities by publishing content that goes beyond the 280-character limit.

Audiences and authors will easily be able to find each other, and users will now be able to subscribe to their favourite authors newsletters directly through Twitter.

Twitter further explains:

‘We imagine a number of integrations on Twitter that will help readers more easily discover and connect with writers — from easy ways to subscribe to a newsletter to new settings for writers to host conversations with subscribers.’

This is a great opportunity for brands with large Twitter followings to get into the inbox of their most loyal followers.

 

If you want to find out how social media can help your brand, please get in touch with us today! Or check out our blog to get more information on the latest social media and SEO trends. 

SEO Market Updates: December 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google’s December Core Algorithm Update

Google confirmed that they released a broad core algorithm update on 3rd December.

This is the first broad core algorithm update Google have released since May 2020.

Consistent with past broad core algorithm updates, these are much more significant and look at providing an overall improvement to the algorithm. As these updates focus on the general improvement of the algorithm, there are no specific focus points in regards to optimisation.

For more information on how to assess site content which has been negatively affected by this update, we would recommend reading our post on the January broad core update, in which we provide a list of questions site owners should use to optimise their site.

Google Display Page Experience Icons in Search

Within Google’s initial announcement that their page experience algorithm will be released in May 2021, Google confirmed that they will also be releasing a visual indicator within the search results page. Users have spotted instances of Google testing this feature recently.

The four-point star icon (as shown above) will be displayed beside results when the page passes the core web vitals threshold.

As this is currently a test from Google, it’s worth noting this feature is subject to change or removal.

New Google Maps Features

We have also seen several updates come to Google Maps this month.

Search Results in Google Maps

Search results now display within Google maps. This is currently being displayed within business listings.

Ensuring search results for a business adds a new level of visibility. As the search results add another method of access to a site, this could potentially lead to users accessing another site if a business’ search results contain listings for competitors or other alternative sites.

Google My Business Messages Come to Google Maps

Google have expanded the ways in which business owners can access Google My Business messages from customers and ways in which customers can message businesses. Previously only accessible via Google My Business and text, customers and business owners will now have the ability to send and access messages via the Google Maps business listings.

Customers can also start a conversation under any post within a business listing and customers will also be prompted to send a message if the business misses a call made via a listing.

Google have also implemented more detailed lists of search queries used to access a business listing within the Google My Business performance insights.

WordPress Plugin Contact Form 7 Leaves 5+ Million Sites Vulnerable

One of the most popular plug-ins on WordPress, with over 5 million active instillations, Contact Form 7 allows businesses to add multiple contact forms to their site. The plug-in recently announced that they have discovered a high-severity unrestricted file upload vulnerability in version 5.3.1 of the plug-in, and older versions. Possible consequences of this security breach include:

  • Possible to upload a web shell and inject malicious scripts
  • Complete takeover of the website & server if there is no containerization between websites on the same server
  • Defacing the website

Contact form 7 have now released a patch to resolve this issue. It is highly recommended that any sites using this plug-in, update to version 5.3.2.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Social Media Updates: December 2020

Posted on by Hira Nasir

TikTok is bringing its videos to your Home TV

You can now enjoy watching TikToks on a bigger screen as Samsung has announced a partnership with the app that will enable Samsung Smart TV owners in the UK and Europe to watch TikTok videos on their TV screens.

Users will have to download the TikTok app for Samsung TV, which is available for all 2018 models onwards. They will have access to the ‘For You’ page, ‘Following feeds’ and the most liked and viewed content on TikTok.

Samsung explains that the content is organised into 12 categories, from gaming and comedy to food and beauty and users can access all of this without having a TikTok account. In addition to this, users will have access to #LearnOnTikTok videos where they can get the latest cooking hacks, fitness tips and fun facts that TikTok has to offer.

The app will automatically operate in Restricted Mode to filter out content that may not be appropriate for all audiences. This new partnership will open new opportunities for top creators and TikTok advertisers to reach new audiences. If this integration goes well, TikTok could look at adding more ways for advertisers to reach TV viewers with customised big screen-specific campaigns.

Samsung explains that the content is organised into 12 categories, from gaming and comedy to food and beauty and users can access all of this without having a TikTok account. In addition to this, users will have access to #LearnOnTikTok videos where they can get the latest cooking hacks, fitness tips and fun facts that TikTok has to offer.

Facebook is developing a new celebrity streaming option

Facebook is looking to rival Cameo (an app which enables you to pay for celebrity shout-outs for yourself or for your friends) by introducing ‘Super’, which will allow users to pay for video calls with celebrities.

There are reports that Super will be introduced as an app as it is currently being developed within Facebook’s New Product Experimentation team which builds standalone apps and other products.

Currently, there is no other app like Cameo. However, Super’s introduction could help Facebook establish an immediate competitor for the app’s business.

Super will allow influencers, entrepreneurs, creators and celebrities to host live, interactive video events. Viewers will be able to tip influencers by buying them digital gifts or either pay to appear alongside them during the live-stream to ask a question or take a selfie. Creators (artists, Youtubers, bloggers) will also be able to sell merchandise or other products alongside the live-stream.

Twitter launches live testing for its new audio feature

Twitter has launched ‘Spaces’, an audio-only feature that will enable users to create meetings that their connections can join to listen in or to actively participate in.

Although the feature is currently under the testing phase, with only a small group of users invited to test it out, live audio meet-ups will be highlighted in purple on users’ Fleets bubbles. They will also be able to show us who is participating in these audio discussions.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSpaces/status/1339639767089238019

Twitter describes Spaces as being like a ‘well hosted dinner party’ where you don’t need to know everyone to have a great time, but everyone still feels comfortable at the table. The app is trying to create an intimate feeling of connection through its new feature.

Twitter further explains: ‘The human voice can bring a layer of connectivity to Twitter through emotion, nuance and empathy often lost in text. We see this with voice tweets and voice DMs. sometimes 280 isn’t enough, and voice gives people another way to join the conversation.’

Check out our blog for the latest news. Or if you’re interested in finding out how social media can help your brand, please get in touch with our expert team here.

SEO Market Updates: November 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google announce when core web vitals will become a ranking signal

From Google’s internal studies and industry research, they determined that users show they prefer sites with a great page experience. As a result of this research, Google announced they were looking to integrate page experience as a page of the ranking algorithm.

Page Experience can be split into the following categories:

  • Page loading speed
  • Interactivity
  • Visual stability
  • Mobile friendliness
  • Safe browsing
  • HTTPS
  • No intrusive interstitials

Due to Covid-19, this algorithm update was initially put on hold in order to allow businesses to focus on effectively responding to the new challenges presented by the virus.

Google announced on Tuesday that they will start rolling out Page Experience as a ranking signal in May 2021.

To find out more information on this algorithm update and how we can provide insight into the performance of your entire site, please read our dedicated blog post.

Google Search Console Updates

Disavow Tool

Google announced on 17th November that they’ve finally migrated the disavow tool to the new Search Console interface.

https://twitter.com/googlesearchc/status/1328696581776924674

Although Google have informed that they can assess which links can be trusted and which can’t, without the usage of this tool, it is still recommended for sites to utilise the disavow tool for the following scenarios:

  1. You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site.
  2. The links have caused a manual action, or likely will cause a manual action, on your site.

Crawl Stats Report

Google announced that improvements for the crawl stats report within Google Search Console have now been implemented. The new version of the report will now include the following features:

  1. Total number of requests grouped by response code, crawled file type, crawl purpose, and Googlebot type.
  2. Detailed information on host status
  3. URL examples to show where in your site requests occurred
  4. Comprehensive summary for properties with multiple hosts and support for domain properties

On top of these new implementations, Google’s crawl stats report contains:

Over-time charts

A time series chart which provides a view on crawl statistics over time.

Grouped crawl data

Groups crawl request data by response, file type of the fetched URL, purpose of the crawl request, and Googlebot agent.

High level & detailed information on host status issues

Provides details on the site host status over the last 90 days.

For domains with multiple hosts, Google Search Console will also provide a summary for all site hosts, containing information on each hosts crawl requests, trend and status data.

Remove Outdated Content tool

Google have updated the Remove Outdated Content tool which is now consistent with the theme of the new Google Search Console layout. The Remove Outdated Content tool is used to have Google update search results for pages or images that no longer exist, or pages that have removed important (sensitive or critical) content. The tool is also available to any user and is for use on sites that the user does not own.

Google experience issues with manual actions

Manual actions are issues which Google will display to users and are generated by human reviewers that have determined that a pages on a site are not compliant with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Many users experienced issues within Google Search Console, in which these manual actions were being removed from their site properties, despite not yet resolving them.

WebP support is being rolled out in Safari

What is WebP?

WebP is a modern image format, which provides both lossy and lossless image compression. The compression offered by WebP image is much more effective than compression provided by PNG and JPEG image formats, with an average 24% reduction in file size. This is an image format which is usually recommended by Google within their Page Speed Insights as an alternative to traditional image formats, in order to reduce page loading times.

What browsers support WebP?

When compared to other next-gen image formats, such as JPEG 2000 and JPEG XR, WebP images are supported by a larger amount of browsers. Browsers which support WebP images are the following:

  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Firefox for Android
  • Chrome
  • Opera
    • Opera Browser
    • Opera Mini
    • Opera Mobile
  • iOS Safari
  • Android Browser
  • Chrome for Android
  • UC Browser for Android
  • Samsung Internet
  • QQ Browser
  • Baidu Browser

Soon to be added to this list is Apple’s Safari browser. After receiving no support from Safari until version 13.1 (released March 2020), the browser looks to be providing for WebP for Safari users with MacOS 11 Big Sur and later.

With Google’s page experience algorithm being released May 2021, converting images to WebP format can provide a quick win in regards to reducing image sizes and page speed.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Social Media Updates: November 2020

Posted on by Hira Nasir

Twitter launces ‘Fleets’ for its users

Twitter is the latest social media app to announce a story-like feature, called ‘Fleets’, to all its users. Found at the top of your news feed, users can now share content that will disappear after 24 hours.

Twitter believe that Fleets will provide a way for users to share their more topical, fast-paced thoughts temporarily without the fear of them being public or permanent.

It goes on to say: ‘Now, more than ever, we think it’s critical to provide people another way to share what’s on their mind; without feeling self-conscious about it lasting on the record, and without the pressure of public replies. Those Tweets that never got past “Drafts” can finally see the light!’

Twitter gives you the option to:

  • Text fleets – just like stories, you can put a text on a coloured background (range of colour options available for both)
  • Share tweets – share individual tweets, which also appear on coloured background
  • Share video or photo – share an old or new photo or video

There are no special affects or AR tools available at the moment, however, Twitter is working on bringing live broadcasting, stickers and collaborative Fleets to the platform.

Instagram expands the ‘Guides’ content option to all users

Instagram is giving users a new way to share themed content on their profiles. In addition to the already existing ‘Posts’, ‘Mentions’ and ‘IGTV’ tabs, users will now be able to add a new ‘Guide’ tab to their profiles.

The new tab has a Pinterest-like feel as it will display a collection of themed posts linked together with a short text description under each post.

https://twitter.com/instagram/status/1328760554421325824

There is also an option for brands to add Product Guides to their Instagram Shop. Additionally, the option to share Guides via Instagram Stories will provide users another way to promote their collections.

How can you add a Guide to your profile?

  • Tap the ‘+’ icon at the top right of your profile
  • Select ‘Guide’ from the ‘Create’ menu
  • Select the type of guide you want to create: Places, Products or Posts
  • Select the posts you want to add to your Guide and add them to your collection
  • Add a title and description and change the cover image if you wish

Snapchat acquires music app ‘Voisey’

There is no denying that Snapchat knows how to lead the way on key trends. In fact, the company has acquired a new app ‘Voisey’ which can make almost anyone sound like a professional musician.

Voisey enables users to create their own short music tracks using a range of vocal effects tools to enhance their sound. Described as ‘TikTok for music creation’, the app’s interface looks a lot like TikTok. Users can upload their own beats or record vocal tracks over the already existing backing track options.

Snapchat hasn’t yet revealed what they are planning to do with the app, however, Voisey’s popularity among the younger audiences might see Snap add its features into the main app.

The brand fit makes a lot of sense as both the apps have a young audience, however, the future will tell us what exactly Snapchat will be doing with the new app.

 

If you’re interested in finding out how social media can boost your brand, get in touch with us today.

Is a Black Friday Campaign Right For Your Brand?

Posted on by Sam Holmes

Most marketers would have you believe Black Friday to be the most opportune time of year to drive sales, but how do you know whether running a promotion is the right thing for your brand? Are you making your marketing decisions based on ROI, or simply looking at running a promotion just because everyone else is doing it?


In this post, we’re going to share some of the predictions for this year and help you decide whether you should join the party or not.

What’s all the fuss about?

If shopping was a sporting event, Black Friday would be the Superbowl. Since we adopted the event from our cousins from across the pond, it’s gotten bigger by the year and is now a massive spending event, and there’s little love shared in the marketing space, with businesses of all sizes fiercely competing for a share of public expenditure for this coveted seasonal event.

The Numbers

In the UK in 2019, the public spent almost £5bn. That’s a colossal amount and, despite the climate, spending is trending, with GlobalData predicting the UK’s spending in 2020 to surpass £6bn. It’s predicted that 37% of Brits are putting off shelling out on items like clothing, electronics and furniture until the deals are here to avoid being disappointed. We all hate that moment, right? So, the opportunity to supercharge your sales at the start of the retail period dubbed the ‘golden quarter’ is a glaringly obvious one.

Working away behind the scenes, businesses of all shapes and sizes will have their own Black Friday marketing campaigns lined up, so let’s dive into a framework for assessing whether you need to be joining them – or whether you’re better off focusing on your day to day strategy.

Is your business actually suited to a Black Friday promotion?

You will be the best person to answer this question. The buzz around Black Friday is immense, so it’s no surprise that brands dive head-first into elaborate content campaigns in an attempt to be relevant and drive sales. Competition is high, forcing marketers to experiment with everything from creative campaigns rich with lifestyle blogs to innovative video content in the build up to the event.

This event-driven marketing often involves sacrificing day-to-day activity temporarily; halting content priorities such as SEO optimisation and brand-building campaigns. It can be tempting to dive head-first into Black Friday marketing, but blindly following the buzz might not be a good idea.

The first consideration you should make with any seasonal marketing opportunity is:

●     Who is buying?

●     What are they buying?

Without this information, it’s difficult to judge whether your product or service is likely to reap the rewards of investing resources into a content marketing campaign. Even if, for example, your campaign copy is a masterpiece, meticulously designed to drive conversion, you won’t acquire traffic if your product/service offering isn’t on the radar of Black Friday shoppers.

But this is no usual year

Fewer Brits are planning to take part in Black Friday in 2020, compared to last year. In 2019, 42% of adults planned to spend whereas this year the number has dropped down to 39%. However as mentioned earlier, spend is forecasted to surpass last year’s figures. So, what’s happened there? The increase stems from a predicted increase in average spend per consumer, rising from £251 to £296.

Unfortunately, with the arrival of Covid-19 earlier in the year, we’ve seen industries experience contrasting fortunes. At risk of stating the obvious, we’ve seen brands in the home entertainment, homeware, fitness, and health industries prosper, amongst many more. If your product or service falls into one of these categories, then it’s highly likely you’ll benefit from a well thought-out, competitive campaign.

This doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t run a campaign if your product doesn’t fit into one of these categories – which brings us onto our next consideration.

What about the high street?

55% of Brits planned to shop exclusively online during last year’s sale. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that figure has risen to a whopping 66%.

Despite further lockdowns and restrictions being introduced, shopping plans haven’t taken as big of a hit as you might have thought. 35% of consumers planned to also spend in-store last year, whereas that number has only fallen to 28%, signifying a reassuring level of consumer confidence. But with Saturday’s announcement of a month-long lockdown, an-store promotion is an option only worth considering if you plan to run a campaign extending beyond Black Friday. That is, of course, unless you fall into the essential retail pot.

How can I subtly board the hype-train?

Your campaign and offers should never feel forced or unnatural when you’re planning them. If they do, you can bet they’ll look it too. Take a bank pushing a wellbeing campaign during mental health week, for example; the link there might just be too tenuous to make.

One clever trick to bypass this problem is to base your content marketing campaign on an emotion or experience associated with your brand. Make this an opportunity for people to remember your brand. Pieminister did this perfectly back in 2016, teaming up with homeless charity, Shelter, to give away pies to shelters on Black Friday. Dubbed ‘Black Pie Day’, this returned several times in the following years.

https://twitter.com/shelter/status/1065914516603641856

This campaign executes this idea perfectly.

If you’re able to develop a campaign idea that’s directly relevant to the Black Friday promotion, then you’re better positioned to connect with your customers and have your promotional message heard.

How can I analyse whether a Black Friday promotion will generate returns for my business?

Your chances of seeing a surge in sales is likely to come down to the demand for what you sell. If you’ve never considered a Black Friday campaign, the likelihood is you’ve also never looked into the numbers to see what the opportunity could really be for you. Doing this research could give you the reassurance needed that your market is receptive (or not).


There are plenty of tools out there to help you gauge how desirable your product is likely to be. And many of the good ones are free to use. We’d recommend using tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner to help you build a great understanding of your market’s intent. Or if you want to get a feel for what your competitors are doing, you can look to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter hashtags to view trends relating to your focus products and review your competitors activity.

Black Friday search volumes generated by Ahrefs

So there you go. Just remember, running a seasonal campaign is about being reactive and competitive, so don’t be scared to try and fail, testing and learning could be the key to your success. If you decide to go in for a slice of the Black Friday cake, good luck and we’ll see you on the other side!

 

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today..

SEO Market Updates: October 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Release New Google Analytics

Google Analytics has received a large update with the introduction of Google Analytics 4. This update looks to combat major shifts in consumer behaviour and privacy-driven changes to long time industry standards, by providing new and intelligent insights with machine learning at its core.

These updates will take changes like restrictions on cookies and identifiers, which create gaps in data in to consideration. Key new features include the following:

Smarter insights to improve your marketing decisions and get better ROI

Google’s new machine learning models can now alert users to significant trends in their data, such as products seeing a raising demand because of new customer needs.

Utilising churn probability (churn = customers lost during time period / customers at beginning of period), Google’s machine learning models will also be able to help predict the future actions of customers and allow users to efficiently invest in retaining customers and create audiences to reach higher value customers.

This will also have deeper integration with Google Ads, creating more focused insights for paid channels.

Google’s new approach also looks to create clearer insights between the web and apps, such as being able to see conversions from YouTube engaged views that occur in-app and on the web in reports.

A more complete understanding of how customers interact with your business

Google Analytics looks to provide user centric reporting, rather than segmented reporting (e.g. performance by device or channel). Rather than segmenting performance for insights, users will now be able to have a more complete view of how customers interact with their business.

For example, you can see if customers first discover your business from an ad on the web, then later install your app and make purchases there.

With simplified and re-organised reporting, Google look to provide clear insights on customers across their entire lifecycle, from acquisition, to conversion, to retention. With this complete view, users will be able to see which channels are driving new customers and understand the actions these customers take.

How to use these new features

Google Analytics 4 insights will be available to new properties by default. For existing properties, Google recommend creating a new Google Analytics 4 property to run alongside existing properties in order to start collecting data, as historical data from existing properties cannot be exported from existing properties.

Microsoft Releases Free Analytics Software

Microsoft have released their new analytics software, Microsoft Clarity. This user behaviour centric tool looks to provide insight on exactly how users interact with your site, utilising features such as:

  • Session Playbacks
  • Heatmaps
  • User Experience Insights

This tool is free and GDPR compliant. Microsoft have also announced that the tool will be completely scalable and will work for the largest websites, while remaining free and has also been optimised to not slow down sites.

Session Playback

Session playbacks will allow users to view individual session recordings, allowing a view on how individual users interact with the site. This feature will allow users to see how customers interact with and navigate their site, this can help pinpoint any areas of frustration from a customer’s perspective, resulting in lost engagement.

Heatmaps

Heatmaps will provide a bulk view on where users have clicked, scrolled and moved around a site. This will allow users to view which parts of a page drive the most engagement, allowing them to streamline navigation and content.

This bulk view of the session playback feature will be useful to understand overall user behaviour.

User Experience Insights

The user experience focused insights Microsoft Clarity will provide, include:

  • Clicks that go nowhere
  • Rage clicks
  • Excessive scrolling

Just like the heatmap tool, these metrics will provide valuable insights on highlighting areas of frustration that customers have displayed when navigating the site, allowing users to tackle customer experience issues on their site that would otherwise be hidden.

Microsoft Clarity will also integrate with Google Analytics. This integration will put a link to Clarity’s session playbacks within your Google Analytics dashboard.

Google Remove “Request Indexing” From Google Search Console

After the indexing issues Google started to experience last month. Google have now disabled the “request indexing” feature of the URL inspection tool, within Google Search Console.

As stated in the above tweet, this feature is expected to return after a couple of week and standard Google indexing is not affected by the removal of this tool.

In regards to the indexing issues Google have been experiencing, they have provided an update that this issue is effectively resolved and any URLs that still experiencing issues should shortly be restored.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Google’s search algorithm updates and what these could mean for you

Posted on by Craig Broadbent

Google has announced new search algorithm updates in the past week, with key updates to its BERT algorithm, and improvements to spelling, indexing, subtopics and several other features now in place to build ‘a more helpful Google’.

The new updates are all geared around gaining an even better understanding of a user’s query and subsequently rank relevant results in return.

We’ve rounded up everything you need to know.

UPDATES TO BERT

The BERT algorithm has been updated to now apply to almost all queries, up from 10%. Google cites a deep investment into language research and, after last year introducing BERT language understanding systems, has revealed BERT is now used in ‘nearly every’ query in English. 

This means BERT will now understand natural language and question queries even better.

What to consider: It’s a big jump to go from 10% of queries to almost all queries! BERT is another algorithm that Google tells us we can’t optimise for, and there’s a lot of mystery around how it impacts results.

Fundamentally, this algorithm focuses on natural language and seeks to understand queries, suggesting that Google will become more receptive to content written in a conversational manner and be able to better answer questions. 

BERT also deals with query ambiguity, words with multiple meanings and homonyms – writing within the full context of a topic should be beneficial for both text and voice search.

IMPROVED SPELLING

An improved spelling algorithm is now in place. This uses a deeper neural net to decipher misspellings, something which Google believes will see greater improvement to spelling than all of their improvements from over the last five years. Good news for the 10% of search queries misspelled each and every day! What to consider: Google says this is a better update to their spelling algorithm than all other updates in the last 5 years, and that it will improve their understanding of the context of misspellings. This might help surface sites for more misspelt queries, particularly around brand misspellings.

INDEXING PASSAGES

We are set to see a new ability to index “passages” from pages to improve results for detailed queries. This will involve a much better understanding of the relevancy of specific passages and will provide more accurate results for queries where the relevant answer might be confined to one paragraph deep within content.

This has been introduced to tackle the specific searches that Google often found the hardest to get right. This is set to be rolled out next month and will impact 7% queries. Find out more on this in Search Engine Land’s recent post.

What to consider: The announcement of ‘passage indexing’ is already infamous within the SEO community due to the semantics around ‘indexing’. Google has had to quickly announce that passages of text aren’t being indexed independently of a wider page as implied, but that passage indexing is actually a ranking change. 

It does mean that passages of text from a page of content can be surfaced in search results when hyper-relevant to a query, even if the wider page context isn’t focused on that query or topic. It seeks to find needles in haystacks.

This could have an impact on CTRs of affected queries – if an obscure query is answered within the search result there is no reason to click through, but if the answer wouldn’t have otherwise surfaced it at least raises awareness of the brand.

It also means that content producers can write in depth across many topics within one piece of content – there is less concern about being hyper-focused on one topic in the knowledge that individual passages can be ranked.

A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF SUBTOPICS

We will begin to see a greater, more diverse range of content delivered when searching for broader topics. Google is applying neural nets to help understand subtopics around an interest. We should see this rolled out by the end of the year.

What to consider: This is a consumer focused update and it will be interesting to see its appearance in situ when rolled out. The focus is on suggestions around broader topics, so site owners should ensure that their content and categories incorporate relevant sub-categories to enhance the possibility of this content being surfaced.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

SEO Market Updates: September 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Googlebot to start crawling over HTTP/2

Google are bringing an update to Googlebot, set to be released in November. This update will allow Googlebot to crawl pages using HTTP/2.

For more information on this update, please see our recent dedicated blog post.

Google Release free shopping listings

Google have announced the release of free shopping listings for UK users. Free shopping listings were originally released to US users in April 2020, with plans to release this worldwide by mid-October.

In order to display products in these free Google shopping listings, users will need to opt in when signing up to Google Merchant Centre. For existing users, enable this option by navigation to Growth > Manage Programs > Surfaces Across Google.

Google experience canonicalization & indexing issues

Google confirmed they had been experiencing issues in September, in regards to canonicalization and mobile indexing.

As mentioned in Google’s tweet, both issues caused some pages to not be indexed. Regardless of the indexing issues, Google have confirmed that no action is required from site owners to resolve these issue. This is set to be fixed by Google.

Google will be providing updates on the progress of these issues being resolved in the above twitter thread.

Google’s new news showcase

Google have announced the release of a news showcase. This will be available soon on Google News and iOS, and will also be added to Google Search and Discover in the future.

This showcase will display news segments from Google approved publishers. Around 200 leading publications across Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the UK and Australia are currently signed partners. This showcase is currently available to users in Germany and Brazil, and will be rolled out worldwide at a later date.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

Googlebot to start crawling with HTTP/2

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Google has announced an update to Googlebot, set to be released in November. This new update will now allow Googlebot to crawl selected sites over HTTP/2.

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1306563662740705282

HTTP/2 is the successor of both the HTTP/1 and SPDY protocols. Due to the limitations of HTTP/1.1, SPDY was created by Google engineers in 2009 with the aims of reducing web page latency speeds and improving web security. HTTP/2 was based on Google’s SPDY protocol but was able to provide a large improvement on performance. After its release in 2015, HTTP/2 was embraced by all browsers, with Microsoft dropping any support for SPDY quickly after HTTP/2’s release and Google Chrome dropping SPDY support in 2016.

The benefits of this update are centred around making crawling more efficient, in terms of server resource usage. Google are now looking to start with crawling a smaller number of sites over HTTP/2 and expanding this out over time.

There is no discernible reason as to why a site would need to opt out of this update, however Google have noted that should a site wish to opt out, this can be done by instructing the server to respond with a 421 HTTP status code when Googlebot attempts to crawl your site over HTTP/2. Failing this, sites can also contact the Googlebot team (however, this solution is only temporary).

 

Instagram Reels: Dud or Diamond?

Posted on by Louise Barber

As the dust settles around the newly founded Instagram ‘Reels’, we discuss definitions, developments and the general discourse to see if it could be a worthy new addition to your own social strategy.

Instagram Reels: ‘Dud’ or Diamond?

Announced a little over a month ago, Instagram coined Reels as ‘a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos on Instagram’. The in-app feature allows you to share videos with your followers and (depending on your privacy settings) the Instagram community, through the explore page. Once the video is shared, it can then be found on a separate Reels tab on your profile, and your main profile grid.

The explore tab, which is the current home of Reels, is where you will find the latest trends on Instagram made by anyone – not just those you follow. Explore hosts a variety of different content, including regular posts, reels, videos, and shopping. You may also notice ‘featured’ content which is selected by Instagram to help you to discover original content.

Later postulates that ‘While the Reels algorithm hasn’t been locked down yet, it feels similar to the TikTok For You page. It’s likely influenced by who you already follow, what content you interact with, and where you’re located’. To give Reels a greater sense of autonomy, Instagram are currently trialling a dedicated Reel button in the control panel for Android users in India.

Instagram Reels in action

Reels for Brands & Businesses

Reels is an in-app feature of Instagram, meaning their 1 billion active users automatically have access to the feature, unlike competitor TikTok which is an app requiring a download. This means that users are more likely to give it a try with it being less of a commitment than a download. Businesses will find this useful as, if they already have a following on Instagram, they won’t need to build another on a different platform.

What’s more, due to Reels being on the Explore page, users who don’t follow you will see your content. This is a great exposure opportunity to gain awareness and followers for your brand.

One of the main criticisms of Instagram is that the content tends to be structured and ‘fake’. Reels poses as an opportunity to allow brands to have fun with their creative expression and show personality. An example of a brand who are already successfully embracing Reels is Louis Vuitton. The Louis Vuitton channel is already averaging on 8 million views and has stirred a stylistic trend following their recent videos.

An issue brands may encounter, is that the only analytics available at present are view count, likes and comments. This is problematic in seeing the all-important social conversion point. Vox reported that as a user one of the biggest issues is ‘Almost all the content is from blue checks’ meaning its ‘the same résumé-approved content that makes Instagram boring in the first place’.

Whereas TikTok is crammed full of creators, thus far Reels’ creative space feels dominated by the brands and influencer. This makes the space feel commercialised, contrived, and inauthentic.

Reels vs. TikTok

The New York Times labelled Instagram Reels a ‘TikTok clone’ and a ‘dud’, but to finally address the elephant in the room, how does Reels really compare to TikTok?

Starting with the points of likeness, foundationally both allow users to create, edit and share videos. From here things begin to differ – firstly – TikTok is a standalone app, whereas Reels is a feature on the Instagram app.

Whilst TikTok has the illustrious algorithm-driven ‘for you’ page, Reels’ home is currently the explore page, which the New York Times describes as ‘a mishmash of photos, sponsored posts and long-form videos’. The ‘For You’ page is also an easy way to go viral, while with Reels, your exposure is generally limited to a minimal SoV of the explore page.

Reels also lacks a space to post ‘friends only’ content, it can either be posted for the world on the explore page or your entire follower list on private accounts.

Reels’ explore page

Then there’s the simplicity of TikTok, you can upload videos in bulk and the platform will create a slick compilation video in under 10 seconds. Reels is noticeably more difficult to navigate and the result doesn’t have the same smooth feel.

Another benefit of TikTok is the ability to download the videos (watermarked with the TikTok emblem) and then upload to different platforms. With Reels when you download videos, due to copyright issues, the music is stripped from the video.

Finally one of the most used features on TikTok is ‘duet’, this allows users to ‘reply to video content’ and thousands of these videos have gone viral. This is just one more feature that Reels doesn’t possess.

Is it the Reel deal?

Forbes has found that ‘Almost nine in ten TikTok users who have used Instagram Reels say that Facebook’s TikTok competitor is basically the same as TikTok’. However, due to their similarities, Forbes found that ‘61% said they’ll be spending more time in Instagram’ – and unsurprisingly since – Instagram usage is up. This shows that the similarities, despite being obvious, could be beneficial in attracting users to a recognisable format.

Lest we forget the rise of Instagram Stories, once known as the Snapchat clone, it now dominates the ‘story’ scene. This proves Instagram’s ability to take an idea, build on it, and break their audience into it.

Also, a small reminder that Reels is in its infancy, a mere month and a half into its life, Instagram has plenty of time to amend and adapt the app to make it as streamlined as TikTok. Take the trial of the Reels button in India, this would solve the explore page issues discussed previously.

Perhaps Reels won’t be the new TikTok. But that doesn’t change the fact that as a feature, it could add a lot to your brand. Reels presents itself as less of a risk than TikTok, more of a means to have fun and continue to be supported by your fan base.

Take this opportunity to engage a different mass audience – those who prefer quick content that’s easy to digest — and do it quickly, before the market becomes over-saturated.

 

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

SEO Market Updates: August 2020

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Join Fusion’s technical SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Search Console Insights Report Now In Beta

Following months of testing, Google has officially announced the release of its Google Search Console Insights report.

Google describes the Insights report as “a new experience tailored for content creators and publishers”, designed to help increase understanding of how users discover and engage with site content.

The report provides a combination of data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console from the previous 28 days, roughly showing:

  • An overview of all Page Views
  • A breakdown of Page Views by channel
  • Page Views & Avg. Page Duration for recently published & top performing content
  • Top clicked keywords
  • Top referral links
  • Top social channels

At the time of writing Insights is in closed Beta, and is only accessible to users by invitation. However, if don’t think you’ve received an invitation you may still be able to access data for some sites – just head to this link link whilst logged in from your GSC account to see if you have access.

As with all Beta releases, it’s unclear when or whether the feature will receive a full rollout, although it’s likely that an open Beta will be released in the coming months.

New Dev Tools & Lighthouse Features Coming to Chrome 86

Google has provided an outline of the new Dev Tools and Lighthouse report features that will be available in Chrome 86, which is currently expected to be released on October 6th 2020.

The updated Dev Tools will contain a number of new debugging and auditing features, including:

  • New Media panel: Updated to allow users to more efficiently view and debug video content
  • Capture Node Screenshots: Available via a dropdown within the elements, allowing for nodes to be selected and captured
  • Emulate Missing Local Fonts: Makes the browser act as if fonts are missing, providing greater insight into how fonts are fetched

Chrome 86 is also set to be released with a new version of the Lighthouse report. Alongside a bug fixes, Lighthouse 6.2 is also set to contain the below new capabilities:

  • Avoid non-composited animations: Reports on animations that shift during load, reducing CLS
  • Avoid long main thread tasks: Provides info on the longest main thread tasks
  • Unsized image elements: Reporting on whether image elements have a set height and width

Google “Glitch” Causes Ranking Anomalies

Around the 10th of August many within the SEO community reported widespread and sudden ranking fluctuations, leading most to assume an algorithm update was in process.

This would have been an unwelcome and unexpected surprise, as in recent years Google has largely warned in advance of updates. Google have also specifically stated that they are unlikely to make any significant algorithm changes within 2020, whilst the industry deals with the fallout from COVID-19.

However, fluctuations were soon followed by reports of stabilization, and it soon became apparent that the changes were the result of what Google has referred to as a “glitch”.

 

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1293045032124059649

In typical fashion, the statement from Google on the exact causes of the glitch was fairly oblique, simply stating that the changes were a result of an “indexing issue”.

Server Side Tagging Now Available in GTM

Google Tag Manager and Tag Manager 360 have been updated with a new server side tagging feature.

 Server side tagging allows companies to host third party tags within a Google Cloud hosted server container, rather than directly on a website. This means that when a user visits a site with server side tagging in place, the tags will be loaded directly within the cloud rather than on a webpage.

Whilst primarily reported in PPC circles, the new feature should also open up benefits for those working in SEO. Third party tags are a common contributor to performance and site speed issues, and more often than not the solution to dealing with these issues isn’t entirely simple. However, if a client is using GTM to serve third party tags, the new feature provide offer SEO’s a relatively simple way to improve performance. 

 

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

 

Could the ios 14 update affect your mobile tracking?

Posted on by Sav Szymura

In late June, during a developer conference, Apple announced a new major update to their mobile operating system for their iPhone and iPod devices. It’s expected to be available to the general public later this year, with the beta 4 version currently only available to public testers.

Outside of the main new features, Apple announced an increased focus on privacy, labelling it a “fundamental human right”, being “at the core of everything we do”, also promising more control over data and full transparency of how it’s used. 

This includes a recording indicator for the microphone and camera, approximate location use (instead of precise), as well as changes to the inbuilt web browser Safari, which will now limit cross-site tracking and browser fingerprinting.

Apple have also highlighted privacy features included in their native Maps service, which has became (in the form of Mapkit JS) the mapping service used by DuckDuckGo, a privacy oriented search engine. 

Apple is taking a much stronger stance on user privacy than many similar brands, which has grown uncommon for a global blue chip company.

IDFA BLOCKING MECHANISM

One of the features which has attracted the most attention is the introduction of app tracking controls and transparency, which will require explicit user permission before they can be tracked. This means that the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), a random device ID that Apple assigns to each device,  can now only be used when a user opts-in, and has do do so on an app-by-app basis.

Instead of the user having to change this in the settings (opting-out), this will now become a popup seeking permission from the user, allowing or denying advertiser access to the IDFA.

Advertisers (and publishers) fear that very few people will opt in (some estimate figures between 10 and 20%). This means that apps will not be able to exchange information by default.

APPLE’S ALTERNATIVE TO IDFA

Apple is presenting a privacy-safe alternative in the form of mobile attribution using the SKAdNetwork, explaining how it will operate:

“When a user taps an ad, advertisers display an App Store product screen with signed parameters that identify the ad campaign. If a user installs and opens an app, the device sends an install validation postback to the ad network.

The Apple-signed notification includes the campaign ID but doesn’t include user- or device-specific data. The postback may include a conversion value and the source app’s ID if Apple determines that providing the values meets Apple’s privacy threshold.”

This will allow ad publishers to discover how users have interacted with their adverts without revealing the device’s or user’s identity. From what we know, it looks like advertisers are going to have to adapt to target iOS device users and become less dependant on their data.

WILL THIS AFFECT MY WEBSITE’S MOBILE TRAFFIC?

In short, no.

Based on the available information, IDFA restrictions will block ad networks, instead operating on a per application basis. It is unlikely that this will affect first-party tracking services which set cookies, such as web analytics (e.g. Google Analytics). Good news!

 

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

TikTok: Myth-busting the hottest app of the year

Posted on by Louise Barber

Are you thinking about including TikTok in your marketing strategy? Or just wanting some knowledge on the topic? In this article we’re going to myth-bust the cultural phenomena that is TikTok and explore how you can look to embed it into your own strategy.

It seems a day doesn’t pass without TikTok appearing in the headlines. Whether you’re a fan or a foe of this scandalously popular platform, you can’t dispute the media storm has placed it at the epicentre of current affairs. TikTok was recently dubbed as having created a ‘completely new subculture’ and the proof is in the pudding with over 2 billion downloads worldwide. 315m of these downloads have happened since lockdown began, the most downloads any app has ever gotten in a single quarter.

800 million of these are now active monthly users, ranking it 7th in the world above the likes of Snapchat, Linkedin and Twitter. But with Donald Trump pushing for a US ban on the app, in addition to subsequent security concerns globally and the introduction of competitor apps (such as Instagram’s Reels launching at the start of August) is it worth you getting involved with the app?

Before you can make that decision, let’s delve into the truth behind seven of the biggest myths surrounding TikTok.

1. TikTok is just for Gen Z

Despite the TikTok’s world domination, many brands are put off from working with them as they believe its audience to be too young. It is undeniably true that the app has a young audience, in fact, it’s estimated that 66% of users are below 30. But this breaks down into a mix of both Gen Zers and Millennials, and the millennial sector of this (along with the older groups) is rising continuously.

As the app slips further into the mainstream we are seeing people of all age groups become involved with it, so don’t be put off by the average age.

2. My brand doesn’t suit TikTok

The issue here lies not with the age of the audience, but the perception of brands and marketers that a younger audience isn’t as valuable. This puts many brands off working with TikTok as they feel it doesn’t ‘suit’ their brand.

However, it’s important to understand the younger audience is the future of the consumer market, and the more brands place themselves into this sphere, the more they will reap the benefits in the long term.

Regardless of their sector, we are now seeing more brands stepping out and working with Tiktok, such as Manscaped, Easy Auto Savings, Chipotle, Turbotax and Experian.

3. You can’t commercialise TikTok

It’s true that, originally, TikTok was concerned with user experience as opposed to potential monetisation. But in June 2020 TikTok introduced TikTok for Business to help brands find their feet on the platform. Spearheaded with the tagline ‘don’t make ads, make TikToks’, the platform invites brands to get creative with their advertising.

They have since introduced several forms of ads, such as in-feed video ads, brand takeovers, hashtag challenges, branded AR content and Custom influencer packages. Before this, TikTok’s main source of monetisation came in the form of ‘coins’, where users can ‘tip’ their favourite creators.

It’s estimated around $456 million  (approx. £347 million) has been spent on TikTok coins since their introduction, and this is how TikTok was previously making their revenue. Following the introduction of ads in 2019, it’s estimated that TikTok’s monthly earnings went from $3.5 million to $14.7 million directly disproving the monetisation concerns around the app.

Charli D’Amelio is the most followed account on TikTok, with over 78million followers and 5.7billion likes

4. Engagement rates are higher across other social media platforms

Previously Instagram has the highest engagement rate however, since TikTok found fame, times have changed. According to a sample of 1000 influencers studied by Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok’s engagement rates were notably higher than Instagram and Twitter. This comes as no surprise as TikTok’s primary function is for engagement.

TikTok itself postulates that the platform ‘enables everyone to be a creator, and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos’. The engagement levels prove that encouraging engagement, participation and creativity across the app is working successfully.

5. TikTok is best for targeting the Asian market

TikTok’s roots are deeply embedded in Asia, and this certainly was the first market it found its success. However, since then, TikTok has spread across the world, now active in 155 countries and 75 languages.

According to Route Note, the country with the most users is India, followed by the US. Also among the top 10 are Germany and France, proving that TikTok is rife across all continents, not just Asia.  

6. TikTok’s algorithm is a secret

That was true, up until recently. A few months ago TikTok put rumours to bed by finally revealing the truth behind their algorithm. The factors that affect your feed are; user interactions (content you like/ share, creators you follow, comments posted and content created), video information (i.e. captions, sounds and hashtags) and device and account settings (e.g. language, country and device).

These factors are then devised into indicators of interest. An example of a strong indicator is completion rates of video, whereas a weaker one would be country of origin. This means that feeds are unique, based heavily on interest and activity.  

TikTok has expressed concerns about optimising for personalisation and relevance due to the potential to create ‘filter bubbles’. This is when a user continually sees the type of content they are most likely to engage with. Tiktok has said they making moves to rectify, ensuring they are diversifying feeds to keep their audience interested.

7. You need thousands of followers to go viral

On networks like Instagram, generally, to go viral you need to have a lot of followers. On TikTok, they have moved away from this stating ‘neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system’. This means you can have just a few followers and still go viral, making the process far more authentic.

 

SO, IS TIKTOK RIGHT FOR YOUR STRATEGY?

Heading back to our original question, and with Donald Trump now looking to have TikTok either banned or sold by mid-September, is it worth getting involved?

The details of this answer depend on your brand, location and budget but, on the whole, if you have the capacity test and see what TikTok can do for you. As TikTok continually features in the mainstream media, it will catch the interest of a wider audience which could result in broader popularity. Just like all trends, there will be a peak and a trough. But as we’re now at a point where we’re seeing continuous growth, why not get creative and get involved while you have the chance?

 

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Paid Search Updates: July 2020

Posted on by Danielle Wright

Google release Google Ads Editor v1.4

Google have now introduced Google Ads Editor v1.4. This has brought two key benefits, with the new update now supporting Recommendations and Local Campaigns.

For your local campaigns, you can now easily search and replace text, move items and undo or redo changes to your local campaigns, in bulk. 

Recommendations provide customised suggestions to help improve your campaign’s performance. To make it easier for you to implement these suggestions at scale, you can now review and apply recommendations across accounts in Google Ads Editor.

  image taken from Google support

 

Recommendations in Editor are sorted by type, making it easy for you to understand where (and how many) recommendations can be applied in your account. For example, before applying a recommendation you can see how many accounts and campaigns could benefit from its implementation.

New look and feel for responsive search ads 

 

We now have an improved  look and feel of responsive search ads, with new and updated creative layouts, automatically generated video and more engaging ads to drive online sales. Three new responsive display ad layouts have been rolled out, each using automated image enhancements, including smart image cropping and text overlays. These new layouts have been designed to help you improve performance and deliver even more engaging ads.

 

According to Google, over 60 per cent of shoppers say that online videos have given them ideas or inspiration for their purchase, and adding video to your responsive display ads can result in five per cent more conversions at a similar CPA. To make things simpler and faster, Google can automatically create video ads for you by using your existing image and text assets.


We’ve also seen an improved look and feel of dynamic display ads, which now includes a single-image layout to highlight individual products. These new formats will now display your company name alongside your logo to help convey your brand’s offerings clearly. If selected, the optional “promotion” text will become more visible in most ad sizes.

Google testing different font sizes in ad headlines

 

We’ve recently seen Google test different font sizes in the ads for headlines, with Headline 1 now in a much larger font that normal. It also sits on a different line to the other headline(s) rather than sitting close together and flowing onto the next line. It appears only some users are seeing this at the moment.

Left is how they look normally, with the new style on the right:

   

Improvements made to Smart Shopping

 

We now have a ‘New Customer Acquisition’ goal in Smart Shopping campaign settings. Google have also added more visual features so the format in which your products are displayed will also respond to your customers’ needs.

For example, a customer may see a video Display ad from your Smart Shopping campaign to help showcase relevant products to them in that moment. They may also see a more immersive, browsable experience with a carousel of your most relevant products. 

 

 

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

SEO Industry Updates: July 2020

Posted on by Sav Szymura

Join Fusion’s technical SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Neeva clarifies their privacy policy

Last month we reported that a former Google’s advertising Executive was set to launch a new search engine with a focus on privacy, while remaining ad-free.

It’s privacy policy was examined by Ars Technica, leading to it being changed to fall in line with the company’s mission statements, whilst also providing more clarification on the 90-day data retention policy which now features some exceptions.

We have also received a message from Neeva suggesting that people located in the US will get access to the new search engine first. We’re excited to see a new player enter the market!

Schema 9 is released

Towards the end of June, the Google team working on Schema.org (but also used by Microsoft, Pinterest, and Yandex) announced that a new version has been released.

Amongst other features, it now has added ability to organise products into groups that vary by size (e.g. 2 metre HDMI cable, 3 metre HDMI cable). A distinction has also be made to clarify the difference between product collections, which have been defined as ‘products that are commonly bundled together’ (e.g. an offer).

Other changes include the addition of a LearningResource as CreativeWorks, which would be appropriate for materials with an ‘orientation towards learning, education, skill acquisition, and other educational purposes’.

Google offers paid My Business profiles upgrade

Some users in the US have received promotional emails offering an option to upgrade their profiles for a Google Guaranteed badge in the local results.

Google Guaranteed badge displayed next to local search results

This upgrade will cost £40 p/m and now offers a consumer protection programme which has now only been offered to Google Ads customers. It’s presumed that the fee may cover any claims that are typically covered by advertising feeds via Google Ads.

The change marks a shift in how businesses can de facto pay for improved visibility in local results. On the other hand, the use of the service might improve conversions giving potential consumers confidence and peace of mind in a service backed up by Google. 

Chrome support for native iframe lazy-loading

Google previously announced that Chrome will support native lazy-loading for images, meaning the time has now come for iframes.

This will defer the loading of iframes which have not yet come into the viewport (are offscreen), until the visitor scrolls near them. This means that social media embedded content, YouTube videos, maps, and other resources will now only load when they might become useful for the visitor.



We’re expecting this to save the amount of data transferred, speed up the loading of other elements of a page, and reduce memory usage.

This can be enabled by using the loading attribute with a lazy value, which will signal to the browser to defer the loading of off-screen content.

Most modern desktop browsers support (or can support) this feature when enabled. On mobile, this is currently only available on the Android browser, Chrome for Android and Samsung Internet.

Applebot documentation updated with ranking factors

Applebot, Apple’s web crawlers used primarily for Siri and Spotlight recommendations, has seen an update to it’s documentation.

Interesting points include:

  • When not referred to specifically, Applebot will now follow Googlebot’s robots.txt restrictions
  • Site content might be rendered, which includes JS and CSS
  • Meta robots directives will be followed
Applebot, an artist’s impression (Andrew Kolb)

Apple has also shared some general factors which might be used, including:

  • user engagement with search results
  • volume and quality of links
  • page design characteristics and content relevancy
  • approximate user location

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

SEO Industry Updates: June 2020

Posted on by Sav Szymura

Join Fusion’s technical SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Former Google exec to launch private and ad-free search engine

Sridhar Ramaswamy, who was responsible for a significant chunk of Google’s advertising arm, announced that a new competitor will soon be entering the organic search market. Ramaswamy stated in a recent interview that he “came to realise that an ad-supported model had limitations”, subsequently announcing the launch of Neeva.

As an move to shake up the market, the prominence of advertising towards the top of search results (especially on smartphones) has been highlighted, questioning the incentive to provide the most relevant search results. Questionable advertising placement on YouTube videos has also been brought up.

The search engine would not only index the content on the web, but would also combine it with files hosted in other places such as email servers and possibly locally. It has also been suggested that web search will be powered by Bing, maps by Apple, and stock and weather information from other established providers. Linking other accounts, such as Google, Office or Dropbox will allow for personal data access, and personalisation over time.

An early preview of how personalised results might appear on Neeva

What would also differentiate the competitor would be a ‘freemium’ model, as well as lack of advertising and data mining.

A pricing model hasn’t been officially announced yet, however access will be free for early adopters. Mr. Ramaswamy hinted, that a monthly subscription might be less than £8. Only time will tell if users will be willing to take up the offer.

Support for the WebP image format increases

Image format Webp, launched in 2010 and currently developed and promoted by Google, has been included in the developer notes for Apple’s Safari browser. This means that, in addition to Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, the addition of Safari will allow for more widespread adoption across the web.

Developer release notes for the Safari 14 Beta web browser

Google has also extended it’s support for the format, allowing for the use of WebP images as a logo in Structured Data.

Although the format has been criticised by some experts for performing below expectation, it could mean a small step towards enabling webmasters to serve more data-efficient images to mainstream audiences.

Google working on integrating Analytics and Search Console data

In the past month it has been reported that Google was sending out messages relating to the deeper integration of Search Console and Analytics data.

A screenshot of the announcement shared by a website owner

It’s also been rumoured that a Beta version is live on some accounts, however no screenshots are available at the time of writing this. Insiders have suggested that, amongst other features, Google will prominently highlight the performance of new and most popular content, traffic acquisition paths, as well as top referring and newly acquired links.

Google’s Webspam Report Highlights

Google has published a summary of their webspam report, which refers to efforts they carry out in order to prevent spam from appearing in search results. It’s estimated that a user has less than a 1% chance of encountering webspam when selecting a result from the search pages.

In comparison to 2018, user-generated spam has been reduced by 80%, and Google is reporting that this type of spam “did not grow in 2019”. While link spam continues to be popular, Google states that 90% of it can be filtered out, arguing specifically that this makes paid links less effective. Unfortunately, these types of practices are still more common in the industry than we’d all like to see.

Hacked website spam has also been mentioned. It seems like the rate of growth of this type of abuse is decreasing, as Google continues working on solutions to notify webmasters and help them recover.

Google also shares some of their learnings when it comes to spam trends, pointing out auto-generated and scraped content is on the increase. We’ve also come across this when carrying out link audits, mostly in the form of image scraping.

The search engine mentions way they have helped webmasters by introducing Site Kit for WordPress, as well as other features. Wide adoption of the two new link attributes has been reported (“adopted around the world”), but sadly with no data to back it up.

New WordPress update focuses on Security and Maintenance

As mentioned above, hacked sites continue to be a way in which bad actors might gain links to their sites. Finding attack vectors in WordPress, which now powers around 35% of the web (including this site), can often be a lucrative way of gaining such an advantage, which means that it’s critical to update CMS platforms, especially when updates focused on security are released.

In 5.4.2., WordPress fixed issues relating primarily to cross-site scripting, protection against rogue plugins, and accessing password-protected content.

You can download WordPress 5.4.2 by visiting your Dashboard, going to ‘Updates‘ and clicking ‘Update Now‘. If you have a site that supports automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process for you.

If you found this update useful, check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with the team today.

 

 

SEO Market Updates: May 2020

Posted on by Sav Szymura

Join Fusion’s SEO technical team as we round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google rolls out May 2020 Core Algorithm Update

Google confirmed via a Twitter post that an update of the core algorithm has been implemented and was rolled out from May 4th.

Google confirms the latest update on Twitter

It has also been announced that it will take from one to two weeks to affect search results, which means that by the time you are reading this post it should be fully rolled out.

This is the second update to the core algorythm announced just this year, which tells us Google is not planning to pause updates during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

No specific guidance relating to the update has been issued, in order to improve sites which might have been adversely affected. Google have pointed webmasters to their Content and Quality Questions list, which they suggest you should use when creating site content.

Core Web Vitals to become a ranking signal

Google announced that, towards the end of May, a range of new metrics will become signals taken into account when rankings sites in the search results.

The three new metrics which combined are the new Core Web Virals

These metrics are to become parts of a larger group of Page Experience signals, which will include Core Web Viral, as well as:

  • Mobile-friendliness
  • Safe browsing
  • Client-server connection security
  • Compliance with interstitial guidelines

We recently published a more detailed blog post around this, specifically focused on Core Web Virals.

WordPress to include better XML Sitemap geration and submission

WordPress, which now powers around 35% of the web (including this site), is likely to include native sitemap support in version 5.5.

The update comes as an engineer working for WordPress and Google commented on the progress of the development of a core plugin.

The announcement of the possible integration into the WordPress core

On the other hand, the proposal only focuses on the XML Sitemap minimum requirements which would cover most WordPress content types, and are not planned to include extended features such as:

  • Image, Video, and News sitemaps
  • UI-controls which would allow for post exclusion from the sitemap
  • Sitemap caching mechanisms

Google My Business listings can link to Gift Cards and Donation pages

The local business listings offered by Google can now be, in many cases, enhanced by the addition of new features, which now allows people to offer support in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. These links became available in the search results towards the end of May.

The new feature as available on mobile devices

It has been announced that a “subset of businesses” in English-speaking countries will be eligible for these new features, possibly in an attempt to roll this out gradually and prevent congestion. These businesses must have been verified prior to March 1st, 2020 and also have a physical storefront.

Third party gift card offerings are also to be made available via a number partners including Square, Toast, Clover, and Vagaro; and donation pages can be hosted by PayPal or GoFundMe.

Google has also shared some tips on how to take advantage of these features in the best way, including crafting a personal message, which is brief, possitive, and specific.

Google Podcast Manager launches to aid podcasters a better way to understand metrics

Google has a long and somewhat complicated history with podcasting. Over 7 years ago, Google Listen was launched as an Android application that let you search, subscribe, download, and stream podcasts and web audio. It was about 3 years old before it was retired.

Similarly, Google Reader, a RSS/Atom feed aggregator, which could be used for podcast feed, was retired at a similar time.

The retired application and service was then later replaced by Google Podcasts in 2018.

Google Podcast widget on Desktop, among the search results

With the growth of the podcasting market and an appetite for this type of media consumption, Google has launched a tool that is useful for podcast publishers to help them gain insight into their audience and even grow it. This is most likely to be linked to metrics gathered via Google Podcasts, similarly to YouTube Insights.

Some of the presented features included audience retention metrics and device breakdown.

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

 

Google Announces New Page Experience Signal

Posted on by Joshua Carter

On Thursday Google announced the addition of a set of new user experience metrics to its growing list of ranking factors.

The additions – which Google is referring to as “Page Experience” metrics – will be designed to evaluate how users perceive browsing, loading and interacting with specific webpages, and incorporate criteria measuring:

  • Page load times
  • Mobile friendliness
  • Incorporation of HTTPS
  • The presence of intrusive ads or interstitials
  • Intrusive moving of page content or page layout

Webmasters should already be familiar with many of these factors, with recent years seeing Google driving home the importance of mobile friendliness, page speed, HTTPS adherence and avoidance of intrusive interstitials.

However, the new Page Experience signal also includes areas from the new “Core Web Vitals” report, recently incorporated into Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Search Console tools.

What are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are a trio of metrics designed to evaluate a user’s experience of loading, interaction, and page stability when visiting a web page:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures the perceived loading performance of a page, or the time passed before main page content is visible to users. An LCP time of 2.5 seconds viewed as good, with higher in need of improvement.
  • First Input Delay (FID): Measuring interactivity / load responsiveness, or the time it takes for a user to be able to usefully interact with content on the page. An FID of less than 100ms is optimal, with higher scores in need of improvement.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measuring visual stability, or whether the layout of a page moves or changes while a user is trying to interact. Pages should aim for a CLS of less than 0.1 in order to provide a good user experience.

Largest Contentful Paint and First Input Delay will already be recognisable to most webmasters, with Google’s PageSpeed and Lighthouse tools already providing information on these metrics.

However, Cumulative Layout Shift appears to be new, with Google’s John Mueller stating that the CLS metric has been created to gage levels of user “annoyance”. CLS looks at the familiar experience of content shifting as a page loads, which Google illustrate with the below GIF:

What does this change?

Whilst most of the individual metrics within Page Experience are pre-existing ranking factors, the new announcement places them together as one part of an overarching signal:

Google state that they are aiming to provide a more “holistic picture of the quality of a user’s experience on a web page”, by grouping previously separate factors together.

Each factor will be weighted uniquely, although as Google have declined to comment on how this weight will be distributed, it will likely be up to webmasters to determine the importance of each.

The new signal is also set to bring changes to how mobile top stories are determined, with the adoption of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) no longer a prerequisite for inclusion within this section.

In future, top stories will be based on an evaluation of Page Experience factors, with non-AMP pages able to appear alongside AMP pages.

When will Page Experience roll out?

Google state that changes around Page Experience “will not happen before next year”, and promise to give at least 6 months’ notice before any roll out takes place.

This gives webmasters plenty of time to get ready for the changes, with preparation hopefully made easier through the early incorporation of P.E into tools like Google Search Console, Lighthouse, and PageSpeed insights.

Check out our recent blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for you, get in touch with us today.

SEO Market Updates: April 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Revert Chrome 80 Cookie Updates

In light of COVID-19, Google have temporarily rolled back the use of SameSite cookie labeling. SameSite cookie labeling was introduced as part of the Chrome 80 release, which took place at the start of February, for more information on this, please see our SEO market updates for January 2020 blog post.

Google will provide further updates on the implementation on SameSite cookie labeling via a dedicated Chromium updates page.

Google Warns Users When Search Results Are Poor

Google have released an update for Google Search and will now display a warning for users when they believe that the results are not to their standards.

Although Google consistently look to improve search results, with the improved language understanding of its BERT algorithm, or the daily updates on improving search rankings, Google have recognized that there are still occasions they don’t have the available information for some searches.

Previously, Google would either display low quality search results, with no warning, or display no search results.

For searches that would previously display low quality search results, Google will now display a warning to users that it has not been able to find any great matches for the user’s search query.

The warning will also direct users to Google’s search tips page, which provides information on how to fully utilize the search functionality of Google.

Google Now Track Fewer Pages Within Google Search Console

Google have announced that they are currently tracking fewer pages within Google Search Console in order to improve the performance of the reporting. This will have an effect on the following reports:

  • AMP
  • Mobile Usability
  • Page Speed
  • Rich Results

Due to the changes made, Google have informed that users should expect to see a decrease in the number of items and pages tracked in these reports. 

AMP’s New Protocol

AMP have released a new secure protocol in order to resolve the issues of users having to wait for server-side paywall process, mainly for users logging in or paying to view content.

The new protocol will move this process away from server-side to client-side. Moving premium content to this protocol will significantly reduce loading time associated with waiting to be verified, whilst providing the same amount of encryption.

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Google PPC Updates: April 2020

Posted on by Danielle Wright

THE RETURN OF FROOGLE?

For the first time since 2012, Google Shopping will allow you to list for free. This was rolled in the US on April 27th and will continue to roll out globally over the coming months.

As of last week in the US, the Google Shopping tab results consists primarily of free listings. However, Google still plans to charge companies for top placement as promoted listings. These will look similar to the Shopping listings on the main Google SERP; where the listings will remain paid for.   

Google hopes that this will give a little relief to smaller businesses and the retail sector in general as many brick and mortar retailers are looking to move their sales online.

According to a report on The Verge, Google has been working on these changes for some time, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has accelerated these plans.

Existing users of Merchant Center and Shopping ads will already be eligible to show products in the unpaid listings. To opt in, select “Growth” and then “Manage programs” in the left navigation menu and select the “surfaces across Google” program card.

New users of Merchant Center will be able to opt into surfaces across Google during the Merchant Center sign up process and start creating a product feed.

Call Ads now include a ‘Visit Website’ option

Call Ads, previously known as Call-Only Ads, will now include an option to add a ‘Visit Website’ link in a bid to give customers more ways to connect with your business.

Customers will have the option to either visit your website directly via the link or call by clicking on the headline

Google hopes that this will help businesses that rely on calls for new sales by preventing accidental calls and assisting more qualified leads.

To add this option to new or existing call ads, simply add a Final URL.

Requesting Verification

Google are going to be requesting advertisers to verify their identity in order to include further information with the ads (name and location):

Google hope that this change will increase trust in ads by providing users with more information on who is advertising to them.


It is expected that this change will take a few years to cover all global territories. This is rolling out in the US first and continue to expand globally.

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

An SEO Guide to SSL Certificates

Posted on by Zack Cornick

What is an SSL certificate?

In short, an SSL certificate is a digital authentication certificate which provides a site with HTTPS encryption. This certificate is then used to verify the legitimacy of a website and will allow that website to display to its users that it is trustworthy, as well as providing those same users with HTTPS-level encryption, further protecting non-sensitive information, names, passwords and banking details.

The benefits of HTTPS level encryption include:

  • Providing security for users from man-in-the-middle attacks and protecting the user’s data, in line with GDPR
  • Increase in organic rankings, based on additional trust signals
  • Displaying a padlock next to the site’s URL as a visual clue to users informing them that encryption is active on the site

How does an SSL certificate benefit SEO?

With search engines pushing towards a more secure web, websites with HTTPS level encryption (as opposed to HTTP) can see positive effects when it comes to rankings.

Many browsers are also displaying warnings to users when they visit a site without HTTPS encryption, such as Apple’s Safari and Google Chrome displaying these warnings:

Sites will also receive warnings if any resources used on the site are not HTTPS encrypted, this is called mixed content warning. A few months ago we released a post detailing how Google Chrome has cracked down on mixed content, along with how this should be treated. Resources that have been targeted by Google Chrome include:

  • JavaScript and CSS
  • iFrames
  • Audio, video, and image files

Ensuring all these resources are served using HTTPS encryption will safeguard the site from being negatively impacted by “insecure site” warnings.

If an SSL certificate fails or is invalid, browsers such as Google Chrome will display a warning that the user’s connection is not private. This warning is much more severe than the “mixed content” warning and will need to be resolved as soon as possible.

How to get an SSL certificate?

For most sites, SSL certificates are provided as part of a web hosting subscription, such as SiteGround, BlueHost and Host Gator. Although these SSL certificates will usually be low-level, domain validated SSL certificates, suitable for sites that don’t receive a high amount of traffic and require minimal encryption.

All types of SSL certificates can be purchases from dedicated service providers, such as Comodo SSL Store or Digicert or domain registrars, such as NameCheap and GoDaddy.

There are many types of SSL certificates that will be suitable in different scenarios and can be split into 3 main types:

Domain Validated Certificates (DV)

Perfect for SMEs and offers minimal encryption, these are also the cheapest certificates that don’t require verification of the site owner’s information. Domain validated certificates provide just enough encryption for browsers to display the HTTPS padlock within the address bar.

Organisation Validated Certificates (OV)

A tier up from domain validated certificates, organisation validated certificates provide an extra level of trustworthiness and involves a manual investigation to take place on the information of the organisation applying for the SSL certificate. This certificate is ideal for sites that use customer login information (excluding payment specific information).

Extended Certificates (EV)

These offer the highest level of encryption and also require the highest level of validation. Extended certificates are recommended for sites that require sensitive customer information, such as payment card information for ecommerce sites.

Each of these certificates will provide sites with a padlock within the address bar, however will provide users with a varied amount of security for users.

How much is an SSL certificate?

Prices for SSL certificates can vary depending on level of encryption, level of verification and added benefits provided as part of the service. Splitting prices into the 3 types mentioned in the “How to get an SSL certificate?” segment, these can fit into the following price margins (pricing is approximate):

SSL Certificate TypePrice PointApproximate Cost
Domain Validated (DV)££5-£150/yr
Organisation Validated (OV)£££15-£1,000/yr
Extended Certificate (EV)££££50-£2,300/yr

What is the recommended validity length of an SSL certificate?

With a bill being passed on 1st March 2018 reducing the maximum validity length of DV and OV SSL certificates from 39 months to 825 days (around 27 months), EV SSL certificates are already limited to a maximum lifetime of 27 months, and 13 months for validity information. So, what is the recommended length of a SSL certificate’s validity across browsers? And is it better to have a longer or shorter validity time?

To answer the latter question, a shorter validity time on an SSL certificate can be seen to provide a higher amount of security as authenticity checks will need to be performed more often.

In regards to the recommended validity length of an SSL certificate, Apple have placed themselves at the front of this conversation by announcing that as of 1st September 2020, they will be setting a hard trust limit of 398 days, as opposed to the current acceptable duration of 825 days. This means that any certificates issued after this date for longer than 398 days will not be trusted by Apple products. Google have also been seen to show some interest in shortening their trust limit to around one year, although nothing has been passed as of yet.

With trust limits currently sat at 825 days across all browsers until 1st September 2020, any certificates purchased before this date can be valid for up the full 825 days and be trusted across all browsers. For certificates purchased after 1st September 2020, we would recommend ensuring that validity lengths are kept under 398 days, in order to keep within Apple’s (and all other browsers) trust limit.

If you found this useful then please check out our other blog posts, and if you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help with your organic rankings, get in touch with us today.

10 brands responding through social media to COVID-19

Posted on by Louise Barber

Stopped to check your screen time on your phone recently? With the world indoors in response to Covid-19 there has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been an increase in content consumption across digital media. Social media is no different to this, with all channels seeing usage levels skyrocketing since lockdown, LinkedIn alone reported seeing engagement growth rise by just shy of +3000% from January to March 2020. In response to this brands are acting accordingly – producing endless content to satisfy the insatiable hunger felt by a planet of people trapped indoors.

Newsfeeds are swamped with brands’ responses to the outbreak, company announcements and tips for the isolation period. So, the question remains, how do you get your brand heard amongst a sea of voices? To help you gauge what works, we have compiled a list of ten brands that have taken to social media to offer a response to COVID-19.

1. H&M

H&M, who have amassed a total of 8.3M followers internationally, have taken the notion of giving their voice to those that need it in a very literal sense by allowing ‘takeovers’ of their social media from global aid organisations. A simple idea but highly effective, offering an international platform to organisations such as the Red Cross to spread information and help across the globe.

2. Nando’s

How acceptable is humour in a time like this? As Harvard Business Review states ‘the nuances of brand voice are more delicate than ever’, so the real challenge here is understanding your audience and your brand perception. Nando’s is a great example of a brand that can play with humour in an effective, yet informative, way. Remember, it’s times like these that social media offers an escape through humour and light-heartedness, and we all need a laugh right now.

https://twitter.com/NandosSA/status/1240273369498636290

3. Volvo

Copy done properly. Volvo have put a minimalistic slant on this clever example of anti-advertising. As a multi-million-pound brand they have taken this opportunity to use their internationally renowned position to promote an important message in a very savvy manner.  

4. Ikea

On brand and on-point, here Ikea Israel have repurposed the oh-so-familiar flat-pack instruction manual formatting to create their most unforgettable manual yet.  

5. Guinness

A genius approach from Guinness, this social media post found its fame initially as a fake Guinness campaign that went viral. The artwork has now been authenticated by the Guinness brand who too were fans of this creative concept.

6. Nike

Playing on the conscience of the consumer this clever post from Nike tackles both the ‘play (or stay) inside’ message along with the idea of community spirit that is so tangible in the current climate. This message translates health officials’ guidelines, whilst maintaining an undeniably Nike feel.

7. Burger King

Taking to the outdoors to convey their stay indoors message, Burger King Belgium presents an industrial scale change of tack. This brand opted to change their iconic ‘Home of the Whopper’ slogan to a more contemporaneous ‘Stay Home’ message. Bold and brave, this eye-catching amendment offers a physical reminder of the government recommendations seen across the world.

8. Vogue

Powerful and poignant, Vogue Italia responded to the devastating crisis by leaving their front cover plain white for the first time in their history. Editor in chief Emanuele Farneti supplied the accompanying copy ‘Above all: white is not surrender, but a blank sheet waiting to be written, the title page of a news story that is about to begin.’ A strong sign of optimism, hope and respect in these times of darkness.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-r-8mxqzXk

9. Gym Shark

Low cost and high impact, Homeshark (otherwise known as Gymshark) simply changed their display name in an effective PR stunt that resulted in their most liked Instagram photo.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cN0eygomL/

10. Go Outdoors

Following a similar path, Go Outdoors shared a short promotional video branded ‘Go Indoors’ displaying the beautiful British landscapes and urging the viewer to ‘stay at home’ to ‘protect the NHS’ and ‘save lives’.

So, there we have it, ten brands covering a breadth of audiences, nations and tones all responding in different ways to the COVID-19 crisis. What we can learn from this is the importance of expressing your brand’s voice in this time, as Ted Murphy founder of IZEA put it, ‘We see significant opportunity for brands to connect with an audience that is hungry for content, education, and online social experiences’. The answer is not should we speak, but how do we want our voice to be remembered.  Take the time to uplift your audience, praise you heroes and you will find your brand remembered on the right side of history.

Stay safe, stay home and save lives.

For more information on Social Media and SEO market updates take a look at our other blogs.

Get in contact with us today

Starting up during lockdown: a Q&A with the newest additions to Team Fusion

Posted on by Sam Holmes

There’s nothing like a new face in the office, and amongst the madness we had two fresh ones join the team just last week. Along with almost the whole country, Fusion Unlimited has been a work-from-home operation for almost a month now, meaning our new starters began their first day with a virtual greeting from the team and a solo tea-round. Not quite the conventional first day in the new job they’d probably imagined.

Routine has been thrown up in the air for all of us, but have you wondered what it’d be like to be starting a new job in the midst of all this? In this post our new content consultant, Dalia, and the latest addition to our paid media team, Danielle, give you an insight of what it’s really like to start a new job in the middle of a pandemic.

Q. What was it like meeting everyone virtually on your first day, rather than in person?

Dalia: “To be honest, meeting everyone on Skype rather than face to face was just about as nerve-wracking as meeting new colleagues in the flesh! I have to say, doing it from a distance takes away some of the fun of meeting new people and settling into a new office. 

It will be interesting to see how long this situation lasts and how it will be meeting the whole team face to face at the end of it. Something like “Hi nice to finally meet you in person, I’m the new team member you have worked with remotely for weeks now!..”

Danielle: “I had been working from home for 2 weeks prior to starting, and truth be told I’d gotten myself into the bad habit of wearing cosy clothes and not doing my make-up. My first day gave me a chance to reset, I made sure I wore something nice and it made me feel a lot better. 

Meeting everyone over Skype for the first time was nice but of course a little unusual. I think working from home mostly got rid of the first day butterflies, although I was definitely still very nervous. But I know that if I had been in the office, I would’ve been a bag of nerves! Because no one has met me face-to-face, it’s nice to use video on calls.”


Q. Have you found it’s been more difficult to settle in? 

Dalia: “Despite the situation, everyone has been so nice and helpful! I think they all appreciated that starting in a new company is hard enough, let alone doing it under these circumstances. I asked a million questions via Skype and was given tasks to begin with that helped me familiarise myself with clients and strategies.”

Danielle: “Everyone has been really lovely, and helpful. I love that there is still a sense of friendship and comradery over Skype. Everyone is still trying to have a laugh and it’s a great morale booster. I think it’s easy to feel isolated when you work from home, but I haven’t felt that way at all since I started. I also love that there’s a Friday pub quiz. It’s a great idea to bring everyone together and it’s something to look forward to!“


Dalia and Danielle, the newest additions to the Fusion Unlimited team.


Q. What would you say has been the main struggle?

Dalia:  “The lack of human interaction is quite a big one! That goes for everything these days though. I really miss going out and enjoying a coffee in a busy cafe. It is also quite hard to have a full on-boarding remotely, so I find myself wondering what the best process to do something is and if we have any company directives to follow. In that situation, asking for help is key!”

Danielle: “I’d say the only downside is not being able to see everyone in person! There are a lot of positives to working from home, but I do miss office banter. I think we take for granted the value of seeing people and being around other people, it’s good for the mind.”


Q. Do you think this could have a positive impact in the long-run? 

Dalia:  “I hope so! I just know one thing though, the first day in the office will feel like a proper treat. Meeting everyone, getting to know the team better, setting up the new desk and please let’s all get a drink after! We will have survived a global lockdown, after all…”

Danielle: “It’ll be really reassuring to know that, if we can keep going on through this, we can survive anything that comes at us! Having everyone working from home isn’t an ideal situation but it’s a real confidence booster to know we can do it well if we need to. I’m sure everyone will pick up good habits and new ways of working that they can bring into the office on the other side, and we’ll all have a great new-found appreciation of proper interaction and spending time together.”

If you’re interested in joining the Fusion Unlimited team, anyone who is passionate about delivering great work is always welcome at our table. Take a look at our current opportunities and get in touch for any more information.


SEO Market Updates: March 2020

Posted on by Sav Szymura

Join Fusion’s SEO team as we round up last month’s major industry updates and more.

Google prioritises NHS content for health queries

People searching for health related queries in the UK, have started seeing NHS hosted content in the Knowledge Panels in an attempt to provide high quality, localised, easy to understand and trusted health information.

Bing provides similar functionality using Focus Medica for medical conditions, as well as First Databank for medications. We have also seen results from the MayoClinic and the National Library of Medicine appear in the search results for this search engine.

Comparison of the instant answers for both Google and Bing for the query allergies“

NHS content is also promoted on YouTube with an info box returned above the typical search results.

Links to NHS information featured in YouTube

Google: Mobile first indexing for all in September 2020

The smartphone Googlebot has been used for a few years, now Google have announced a shift to mobile-first indexing for all sites starting later this year. The search engine will also crawl sites using the desktop crawler, but to a lesser extent.

It has been pointed out that it will become even more important that sites comply with mobile-first indexing best practices to ensure they are represented well for both existing, as well as new sites. Google has also recommended against using separate mobile URLs for sites (such as m.domian.tld), and for implementing responsive design.

Google also recommended to set any other monitoring or tools used for site analysis to a mobile user-agent to reflect what the search engine crawlers see.

Changing the user-agent in Screaming Frog to mobile

WordPress 5.5 to include auto-updates for plugins

WordPress, which powers 35% of the web (including this site), will include a feature allowing auto-updating capabilities for plugins and themes.

This move should improve the roll-out of updates; plugins are often a WordPress attack vectors as quality control can vary depending on the authors. This should in theory allow for a “set and forget” approach to the installation of plugins, as long as they are patched by the developers.

WordPress 5.4 was released on March 31, so I you haven’t updated the CMS yet, we recommend doing so now. It comes with a new features for both users and developers, including block editor enhancement and more.

New WordPress text formatting tools

Google responds to COVID-19

  • As a response to events being cancelled or moved online, a new optional eventStatus property can help prevent the event being dropped from the search experience. Some elements of this are still under development, but can be used already.
  • New structured data for critical announcements (SpecialAnnouncement) is in Beta, designed primarily for health and government organisations. This can also be done using Search Console.
Special announcement options in Google Search Console
  • Google My Business allows brick-and-mortar stores to be marked as temporarily closed to avoid confusion. Google has also made a point that temporarily closes will not impact local search engine rankings.
Marking a business as temporarily closed on Google My Business
  • Google News has added a COVID-19 section organising news from selected sources seen as authoritative
  • On YouTube curated playlists have been created containing information from trusted sources
  • Community Mobility Reports have been published providing insights on how people move after restrictions have been imposed by local governments, charting trends by geography as well as category of location in comparison to a baseline
Visits to transit stations and workplaces have seen an decrease in West Yorkshire

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Google’s New Continuous Audience Sharing Feature

Posted on by Daniel Arundel

What: Google has introduced a new feature called continuous audience sharing which will allow PPC practitioners to set up audience lists in sub accounts far quicker than ever before.

When: February 18th, 2020

Where: Google Ads Search and Display

Why: Previously a more manual process to set up audience lists, now all that is required is for a setting to be changed in the Google Account MCC.

How: Continuous Audience Sharing can now be activated in the MCC account within the setting tab. This will allow all re-marketing lists within a manager account to be shared throughout its sub accounts.

The trusty old audience list offers the inquisitive Google Ads practitioner scope to humanise what would be, under other circumstances, anonymous clicks and site visits. With audience lists, we can begin to attribute the interests and user journeys to that which eventually led consumers to land on clients’ sites and warmly beckon shoppers back to the site by using re-marketing lists, when their casual browsing took them elsewhere. Such a powerful tool, whilst fairly straight foreword to set up, did involve a decidedly manual process, but this is no longer the case.

Alongside a new feature called Continuous Audience Sharing launched by Google last month, we can now set up audience lists within manager and sub accounts far quicker than ever before. Account managers can simply flick a switch (pictured below) and all audience lists previously set up in the manager account will then be shared across all sub accounts.

Where more pressing account priorities meant that not all audience lists could be set up in every campaign of every account, Google have saved us not only time, but also a series of missed opportunities in the form of an unprecedented level of demographic data and user targeting. And what’s more, the advertiser maintains full control of which audience lists are active.

Just on a final note: The speed with which audience lists can now be set up across accounts does present great opportunities to save on time through automation, but don’t forget that you may be sharing confidential or proprietary information in the process.

It’s therefore paramount to make sure that all privacy policies for an account are taken into consideration before sharing is activated.

SEO Market Updates: February 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google’s Search Algorithm Updates

Outside of broad core algorithm updates, which Google announce on a semi-regular basis, Google also provide several small and focused algorithm updates every day. These smaller updates can have a varied impact on a site’s rankings, but all work towards a central goal of improving the accuracy and functionality of Google’s Search.

From tracking the impact of the daily search algorithm updates that Google release, using tools such as SEMRush Sensor and MozCast, we can that organic rankings saw a large amount of movement from the 9th – 12th February.

SEMRush Sensor:

MozCast:

Rather than having an effect of specific categories of site, such as news and retail, these updates had a large impact on rankings across all sites.

If your site has been been negatively affected by these updates, we would recommend reading our summary of Google’s BERT algorithm update, and looking to optimise the site with this in mind.

Google Improves Data Exports in Search Console

Google have updated the way in which we can export data from Google Search Console. Previously, specific data was exported by navigating to the specific data view; such as queries, pages and devices in the performance report, then exporting view’s information individually.

With Google’s latest update, users will now only have the option the export all views within a report. This means if a user wants to export information from the performance report, this will contain information from all views displayed in separate tabs (View Sample Dataset). This can be exported into Google Sheets, an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs, or as CSV files within a ZIP folder.

Despite this update, Google Search Console will continue to limit users to 1,000 rows of data. In order to export a larger amount of data, this will need to be done with 3rd party resources; such as the Search Analytics for Sheets plug in for Google Sheets, or with Google Data Studio (limited to 5,000 rows).

Google Search Console Adds the Review Snippets Report

Google has introduced the review snippets report within Google Search Console, this report will be available under the enhancement segment within Search Console dashboard.

Review schema allows allows webmasters to highlight reviews on a site, this schema can then be viewed by search engines, such as Google, in order to populate rich results; including knowledge panels and search results.

This review snippet report will be available under the enhancement segment within Search Console dashboard, and will provide details on any issues surrounding the review schema that has been implemented on a site, along with the pages that have been affected by these issues.

Review snippets will also be available within the performance report, under the search appearance view. This will allow users to access the impact of having review snippets appear on an organic listing and how this affects performance.

Google Looks to Implement Mobile First Indexing Across All Sites

Google has been sending notifications, via Google Search Console, to users with sites that are currently preventing Google from implementing mobile-first indexing, due to errors present on the site.

With Google setting a deadline of the next 6-12 months that they expect mobile-indexing to be applied to all sites, if any users receive this warning from Google, we would recommend resolving any issues that have been flagged in order to correctly prepare the site for this change.

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Social Media Updates: February 2020

Posted on by Jorgie McHale-Ramsell

Instagram adds ‘Least Interacted With’ and ‘Most Shown in Feed’ following tab

Instagram has recently added two new lists within the following tab, which enable you to see the accounts that get the most visibility in your feed and those who you choose not to engage with as often.

The update provides a list of accounts you don’t engage with a lot and recommends people who you should unfollow. This is to give users more control over their ‘algorithm-defined’ feed.

For example, if you don’t like some of the accounts on the list, or if there are inactive accounts on there, you can remove or unfollow them as well.

The second tab allows you to see the accounts that frequently appear in your feed and whose posts you regularly engage with – this can make it easier for Instagram to suggest new content and accounts for you to like and follow.

 

Andrew Hutchinson from Social Media Today said: “In terms of business use, it could help you pinpoint fans who are no longer engaged in your messaging, highlighting content variables that you may want to shift.”

Another minor update alongside this is the option to reply to stories with GIFs. It is a fairly minor update, but now you can reply to any story with a selection of GIPHY GIFs. To do so, just search by keyword in the reply text box and send.

 

Twitter releases ‘Manipulated Media’ policy to limit fake content

Twitter has recently released its official rule against users posting fake, deceptive or manipulated content, whilst also launching a tag for ‘detected’ edited material.

The updates to detect and also prevent fake information include:

  • Notifying which Tweets share synthetic or manipulated media.
  • Warning users before they share or like Tweets with synthetic or manipulated media.
  • Adding a link – for example, to a news article or Moment – so that people can read more about why various sources believe the media is fake or manipulated.

Twitter explained the update: “When you come to Twitter to see what’s happening in the world, we want you to have context about the content you’re seeing and engaging with.

“Deliberate attempts to mislead or confuse people through manipulated media undermine the integrity of the conversation.”

This will help to aid the ‘fake news’ agenda often promoted within the app.

Vine revamp as ‘Byte’ to rival TikTok

The co-founder of Vine has now officially launched Byte, which is said to be the second coming of former short-second video app Vine. The app is essentially Vine (creator videos up to seven seconds) with updated features and focus.

The app is said to rival record-breaking TikTok with Byte also making headlines as the most-downloaded social app in the US on its first weekend of launch.

In addition to the functionalities of Vine, Byte will eventually enable users to monetise their content. At launch, Byte lacks any of the additional remix, AR and effects tools available on TikTok currently.

Byte is currently featured on iOS and Android.

If you’re interested in finding out even more about social media and how it can boost your brand, get in touch with the team at Fusion Unlimited today.

SEO Market Updates: January 2020

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google’s January Algorithm Update

Google released a broad core algorithm on 13th January, which was rolled out over the following 2 weeks. We covered the initial release of this update in a dedicated blog post, which provides a rundown of the update and some useful optimisation information.

Looking at SEMRush’s sensor tool, we can see how the algorithm impacted UK rankings:

As with all broad core algorithm updates, these target the entire algorithm, rather than having a specific focus, such as site speed or content. Due to this, if a site it negatively impacted by this update, we would recommend checking aspects within Google’s core update help sheet, or checking out the checklist in our blog that covers the January 2020 core update.

Google Chrome 80

Google Chrome 80 is due to be released at the start of February. It will contain updates that impact cookies, push notifications and mixed content.

Cookies

Google are recommending that developers define the cookies that a site uses. With the option to choose between two settings (SameSite=Strict or SameSite=Lax), web developers will be able to define if a cookie is to be sent in first party or same-site content (Lax is a good choice for cookies affecting the display of the site, with Strict being useful for cookies related to actions your user is taking). Google also provided the following caution surrounding how these will impact the site’s security:

“Neither Strict nor Lax are a complete solution for your site’s security. Cookies are sent as part of the user’s request and you should treat them the same as any other user input. That means sanitizing and validating the input. Never use a cookie to store data you consider a server-side secret.”

Push Notifications

The infamously annoying pop-up notification requests that appear on sites are currently within Google’s scope to tackle.

Google have recognised common complaints surrounding push notifications from websites and are looking to block these, as well as enroll their “Quiet UI”.

They will be looking to block push notifications for the following scenarios:

  • For users who consistently block push notifications.
  • For websites that have low opt-in rates for their notifications.

Google’s new “Quiet UI” will alert users that these notifications have been blocked; giving the user an opportunity to unblock the notification.

Quiet UI will be available on both desktop and mobile devices.

Mixed Content

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Google are looking to crack down on mixed content on sites. From Google Chrome 79 to 81, Google will be looking to implement stricter rules on how they treat mixed content. With Google Chrome 80 due to be released, Google will implement the following rules:

  • Mixed audio and video resources will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 80 will be released to early release channels in January 2020. Users can unblock affected audio and video resources with the setting described above.
  • Mixed images will still be allowed to load, but they will cause Chrome to show a “Not Secure” chip in the omnibox. We anticipate that this is a clearer security UI for users and that it will motivate websites to migrate their images to HTTPS. Developers can use the upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content Content Security Policy directives to avoid this warning.

With stricter rules being implemented, we would recommend ensuring all resources have been migrated to https. For more information on Google Chrome’s plan to deal with mixed content, please see our dedicated blog post.

Google Updates Their Search Page Design

After rolling out the new search page design on mobile devices in May 2019, Google have now implemented these changed to desktop search pages.

This new design looks to add site icons to organic searches, while removing the green, highlight AD marker from ads and replacing it with a more discreet, and bolded, AD marker.

After rolling this out, Google has announced that they will be experimenting further with the desktop design.

Google Search Console’s New Removals Tool

Google have launched the new version of the removals report within Google Search Console. This report will contain the following features:

  • Temporary removals will allow users to remove specific content from Google Search results.
    • ‘Temporarily remove URL’ will hide the URL from Google Search results for about six months and clear the cached copy of the page.
    • ‘Clear cache URL’ clears the cached page and wipes out the page description snippet in Search results until the page is crawled again.
  • Outdated content segment will provide information on removal requests made through the public Remove Outdated Content
  • SafeSearch Filtering section will display any pages on a site that have been reported to Google by users as adult content using the SafeSearch Suggestions

WordPress Look to Add Lazy-Loading as Default

Documentation surrounding WordPress’s 5.4 update suggests that WordPress are looking to implement lazy-loading as part of WordPress core. If added, this will be implemented by adding the loading attribute to img tags within the html on the page, rather than adding this with JavaScript code.

Currently, the loading attribute is compatible with the following browsers:

  • Google Chrome
  • Chrome for Android
  • Android Browser
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Opera

Google Adds Popular Products to Search

Available only to US users at present, Google have released a “popular products” segment within Google Search pages.

This new segment is an extension of Google Shopping and will display products in relation to the users search, as well as a list of sites that sell time item, the price this is sold at and reviews for the product.

It is free for participating retailers to appear within these search features, as long as the products adhere to Google’s best practices.

Check out our latest blog posts for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Social Media Updates: January 2020

Posted on by Jorgie McHale-Ramsell

YouTube is rolling out COPPA changes

YouTube has been fined around $200 million for breaking COPPA laws for protecting children online. The Childhood Privacy Protection Act imposes strict guidelines on websites and apps that are directed or targeted towards anyone under 13 years old and found YouTube breaching their child protection laws online.

According to Ofcom, reports show that 16 to 24-year-olds watch around 73 minutes of YouTube content every day, in comparison to 53 minutes watched by 25 to 34-year-olds. This is worrying for some YouTuber’s as content which makes up the most popular videos were mostly viewed by children up to the age of 11.

YouTube said the advertisement changes will significantly affect creators who target videos at children because they can no longer make money from targeted adverts. Changes to YouTube Studio are rolling out globally, including that videos must be assigned as ‘for children’ or ‘not for children.’

 

Instagram adds to its story creation features

Brands can now reach out to Instagram users more personally, with the creation of user-generated Instagram filters. Circulating recent Instagram story posts has been popular ‘face-filters’ added by brands such as Adidas, Gucci and Kylie Cosmetics where users can see or ‘try on’ new products.

Anyone within the app can create an Instagram filter, to use and share it; the creator of the filter will always have a direct link to their page within other user’s stories. For brands, this means that by creating a viral, on-trend filter could drive a significant amount of traffic back to their Instagram page as well as featuring across thousands of personalised stories each day.

For example, the NBA released a filter where users could snap and use AR to add a dunking basketball player to their image using the camera. This was popular with users outside of the NBA’s current following and was a great way of driving new audiences to an account through using filters.
One particular filter which went viral was by ‘2020 Predictions’ creator Filippo Soccini. Before his homemade filter went viral within the app he had around 7,000 followers and after the success of those using his filter, he is now on over 100k.

 

Tip users via Tweets on Twitter

As a result of the popularity of cryptocurrency, Twitter is said to be looking into the possibility of ‘tipping via tweet’.

According to an interview with Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, the app is exploring the idea of exchanging money through tweets.

It was announced: “Twitter is considering a feature that will allow users to tip – sending each other money from their tweets – according to two people familiar with the company’s decisions. Twitter and Square already partner to let users make donations to politicians through tweets, according to company filings.”

Although the feature is not currently in development, it could be something new to the app later in the year.

 

If you’re interested in finding out even more about social media and how it can boost your brand, get in touch with us today.

 

Google Release January 2020 Broad Core Update

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Yesterday, Google announced that they have released a broad core algorithm update.

Unlike the small changes Google make to their algorithm on a daily basis, designed to incrementally improve how the Google algorithm interprets and ranks pages (e.g. Page speed, EAT and meta data) and are usually barely noticeable. Broad core algorithm updates, as the name suggests, are much more significant and look at providing an overall improvement to the algorithm.

Although Google does not provide any specific information on what to look out for if a site is affected by the update, they do recommend that any sites or pages that are hit by this should be assessed against the following criteria where relevant:

Content and quality questions

  • Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
  • Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
  • Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
  • If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
  • Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
  • Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Expertise questions

  • Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
  • If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
  • Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
  • Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
  • Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Presentation and production questions

  • Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
  • Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
  • Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
  • Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
  • Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

Comparative questions

  • Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
  • Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

We would also recommend ensuring that page speed is also factored into these checks, as this remains an important rankings factor for Google and all other search engines.

If you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

SEO Market Updates: December 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin Step Down

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, announced that they have stepped down as CEO and President of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The role of CEO was given to Sundar Pichai, Google’s current CEO. Sundar sent the following email to Google employees on 3rd December

Hi everyone,

When I was visiting Googlers in Tokyo a few weeks ago I talked about how Google has changed over the years. In fact, in my 15+ years with Google, the only constant I’ve seen is change. This process of continuous evolution — which the founders often refer to as “uncomfortably exciting” — is part of who we are. That statement will feel particularly true today as you read the news Larry and Sergey have just posted to our blog.

The key message Larry and Sergey shared is this:

While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents—offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!

With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it’s the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet’s investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we’re passionate about!

I first met Larry and Sergey back in 2004 and have been benefiting from their guidance and insights ever since. The good news is I’ll continue to work with them — although in different roles for them and me. They’ll still be around to advise as board members and co-founders.

I want to be clear that this transition won’t affect the Alphabet structure or the work we do day to day. I will continue to be very focused on Google and the deep work we’re doing to push the boundaries of computing and build a more helpful Google for everyone. At the same time, I’m excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology.

The founders have given all of us an incredible chance to have an impact on the world. Thanks to them, we have a timeless mission, enduring values, and a culture of collaboration and exploration that makes it exciting to come to work every day. It’s a strong foundation on which we will continue to build. Can’t wait to see where we go next and look forward to continuing the journey with all of you.

– Sundar

Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin will remain active as co-founders, shareholders and board members of Alphabet.

Google Roll Out BERT for 70+ Languages Worldwide

After its initial release in October 2019, which was covered in our blog, Google have announced that their new natural language processing (NLP) algorithm, BERT, is being rolled out for 70+ languages.

This is the full list of languages that will BERT will now understand:

  • Afrikaans
  • Albanian
  • Amharic
  • Arabic
  • Armenian
  • Azeri
  • Basque
  • Belarusian
  • Bulgarian
  • Catalan
  • Chinese (Simplified & Taiwan)
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Estonian
  • Farsi
  • Finnish
  • French
  • Galician
  • Georgian
  • German
  • Greek
  • Gujarati
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Javanese
  • Kannada
  • Kazakh
  • Khmer
  • Korean
  • Kurdish
  • Kyrgyz
  • Lao
  • Latvian
  • Lithuanian
  • Macedonian Malay (Brunei Darussalam & Malaysia)
  • Malayalam
  • Maltese
  • Marathi
  • Mongolian
  • Nepali
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Punjabi
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbian
  • Sinhalese
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swahili
  • Swedish
  • Tagalog
  • Tajik
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Thai
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Urdu
  • Uzbek
  • Vietnamese

Google Update Their Search Quality Guidelines

Google were discovered to have updated their search quality guidelines at the start of December. These guidelines are used by human quality raters to evaluate websites and search page results and are used to help improve Google’s search algorithm.

These updates are important and provide the ability to see how Google think in regards to how sites and content should be viewed. This allows us to better understand how to present content and ensure guidelines are adhered to, such as E-A-T.

Within the updates provided in December, Google have been changing the word “user” to “person” and have also informed that raters should “Keep in mind that users are people from all over the world: people of all ages, genders, races, religions, political affiliations, etc”. These updates may be a result of Republicans’ allegations of anti-conservative bias within the company’s search results in the U.S., in which Google have denied such biases.

Google Chrome 79 Has Been Released

Google released the Chrome 79 on 10th December. In our previous blog post, we informed that Google will be cracking down on mixed content, starting from version 79 of Google Chrome, to version 81. This means that this is the first version of Google Chrome that will take steps towards warning users about mixed content of sites.

Google’s steps towards cracking down on mixed content will be as follows:

  • In Chrome 79, releasing to a stable channel in December 2019, Google will introduce a new setting to unblock mixed content on specific sites. This setting will apply to mixed scripts, iframes, and other types of content that Chrome currently blocks by default. Users can toggle this setting by clicking the lock icon on any https:// page and clicking Site Settings. This will replace the shield icon that shows up at the right side of the omnibox for unblocking mixed content in previous versions of desktop Chrome.
  • In Chrome 80, mixed audio and video resources will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 80 will be released to early release channels in January 2020. Users can unblock affected audio and video resources with the setting described above.
  • Also in Chrome 80, mixed images will still be allowed to load, but they will cause Chrome to show a “Not Secure” chip in the omnibox. We anticipate that this is a clearer security UI for users and that it will motivate websites to migrate their images to HTTPS. Developers can use the upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content Content Security Policy directives to avoid this warning.
  • In Chrome 81, mixed images will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 81 will be released to early release channels in February 2020.

For more information on these updates, please visit our dedicated blog post.

Windows Implements Bing Visual Search In The Window Search Bar

Bing’s visual search works in a similar way to Google Lens, both will allow users to use search with an image, or a selected part of an image and also include text recognition within images, which can also be users to search.

Windows users will now have access to usilise Bing visual search from the start menu. This feature is currently only available for U.S. users and will be shortly rolled out to international markets. With windows still controlling around 78% of worldwide desktop operating systems, this new feature may have a positive impact on Bing’s market share for search engines, depending on the success of the implementation.

Google Warn That Some Data In Google Search Console Is Not Accurate

Google have warned that, due to internal issues, data in the performance report for Discover will be inaccurate between 8th December and 13th December. This issue has since been fixed.

Check out our latest Social Media market updates for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

SEO Market Updates: November 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

Google Chrome Will Warn Users of Slow Sites

Google have announced their plans to display warnings to users on how quickly a site may load when using Google Chrome.

Rather than immediately setting a page speed score that pages will need to hit in order to avoid receiving this warning, google plan on setting a very lenient criteria and increasing this over time.

For more information on this update, including details on how to avoid receiving this warning, please see our dedicated blog post…

Google Search Console’s New Page Speed Report

As Google continues to stress the importance of page speed in regards to site performance and rankings, they have released the new speed report within Google Search Console.

Utilising data from Google’s Chrome User Experience Report, this report will split pages into 3 categories; fast, medium and slow. This will also allow webmasters to see what issues are slowing pages down. The below table shows how Google defines slow to fast pages:

Fast Moderate Slow
FCP <1s <3s >=3s
FID <100ms <300ms >=300ms
  • FCP (first contentful paint): The time from when the user requests the URL until the browser renders the first visible element in the URL. This is important because it tells the reader that the URL is actually loading.
  • FID (first input delay): The time from when a user first interacts with your page (when they clicked a link, tapped on a button, and so on) to the time when the browser responds to that interaction. This measurement is taken from whatever interactive element that the user first clicks. This is important on pages where the user needs to do something, because this is when the page has become interactive.

Although Google has classified this report as “experimental” and have informed that they will continue to improve this, the page speed report is currently available to all users, rather than being part of a closed beta.

Google Launch Site Kit for WordPress

In order to improve integration between Google products and WordPress, Google released Site Kit. Site Kit is a WordPress plugin which will provide the following benefits:

  • Easy-to-understand stats directly on your WordPress dashboard
  • Official insights from multiple Google tools
  • Aggregated insights from Google products, distilled in a dashboard that your clients or other teams can easily access. No need to copy data from multiple products to compile reports for clients.
  • Site performance stats and improvement recommendations that come directly from Google – webmasters will be getting the latest best practices recommended by Google products.

Enabling this plugin will give users access to the following Google tools:

This plugin is free to install here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-site-kit/

Product Filters Added to Google Search Console

Google have announced the addition of the new product filter within the search appearance report of Google Search Console. This new filter will report on the performance of product rich results, as shown below:

This new report will provide a dedicated view of the performance of the product within Google search, which can help with viewing trend data and comparing these results with other rich results.

Check out our latest Social Media market updates for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

JCDecaux Upfronts 2020

Posted on by Amber Hunt

We revel in the idea of a digital world. Saving paper saves the trees and in turn, saves media suppliers on production costs! And what’s better than buying one digital screen? Securing two digital screens!

In their recent upfronts 2020 conference, JCDecaux, the pioneer for outdoor media have announced their plans to bridge the gap between OOH and the digital world. The Brand Gap 2 report aims to take the reins on both branding and activation. Brands can expect a unified synergy between what consumers see on public and private screens, making for a stronger, longer impression.

JCD has teamed with Lumen, a cutting-edge eye-tracking technology company set to make waves in the digital world, tapping into some previously ambiguous insights. In a two-screen world, the cross-channel strategy allows for a consistent image to be displayed on more than one screen such as an outdoor digital 6 screen and a mobile phone.  In effect, the brand campaign resonates with the consumer from the minute they wake up to the minute they go to back to bed. Screen time exists profoundly in our lives, fed through our phones, our commutes and our work. Building a two-screen campaign creates a persistent message without being too pushy. Picture this – you scroll through Facebook on your way to work, your phone dies as you get to the train station, causing you to look for some passenger information point. During your commute, you find a digital passenger information point. And what’s the creative message beside it? The same advert you saw on Facebook earlier in the day.

The highly targeted, cross-channel strategy not only encourages awareness but consideration and sales. Implementing a trusted narrative, then sharing it across both OOH and Facebook formats has seen a 13% increase in the likelihood to purchase as well as the 6% uplift in actual sales. Studies show the propensity to purchase products increases across Gen Z and Millennial audiences when both OOH and digital formats are active. The brand image is viewed the first time, recognised the second and by the third/fourth view recognised, remembered and recalled. The memory becomes a motif displayed across various screens, prompting the target audience towards the lower end of the sales funnel.

In their October conference, CEO of JCDecaux UK announced ‘out-of-home can act as a primer to make the private screen more engaging and work harder’ – driving consideration and descending into the lower end of the sales funnel. Now that 57% of viewable media is on the same aspect ratio (vertical six-sheet), brands mould their adverts to fit around the audience’s routine. Geofencing pinpoints the perfect audience, where there’s no escaping the programmatic messaging. Take Virgin Active, they have over 30 clubs in Greater London and wanted to target people that are regularly seen in close proximity to their sites. Geotargeting helped to gain leverage of a highly connected audience, maximise the relevance of their messaging and achieve performance uplift from proactive brand activity. Out-of-home media not only primes but permeates the digital world with familiarity and trust.

Watch this (vertical) space as the gap between our private and public worlds collapses. Experience a flawless brand activation proven to stimulate the consideration stage of a highly targeted audience and, in turn, increase sales conversions.

Google Chrome Will Display Warnings For Slow Sites

Posted on by Zack Cornick

In a further push to make websites take loading speeds seriously, Google have announced a new range of plans to help pre-warn users on how quickly or slowly a site may load.

“We think the web can do better and want to help users understand when a site may load slowly, while rewarding sites delivering fast experiences.” – Addy Osmani, Ben Greenstein and Bryan McQuade from the Chrome team

The plans include the rollout of warning messages within load screens on slower websites,  alongside a new green progress bar for sites with faster load times, both seen in the examples below:

Rather than implement strict criteria for what is and isn’t a fast site immediately, Google plan to gradually increase this over time. Google’s long-term goal is to clearly badge sites that load quickly or slowly for users, with further plans to expand the badging of sites to cover a range of signals beyond just site speed.

Google recommend using the following resources to help identify areas where improvements to site speed can be made:

Google also suggest checking web.dev/fast in order to learn the best practices for site performance.

To add to the above list, we would also recommend also utilising the following resources:

These additional resources will be able to provide valuable insights on page speed performance, and can be used alongside Google’s own resources.

Check out our latest SEO and Social Media market updates for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Social Media Updates: November 2019

Posted on by Jorgie McHale-Ramsell

Follow topics on Twitter instead of people

Twitter is adding a new feature to the app called ‘Topics’. Twitter has said this feature will help and encourage users to find a larger selection of content across a range of subjects, alongside their usual timeline.

The Topics tab will allow users to follow tweets about subjects such as sport or politics, rather than associated accounts. There will be 300 topics which users can follow from entertainment and gaming to fashion and beauty.

Twitter recently explained the new update:  “On your Home timeline and in search results, you’ll see prompts to follow topics. Tap the Follow button in the prompt and we’ll personalise your Twitter experience based on your interest in this topic.

“We may also match you with other topics that we think you are interested in based on your profile and activity, such as the Tweets you view or like.”

Twitter said their new update will help users find more content they are interested in as “the main reason that people join Twitter is to keep up on the things that they’re interested in.”

Topics will launch on the Twitter app on November 13.

Facebook expands publisher tools for brands

Facebook has announced that their publisher tools will be expanding including a feature where brands can easily find content creators to partner with. Initially, the tool was for a limited number of pages, but Facebook is expanding access to the feature.

Facebook explained: “To help advertisers find creators for branded content partnerships, we introduced Brand Collabs Manager. Creators in over 40 countries can now apply for access to Brand Collabs Manager, bringing it in line with Ad Breaks.”

However, to qualify as a content creator for the Brand Collabs Manager feature, you will need at least 1,000 followers as well as one or more of the following over the last two months: 15,000 engagements on your posts, 180,000 minutes viewed, or 30,000 1-minute views on videos that are 3-minutes or longer.

As well as this, Facebook is adding to Creator Studio with Traffic Source Insights. This is where content creators can see how their content is distributed across the app and with insights on how to optimise content. Traffic Source Insights will look at video watch time and retention metrics for pages across four key sources: Followers, Shares, Recommended and Paid.

You can check if your page qualifies for Brand Collabs Manager here.

Pinterest outlines top pin trends for November

Pinterest has released an update of trending pins forecast for November, including upcoming trends for food, beauty, home and style and how to achieve successful pins.

Interior

Pinterest revealed that ‘entryways’ will receive a lot of attention in interior trends this month. The following searches are said to be up for interior-inspired pinner’s: ‘mudroom entryway’ (+179% YoY) ‘shoe closet entryway’ (+300% YoY) and ‘small foyer decorating’ (+722% YoY).

Beauty

According to Pinterest, November is the month of bedazzling. Searches for ‘rhinestone eye makeup’ are up 550% year over year along with ‘magnetic eyeliner’ (+143% YoY) just in time for Christmas. By replicating these pins into your content strategy, Pinterest predicts an increase in engagement.

Food

As autumn turns to winter, searches for comfort food are up significantly. Recipe videos are up, such as tomato soup videos (+5809% YoY) which topped the list. Alongside ‘sausage parmesan cream cheese’ (+1314% YoY) and ‘hamburger cauliflower soup’ (+4000% YoY) making trends for the top food pins.

Fashion

For men and women’s fashion, corduroy tops the trends. Searches are increasing for ‘corduroy skirt outfit’ (+69% YoY), ‘corduroy bag’ (+59% YoY), ‘corduroy shirt’ (+51% YoY) and ‘corduroy dress’ (47% YoY).

If you’re interested in finding out more about social media and what it can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

GOMO or Go Home?

Posted on by Louise Barber

Testing the Malleability of OOH Media in a Transitional Digital World.

For years outdoor media has remained solid yet stagnant. Time may change but the reliability of a forty-foot poster has rarely been questioned. Without realising it, we are subject to ads in our outdoor life hundreds of times a week. They have become part of our daily commute, local environment and city architecture. But, as we journey further into the digital age, we are no longer accustomed to taking in our surroundings. Instead, we are increasingly more concerned with the world at our fingertips. Since the growth of digital media, outdoor media must work harder to gain the attention of the average consumer. Today billboards must compete with their immediate surroundings, alongside online traffic.
 
In today’s society, outdoor media is striving to be brighter, bolder and smarter than ever. Traditional billboard sites are being replaced by digital screens on a weekly basis. These screens offer the opportunity for more impressions, many creatives and a mix of ads every minute. So what is the latest step in the plight of OOH (out-of-home) media? Meet the iWalker by GOMO…
 
The iWalker is a wearable digital communication tool that moves with your audience. The device acts as a harness supporting a large screen above the head of the wearer. It also has speakers pumping music of the companies’ choice to the surrounding crowds. The device is eye-catching and attention-seeking. Used in the right location it represents a hybrid of events based promotion and outdoor media.
 
The selling point of the iWalker is, at present, the spectacle of it. The device catches the attention and not the eye of crowds, and in return, the device absorbs the data of the crowds. When presented with a scene, the iWalker analyses the situation and obtains data from the surroundings. It has the capacity to do several things, for example, viewer counting. The iWalker can detect all faces in the scene so the number of impressions is reliable and not estimated. It also tracks faces – monitoring how long a face remains in the scene – thus deducing dwell time and attention time. The device can then classify the gender and age of an individual. This means that the post-campaign analytics are tested and reliable thus improving the ROI.
 
Will the iWalker will prove to be another fad of the media world? Or will it will be as influential as the billboard was? Regardless of opinion, it is pushing the boundaries of outdoor media and offering movement to a static world.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: OCTOBER 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE’S NEW ALGORITHM: BERT

The biggest news of the month came with the announcement of a new search algorithm from Google, BERT. A natural language processor (NLP), BERT provides Google with a heightened ability to understand the context of search queries.

For example, the algorithm can assist Google to determine when prepositions such as “on” or “to” matter to the entire meaning of a phrase. This ultimately helps Google to display a result which best matches search intent, as in the example below comparing a pre and post-BERT result for the same query:

Google have stated that BERT is working alongside the existing RankBrain algorithm, and will affect around 10% of all search terms and structured snippets.

BERT is currently live for search terms using U.S English, and will be rolled out for other languages in the near future.

For more information on BERT, take a look at our dedicated blog post…

GOOGLE CRACKS DOWN ON MIXED CONTENT

With the next few iterations of Chrome planned to release over the next few months, Google have announced that these forthcoming updates will be taking incrementally harsher stances against mixed content.

Mixed content refers to instances where both HTTP and HTTPS resources, such as images or iFrames, are contained on a site.

Chrome is currently on version 78, and by release 81 Google expect to have implemented the below updates:

  • In Chrome 79, set to be released to a stable channel in December 2019, Google will introduce a new setting to unblock mixed content on specific sites. This setting will apply to mixed scripts, iFrames, and other types of content which Chrome currently blocks by default. Users will be able to toggle this setting by clicking the lock icon on any https:// page and selecting the Site Settings option. This is set to replace the shield icon displayed at the right side of the address bar in current versions of desktop Chrome, which is currently used to unblock mixed content.
  • In Chrome 80, set to be published to early release channels in January 2020, mixed audio and video resources will be auto-upgraded to https://. If these resources then fail to load over htttps:// they will be blocked by Chrome. Users will be able to unblock any mixed audio or video resources via the method released in Chrome 79.
  • Also in Chrome 80, mixed images will still be allowed to load, but will cause Chrome to show a “Not Secure” chip in the address bar. We anticipate that this is a clearer security UI for users and that it will motivate websites to migrate their images to HTTPS. Developers can use the upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content Content Security Policy directives to avoid this warning.
  • In Chrome 81, mixed images will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 81 will be released to early release channels in February 2020.

For more information on these updates within Chrome, please see our dedicated blog post…

GOOGLE DEPRECIATE CORPORATE CONTACT MARKUP

Corporate contact markup , often implemented with the contactPoint schema, allowed companies to add their contact information to Google’s knowledge panel.

In October, Google announced that this method of adding corporate contact information to knowledge panels is now depreciated. As an alternative, if a company is verified as an official rep of a Google knowledge panel, they will be able to suggest changes to corporate contacts via the knowledge panel support page.

AUTOMATIC LAZY-LOADING HAS COME TO CHROME LITE USERS

Automatic lazy-loading is a feature enabled for all Chrome 76 users, allowing images and iFrames with the `loading` attribute to be lazy-loaded with the following options:

  • auto: Default lazy-loading behaviour of the browser, which is the same as not including the attribute.
  • lazy: Defer loading of the resource until it reaches a calculated distance from the viewport.
  • eager: Load the resource immediately, regardless of where it’s located on the page.

Now, this feature has been made available for lite mode users in Chrome 77. Chrome 77 will allow any <iframe> or <img> with the loading attribute value of `auto` to be eligible for Lite Mode’s automatic lazy-loading. This includes <picture> elements and CSS background images.

In Google’s experiments, native lazy-loading of images and iframes yields a ~10% reduction in bytes downloaded per page at the 75th percentile and an 8% reduction in overall downloaded bytes for the median user. Automatic lazy-loading also led to a 1-2% improvement in First Contentful Paint at the median, a 2% improvement in First Input Delay at the 95th percentile and a 0.7% improvement in median memory reduction per page.

Native lazy-loading is currently supported by the following browsers:

  • Chrome 76+
  • Chrome for Android 78+
  • Android Browser 76+
  • Opera 64+

GOOGLE ADD NEW VIDEO REPORTS TO SEARCH CONSOLE

Two new video reports are now available to users of Google Search Console, providing information on video content displayed within search results, the video search tab, and Google Discover.

The first of these reports is the Video Enhancement Report, which allows webmasters to see any errors and warnings for any video schema implemented on a website.

The second of these reports is the Video Performance Report. This will allow users to view the performance of videos within the video tab and main search page, by segmenting by “type = web”. Users will also be able to view Google Discover video performance by using the “search appearance” tab.

For users utilising the VideoObject schema these reports will allow a quick view on how videos are performing, along with providing an overview of whether schema is implemented correctly.

 

For information on last month’s major industry updates for social media, please see our monthly social blog…

Meet BERT: Google’s New Search Algorithm

Posted on by Zack Cornick

BERT, or the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, is the new search algorithm released by Google. BERT is a natural language processor (NLP) that is capable of providing Google with further understanding behind the intention of a search query, rather than relying solely on key terms within the query in order to understand user intention.

This new algorithm is going to allow Google to do a much better job of finding useful information for search queries, particularly for longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like “for” and “to” matter a lot to the meaning, Search will be able to understand the context of the words in your query.

Looking at the below examples, we can see how BERT is able to understand more complex, content driven search terms, in order to provide more relevant search results.

BERT is currently live for search terms using the English language and Google will be looking to apply this to other languages in the future.Google have labelled BERT as “representing the biggest leap forward in the past five year, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of search”. This no understatement from Google, as BERT will work alongside RankBrain and is expected to affect 10% of all search terms, along with affecting structured snippets.

As BERT is a deep learning NLP algorithm that is designed to process and learn how language is used, the only way to optimise content for this is to ensure that content is relevant, informative, useful and most importantly, written for humans.

The Power of Pinterest for your Retail Brand

Posted on by Jenny Connelly

First things first, if you’re not exactly sure what Pinterest is and how it differs from other social networks, here’s a little summary – Pinterest is basically a virtual pinboard, you can browse millions of images and add them to your virtual ‘board’. Pinterest doesn’t class itself as a social network like Instagram or Facebook – instead, it’s a platform that allows users to feel inspired and plan their dreams. They’re a personal media, rather than social media.

Brands can hugely benefit from Pinterest – firstly, it’s worth noting that Pinterest users visit the platform to get inspired and therefore they’re usually in a positive mindset. Pinners (a nickname for Pinterest users) are usually at the beginning of their buying or planning journey, therefore as a brand, it’s great to be visible at this stage. Pinterest states that 66% of Pinners have made a purchase based on the content they saw from brands on the platform – demonstrating the influence and potential for brands on the platform.

Here at Fusion Unlimited, we had the pleasure of attending an exclusive Pinterest workshop for some of the top independent agencies in the UK. The workshop enabled us to truly explore the ways we can maximize Pinterest’s offering for our clients. Read on to find out the key points we learnt and how you can apply them to your marketing strategy.

 

What makes a good pin?

Pinterest is a highly visual platform – the first thing to draw the user in is the creative you choose to publish. Therefore, it’s important to create images that are appealing to the user in order to generate as much relevant website traffic that can help you convert. The following tips apply to both paid and organic pins.

  1. High-res and high-quality photos – good quality photos always work best, they’re more aesthetically pleasing and allow the user to see the content best.
  2. Use lifestyle photography as much as possible – lifestyle photography showing your brand’s product is often more effective and attention-grabbing than studio photography.
  3. Seasonal content – Pinterest users often head to the platform to get inspiration for seasonal events like Christmas, interior design, party ideas, fashion advice and more. By creating seasonal content, you can tap into those users and appear for more keywords.
  4. Sized at 1000 x 1500 pixels – creating your Pin this size will ensure that your image is visible and not cropped.
  5. Discreet branding, or none at all – surprisingly the majority of pins (73%) are uploaded by brands. This has allowed brands to have a discreet and sustainable relationship with Pinterest users that allows them to play a key role in helping the pinner achieve their dream – instead of showering them with blatant ads.
  6. Text overlay for promoting content – adding copy to your Pin can give users a better understanding of what the image is promoting and the content behind it.
  7. Include keywords in your title and description – People are reading these, so sentences work best. But Pinterest’s robots are also indexing these, so make sure to include high volume keywords.

Promoting your product on Pinterest

Now that we know what makes a good pin, let’s put it into practice. As you can see, the image below is overly branded and doesn’t inspire the user in any way. This sort of image could be used for other social networks or ads but doesn’t work best for Pinterest and its audience. Pinterest users come to the platform to feel inspired, rather than to be advertised to.

The next two images are created with Pinterest in mind. Let’s assume that the image on the left is advertising the dress and the image on the right is adverting the trainers – the products are clearly on display in a non-branded and lifestyle environment. They resonate with the user and have the potential to inspire them, increasing the likelihood of them interacting with the pin.

 

When you click on an available product, the following appears for the user. Therefore the user can go directly to the brand’s website to buy the product or find out more.

 

Promoting content on Pinterest

Promoting website content is a little different than promoting a product. Using a text overlay can be a great way to let users know exactly what the content is about and direct users to your website’s content.

Let’s see an example of some creative with and without a text overlay. The image on the left doesn’t tell the user what the content is about, therefore you may get traffic to your website, but not necessarily relevant traffic from users that are willing to interact with your content.

The image on the right tells the user exactly what the content is about and therefore has a stronger CTA. Increasing the likelihood of directing relevant traffic to your website.

The shelf life of a pin is approximately 103 days, so it’s good to consider this when creating the content that will advertise your product.

If you want to start creating a Pinterest strategy or schedule, Pinterest has a range of resources for brands to utilize on their business website. Alternatively, if you’re interested in finding out about the power of Pinterest and what it can do for your retail brand, get in touch with our team today.

 

VoiceWorks Conference 2019 – the Growth of Voice Technology

Posted on by Jenny Connelly

ComScore predicts that by 2020 50% of all searches will be performed by voice. This prediction is the foundation of VoiceWorks as a company. It’s very apparent that voice technology is ever-growing and ever-prominent aspect of today’s society – as of this year, 40% of all homes owned a voice-controlled device.  Facts like these dramatically affect the way that marketing works presently, it means that instead of seeing an array of results ranked, with companies paying for their place in the ranking, we will now hear just one solid answer.

‘As technology continues to advance, the brands who are prepared for this shift will be the ones who win’ (AdWeek).

VoiceWorks offers 3 different products:

1 – Audio Content: recent years has seen a monumental rise in the number of podcast being created and listened to on a frequent basis. VoiceWorks can develop and produces podcasts, flash briefings and streamed audio for brands. A highly successful recent example of this is Pretty Little Things’ Podcast which received over 70,000 listens with just 3 podcasts.

2 – Audio Creativity & Branding: Possessing sonic branding allows businesses to exist within the world of audio. VoiceWorks helps brands find and develop their audio brand and sonic branding. Statistics say that 86% of brands rely on visual branding, whilst only 17% have audio brand guidelines. This means that brands savvy enough to focus more on audio have the potential to possess a wider portion of the market. Those with memorable jingles are those who stand out, the embedded memory of Hastings Direct’s telephone number is a testament to this.

3 – Voice Search & Voice Skills: VoiceWorks will develop Voice Skills for brands to interact and transact with customers and assist clients to navigate the use of smart devices. This allows your business to become the answer to Alexa’s questions.

The main message of the presentation stands; the audio revolution is nigh and only the savviest of businesses will find themselves on the right side of it

Google Cracks Down on Mixed Content

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Google has announced that they will be cracking down on page resources in order to ensure that https pages can only load https sub-resources. This change is going to be gradually enforced in different steps throughout the next few updates of their browser, from Chrome 79 to Chrome 81 (We are currently on Chrome 77).

These steps will be implemented as below:

  • In Chrome 79, releasing to a stable channel in December 2019, Google will introduce a new setting to unblock mixed content on specific sites. This setting will apply to mixed scripts, iframes, and other types of content that Chrome currently blocks by default. Users can toggle this setting by clicking the lock icon on any https:// page and clicking Site Settings. This will replace the shield icon that shows up at the right side of the omnibox for unblocking mixed content in previous versions of desktop Chrome.
  • In Chrome 80, mixed audio and video resources will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 80 will be released to early release channels in January 2020. Users can unblock affected audio and video resources with the setting described above.
  • Also in Chrome 80, mixed images will still be allowed to load, but they will cause Chrome to show a “Not Secure” chip in the omnibox. We anticipate that this is a clearer security UI for users and that it will motivate websites to migrate their images to HTTPS. Developers can use the upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content Content Security Policy directives to avoid this warning.
  • In Chrome 81, mixed images will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 81 will be released to early release channels in February 2020.

Ensuring that all resources are migrated to https can be done within a CDN, web host or content management system. We would recommend focusing on migrating these in the order that they will be blocked within Google Chrome:

  1. Scripts, iFrames will be targeted in December 2019
  2. Audio, video and images will be targeted in January 2020

This is important because any non-secure resource could be blocked by Chrome – including images, videos, audio, JavaSript/CSS files, and even tracking pixels and scripts, both internally and externally hosted.

Chrome is still the leading browser across all devices and is currently standing at 63.72%, with the closest competitor being Safari, at 16.34% market share. It’s plausible that other browsers could follow suit and also block mixed content.

Google Chrome Market Share - October 2019

We would recommend that all resources are migrated to https as soon as possible, as this will remove the risk of users not being able to correctly view your site and will also ensure that your content is not blocked by Google in January 2020 when they remove the option to unblock resources.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: SEPTEMBER 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

BROAD CORE ALGORITHM UPDATE

Google announced that they were releasing a broad core algorithm update on 24th September.

Although broad core algorithm updates have no specific focus and are released in order provide a more general improvement in search results, Google have suggested “focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can” as “that’s what our algorithms seek to reward.” Google have also recommended that sites continue to consult the search quality rater guidelines in order to view Google’s ideology on what a qualities a site should possess in order to rank well within search. Google have also recommended the following resources in order to help understand the search quality rater guidelines:

GOOGLE UPDATES NO FOLLOW & INTRODUCES SPONSORED AND UGC TAGS

Google have updated the guidance on how they will treat nofollow tags, alongside introducing 2 new tags to be used in specific circumstances:

rel=”nofollow”: Use this attribute for cases where you want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page.

rel=”sponsored”: Use the sponsored attribute to identify links on your site that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation agreements.

rel=”ugc”: UGC stands for User Generated Content, and the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within user generated content, such as comments and forum posts.

For further information on these changes and the impact they have made, please see our Google Updates Nofollow Links blog.

FRESHER DATA IS INTRODUCED TO GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Following an announcement on 23rd September 2019, users will now have access to more recent data within Google Search Console.

Previously, users were required to wait a couple of days for data within Search Console to become available, meaning that site performance from over the weekend would become available around Wednesday. With the implementation of fresher data users will now have access to information from as soon as the previous day, which will then be processed and replaced with the final data within the same time period as usual (around a couple of days).

GOOGLE INTRODUCES AUTO DNS VERIFICATION FOR SEARCH CONSOLE

Following their release of domain groups in Google Search Console allowing users to views combined data driven by their whole domain, Google have released auto DNS verification in order to make it easier for users to verify their domain.

By clicking on “add property” from the property selector from the drop down sidebar, then choosing the “Domain” option, users will now be met with a step-by-step guide from Google. This will guide users through the steps of verifying their domain.

GOOGLE OFFICIALLY RETIRES THE OLD SEARCH CONSOLE

After releasing the new Google Search Console back at the start of 2018, Google have gradually migrated across functionality from the old Search Console to the new version, alongside new exclusive tools. The time has now come for us to say goodbye to the old Search Console, as Google closed accessibility on 9th September 2019.

Although the old Search Console has been closed, Google are still allowing access to the below legacy tools that are yet to receive a replacement on the new Google Search Console interface:

  • Remove URLs tool
  • Crawl Stats
  • Robots.txt Tester
  • URL Parameters Tool
  • International Targeting
  • Data Highlighter tool
  • Messages report
  • Crawl rate settings
  • Email preferences
  • Web tools

GOOGLE UPDATE USE OF REVIEW RICH RESULTS

Google have been looking into how review schema is currently being used by webmasters, finding many invalid and misleading implementations of this structured data. Google have made some algorithmic updates in order to improve the helpfulness of review markup, and have also limited the display of rich review results to only the following schema types:

Review markup that is applied to any schema that is not included within the above list will be ignored by Google.

GOOGLE ADDS OPTIONS FOR SITES TO PREVIEW CONTENT ON GOOGLE SEARCH

With structured data and featured snippets consistently increasing in importance within search, Google have expanded functionality for webmasters to inform them how they would like pages to be displayed within rich results. These include the following:

Using robots meta tags

The robots meta tag is added to an HTML page’s <head>, or specified via the x-robots-tag HTTP header. The robots meta tags addressing the preview content for a page are:

  • “nosnippet”
    This is an existing option to specify that you don’t want any textual snippet shown for this page.
  • “max-snippet:[number]”
    New! Specify a maximum text-length, in characters, of a snippet for your page.
  • “max-video-preview:[number]”
    New! Specify a maximum duration in seconds of an animated video preview.
  • “max-image-preview:[setting]”
    New! Specify a maximum size of image preview to be shown for images on this page, using either “none”, “standard”, or “large”.

They can be combined, for example:

<meta name=”robots” content=”max-snippet:50, max-image-preview:large”>

Using the new data-nosnippet HTML attribute

A new way to help limit which part of a page is eligible to be shown as a snippet is the “data-nosnippet” HTML attribute on span, div, and section elements. With this, you can prevent that part of an HTML page from being shown within the textual snippet on the page.

For example:

<p><span data-nosnippet>Harry Houdini</span> is undoubtedly the most famous magician ever to live.</p>

These new implementations will provide site owners with the power to limit the amount and type of content in the structured data.

IPAD TRAFFIC IS CHANGING WITHIN GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Due to updates within iPad OS, Apple have changed the user agent for the iPad, meaning iPad traffic will appear as desktop traffic. With Apple currently in control of 72% of the tablet market share worldwide, site owners should expect to see a reduction in tablet traffic and an increase in desktop traffic, with a specific increase in Safari users. This change took place in September 2019.

Google Updates Nofollow Links

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

It will come as no surprise that when Google updated its 14 year nofollow link attribute value on 10th September it caused quite the stir in the world of SEO.

This update sees an extension to the well-recognised nofollow tag, broken down by Google as follows:

rel=”sponsored”: Use the sponsored attribute to identify links on your site that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation agreements.

rel=”ugc”: UGC stands for User Generated Content, and the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within user generated content, such as comments and forum posts.

rel=”nofollow”: Use this attribute for cases where you want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page.

Historically, the nofollow tag was initially introduced by Google to help prevent comment spam, latterly this update is regarded as a way for website owners to tell Google to ignore the link. In other words, the link wouldn’t be crawled and it wouldn’t be used as an indication to help improve rankings. It therefore became a common way for websites to still acknowledge guest blog posts, partnered or sponsored content without losing any of their site equity.

What’s changed and why does this matter?

However in the new update this view of ‘nofollow’ tags and the introduction of two new tags ‘sponsored’ and ‘ugc’ Google seems to have changed its mind stating:

“All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow — are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. We’ll use these hints — along with other signals — as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems.”

The idea that it could be a ‘hint’ is great news for websites looking to earn links and increase their backlink portfolio, what was once a redundant link is now being used as a ‘hint’ for ranking.

Google has made it clear that websites don’t need to update old nofollow tags to follow the new structure but instead this can be introduced by websites who want to be more granular in their link tags.

Furthermore, as of March 2020 Google has also suggested they may begin using this collection of nofollow, sponsored and ugc link attributes for crawling and indexing.

Moz have produced a simple analysis of this change which helps demonstrate before, now and how this will change again from March 2020.

If you have any questions about the impact of linkbuilding our door is always open…

Contact Us

Important Advice for Your Cookie Policy in 2019

Posted on by Craig Broadbent

The ICO recently updated its advice on cookie use, primarily moving from implied user acceptance basis to explicit opt-in for “non-essential” cookies, under which analytics and marketing cookies fall. This obviously has deep implications for the tracking efforts of online businesses. This post will look at what the updated advice says, and what steps businesses should take.

The new guidance is set by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) – a full guide is available at the ICO website and can be downloaded as a PDF for reference.

What are the key takeaways from the new advice?

  • You must tell users about all cookies used and what they do

Whilst PECR doesn’t definitively outline the “clear and comprehensive” information you should give about the cookies you use, it should generally cover the cookies used, why they will be used, what is being placed on the user’s device, and ease of rejection.

  • Consent must be explicitly given

In the recent past, it has been acceptable to have user consent of cookies implied by continued use of a website or app. Implied consent is no longer compliant – users must freely give explicit consent.

  • Necessary cookies are exempt, but analytics cookies aren’t deemed necessary

“Strictly necessary” cookies are those which ensure a website or app can remain functional, such as cookies used to administer a shopping cart. The guidelines are quite clear that analytics and tracking cookies aren’t considered “strictly necessary”, and require explicit user consent.

  • Revoking consent should be as simple as giving consent

Whatever mechanism is provided for the user to provide their consent should be easily accessible to revoke this consent at any time.

  • “Cookie walls” are not considered freely given consent

A cookie wall refers to the act of blocking usage of a website or app if the user doesn’t consent to cookie policy. This is against the guidelines, as consent must be given “freely” – a cookie wall is considered enforced consent.

  • New guidance sits alongside GDPR

PECR compliance needs to be considered before GDPR compliance – GDPR compliance is then applied to any cookies that deal with personally identifiable data.

Who’s doing well?

Predictably, the ICO are showcasing best practise with a large pop-up, clearly outlining the difference between necessary and analytics cookies, and providing an opt-in for analytics cookies. The “C” icon at the bottom left follows the user throughout the site and can be clicked to open the pop-up to change policy acceptance at any time.

The pop-out interface used by the ICO is a plugin provided by https://www.civicuk.com/cookie-control, which is customisable to cover marketing and social sharing cookies in addition to analytics, as shown on their own website.

Cookiebot is used by some of our clients thanks to its simple WordPress plugin. Their plugin can be seen in action at Cookiebot.com and shows the explanatory detail required alongside opt-in tick boxes. Clicking “Show details” gives the detail of exactly which cookies are used, and what for.

Are you at risk?

One of the debates now is whether these new guidelines will be enforced, or even if they are enforceable – the ICO advice for non-compliance is quite woolly in terms of who could be penalised and what the punishment could be. Whilst the above examples show us what good might look like, we are seeing relatively little uptake in the wider world – either because organisations are accepting the risk, or because the relatively low key announcement has been missed by many.

This article isn’t exhaustive and shouldn’t be used as the basis of a compliance policy. Our advice would be to absorb the full guidelines from the ICO and take legal advice on the next steps to take.

SEO MARKET UPDATE: AUGUST 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates

GOOGLE’S NEW ALGORITHM UPDATE FOCUSES ON FINDING FRESH CONTENT

At the start of the month, Google’s Vice President of Search, Pandu Nayak, released a blog detailing the focuses of a Google algorithm update that was released in February 2019.

As shown above, the main focus of this update is to ensure that featured snippets contain fresh, helpful information.

Although the outcome of this update is very positive for data accuracy within many featured snippets, this also means that we will expect to see much more movement with information that is featured within these snippets with Google prioritising fresher content.

GOOGLE EXPERIENCED FURTHER INDEXING ISSUES

Early this month, Google experienced some issues that meant newly published pages where prevented from being indexed.

The indexing issues are similar to the ones that took place in May 2019, in which users saw a delay in some pages performances that were published during these issues, due to these being indexed late. This mostly affected news publications, as articles didn’t make it onto Google search, news or discover whilst issues persisted.

Along with this issue, Google also experienced issues with the URL inspection tool within Google Search Console. These issues have since been resolved.

GOOGLE UPDATE TESTING TOOLS ALLOW GOOGLEBOT EVERGREEN RENDERING

Google announced that most of their testing tools now support the evergreen Chromium renderer. This is has now been implemented within the following tools:

This update will allow these tools to render JavaScript and will continue to update along with Chromium.

In the above image, we can see that within the mobile testing tool, this is now able to render ES6+, Web Components and 1,000+ new web platform features.

PLAYABLE PODCASTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN GOOGLE SEARCH

During the Google I/O event in May 2019, Google released the news that podcasts are now available in Google search (more information on this in our May 2019 blog). This month, Google have announced that podcasts will now be playable within desktop and mobile search results.

Google have also implemented a “podcast series” table within the result page which holds many of the top podcast series relating to the search query.

LESS THAN HALF OF GOOGLE SEARCHES RESULT IN A CLICK

SparkToro released a study on how people interact with Google search results in 2019. This study found that June 2019 was the first month to see zero click searches accounted for 50.33% of 40 million+ searches within the United States, this is the first time that zero click searches have surpassed 50%.

The study also shows how zero click searches have seen a gradual increase since 2016.

The increase in zero click searches is due to the increase in featured snippets within Google search results providing information relevant enough for users to never feel the need to enter a website.

Although an increase in zero click searches means a drop in all website traffic for Google search channels, such as Organic and Paid, due to most zero click searches being more informational, this increase will affect top of the funnel traffic much more than any traffic further down the funnel for businesses.

GOOGLE SPOTTED HIGHLIGHTING TEXT ON SITES

Users have spotted Google highlighting text on a website after clicking through to the site from a featured snippet.

The text that is highlighted is dependent on the text that is displayed within the snippet. The page will also automatically scroll to the highlighted text.

 

SEO MARKET UPDATE: JULY 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates

GOOGLE LOOK TO FORMALISE ROBOTS.TXT FORMATTING

Although the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) has been the unofficial format for robots.txt for the past 25 years, Google released a webmaster blog post on 1st July confirming that they have submitted REP to The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in order to officialise the REP. Along with submitting REP to the IEFT, Google also updated its robots.txt spec to match REP.

https://twitter.com/LizziHarvey/status/1145766318680858625

Alongside the act of making REP an internet standard, Google also announced that they have made their robots.txt parser open source; this is currently available to view on GitHub.

GOOGLE REMOVE SUPPORT FOR NOINDEX WITHIN ROBOTS.TXT

Google announced that they no longer support noindex directives within robots.txt files, reasoning that this has never been an official directive within the REP.

In order for webmasters to update their sites for this change, Google have provided the below alternatives:

  • Noindex in robots meta tags: Supported both in the HTTP response headers and in HTML, the noindex directive is the most effective way to remove URLs from the index when crawling is allowed.
  • 404 and 410 HTTP status codes: Both status codes mean that the page does not exist, which will drop such URLs from Google’s index once they’re crawled and processed.
  • Password protection: Unless markup is used to indicate subscription or paywalled content, hiding a page behind a login will generally remove it from Google’s index.
  • Disallow in robots.txt: Search engines can only index pages that they know about, so blocking the page from being crawled usually means its content won’t be indexed.  While the search engine may also index a URL based on links from other pages, without seeing the content itself, we aim to make such pages less visible in the future.
  • Search Console Remove URL tool: The tool is a quick and easy method to remove a URL temporarily from Google’s search results.

Google also sent warnings to Google Search Console users.

Robots.txt warning - GSC

Within the warning, Google notified users that on 1st September 2019, noindex directives within robots.txt files will no longer work.

GOOGLE RANKING ALGORITHM UPDATES

With Google admitting that they made around 3,200 changes to Google Search within the past year, either with the release of new features or regular updates, it’s safe to assume that multiple updates to Google’s algorithm take place daily. A Tweet from Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed this back in 2017, stating that Google release on average 3 daily updates.

Despite being armed with this knowledge, we still see articles and tweet every month asking if any algorithm updates have been released recently, or that an “unconfirmed” algorithm update took place, but only on a specific day.

Unconfirmed Algorithm Updates

The only truth behind any of these updates is that Google release multiple smaller updates on a daily basis, these smaller updates focus on specific aspect of site ranking, such as site speed. Large broad core updates are released less frequently, having a much broader focus that looks to provide a more generic improvement to Google’s search algorithm.

The best way to track if any of these daily updates affect you is to keep an eye on your site’s traffic and rankings and look out for any sudden changes, aided with the use of online tools. Tools such as SEMRush’s sensor can provide details on times in which algorithm updates produced more movement within search rankings, categorised industries and which of these were affected the most, and with the use of an account,  the ranking of sites alongside google algorithm updates to see how these were effected on a daily basis.

CUSTOMER PHOTOS ARE COMING TO GOOGLE SHOPPING

Rolling out for the US within July, Google new feature will allow customers to post their photos, along with a review, which will be displayed within the product listing.

This feature can only currently be implemented with Yotpo, PowerReviews, Bazaarvoice, and Influenster. Google have also confirmed that they will be looking to expand on this list in the future.

GOOGLE TESTS SHAREABLE SEARCH RESULTS

Google has been spotted testing a new feature within Google’s search results which allows users to share, open a cache of the page or open the page in a new tab.

Although this is currently a test and may or may not make it past the testing stage, it would be interesting to see how users interact with this feature compared to just sharing the page once they have clicked through.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO ADD TREEMAP

The newest edition to data visualisations within Google Data Studio is the treemap.

Added to 18th July, this new graph will allow users to view data organised into dimension hierarchies and create drill down options, such as product brand > product category > product.

SEO MARKET UPDATE: JUNE 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates

BROAD CORE ALGORITHM UPDATE

Google pre-announced and rolled out a ‘big’ search algorithm update on June 3rd, which took five days to finish due to the servers and data centres around the world. It took a focus on all ranking signals, including E-A-T, so this influenced initial trends for sites bringing traffic increase and drops, primarily from 20% to 90% each way. Concluding results saw large publications such as Daily Mail, which saw the 50% drop in site traffic the day following the algorithm update.

Rather than thinking of Google algorithm updates as Google changing their mind on ranking signals and random sites being punished as a result, it seems clear that these updates are Google pushing sites to improve UI, content and site optimisation in a positive direction. Sites that have been “punished” as a result of broad core algorithm updates were most likely getting away with bad/unfavourable practises in the past, such as the Daily Mail using sensationalist headlines to drive clicks.

GOOGLE INTRODUCE XML SITEMAPS TO WORDPRESS CORE

Developers at Google have proposed a plan to integrate basic XML Sitemaps in WordPress Core, as well as an XML Sitemaps API to extend functionality for developers and webmasters. This introduction could mean one less third-party plugin to rely on and a feature that will be able to offer wider compatibility and support.

Poorly optimised plugins can slow down our site and negatively impact your organic traffic, so this implementation could provide a positive improvement in site speed, which is still one of the main ranking factors for many search engines, including Google and Bing.

GOOGLE REMOVED PREFERRED DOMAIN SETTINGS FROM SEARCH CONSOLE

The tool which allowed webmasters to set a preferred domain (displayed in the image below) has now been removed from Google Search Console

With the new Search Console, Google are now able to pick the preferred domain for you, based on the various signals that Google ingest, such as canonicals. This prevents duplicated content that can be competing against each other in the search results by sending multiple different URL’s to the canonical URL.  Google have not said if they’ll communicate canonical URL changes in the index so you will need to ensure that your canonical URL listed in Google has stayed the same.

GOOGLE CAUGHT ILLEGALLY SCRAPING LYRICS FROM GENIUS

Genius has accused Google of scraping their content and serving it directly in its search results. Genius switched up their quote mark styles to form a unique Morse code which spelt “red handed” in order to catch Google out. In this case, Genius are impacted negatively because Google are using info boxes to display lyrics as a rich result, keeping users on Google rather than sending them to the creators’ website. This dramatically decreases the click-through rate for Genius.

Google have said to include attribution to the third party providing the digital lyrics text so that users and site owners will be able to know where the licensed content was sourced from.

MILLIONS OF FAKE BUSINESS LISTING SPOTTED IN GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Google Maps is carrying millions of illegitimate local listings, growing drastically each month. The fake listings push real businesses lower down in the search results which impact their ability to reach customers and makes it easier for these customers to be targeted by scammers. Google are failing to take down fake business listings and verify the real ones which is turning local businesses to paid ads to regain their search visibility.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS INTRODUCES SEARCHABLE SHORT NAMES

Desires for a simple URL to promote a user’s businesses have been met with searchable short names. This gives users a unique way of targeting a business. This will be a global namespace and could have competition for rankings and handles between similarly named businesses.

GMB have added more branding and promotional tools for businesses, including:

  • Logo
  • Cover photo
  • Dynamic photo module
  • Welcome offers
  • Promotional assets

These features furthermore verify the users profile to help their brand to be more effectively promoted.

GMB have also introduced ‘Local Favourite’ which offers a badge to the top 5% of local businesses in a category, increasing preference over other businesses so search result ranking will be less important.

NEW GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE FEATURES

Google announced two new features to the Google Search Console. You can now search within the mark-up quickly to find the spot in the mark-up that you want to adjust. You are also able to copy the code and mark-up and then experiment with it without impacting the original, giving you the chance to see if the tweaks you make pass validation and result in the outcome you want. These features make debugging issues with your mark-up for structured data issues faster.

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1143162650332979202

GOOGLE NO LONGER USES SOCIAL PROFILE MARK-UP FOR KNOWLEDGE PANELS

Google have deprecated social profile markup, which means that Google automatically discover the social profiles to include in the knowledge panels. You are still able to specify your preferred social profiles and suggest a change if you are an official representative to claim a knowledge panel.

SEO MARKET UPDATE: MAY 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates

GOOGLE I/O

With Google I/O having taken place from May 7th-9th, we were treated to several announcements on features that have been and are due to be released for Google search, these include:

  • Googlebot Evergreen
  • FAQ and How To structured data
  • Podcasts & Full Coverage in Google Search
  • Google Maps AR mode
  • Google Lens features

We will dive further into these new features below.

Googlebot Evergreen

Google announced that Googlebot is now running Chromium 74, from previously running Chromium 41, which was released in 2015. This major update now means that Googlebot supports over 1,000 new features, this includes:

Google Developer Martin Splitt provided more information on the new features that Googlebot supports.

https://twitter.com/g33konaut/status/1126412496754159616

Despite these major updates in Googlebot’s ability to render JavaScript, any JavaScript on a page is still only rendered on Googlebot’s 2nd crawl of the page, meaning that there is still a delay to Google indexing JavaScript content.

FAQ AND HOW-TO SCHEMA

Google released support for FAQ and How-To schema during Google I/O. These schemas come with new rich results within Google’s SERPs.

FAQ schema can be applied to pages that contains a list of questions and answers around a specific topic. This is unlike QAPage schema, which is relevant for pages that allow users to submit answers to a single question, such as forums.

Example of FAQ Schema rich results:

How-To Schema can be applied to pages that provide step-by-step instructions in order to complete a task, such as “how to tie a tie”. For any instructions for food and drink related topics, ensure that the Recipe Schema is used instead.

How-To Schema can be displayed in a standard and an image rich result within Google SERPs.

Standard snippet:

Image snippet:

Ensure that any pages with How-To Schema implemented comply with the content guidelines provided within Google’s How-To Schema help page.

PODCASTS & FULL COVERAGE IN GOOGLE SEARCH

Announced at Google I/O, podcasts will be shown within search. Google have informed that they will be able to transcribe and index a podcast’s content in order to display results for relevant searches, rather than relying on the podcast title to display the contents of the podcast. Podcasts will also be displayed within Google’s “full coverage” segment, which previously displayed within Google News, will now be able to display within SERPs.

Full coverage displays a large range of information on a searched topic, such as top stories, videos, informational pages, podcasts and related queries.

GOOGLE BRING AR TO GOOGLE MAPS

Currently only available on Google Pixel smartphones, Google Maps now has the ability to enter AR mode, which will allow people to receive directions through their camera.

With this feature being especially useful for anyone visiting a city and trying to locate local restaurants, business and points of interest, it is becoming more of a priority to ensure that any bricks and mortar stores have been added to Google My Business and the location pins are accurate.

As an addition to this, Google Maps will support incognito mode, allowing users to hide their activity, such as places searched or directions used. Google have also been testing branded pins within Google Maps.

No announcement has yet been made in regards to how these will be implemented.

NEW GOOGLE LENS FEATURES

Google have released several features for Google Lens, most of which are focused on restaurants. Google Lens will now have the ability to recommend popular dishes and also find reviews on specific dishes on a menu by pulling information from Google Maps information.

GOOGLE UPDATED THE SEARCH QUALITY RATERS GUIDELINES

Google have updated the search quality raters guidelines in order to expand and modernise a couple of points, mainly surrounding E-A-T and interstitials. In regards to the changes mate to E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness), Google have added emphasis to focusing on page quality over E-A-T on non-YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages and also that everyday expertise can be assessed based on the talent/skill level depicted in cases where the content creator is demonstrating formal or everyday expertise but is not doing any harm.

Google have also added further information on how to deal with interstitials and have now been included within segments discussing that if these are to be used, they should be clear with easy-to-close buttons.

GOOGLE MAKES MOBILE-FIRST INDEXING A DEFAULT FOR ALL NEW SITES

Google have announced, via their webmaster central blog, that commencing 1st July, all new and previously unknown sites will have mobile-first indexing enabled as a default.

As shown above, users will be able to check for mobile-first indexing by using the URL inspection tool within Google Search Console.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ADDS NEW REPORTS

3 new report have been added to Google Search Console this month. The first of these reports is the unparsable structured data report, this will allow users to view a list of structured data found on a site that cannot be parsed due to serious syntax issues. The final 2 reports are the Logo and Sitelinks searchbox reports, similar to the unparsable structured data report, if a site is using logo schema or Sitelinks searchbox, Google will inform of any errors it is detecting.

GOOGLE ANNOUNCED BROAD CORE ALGORITHM UPDATE

For the first time, Google has pre-announced that they are due to release a broad core algorithm update on 3rd June 2019. Unlike the daily algorithm refinements that Google makes daily which have a specific focus, such as site speed, broad core algorithm updates focus on all ranking signals.

GOOGLE DISPLAY FAVICONS WITHIN RESULTS PAGES

Announced on The Keyword, Google released a new design on their search result pages. Within the redesign, Google have added favicons to Google search results.

Along with the addition of favicons, Google has also redesigned how ads will be displayed within SERPs and have received criticism in regards to ads and organic results with favicons looking very similar.

A Guide to Influencer Marketing on Instagram

Posted on by Jenny Connelly

Social media advertising has come a long way in recent years and has developed into a hugely lucrative marketing platform, whether that be through paid ads or through social media influencers.

Read on to find out what influencer marketing actually means, including examples of when it’s done the right way and the wrong way. We’ll also summarise the ASA’s influencer guide, so as an influencer or brand, you’ll know how to legally promote brands through social media without having the ASA slide into your DMs.

What is a social media influencer?

A social media influencer is an influential person who usually associates themselves with a particular niche like fashion, food, travel or something even more particular. The influencer will usually have some sort of authority, position, knowledge or skill associated with that niche which helps them generate a large following.

Originally, the influencer marketing job spec was very much associated with celebrities as it usually meant they came with a large following and therefore could influence those to make purchases for a particular brand.

However, nowadays brands are gravitating towards bloggers and micro-influencers (someone who has between 2,000 and 50,000 followers) to represent their brands as they usually have a more authentic relationship with their followers by often engaging and connecting with their audience, which means brands working with them could see a higher ROI. They also usually come with a much smaller price tag and therefore making it accessible for even smaller brands to advertise in this way.

Influencer marketing by the book

The discreetness around social media influencers is quickly disappearing – a 2018 survey by Bazaar voice revealed that 49% of people would like to see ad regulators, like the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), enforce stricter rules for sponsored influencer posts on social media platforms.

The ASA has now made a detailed guide which defines exactly how influencers should display their posts if they are advertising a product or working with a brand. Let’s have a look at some of the key findings from the guide:

  • If a brand pays an influencer to promote their brand – either in cash, products, gifts, services, trips, hotel stays etc. – AND asserts some sort of control over the post – whether that be how many posts and what time you publish the post, what’s included in the image or caption, hashtags to use, key messages or caption write up etc. – then this is considered an ad.
  • If the influencer has any sort of commercial relationship with a brand i.e. as an ambassador or even if someone was promoting their own brand on their personal channels, this also qualifies as an ad.
  • If a brand has provided some sort of payment to an influencer and has some control/influence on the post, the influencer must make it obvious to their following that it is an ad. The ASA recognises the following labels and hashtags to be used in a post where an influencer is promoting another product or business.
    • Ad/#Ad
    • Advert/#Advert
    • Advertising/#Advertising
    • Advertisement/#Advertisement
    • Advertisement Feature
  • If a brand has paid an influencer in some way, whether that be through free products or vouchers etc. but the brand has not asserted any control on what/if they post, this would not be considered an ad, but instead a sponsorship. The ASA is unlikely to pursue any complaints related to a sponsorship. But regulations still apply to these posts by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) who expects influencers to disclose when they have received any sort of ‘payment’ which gives them an incentive to post.  This is when you’ll see influencers use terms such as gifted/#gifted and gift/#gift.
  • The ASA recommends putting an ad label or hashtag at the beginning of your post so readers are fully aware of the nature of the post, the influencer guide states “burying the label in a sea of hashtags or putting it where it can only be seen by clicking ‘see more’ or clicking to view the full post, probably isn’t going to cut it. We recommend including it ‘at the beginning”.

You can read the ASA’s full influencer’s guide here.

Now that we know the gist of the guide, let’s put the ASA’s regulation into practice. Firstly, let’s look at a couple of examples of when an influencer has promoted a brand the correct way:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuKKqOnnMMM/

And now, a couple of examples of when influencers haven’t quite followed the rules and as a result, have been warned by the ASA:

The ASA gave Louise an official warning as she had not followed to official guidelines by letting her followers know that her post or story was an ad. She then changed the post to ensure it followed the guidelines and displays Instagram’s paid partnership with function.

Important takeaways for brands

  • Ensure you are clear with the influencer and advise appropriately when you brief them to ensure the ASA can’t blame you in any way if the influencer has decided not to follow the guidelines.
  • With more people becoming aware of advertising, it’s important to choose influencers that you think would genuinely be interested in your product or brand – this usually means that you’ll get a higher engagement rate and potentially bigger ROI.
  • Choose an influencer that engages with their followers and provides quality content – ultimately someone that you would be happy to represent your brand or product and that demonstrates the same values as your brand.
  • Look through the influencers previous ads to see how they display the content. Ads that are a lot more discreet tend to do better than just a picture of your product.
  • Finally, influencer marketing is hugely successful and can completely transform your brand when done properly. Try it out and see how well it works for you.

Head over to our Fusion blog for more information and updates on all things SEO, PPC, social media and marketing.

SEO MARKET UPDATE: APRIL 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE’S DE-INDEXING ISSUES

At the start of April, Google was found to have had with de-indexing pages for many sites, with both Moz’s and SEMRush’s Google ranking trackers picking up on a change in page rankings across the web.

Google also seemed to have an issue with fully resolving this. After confirming on 10th April that this issue was fully resolved, many users still reported having issues with getting their pages indexed again. We have since received notification from Google that these issues have now been resolved.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ADDS ANDROID APP TO SEARCH APPEARANCE FILTERS

On 8th April Google announced, via their Webmasters Twitter account, that users with an Android app associated with a website will now have the ability to filter the app’s performance within the performance report, via the search appearance filter.

Activating this filter will display the clicks, impressions, CTR and average position for the sites Android app.

NEW GOOGLE DISCOVER PERFORMANCE REPORTS

Google Discover was released in September 2018, as an upgrade of Google Feed. Google Discover delivers relevant content to a user based on their interest and browsing habits, including articles and video, along with featured snippets of information from different sites.

Within Google Search Console, a new performance report is now available, showing how sites perform within Discover. This is only available to for properties that have reached a threshold number of Discover impressions in the past 16 months.

This performance report will allow users to view Discover performance within the same format as the current search report, including filters and dimensions such as country and page.

CREATE CUSTOM SHORT URLS IN GOOGLE MY BUSINESS             

Google My Business users now have the ability to create a short name and URL for their business profile. Short URLs will be in the format of “g.page/[yourcustomname]”, and will make it easier to customers to access a business’ profile directly.

GOOGLE MAY RELEASE PAID FEATURES FOR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Google My Business users started receiving questionnaires from Google this month, asking how much they would pay for services are already provided for free within Google My Business, such as business listings. The questionnaires also provided a list of packages that may become available for users to purchase in the future, asking users which one they would prefer.

Google also provided a list of the features within the packages they think could enhance a business’ presence, which may be added as paid services in the future. These include:

  • Promoted map pin: Show up prominently on Google Maps when a customer is looking at a map where your business in located
  • “Book” button on your Business Profile: Get an extra button on your business profile titles “book”. Google shows customers your availability (synced with your calendar system if you have one). Customers can either confirm a booking or request a timeslot.
  • Promote your “book” button: Get a “book” button on the Google.com search results, in addition to your Business Profile.
  • Verified reviews: Google verifies your reviews and shows an indication to consumers that your reviews are verified to help build trust in your business.
  • Remove ads from your Business Profile: Ads from other businesses will not appear on your Business Profile.
  • Verified Licenses: Google verifies your trade licenses and displays your verified licenses on your Business Profile.
  • Request quote: Get a “request quote” button on your Business Profile. Customers will enter details about their job. Requests come to you as a message in the Google My Business app.
  • Automated message responses: Answer some frequently asked questions (hours, services offered) so Google can respond automatically to customers on your behalf.
  • Automated response for reviews: Create messages so Google can automatically respond on your behalf to customers who leave a review.
  • Call reports and recordings: Get access to reports and recordings for all of your calls from Google My Business. This lets you evaluate quality and volume.
  • Google search results placement: Show up in a section near the top of the list on the Google.com search results.
  • Google customer support: Google’s customer support team helps you troubleshoot and get the most from your ad and Business Profile.
  • Offers: Promote a special offer or discount on your Business Profile.
  • Google Guarantee: Get a badge of trust on your Business Profile. If a customer isn’t satisfied, Google will give them their money back.
  • Get leads from competitor profiles: When a customer messages a business that offers the same service as you, Google will show your business to the customer so they can message you too. This will help you get more leads from Google.
  • Video on your Business Profile: Shows a video of your choice on your Business Profile to help customers learn more about your business.
  • Instant quote: Respond to customer quote requests with an automatic quote. You can customise the quote based on the details on the job.
  • Background check: Google performs a background check on your business, and shows this to consumers to build trust in your business.
  • Verified bookings: Google automatically tracks the bookings you’ve received from Google calls and messages, and shows this number to customers.
  • Featured review: Choose a review to display at the top on your Business Profile.

This is an extremely extensive list of features that Google is considering providing to paid users, with many features that will provide a large benefit to a listings local search presence.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO UPDATES

Google Data Studio rolled out many new features over the past month, including:

Recent weeks also saw the implementation of chart drill-down, allowing users to define hierarchies within Cartesian charts, and allow these charts to be switched between hierarchies on view mode, such as switching from an annual view, to a monthly view, to a daily view.

Within the above chart, users can see sessions by month, by right clicking on the chart or using the charts component heading, users will have the ability to drill up (view sessions by year), or drill down (view sessions by day). Users will also be able to apply a sort to these results.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: MARCH 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE’S FLORIDA 2 ALGORITHM UPDATE

SEMRush Sensor for March 2019

On the 12th March, Google announced the release of a broad core algorithm update, quickly named by the industry as the “Florida 2” algorithm update, this was then renamed by Google to the “March 2019 Core Update” in order to simplify algorithm update names.

Although the algorithm update this saw a lot of reporting after taking place, due to March being a volatile month in regards to rankings, this update didn’t create much of a noticeable difference compared to the movements rankings were current seeing within March.

As this algorithm update is a broad core update, there is no specific changes that have taken place to Google rankings, but an overall update intended to improve the overall quality of SERPs.


Due to the algorithm update not having a specific focus, it is recommended that in order to optimise rankings following this, users should concentrate general improvements highlights within Googles guidelines, such as EAT and YMYL.

GOOGLE DROP REL=PREV/NEXT AS AN INDEXING SIGNAL

Announced on 21st March, Google confirmed that have retired rel=prev/next as an indexing signal.

Although this news was announced this recently, Google have also confirmed that they have not been using rel=prev/next as an indexing signal for years and recommend users to just keep using pagination as they have always done.

GOOGLE’S MOBILE FRIENDLY AND AMP TESTS NOW SUPPORT CODE EDITING

Google have announced support within their mobile friendly and AMP tests for code editing.

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1110187975688839169

This update allows users to toggle between entering a URL and adding code to the tool. By adding code to the tool, Google will test this and display results to show if the code is mobile/AMP friendly, or if further edits need to be made to meet the criteria. If users don’t pass these tests, they will be able to edit code within the tool and re-run the tests.

GOOGLE PROPERTY SETS OFFICIALLY REMOVED FROM GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

After Google announced the removal of property sets from Google Search Console, discussed in last month’s blog, they have since been displaying notifications to inform users that property sets will be available until 28th March.

Although property sets are being removed from the old Search Console interface, these are being replaced by domain properties, which are available within the new Search Console interface.

NEW GOOGLE DATA STUDIO FEATURES ADDED IN MARCH

New features added to Data Studio within March include:

  • Custom Rolling Dates – These will allow users to set up custom date periods that meet specific needs, such as “last 90 days from yesterday” or “last 52 weeks from last week”.
  • Schedule Email Delivery of Reports – This new feature will send a PDF version of the Data Studio reports to specific users on a pre-determined basis.
  • Version History – Lets users view previous versions of a report and restore the selected previous version of the report, if needed.
  • Custom Canvas Size Per Page – Rather than have all pages uniform in size, this option allows users to have each page of a report a custom size by following this procedure: Edit the report – select page > current page settings > style menu – change the canvas size options from auto to the custom size.
  • Improved Table Formatting – Users will now be able to align columns left, centre and right within tables and can now also resize table columns individually, or resize multiple columns at once by holding shift while resizing.

These new features are extremely useful with Data Studio reports and show that Google will continue to provide features that make Data Studio more user friendly and useful.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: FEBRUARY 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE FOCUSES ON UPDATING THE NEW SEARCH CONSOLE

As Google aims to keep closing features from the old search console by March 2019, new features continue to be implemented in the new interface in order to improve usability and move as many users over to the new Search Console as possible.

The first of the updates to the new Google Search Console seen this month was the addition of a security issues section.

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1090704842870255616

The security issues section will warn users that Google has found issues on their site that impact site security, including the following:

The tool will help webmasters find and fix any of the above security issues affecting their site.

The second of the updates is the consolidation of canonical URLs.

Google has now implemented an update within the performance section of Google Search Console which consolidates website traffic on canonical URLs. This update will unify all search metrics for a single piece of content into the canonical URL. The benefits of this update include combining data from pages with separate mobile and AMP pages.

GOOGLE LOOK TO REMOVE PROPERTY SETS FROM SEARCH CONSOLE

Google announced, via email, that they will be removing property sets from Google Search Console at the end of March 2019.

These property sets were used to aggregate data from a business’ different sites, such as combining http and https, or www. and non-www. sites.

As a replacement to property sets, Google recently announced the full release of a domain properties feature. Having been in beta since November 2018, these properties group data in a similar way to property sets, including protocols (http/https) and subdomains (m, www and further subdomains). Domain properties will only be available for DNS verified accounts.

GOOGLE RELEASES REDESIGNED TEST MY SITE TOOL

Google released the redesigned version of its Test My Site tool on 25th February. Within the redesign, Google has implemented several new features in order to produce more competitive reports.

The following features have been added to Test My Site:

  • Speed estimates for both an entire site and individual pages
  • Details on whether the speed of a site or page is faster or slower compared to the previous month
  • Information on whether a site or page speed score is ranked as Fast, Average, or Slow
  • How the speed score for a site or page compares to others in the industry
  • The potential impact of site speed on revenue
  • A detailed list of recommended fixes to increase speed on up to 5 pages on a site
  • A complete shareable report containing a summary of the above

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ADDS PRODUCTS REPORT

With Google utilising structured data and displaying products within rich snippets on SERPs, they have now also released new ways for merchants to provide information and improve results for the products they sell.

Within Google Search Console, users will now be able to display product issues in a report that uses schema.org to annotate product information. The report will mainly display any pending issues for markup on the user’s site, and can also be used to validate if the issues were resolved.

Google are also planning on rolling out new features in Google Merchant Centre in order to allow users to provide up-to-date, high-quality information on products, which can be used on a product’s knowledge panel.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS EXPANDS RESOURCES FOR RESPONDING TO REVIEWS

Google announced, via a forum post, that users are now able to respond to reviews directly from Google Maps. Before this feature was released, replying to Google My Business reviews was only possible via the Google My Business mobile app. With this update, users will now have the option of using a desktop to reply to reviews.

Google’s tips for replying to reviews:

  • Be nice and don’t get personal. This isn’t just a guideline, it’s also a good idea as a business owner. It’s difficult to win an argument with a frustrated customer, and you want to avoid burning bridges. Keep your responses useful, readable and courteous. In addition, responses should comply with our local content policy.
  • Keep it short and sweet. Users are looking for useful and genuine responses, but they can easily be overwhelmed by a long response.
  • Thank your reviewers. Respond to happy reviewers when you have new or relevant information to share. You don’t need to thank every reviewer publicly since each response reaches lots of customers.
  • Be a friend, not a salesperson. Your reviewers are already customers, so there’s no need to offer incentives or advertisements. Tell reviewers something new about your business, or share something that they might not have learned from their first visit.

GOOGLE CREATE FEATURED SNIPPETS THAT COMBINE CONTENT FROM MULTIPLE CONTENT CREATORS

Google recently released a list style featured snippet,  combining content from multiple sites in order to display information on each of the items within the list.

Snippets like the above have come under scrutiny recently due to the fact that Google does not display the source URL of the information until an item in the list has been expanded. Google has since replied to inform that the snippet is similar to standard SERPs but displays information horizontally, rather than the traditional SERPs and that the snippet falls in line with Google’s focus on supporting the wider search ecosystem.

Social Media Roundup | January 2019

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Welcome back to the Fusion blog for 2019!

If anyone thought this year would be any different in the world of social media, three words quickly teamed up to prove otherwise. We’ll give you a hint. The first is ‘vegan’. And the third is ‘rolls’.

Read on for baked goods and more in our brand new round-up of the most buzzworthy social activations of the last month.

Huddersfield Town announces surprising new manager

Back in December, Huddersfield Town football club parted ways with their manager, David Wagner.

The club had been linked heavily with German coach Jan Siewert, when a keenly-eyed Sky Sports news team thought they spotted him in the crowd when Huddersfield played Manchester City. Unfortunately for the reporter, he quickly discovered that it wasn’t Jan Siewert; it was City fan ‘Martin from Wakefield’ instead!

A lot was made of the encounter on social media, which cameras caught in full. And Huddersfield got in on the act when announcing Siewert’s appointment, involving Wakefield’s finest in the content creation and beginning their video with Martin sat at Siewert’s desk in the manager’s office.

The Huddersfield Town coat labelled ‘MFW’ – Martin from Wakefield – is a nice touch too!

https://twitter.com/htafcdotcom/status/1087379049230594049

Greggs cooks up a storm for #veganuary

Greggs’ reputation for social media antics doesn’t need much introduction.

They made headlines in 2017 with their controversial nativity scene, exchanging the baby Jesus for Gregg’s sausage roll. But that furore pales in comparison to their latest media frenzy – which, ironically, results from something far less controversial.

At first, all Greggs did was announce the launch of their very own vegan sausage roll, coinciding with the start of Veganuary.

https://twitter.com/GreggsOfficial/status/1080403000722710528

Like a finely-grilled panini, things really heated up once the Internet began engaging. And Greggs handled the naysayers masterfully, despatching a barrage of fiery tweets that caused a good chuckle from the social crowd:

The campaign marked a masterclass in social media marketing, from the standards of creative, to community management.

Netflix brings Bandersnatch to social

January was a superb month for streaming giants Netflix, with a range of titles receiving massive pop culture interest and acclaim, from Roma, to FYRE, to Sex Education.

Another title that captured the Internet’s imagination was Bandersnatch, the interactive choose-your-own-adventure style film from the creators of Black Mirror.

Not just content with enormous success on-screen, the Netflix digital team also brought the Bandersnatch concept to life on Twitter via Twitter Polls, giving their online audience the chance for an adventure of their own.

And it continues! Head to Twitter to see how the whole story unfolded. It’s a neat way of bringing your fans an engaging experience – and utilising Twitter’s functionality in an unconventional yet stimulating way.

And the winner of the Super Bowl is… MoonPie!

We’ve written before (and at length) about US confectionary brand MoonPie’s seemingly-subversive-but-actually-hyper-intelligent use of social media. And in recent weeks, they’ve served up fresh headlines in the ad industry following a series of activations on the night of this year’s Super Bowl (and we’re aware that it wasn’t technically in January, but we’re going to cash in on our artistic license and talk about it anyway).

Last year, MoonPie didn’t run any ads in the Super Bowl per se. Instead, they posted images on social media containing scripts that would have been in their ads. And these were all about as usual and conformist as you’d expect:

This year, MoonPie took their subversive Super Bowl ads approach a step further, by turning their scripts of the year before into full one-minute video ads. You can enjoy them below:

This received acclaim from leading industry press, including a spot in AdWeek, and enormous engagements from avid Twitter users from across the galaxy.

Come back next month for more social media stories and highlights!

 

SEO Market Updates: January 2019

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE SHOW RECENT SEARCHES IN SERPS

Google has announced that the release of new activity cards, which will appear in search results and display users’ recent activity.

 

The activity card will display sites users have previously visited for topics such as cooking, fashion, skincare and beauty, fitness, photography and more. However, cards will only be available if the user is logged into a Google account.

 

Just like bookmarks, users will be able to categorise and save recently visited pages. These saved pages can be accessed via menu at the top left of the search page (mobile only) and the Google app.

At present, the new feature is only available to logged-in U.S English users browsing via the Google app or mobile browsers, although it’s likely that an international roll-out will follow soon!

GOOGLE ANNOUNCES THE END OF OLD GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE FEATURES

On their Webmasters Blog, Google announced that they will be removing several features from the old Search Console, whilst also adding many features to the new Search Console.

Features Google will be removing from the old Search Console include:

  • HTML suggestions
  • Property Sets
  • Android Apps
  • Blocked resources

Many of the features being removed from the old Search Console have either been migrated to the new dashboard or to a more relevant Google tool, with the exception of HTML suggestions and property sets. Google now recommends using third-party tools for crawling page titles and descriptions as an alternative to HTML suggestions and currently have no plans to replace property sets.

Features Google will be adding to the new Search Console include:

  • Crawl errors in the new index coverage report
  • Sitemaps data in Index Coverage
  • New URL inspection tool
  • Structured data reports

Google plans to implement these new features towards the end of March 2019.

DUCKDUCKGO’S MAPS ARE NOW POWERED BY APPLE

As web users start to become more concerned about their online privacy, demand for services that help protect this, such as VPNs, continue to increase. This demand in privacy has caused DuckDuckGo’s recent rise in user base as the “search engine that doesn’t track you” recently reported to receiving 30 million private daily searches (still dwarfed by Google’s 3.5 billion daily searches) which was a 50% annual growth.

DuckDuckGo announced that map and address-related searches will now be powered by Apple via their MapKit JS. This will help power direct business searches, business type searches and nearby places searches.

DuckDuckGo’s local business is still powered by Yelp’s local business listings and a business will require a Yelp listing in order to display within map results.

GOOGLE DISPLAYS PDF DOCUMENTS IN FEATURED SNIPPETS

Recently spotted within Google’s search results, PDF documents are being displayed within featured snippets.

Although PDF documents are crawlable and indedxable, it’s unusual for Google to place PDF content within a featured snippet position.

Due to the limited functionality of PDF documents, most webmasters would generally recommend having an HTML equivalent to any information provided in PDF format.

GOOGLE UPDATE INSPECT URL TOOL IN SEARCH CONSOLE

Google has expanded the functionality of the URL inspection tool within Google Search Console.

Users will now be able see the HTTP response, page resources, JavaScript logs and a rendered screenshot of the page.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO CAN NOW COMPARE CUSTOM DATE RANGES

Implemented on 24th January, charts and graphs can now display comparison figures for custom date ranges, with this feature previously being limited to comparing data to previous period or year.

Users will have the option to keep the custom comparison date fixed to the specific date range selected or on a rolling date window which will advance over time.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: DECEMBER 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE ADDS RICH RESULTS FOR Q&A PAGES

Announced at the start of December, Google is expanding its rich results with the addition of question & answer pages.

Google's Q&A Rich Results

These rich results will display multiple answers to a question on eligible search results in order to help users find relevant information quicker within Google search results.

In order to appear within the Q&A rich results, site owners will need to implement QAPage Schema within their site, along with Question Schema and Answer Schema. Google has provided examples of how to implement this in JSON-LD format.

Within Google’s content guidelines, they have specified that this schema is not suitable for FAQ pages or pages where there are multiple questions per page. This schema should only be used on pages where the focus of the page is a single question and its answer.

GOOGLE UPDATES LOCAL PACK TO DISPLAY ‘SOLD HERE’ PRODUCTS

Google introduced a new feature within its local map packs which shows whether a searched product is sold in a store displayed within the view. Google will also display if the search product is mentioned within the site.

Google displaying sold here on local listing

This new addition to the Google local map packs will make it much faster for users to decide to visit a certain store or website if they can see that the company stocks the item.

GOOGLE ADDS “RESERVE A TABLE” BUTTONS TO LOCAL LISTINGS

Spotted on some local listings for restaurants, Google is testing new buttons which will allow users to reserve a table or look at available tables the following day directly from Google, rather than needing to visit the restaurant’s website.

Google adds reserve a table button to local listings

After releasing the ability to follow businesses via the Google Maps app in October, the new hotel local pack layout and Google My Business app (discussed in last month’s blog), we can see that Google does not intend to slow down on expanding the functionality of their local business tools.

GOOGLE INTRODUCES NEW STRUCTURED DATA FOR LIVE STREAMS

Introduced at the start of December, Google released a blog post announcing the support of new structured data which will allow users to create schema for live streams.

Google live stream schema example

The Broadcast Event schema allows users to set a broadcast as a live stream by setting the isLiveBroadcast property to true. Users will then have the ability to see if the livestream has already started or is due to start by adding a time and data (ISO 8601 format) inputting this into the StartDate property. Google has provided an example of this schema within a guide.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE MIGRATES REPORTS TO NEW SEARCH CONSOLE

Google confirmed via the Google Webmasters Twitter account on 13th December that they have fully migrated the following reports to the new search console:

  • AMP
  • Index Status
  • Manual Actions
  • Mobile Usability
  • Rich Cards
  • Search Analytics

These reports will no longer be available to view via the old Search Console dashboard and users will now be shown a message linking them to the report within the new Search Console dashboard.

GOOGLE ADDS BRUSHING TO CHART INTERACTION FILTERS TO DATA STUDIO

Adding chart interactions to reports can create interactive reports by allowing users to use charts as filters, as discussed in our previous blog post. Google has expanded the functionality of chart interactions to include brushing on time series, line charts and area charts. This will allow users to drag their mouse across an eligible chart and filter surrounding data based on the data selected within the chart.

Within the below example, we can see that the date range of the data is from 1st January – 8th January on the time series chart. Using the brushing filter, we can click and drag our mouse from 3rd January – 5th January in order to filter the report to display data from this date range. Right clicking and hitting ‘reset action’ will reset this filter.

This filter can be used in conjunction with other filters and chart interactions. By clicking on the data within the table or pie chart, we can further filter data to suit our needs.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO ADDS COMMUNITY CONNECTORS AND VISUALISATIONS

As a new addition to Google Data Studio, Google has added the ability the allow anyone to build their own connections to any internet-accessible data source and create custom data visualisations which can be shared between users within the community.

Community connectors will allow users to develop connectors for sources such as:

  • Platforms for social media, CRM, search, finance, HR, advertising, etc.
  • Public and other open data sets.
  • Private company data.
  • Any data source or service that can be accessed over the internet using Apps Script.

Google has created a guide in order to help developers create their own visualisations and has got the ball rolling by creating their own custom visualisations which anyone can use to visualise their data.

Both of these new features are open source with a condition placed on custom visualisations requiring these to be made public.

Fusion Natural Edge Nominated for Northern Digital Award

Posted on by Craig Broadbent

Prolific North’s Northern Digital Awards 2019 will take place on the 31st January and here at Fusion HQ we’re delighted to have been nominated for ‘Search Agency of the Year’ for the second time.

We’ve also been recognised for our unique SEO software, Natural Edge, which has been nominated for ‘Best Digital Tool or Software’, and we couldn’t be more proud of the recognition that Natural Edge has received.

We thought it might be a good idea to explain a little more about our Natural Edge software and how it is helping give our clients a competitive edge in an increasingly competitive SEO marketplace.

Background

As an SEO team, a key part of our day-to-day activity is keeping our clients ahead of the curve in organic search – and outranking their competitors. If a prospective customer searches for a cycling related keyword, for example, then we’d want our bike retailing client to be among the first to appear, with high visibility in all the right places.

Several years ago, we sought out SEO software that would be able to assist with doing this – for ourselves and our clients.  It needed to be adaptable to algorithmic changes (like the increasing prominence of localised search), flexible from a pricing point-of-view, and offer clear reporting metrics that clients could use to inform the KPIs they set and the ROI of our services.

However, the tools we looked into didn’t meet our clients’ needs. Ranking software would only give you your keyword position without considering how much traffic you would gain, for example. It might only benchmark a small set of competitors, or keywords would be looked at in isolation rather than holistically, missing out on larger insights that can truly drive a strategy forward.

Instead of spending big on little return, we invested in proprietary technology of our own, building a highly adaptable and cost-effective suite that could tailor bespoke solutions for our clients’ needs – giving them the Natural Edge required in order to shine.

What can Natural Edge do?

Natural Edge was nominated for the award on the basis of its versatility and the range of benefits it offers to its users – and our clients. However, here are just some of the highlights:

  • See the bigger picture

It’s easy to become obsessed with individual keywords.

Natural Edge identifies every site ranked on the first page for each relevant keyword in each location, and uses our proprietary algorithm to calculate how much traffic a site will earn from its positions. Natural Edge collates all of this data and presents a league table ordered by the highest traffic drivers, so that results are easy to understand and analyse.

  • Identify true competition

Competitors in search are very different to competitors in daily business life. In fact, the majority of brands are competing with companies they’d be incredibly surprised by.

Natural Edge benchmarks clients against anyone who ranks on the first page for specified keywords in every location they have presence. Finding out who you’re up against has never been clearer.

This provides a range of opportunities for growth, from identifying high priority keywords to target, inspiring new content ideas and analysing competitor backlinks to spot potential partners.

  • Understand what drives competitor visibility

While some sites rank for dozens of long-tail keywords, others rank highly for a couple of high volume phrases.

Natural Edge tells you how competitors have built their market share, allowing you to flesh out your digital strategy with key industry insights.

  • Understand local performance

Natural Edge offers highly localised insights, highlighting the composition of organic search results by identifying the number of localised and map results generated at a keyword level. A client can enter their locations into Natural Edge, thereby identifying generic keywords that create local results, and identify share of voice and individual keyword rankings for each of those locations.

Why we’re so proud to be up for nomination

At Fusion, we’ve been working with award-winning retail clients for over twenty years, delivering exceptional service with demonstrated ROI whilst using best-in-class innovation to create unique solutions to today’s digital problems.

Natural Edge is just one example of how our team’s outside-the-box thinking, and we’re beyond chuffed that our hard work and expertise is being acknowledged by one of the region’s leading authorities in the field.

Greatest of all, however, is the fact that it’s a testament to our team’s quality and ability, as a cutting-edge independent agency producing award-nominated software, and investing in genuinely pioneering solutions to achieve our clients’ goals.

Interested in what our services can do for you? Get in touch with the Fusion team today at hello@fusionunlimited.co.uk or learn more about Fusion Natural Edge here.

My Fusion work placement so far

Posted on by Marco Pellegrini

This academic year, the Fusion team has been delighted to welcome a work placement student to our ranks – Marco Pellegrini – who’s taken a hands-on role within our Paid Performance team.

Now coming up to three months in, we asked Marco to write about his time with the company so far, to find out how he’s been finding it and the impressions he’s formed of all things digital marketing.

So, without further ado, we’ll pass over to Marco!

Hello Fusion Blog!

My name’s Marco Pellegrini – I’m a half Italian, half American, and now officially half British twenty-one-year-old, on a placement year as a Digital Executive within the Paid Performance team at Fusion.

I must admit, time has absolutely flown by, and as Christmas approaches I’ve just made it through my second monthiversary in the office without any major shocks – apart from infecting most of the office with a cold!

As I’m progressively easing into the team and settling into the world of paid search, it feels as good a time as any to reflect on how everything’s been so far. For this reason, I’ve decided to write a blogpost, firstly to keep track of my progress, but hopefully to provide value to all students approaching digital marketing, who are considering a placement in an agency to gain the best exposure to this exciting field.

Without any further delays, here’s a bit about my time at Fusion so far and my journey to get here!

Coming to Fusion

I’ll start by saying that though my arrival at Fusion definitely didn’t follow the conventional route, it did end up meeting the ideal conditions I was after in a placement year.

I applied while I was fully immersed in my second year University exams in late May. By that time I had gone through many assessment centres and final interviews all over the UK but never seemed to find a placement that ticked all the boxes. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted my placement role to look like. It should allow me to get hands-on experience of a digital marketer’s tasks and responsibilities, whilst being part of a vibrant, expert and united team, where I wouldn’t just be a number.

Such clear vision of my goals helped me greatly when filtering my job research, leading me to eventually discover digital agencies and their impact behind the scenes that allows most great corporate brands to shine. I soon came to realise the main differences that define working in-house compared to agency-based, with factors such as job variety, specialised expertise and a fast-paced environment proving key in my final decision to pursue an agency-based placement.

Just to knock off all my doubts, I applied for both in-house and agency-based roles to have all the elements for an informed decision. The main difference I noticed in the recruitment phase was the specificity of the interview questions and tasks required to work at an agency, as well as the higher sense of community agencies seemed to have.

Out of several agencies I looked into, Fusion clearly stood out to me due to its independent nature, variety of clients and proprietary software. I applied via a speculative job application through an email, which I only recently realised contained a clear spelling mistake. However, I was still invited to interview – it must surely have been a sign. Needless to say, the interview went great and my initial positive thoughts were reinforced by the relaxed atmosphere of the office and the passion of the team.

About five days later, just before leaving for the summer holidays, I signed my first real job contract for twelve months due to start in September.

The change

Fast forward two months. I’ve just been on my first Fusion night out. I’m officially part of the team. I’ve made it.

I’m working in paid media and literally learning something new every day. Since day one the team has been really helpful and welcoming, allowing me to quickly settle in. And I’m starting to get a clear vision of how work and student life differ. First of all, the hourly – and thus daily – productivity in the office increases by an infinite percentage, although the degree of tiredness at the end of the day remains stable across both work and ‘uni’ life.  Feeling tired from a productive day of work – rather than an unproductive day of University – has really boosted my overall mood and has allowed me to make the most of my post-work chill time.

Secondly, studying marketing theories and applying them to case studies at University only gives you an idea of the end product, whilst actually working in marketing – specifically digital every day – has allowed me to understand the process and consistent work that goes into a successful marketing campaign.

Another massive difference I’ve noticed between ‘uni’ and work life is the level of accountability one must hold towards one’s team members – as all my tasks affect the team, the agency’s performance and relationships with clients. There is an extra pressure that pushes me to perform and do well. At uni, apart from group projects, it’s all on me, which makes it easier to handle a misjudgement or result below expectations. Working at Fusion so far has given me the lifestyle shift that I wished to experience, hitting me with how time management, teamwork, attention to detail and task prioritisation aren’t just overused CV terms, but fundamental skills required for success in such a fast-paced environment.

In terms of my expectations of the workplace, I definitely thought it would be quite hectic at times, although the overall atmosphere of the office is more relaxed than I expected. This is absolutely great, as it allows all personalities and working styles to shine with greater lucidity under pressure.

Ultimately, Fusion is amazing as everyone contributes and feels part of the team. Executives have daily contact with team directors, account managers and even the MD, who works on the same floor as everyone else and is directly available for any questions! Not to mention, the insightful weekly catch-ups with the whole team, the seemingly infinite supplies of fresh fruit on a Monday and drinks on a Friday afternoon!

My growth

And, what about the actual work I do?

Well, as I mentioned at the start, I’m part of the Paid Performance team and my job mainly consists of managing everyday activity across an array of different clients and corresponding accounts, across Google and Bing. The exposure to almost all clients has thus far given me an invaluable opportunity to gain experience and market awareness in a variety of sectors. I’ve been enjoying every minute of it, from the very busy times to the quieter times, which I make the most of by gradually completing my Google exams and analysing blog articles to keep updated with the latest paid media news and tools.

Several weeks ago, like almost everyone in the Paid Performance team, I was involved in the crazy creation of thousands of ads to go live on Black Friday, which is an event I had only ever experienced from the customer side. The work that goes into the setup of Black Friday promotions from an agency perspective has allowed me to get a full sense of the level of detail and precision that are required behind the scenes for successful campaigns, as well as the enormous amount of discipline that the team showed in completing an incredibly high volume of tasks.

Overall, working at Fusion has made me realise even more how digital marketing is the career I want to pursue, as this is constantly evolving with technology and people’s shifts in needs and lifestyles, which makes it extremely exciting.

Above all else, the possibility to ask questions, network and get advice from an entire team of experts in the field is without a doubt the part I’m enjoying the most about this placement experience, and that will set the foundations for my future growth.

The future

To sum up, I’d like to round this unconventional blogpost off by reiterating my appreciation for the entire Fusion team that have given me this opportunity to pursue my career ambitions at such early age.

My learnings thus far have been both of technical nature and a general skillset to succeed in the workplace. Looking ahead at the remaining nine-and-a-half months I have at Fusion, I am very excited and curious to see how – with confidence and experience – my responsibilities will grow even more. Although I’m really passionate about paid media, by the end of my placement I aim to get in some shadowing days within the SEO, Social and Content teams too, to get a grasp of different aspects of digital and make the most of the team here’s expertise!

With the sincere hope that this piece can prove somewhat helpful for anyone, thanks a lot for reading!

Interested in a placement at Fusion and finding out about digital marketing for yourself? Drop us an email with your CV and a covering letter today, at hello@fusionunlimited.co.uk.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: NOVEMBER 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE

Updates that look place within Google SERPs and miscellaneous Google tools in November.

PAGESPEED INSIGHT REPORT REVAMP

Announced via their Webmaster Central Blog, Google have given the PageSpeed Insights report a facelift, along with assigning Lighthouse as its analytics engine in an attempt to help create more consistent results across Google’s auditing tools. The insights report will now also incorporate data from Google’s Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).

The PageSpeed Insights will now provide the following information:

  • Field Data – displays real-world data, such as First Contentful Paint (FCP) and First Input Delay (FID), provided by the CrUX report. This report is updated daily and not all sites will have this data available for display.
  • Lab Data – simulating how a mobile device loads a page, this data is provided by Lighthouse and will display data such as First Meaningful Paint and Speed Index. The results from the simulation are summarised and used to provide a score between 0 and 100 to indicate how good a page’s performance is.
  • Opportunities – provides a list of suggestions on how to improve the page’s performance, these are ordered by how much of a performance improvement each suggestion should make.
  • Diagnosis – displays additional best practices in order to improve performance.

GOOGLE DISPLAYING MULTIFACETED FEATURED SNIPPETS ON DESKTOP

After being released for mobile searches this February, Google results have been spotted displaying multifaceted featured snippets within desktop results.

It is currently unclear if the same site can rank for both of the queries. Once this has been fully rolled out, site owners may see an uplift in traffic for pages displayed within these snippets, but also see a drop in traffic for standard organic results as these will be pushed further down within the SERP.

AMP ARE CHANGING HOW URLS ARE DISPLAYED

Many sites utilise AMP pages to help landing pages load near instantly, this has been seen to improve user experience, which can lower bounce rates, increase average session duration and ultimately help increase conversions. Regardless of those positives, the one glaring feature that has been receiving negative feedback since AMP pages release, has been the fact that the displayed URL makes it very obvious that users are on an AMP page, this can look confusing to users due to not displaying the sites URL as they expect.

AMP released a blog post on November, 13th to announce that they have begun a trial that will be available in Chrome 71 in which users can transform AMP URLs to look like the sites URL rather than an AMP URL.

For a demonstration of this new AMP feature, users will need Chrome 71 (or use Chrome Beta), visit https://g.co/webpackagedemo and search for “Learn AMP by Example” and click on the ampbyexample.com home page.

GOOGLE’S NEW HOTEL LOCAL PACK IS AVAILABLE

Google have released a new design for their hotel local pack which is currently displayed below paid results and above organic results.

The results are optimised to the search query used and the users Google account, if they are signed in. These results will also highlight hotels that the user has stayed in before and allow users to click on filters, such as guest favourites, budget options and luxury stays.

COMMENT ON LIVE SPORTS WITHIN GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS

This feature was originally added during the World Cup, but has since received a dedicated help sheet and management page that will allow users to view and manage all of their comments and reviews.

This feature is currently only available for some sporting events, such as Football. It is currently unclear if Google are looking to expand on events or topics in which commenting is available.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Updates that look place within Google Search Console in November.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE IS WARNING USERS OF UNCLEAR SUBSCRIPTION PAGES

In an effort to stop users from accidentally signing up to subscriptions or paying more than they expected, Google is cracking down on unclear mobile subscription pages by warning webmasters who aren’t following Google’s mobile billing best practices via Google Search Console.

Starting from Chrome 71, Google will also display a warning for all users who visit the mobile subscription page if the page still does not comply with Google’s best practices. This warning will appear on Chrome Mobile, Chrome Desktop and Andriod’s WebView.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE TESTS DOMAIN PROPERTIES

Currently only available to a limited amount of accounts, Google is testing domain properties within Search Console. These properties will group together subdomains, protocols and subpaths:

For example, if you define a Domain property as ‘example.com’, it includes example.com, any subdomains of example.com (for example, m.example.com, support.m.example.com, www.example.com, and so on), as well as any subpaths in any of those domains, on both http and https.”

Users will be allowed to define a domain using a public suffix (e.g. .com, .org, and .co.uk), only one public suffix can be used per property, so users will be unable to mix this data within Search Console (e.g. combining .co.uk with .com data).

The above table displays examples of what URLS Google Search Console will group, depending on what is defined as the property URL.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE DISPLAYS EVENT LISTING AND EVENT DETAILS IN PERFORMANCE REPORT

Available within the search appearance filters in Google Search Console, the event listing and event details filters will now allow users to view the performance of these within the performance report. The event schema will need to be applied to the event pages in order for Google Search Console to track the performance.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Updates that look place within Google My Business in November.

GOOGLE ADDS NEW FEATURES TO THE GOOGLE MY BUSINESS APP

The Google My Business App received an update mid-November. App users will now be able to post pictures, offers and events, view when a customer posts a review, messages or follows the user’s business listing within the new Customers tab, and view performance analytics which will be displayed from the homepage, all within the app.

In addition to the new app being released and the new ability to follow businesses, as discussed in our previous blog, Google My Business have also updated how messaging businesses works. Previously, messaging a business through a Google My Business listing would send an SMS to the business. Users are now being given the option to message through the Google Maps app rather than SMS if they prefer.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO

Updates that look place within Google Data Studio in November.

GOOGLE DATA STUDIO ALLOWS USERS TO CREATE FILTERS WITH CHART DIMENSIONS

Released at the start of November, Google implemented the option to create filters from the dimensions of charts, tables and graphs. Within the below report, clicking on ‘United States’ within the pie chart will filter the results of the table to only display sessions for this location and vice versa. This filter will work on all grouped charts within the same data source.

Right clicking on the report and clicking ‘reset action’ resets all charts back to displaying their data without interactive filters applied.

SEARCH ALL FILTER CONTROLS ADDED TO DATA STUDIO REPORTS

The ‘search all’ filter was added to Google Data Studio at the start of the month and will allows users to filter data by phrases, numbers or regex.

EMBED EXTERNAL CONTENT WITHIN GOOGLE DATA STUDIO REPORTS

Using the new URL embed button within Google Data Studio, it is now possible to embed YouTube videos, web pages and Google Docs in order to create a rich, multi-media experience.

Northern Digital Awards 2019 Award Nominations

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

We’re delighted to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been nominated for 2 awards in Prolific North’s Northern Digital Awards 2019.

The fantastic news has seen us secure nominations for the “Best Digital Tool or Software Category” and for “Search Agency of the Year”.

Our team are proud to be recognised for our approach to delivering innovative search marketing campaigns with performance at the forefront of mind. We’re constantly seeking news ways to achieve market standout for our clients, be it through our own proprietary software, Natural Edge,  or through rigorous testing programmes.

Wish us luck!

Social Media Market Updates: November 2018

Posted on by Tom Payne

As usual, social’s lately been a hotbed of activity, with engaging new campaigns spanning industries from fast food to sportswear.

Read on as we look at some of the most noteworthy campaigns from recent weeks, and discuss their strengths, weaknesses and the impact they’ve had on their respective brands.

KFC cooks up a storm on social

Earlier in the year, fast food giant KFC ran a fairly bold marketing campaign across social and print to apologise for a nationwide shortage of chicken:

In recent weeks, however, Colonel Sanders has been at it again – this time around to let customers know about his brand new fries, with idiosyncratic gusto.

Social’s been an indispensable element of the news’ delivery, which has taken place through innovatively engaging with a series of negative historic tweets complaining about the company’s chips – some from as long ago as 2014.

While some tweets have simply been replied to, others have been promoted far and wide across the nation’s timelines with paid advertising spend:

Though the campaign has met a fairly mixed response, with some users demonstrating a little weariness after being overwhelmed by chip-related messaging, it’s safe to say that the majority of Twitter users are now aware of KFC’s revamped fries. And to that end, it must be said that the Colonel’s served up his plans to perfection.

Nike scores a wonder goal on social with Kaepernick partnership

They’re one of the biggest brands in the world, with an iconic heritage of best-in-class ads, so it’s little surprise that Nike was able to use social media masterfully to announce its newest brand ambassador: Colin Kaepernick.

Nike made the announcement by retweeting a post initially made by Kaepernick, featuring the iconic Just Do It branding and the high standards of copywriting that Nike’s ads are famous for, which was also replicated on Instagram:

Its results were revelatory. The tweet received close to 1,000,000 likes, and the Instagram post proved a personal best for Nike in terms of engagement, gaining the brand gain more than 170,000 new followers. And between the two, Nike received more than five million mentions on social media in just three days, which isn’t a bad return in the slightest!

Significantly for brands, Nike’s social success also transformed into sales. As part of the sponsorship, Nike has produced Kaepernick merchandise, which sold out within a mere matter of hours, as Nike’s stock prices flourished to a sky-high $83.49.

It’s always great to see brands utilising social to its best potential, creating content that shines and converting that engagement into commercial excellence. We’re intrigued to see what Nike delivers next!

Burberry climbs out of the saddle and into social

Of late, fashion brand Burberry has made a range of changes to increase its desirability to contemporary shoppers.

Firstly, it dispensed with its classic logo, exchanging its knight on horseback for a modern new strapline of ‘London, England’ and brandishing its heritage with a sleek new look.

More interestingly, however, is that the company’s announced a new strategy for promoting new inventory to the industry, which is that it’ll launch new products directly from its Instagram feed.

As part of this, products will be purchasable directly from social streams, thanks to elements like Instagram Shopping which make social more viable than ever before for e-commerce businesses. Meanwhile, functionality like Instagram TV will be used to advertise products in innovative new ways.

The high esteem in which a brand like Burberry holds Instagram is a testament to the channel’s credibility and opportunity, and we’re excited to see whether other brands follow suit moving forwards!

Join us next month for more social news from the team!

SEO MARKET UPDATES: OCTOBER 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ADDS NEW INSIGHTS TO SERPS

Many SEOs, including ourselves, started noticing at the start of October that Google was now providing us with a glimpse into our Google Search Console data when searching for a keyword.

Google Search Console Data in SERPs

This window will only appear if you are logged into Google Search Console and have a property that ranks for the keyword. If multiple properties rank for the same keyword, a drop-down menu will become available to allow users to switch between properties. There is also an option to ‘see ways to improve’ a keywords ranking, although, the same two suggestions will appear for every keyword:

  1. Compare this query to your overall data
  2. Find out how to use this information to make changes to your site so that you can increase your chances to show up for the queries that you care about.

IS DYNAMIC RENDERING GOOGLE’S SOLUTION TO READING JAVASCRIPT?

As an answer to search engines difficulty with reading JavaScript, Google believes that dynamic rendering could be the answer for some sites, and released a guide on how to implement this.

Although Google confirms that dynamic rendering is not the full answer to this problem, they recommend this as a workaround solution for public JavaScript-generated content that changes rapidly, or JavaScript that uses features not currently supported by crawlers:

Dynamic rendering will allow sites to deliver a static HTML to a crawler, so they can index the page’s information, while still displaying a JavaScript-heavy page to users, in order for them to experience the page as intended.

GOOGLE’S OCTOBER ALGORITHM REVIEW

Although we saw unstable fluctuations in average rankings, one of Google’s daily algorithm updates saw a much larger spike in fluctuations than on any other day. On 17th October the fluctuations had an impact across all industries according to SEO tracker tools. The only industries which seem to have been affected the least are sports, news and art & entertainment. The law & government, jobs & education and finance categories were affected the most, with other categories not far behind.

Google have said that their algorithm is constantly refreshing and that due to the large amount of updates that take place, they are unable to provide information on what changes have been made each day. As Google have not released a statement on what caused these fluctuations, we are unable to see the cause of this. Daily fluctuations were seen across October and we will possibly see this throughout December too.

GOOGLE SHUTS DOWN GOOGLE+

Google announced on 8th October that they will be closing Google+ over a 10 month period to give users full opportunity to transition, with an aim to close the site by the end of August 2019.

Released in 2011, Google+ was Google’s answer to social media, after dominating the search engine market in the early 2000’s, taking over the online video industry in 2006, and surpassing Internet Explorer as the top web browser in 2012.

However, poor uptake by users has led Google to pull the plug on Plus. And so social won’t be an area that Google will compete in.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS ANNOUNCES NEW PRODUCTS FEATURE

Spotted by an SEO and posted on Twitter, Google has released a product collection and product menu on selected Google My Business accounts. This feature replaces the services menu and will allow users to add a product collection, along with products within the collection.

Google is yet to release any documentation providing more information on this feature or when it will be released from beta.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS RELEASES NEW MIGRATION TOOL & BRANDED INSIGHTS

Announced on 22nd October via Twitter, Google’s new migration tool will allow users with organisation accounts to easily migrate locations from a personal account into the organisation account.

Users have the option to remove the transferred locations from the personal account or keep the locations on both the personal and organisation account, Google recommends that locations are removed from the personal account and the personal account is added to the organisation account in order for the account the view the properties for the best experience. Other information on the organisation account migration tool includes:

  • Locations from several personal accounts can be added to the organisation account.
  • Users who opt to keep locations available on both the personal and organisation accounts, when a property is added on the personal account, this will not also be added to the organisation account.
  • Location transfer requests will only work for transferring locations from a personal to an organisation account, users will not be able to transfer locations between organisation accounts.

Google has also implemented the ability to see branded searches within the Google My Business insights. Branded searches will be classed differently to direct searches (a customer directly searching for the business’ name) and will display within the chart of the dashboard.

GOOGLE MAPS ALLOWS USERS TO CONNECT WITH BUSINESSES BY FOLLOWING THEM

Google announced on the 24th October via their blog, ‘The Keyword’, that users will be able to follow businesses within the Google Maps app in order to receive updates which will be displayed within a ‘For You’ tab in the app.

Businesses that are not yet open will also be able to connect with users before their open date. The business’ profile can be visible to users up to three months in advance of opening. This can be used to tease the opening date, make users aware of any opening events or keep people updated on the types of products or services soon to be provided.

NEW BOOK AND SCHEDULE BUTTONS INTRODUCED TO LOCAL GOOGLE RESULTS

Google has expanded on giving mobile users access to call a company from the local pack listings and has implemented ‘book’ and ‘schedule’ buttons which allow users to book or schedule a service within the ‘Reserve with Google’ platform.

Google has a full list of booking software companies that work with ‘Reserve with Google’ along with a list of companies they will soon be working with.

PUBLIC TESTING STARTS FOR GOOGLE ASSISTANT’S DUPLEX TECHNOLOGY

After Google’s incredible unveiling of Google Duplex, a new artificial intelligence to be implemented within Google Assistant that can converse with businesses on behalf of the user in order to accomplish tasks such as book a table at a restaurant or make an appointment at a hairdressers, Google has released a blog post confirming that they will begin public testing for Google Pixel users at restaurants within New York, Atlanta, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area.

We’re more than intrigued to see how this develops in the future!

Social Media Market Updates: October 2018

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Though Instagram’s starred in marketing news repeatedly in recent weeks, with a host of updates that we covered in our last blog post, there have also been significant changes on many of the Internet’s other leading social media channels.

Read on as we round up several of the biggest social platform updates in recent weeks, with analysis of its impact on the industry.

Facebook cracks down on sensationalist headlines – and you won’t BELIEVE the reasons why!

Well, actually, the reasons why probably won’t shock you. In fact, this is exactly the type of rhetorical grandiosity that Facebook’s looking to crack down on with its new ad policy, which is set to penalise click-bait ads which sensationalise their content or omit meaningful details in order to manipulatively improve click-through-rate, Marketing Land reports.

Facebook’s stance follows a new policy announcement in May 2017, that they would be implementing steps to minimise the impact – and reach – of disruptive, malicious or sensationalist posts.

As an indication of the new policy in action, Facebook has already removed more than eight-hundred pages in recent weeks that consistently misled users with overly-dramatic and disingenuous headlines.

While the vast majority of these pages were political in kind, the policy change will have ramifications for digital marketers, who’ll need to ensure that their posts aren’t withholding key information purely to bait site sessions out of users. And though we certainly won’t be posting this to social with the promise that it’ll change your understanding of the industry FOREVER, we hope you’ll get something out of it, anyway.

Pinterest revamps Ads Manager for the first time since 2016

In recent years, Pinterest has slowly but surely picked up the pace as a content curation channel of choice for aesthetically-minded users the world over.

To capitalise on its audience’s size and its unprecedented reach, the channel has updated its ads system for the first time in two years – in fact, since its inception – with the addition of a host of new features that make it a more viable option for marketers than ever before.

To kick things off, Pinterest has given its Ads Manager a considerable overhaul. A campaign set-up wizard is now available to help users create and optimise campaigns – which will be particularly beneficial to first-time marketers exploring the channel’s merits to their brands. Optimisation options include setting campaign goals, choosing specific audience targeting, and determining the exact Pins that are to be promoted within the feed or search results.

Complementing this, they’ve also brought in more comprehensive reporting elements with a snazzy new reporting dashboard, making ROI easier to monitor – and, thus, deliver – and allowing advertisers to vary campaigns in a more flexible and intuitive way.

Pinterest has also redesigned its Shoppable Pins, introducing reactive stock controls and dynamic pricing, and allowed greater numbers of pins to use the shopping bag feature, which lets users click-through directly from the Pinterest Shoppable ad to the checkout on the native site. For e-commerce brands in particular, this is something to be sure to look into.

We’re always interested to see new channels taking strides to allow users to more easily see and purchase the products they love. In coming months, we’re keen to see how the channel develops!

New research finds ways of using social media to proactively monitor mental health

Healthy social media usage has been frequently in the news in recent months, with several channels taking steps to increase and safeguard its users’ well-being, such as Instagram’s introduction of an anti-bully filter to its ‘You’re all caught up’ indicator, encouraging users to be mindful of listlessly scrolling through photos they’ve already seen.

In a new and intriguing development, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania – and the World Well-Being Project – have created an algorithm that’s able to trawl through users’ Facebook posts and, from their choice of language and manner of expression, identify whether they could be at risk of any mental health problems.

Johannes Eichstaedt, WWBP founder, explained in interview that ‘Social media data contain markers akin to the genome.

With surprisingly similar methods to those used in genomics, we can comb social media data to find these markers.

Depression appears to be something quite detectable in this way; it really changes people’s use of social media in a way that something like skin disease or diabetes doesn’t.

The hope is that one day, these screening systems can be integrated into systems of care’.

If social could unobtrusively keep an eye out for its users’ mental well-being, then this is just another way that channels could take strides to look after the health of users online.

Twitter takes steps to make its rules’ enforcement clearer

Currently, when you report a tweet, what happens next is a little unclear. You aren’t notified if the tweet – or the tweeter – is penalised, and the tweets remain visible in your feed, despite the fact you’ve shown you think it shouldn’t be there.

Twitter’s acknowledged the issue and, in response, is introducing new measures that will make it much more apparent when they’re taking action, and why they’re doing so.

Moving forward, when Twitter deletes a reported tweet, they’ll indicate it on the user’s timeline by showing a warning in place of the now-removed message. This will include a link through to the Twitter rules, explaining how the removed content violated terms of service:

Additionally, any tweet you report – regardless of whether Twitter takes action or not – will also be hidden from your timeline and replaced with a placeholder:

It’s interesting to see Twitter taking greater strides to improve its transparency, and we wonder whether this will roll out onto other channels in the future.

That’s all for this month, folks! We’ll be back next month with a round-up of all the most significant changes on social.

Instagram Market Updates: Recent Updates and Changes Coming Soon

Posted on by Jenny Connelly

September saw some significant updates arrive on Instagram.

Though many of the changes focus on improving the experience of regular Instagram users, there’re also several changes of note to help marketers and businesses perform – and convert – on the channel.

Let’s have a look at some of the key changes, as well as what we can expect to arrive on the channel in the near future.

Recent updates

Convert from Stories with product tagging

Instagram Product Tag for Stories

One of the most significant updates on the channel is the introduction of product tagging in Story posts.

This’ll work similarly to product tagging on regular IG posts. Businesses can directly link a URL to the product that appears on their stories, and users can then click on the tag to be re-directed to the product landing page.

This functionality creates an easy buying experience for the user, and a brand new avenue for businesses to gain sales with vivid creative content. It’s just another sign of Instagram becoming a highly viable choice for marketing!

GIFs slide into the DMs

GIFs in direct messaging Instagram GIFs in Instagram DM

When direct messaging, users can now choose from a selection of trending GIFs.

Simply type a word or phrase that is relevant to the GIF you wish to send and suitable options will appear.

Alternatively, users can click on the mysterious ‘random’ button for an Instagram generated GIF, passing the creative baton over to the algorithm…

New nametags let you connect with friends more easily than ever

Instagram name tags

In an effort to put more users in touch with each other, you can now create an Instagram nametag, which works a little like a business card. Simply scan another user’s and you’ll follow them!

This new feature is particularly handy when meeting someone new as you can easily exchange details and follow each other with a simple scan. It’s an incredibly intuitive new addition to the app’s UX.

What’s next?

As well as new updates, there are also plenty of Instagram changes in the works.  Let’s have a look at a few of the things that’re keeping the Instagram team so busy:

Shopping channels arrive in Explore

shopping box in Instagram explore

You will soon be seeing a shopping box in the explore section of Instagram. It will potentially put more e-commerce businesses in touch with relevant users. It will also allow users to explore and gain inspiration from exciting, unfamiliar brands.

Instagram takes stand against bullying

Instagram bullying comment filter

A few months ago, Instagram introduced a bullying comment filter which proactively hides and detects negative comments from feeds, profiles and the explore feature.

The bullying comment filter allows users to customise their blocking preferences or leave it to Instagram to automatically filter offensive comments out.

Instagram will now be applying this feature to comments on live videos.

Tag followers in Videos

Instagram has confirmed that soon you will be able to tag followers in videos, similarly to how you would in photos.

Connecting Students

Instagram connecting students

The social network has announced that they are working towards making it easier for students studying at the same institution to connect via the social network. This is currently being tested at select universities the USA.

This feature will allow users to add their university details – including graduation year, course and any teams/societies they were part of. Instagram will then create a University directory that can be filtered by year, making it easy for current and alumni students to connect and message each other.

This is something that’s long been a part of the Facebook experience, so it’s cool to see it arrive on the Gram, too.

Channel bids #goodbye to #hashtags

According to a TechCrunch report Instagram is considering disabling hashtags from captions in an attempt to limit the heavy use of hashtags within the post caption, resulting in the text being incredibly hard to read. Instead, there would be a ‘add hashtags’ option under the caption composer, keeping any hashtags and text separate.

Geo-Restriction for posts and stories

 

 

Instagram is testing a geo-restriction feature which will allow users to restrict their posts and stories to selected countries, rather than being universally available. Marketers will be able to choose what countries they wish to show or hide their content to.

Now that you are officially clued up on the latest Instagram features – stay tuned for the latest digital marketing updates that can drive your website and sales.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: SEPTEMBER 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

SEARCH CONSOLES RECEIVES A NEW LICK OF PAINT

On 4th September, Google announced on their Webmaster Central Blog that they’ve now fully released the new Google Search Console interface from beta testing.

Welcome to the new search console

The new Google Search Console interface was originally released at the start of January 2018. Alongside aesthetic updates, the main change this brought to the functionality of GSC was the ability for SEOs to download sixteen months of data – a large increase from three-months which was previously available.

Along with fully releasing Google Search Console from beta, Google has also implemented a ‘test live’ function within the URL inspection tool. This will now allow users to inspect live versions of a page rather than only being able to inspect the latest indexed version.

Not all features are available from the old Google Search Console within the new interface, but Google is still allowing users to use the old interface to utilise these missing tools.

BING INTRODUCES AMP SUPPORT

Bing released a blog post on 19th September announcing that it’s introducing Bing AMP viewer and Bing AMP cache, which enable AMP web pages to load almost instantly via Bing’s mobile search results.

As an average 30% of mobile users will bounce from a page that does not load within three seconds, the speed boost will bring a range of benefits to well-optimised sites.

Bing AMP NASA Example

Bing started rolling out its AMP viewer and AMP carrousel in the US on 17th September, for the news carrousel only, and will continue to roll this out across more sites and countries in the future.

GOOGLE ADDS CAPTIONS AND GOOGLE LENS TO IMAGE SEARCH

Announced on 27th September – the same day as Google’s 20th anniversary – Google Images received a couple of updates as a result of Google’s quest to make visual content more useful.

In order to make image search both more powerful and versatile, Google has added image captions, providing details of the page – such as the page title and site name – to give users a better understanding of the page behind the image.

Google will also be implementing Google Lens within image search. Once a user selects Google Lens on an image, Lens will detect objects within an image, allow the user to select any of them and provide similar images to it. Failing this, the user can draw on the image to select a desired area and will be presented with relevant images based on their choice.

Google Lens

 

Although this feature is not currently available, Google has stated that this will receive a full release within coming weeks.

Lastly, following in the footsteps of Instagram and Snapchat, Google has worked with the AMP Project to create AMP stories. This feature is currently only available for celebrities and utilises AI to create a timeline of facts and important moments of their life.

SMART ANSWERS BEGIN APPEARING IN SEARCH BOX

Within Google’s release of the latest version of their Chrome browser, they have announced that ‘smart answers’ can now appear within the search box. These answers can range from displaying rich results, providing local weather and translating foreign words.

Google Omnibox Example

GOOGLE ANNOUNCES SMALL ALGORITHM CHANGE

Finally, Google confirmed the release of a small algorithm update on 27th September.

Unlike the broad core update which took place on 1st August, Google considered this update less impactful, and didn’t cover it on their blog. However, it was noticed by SEOs due to shifts in site traffic and rankings.

Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liason, commented:

Keep checking in with the Fusion blog for more updates from the leading services and suppliers in SEO today. 

SEO MARKET UPDATES: AUGUST 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ANONYMOUS QUERIES

Google updated how anonymous queries are displayed within Search Console, the result of which is that anonymous queries will no longer be included in chart totals when a “query not containing” filter has been applied.

These anonymous queries are queries submitted by only a few users as these can sometimes contain personal identifying information. These queries can equate to a small or large amount of data depending on the site, which can lead to a noticeable drop for some sites when viewing exclusionary query data such as non-brand terms.

GOOGLE BROAD CORE UPDATE

We covered the initial release of the broad core update in our July Blog, but wanted provide an update on how this has affected organic search results within August. This update, unlike Google’s focused updates that take place daily, focuses on a more general, widespread change which takes all aspects of SEO into consideration. The update caused some large fluctuations in rankings across many industries. Moz provided a week 1 cast of how the updated affected each industry via their MozCast system, this chart provides a breakdown of the top 20 categories that were affected by temperature (the hotter the temperature, the more Google rankings have changed).

MozCast Broad Core Results Week 1

NEW GOOGLE SCHEMA COMING SOON

During the Google Dance Singapore even Google revealed that they are currently testing three new types of display for the Q&A, FAQ and HowTo Schemas. Previews of the new displays show snippets filing the entire screen of a mobile results page, with an option to click and expand the answers or instructions.

A Google spokesperson released the following statement via Search Engine Land: “We’re always looking for new ways to provide the most relevant, useful results for our users. We’ve recently introduced new ways to help users understand whether responses on a given Q&A or forum site could have the best answer for their question. By bringing a preview of these answers onto Search, we’re helping our users more quickly identify which source is most likely to have the information they’re looking for. We’re currently working with partners to experiment with ways to surface similar previews for FAQ and How-to content.”

BING INTELLIGENT SEARCH UPDATE: HOTEL BOOKING, HOME SERVICES AND COUPONS

Bing announced on 3rd August, the release of 3 new intelligent search features all designed to help users save money. Bing’s hotel booking feature was originally released in May; now, in order to make this tool more powerful, Bing have implemented intelligent tips, a price trends view, and a comparison view.

Intelligent tips are displayed at the bottom of the feature panel and will provide users with information such as higher rated hotels at the same rate near the ones currently being searched for, whether there are cheaper hotels that are further away from the search radius, alongside further tips on saving money or having a better experience.

Bing Hotel Booking Feature

Bing also provides historical price trends within the date range users are searching to provide a view of times in which prices can typically fluctuate, this will allow them to make a more informed decision of when to book the hotel.

Bing hotel price trend data

A Price comparison overview has been added which breaks down hotel information and allows users to compare information such as hotel class, Wi-Fi and the hotels distance from key areas such as the airport.

Bing hotel price comparison

In addition, a new home servicing intelligent view allows users to determine the price range of service providers such as painters and plumbers for particular tasks like painting a 300sq. ft. fence. Due to the data for this being provided by Porch, it looks like this service is currently only going to be available to the US.

Bing service cost guide

Bing will now aggregate deals from first and third parts listings and display these when users search for retailers or coupons.

Bing coupons

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS MENU & SERVICE EDITOR

Allowing business to display services such as food menus and service lists with pricing via Google My Business has been a feature that Google have held in beta since April. However, in August, they announced that this feature will now be available to all relevant business via the Google My Business forums and will available for the following businesses:

  • Food and drink businesses can list menu items under “Menu.”
  • Health and beauty businesses can list services under “Services.”
  • Services businesses can list services under “Services.”

GOOGLE CAMEOS APP

Google released its ‘Cameos’ app at the start of August which allows celebrities to record short video responses to questions which are currently split into 3 categories; most asked questions about the celebrity, questions from fans and trending topics (e.g. what is International Women’s Day about?). These videos also show up within Google search results, but currently only display on mobile results for users within the US.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: JULY 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE ROLLS OUT HTTP “NOT SECURE” UPDATE

On 24th July, Google confirmed via the Chrome Developers twitter account and Google blog post that any site not encrypted with HTTPS will be marked as “not secure”.

https://twitter.com/ChromiumDev/status/1021806746283651072

Google initially started to crack down on unencrypted sites in 2015 by prioritising HTTPS pages within the SERPs, which soon escalated into adding the “not secure” marker to any unencrypted password fields. This increasing implementation of warnings has now resulted in any unencrypted site receiving the “not secure” marker starting in the latest version on Chrome (68).

Google’s efforts to create a safer browsing experience for users have been extremely successful so far, with roughly 83% of the top 100 sites on the web now using HTTPS, up from 37% just two years prior.

The next step in Google’s campaign will come in October 2018, with plans to implement a red “not” secure warning when users enter data on any unencrypted page, which will be accompanied by the removal of the “secure” tag from HTTPS pages.

GOOGLE’S NEW SCHEMA MARKUP

In July Google announced support for the Speakable Schema.org property which can be used to identify sections within a webpage that are suited best for text-to-speech. This schema is currently in beta and is limited to valid news sites, and is also only available on Google Home devices for English speakers with the U.S.

The content guidelines from Google recommend that data is structured in the following ways when writing content for Speakable:

  • Content should have concise headlines and summaries that provide users with useful information.
  • If the top of the story is included within the Speakable structured data, it is recommended that the information is broken up into individual sentences to allow to content to read clearly in text-to-speech.
  • For optimal user experience, it is recommended to provide 20-30 seconds of content per section of Speakable structured data.

Although currently limited to valid news sites it’s expected that the mark-up will become available for all sites in the near future, allowing businesses to ensure that their site is primed for the increasing use of voice search.

GOOGLE’S SEARCH QUALITY RATING GUIDELINES UPDATE

Google released an updated edition of the search quality rating guidelines on 20th July. The extensive, 164 page PDF document provides a full guide for Google’s 10,000+ quality raters worldwide to adhere to.These raters evaluate and rate the quality of pages that appear in the top results on SERPs for lists of searches they are contracted to perform.

In this update of the search quality guidelines Google place more focus on the importance of the “beneficial purpose” of webpages, with a particular emphasis on flagging clickbait, fake news, conspiracy theories and pages which spread hate as low quality. Google has also placed a new focus on the authors of content, with quality raters required to research, evaluate and factor in the reputation of authors when rating a website or webpage.

GOOGLE’S BROAD CORE UPDATE

On August 1st Google released a new update to their broad core algorithm. Unlike Google’s “focused updates”, which are daily changes designed to focus on specific objectives like site speed or security, the broad core update is a more general widespread change to the algorithm, and is confirmed to be rolling out globally.

On Twitter, Google’s Danny Sullivan provided some clarification on the purpose of the update but ultimately confirmed that from an SEO perspective, there is no specific ‘fix’ for any traffic fluctuations this may cause.

Instead, Google has continued to place emphasis on the importance of “high quality content”, suggesting that SEOs take a “broad” approach to improvement that considers factors laid out within the official search quality rater guidelines.

Google states that it will continue to release core algorithm updates several times a year, to further tailor the SERPs towards their ideology of sites that provide the best user experience based on the request of the user.

NEW DATASET SCHEMA

On 31st July, Google released a blog post announcing its support for the dataset schema, making it possible for websites to display charts, tables or data directly within search results.

Within the blog, Google informed that “news organisations that publish data in the form of tables can add additional structured data to make the dataset parts of the page easier to identify for use in relevant search features”.

The below is an example from Google of what the dataset schema looks like:

Dataset Schema Example

Google explain that the purpose of this mark-up is to improve discovery of datasets from fields such as life sciences, social sciences, machine learning, civic and government data and more. Google states that the below site features can qualify as a dataset:

  • A table or a CSV file with some data
  • An organized collection of tables
  • A file in a proprietary format that contains data
  • A collection of files that together constitute some meaningful dataset
  • A structured object with data in some other format that you might want to load into a special tool for processing
  • Images capturing data
  • Files relating to machine learning, such as trained parameters or neural network structure definitions
  • Anything that looks like a dataset to you

GOOGLE’S MOBILE PAGE SPEED UPDATE

Following the initial announcement of 17th January 2018, Google confirmed via the Google Webmasters twitter account on 9th July that the page speed update was being rolled out.

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1016276644321996800

Google states the update will only impact mobile rankings on what it considers to be a small percentage of the slowest websites on the internet.

Page speed has been an important optimisation factor within Google’s search results on desktop for years, with conclusive evidence from studies conducted by Google confirming that users find page speed as important on mobile. Alongside the move to mobile first indexing, the update reflects Google’s continuing focus on maximising user experience for mobile searchers.

GOOGLE UPDATE HREFLANG USAGE DOCUMENT

In early July Aleyda Solis, founder of Search Engine Land, discovered that Google had quietly updated their official documentation on hreflang usage to expand on existing guidelines and resources.

https://twitter.com/aleyda/status/1014993990125572096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1014993990125572096&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seroundtable.com%2Fgoogle-updates-hreflang-official-documentation-26006.html

If a site has multiple versions of a page for different languages or regions, using hreflang code will help Google point users to the most appropriate version of the page by language or region.

In the new documentation, Google recommends indicating alternate pages for the following scenarios:

  • When keeping the main content in a single language and translating only the template, such as the navigation and footer. Pages that feature user-generated content, like forums, typically do this.
  • If content has small regional variations with similar content, in a single language. For example, a site might have English-language content targeted to the US, GB, and Ireland.
  • If a site is fully translated into multiple languages. For example, both German and English versions of each page may exist.

Content Case Study: MoonPie’s Twitter

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Join Fusion’s content team as they take to the stars for an in-depth look at one of social media’s most surreal but successful brands: American marshmallow-cookie makers, MoonPie.

As in our analysis of Spotify’s 2017 Wrapped, we’ll explore how the MoonPie cookie crumbles and highlights the lessons that other brands can use to inform their own approach to social media success.

How does MoonPie work?

MoonPie’s Twitter – as comic as it is cosmic – is truly a channel of the third kind, a meteor shower of eclectic jokes, sassy asides and graphics cooked up in an MS Paint rush. It’s not every day you see a brand complimenting another brand’s looks, literally talking about being a brand, or repeatedly sending semi-ridiculous questions to @NASA:

Meanwhile, whenever a user sends in something strange, the account’s more than happy to get even stranger back (and regularly does so late into the night). The brand’s commitment to its zany sense of humour and meme-based jokes, which are incredibly popular with today’s social media users, is absolutely unwavering, and departs substantially from how we might ordinarily expect a brand on social to be.

However, hundreds of thousands of likes, retweets and followers later, it’s clear that today’s digital audience has embraced MoonPie’s quirkiness like no other. One particular tweet coinciding with last year’s solar eclipse gained over 500,000 likes and almost 200,000 retweets:

It’s more than apparent, too, that social success has seen sales soar astronomically. Maseena Ziegler for Forbes wrote that, following August 2017’s viral tweet, US ‘demand for the product […] exceeded production capacity for the first time in decades’. Soon after, in September 2017, MoonPie’s sales hit the highest on record in the company’s one-hundred-year history.

When scrolling through MoonPie’s Twitter feed, it’d be easy to perceive all this success as being purely aleatory, as if they piloted their account bravely into the void – leaving strategy and ground control in the dust – only to emerge from a black hole with a winning formula completely by chance. And yet this would also be considerably short-sighted, for although MoonPie’s creators have said in interview that they’ve certainly required more creative freedom than usual to deliver their creative vision in full, the channel’s success is a consequence of exceptional strategic thinking which takes many cues from traditional advertising best practice.

David Ogilvy, one of advertising’s all-time greats, famously said that ‘if you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think’. If you apply this filter to MoonPie, it becomes apparent that their decisions surrounding tone of voice, engagement and creative quality signify a masterful use of the ‘language in which [its target audience] thinks’. By getting weird on social, following in the footsteps of its target audience (young social media users), and posting high quality creative that’s as fun as anything anyone will find elsewhere on their feed, all sense of the MoonPie Twitter belonging to a brand vanishes, becoming eclipsed by the sheer emotional response that the brand elicits – namely, laughter and joy. Ultimately, the channel leaves its visitors forgetting that they were ever looking at a branded channel in the first place, that the channel’s goal is to promote MoonPie and its products. I don’t think we could put it much better than MoonPie do themselves:

Evolving from heritage to challenger through social

MoonPie’s weirdness is a bold new outlook for a brand that’s been around for over a hundred years. Its appeal was its heritage – think Wagon Wheels in the UK – and its target audience a relatively older purchasing demographic. Needless to say, MoonPie certainly hasn’t always felt at home firing strange clapbacks at strangers across the Internet.

From our point of view, what’s so remarkable about the way the brand has revitalised itself in recent years is that its new-found success was so heavily reliant on its social media strategy. Twitter let MoonPie come to life, express a personality that resonated with a new audience, and flourish. The MoonPie Twitter, in this way, is a real testament to the transformative opportunities that social offers, that, when utilised well, can truly bring brands to life.

Thoughts to take away

• Use social to its full potential, to make your brand a personality.

• Think about what your target-audience values and shape your content to their perspective. This doesn’t mean you need to become as surreal as MoonPie; to the contrary, there are many ways this might be achieved.

• Embrace change – as MoonPie has shown, thinking outside the box for your strategy can be incredibly rewarding.

• And once you start something, commit to it – users value consistency and they’ll be more likely to follow an account when they’re confident about what they’re going to be served!

SEO Market Updates: June 2018

Posted on by Zack Cornick

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates. 

New ‘URL Inspection Tool’ released within Google Search Console

Google confirmed through the official Google Webmasters twitter account in late June that a new URL inspection tool had been released in Google Search Console:

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1011215993602011137

Once provided with a URL that you own, the ‘URL Inspection Tool’ will provide crawl, index and serving information to allow users to check if an URL is being displayed. If errors are found within the URL, the tool will provide an error report detailing what issues it has found.

Google My Business Agency Dashboard

Google has released a new dashboard which allows agencies to access and manage multiple Google My Business listings from a single page.

Using the Google My Business agency dashboard, agencies will now be able to access the following features:

  • Manage all locations under one account: Manage thousands of locations within a single account rather than being limited to 100 locations per account.
  • Send and receive invitations to manage listings: Send, receive and manage invitations within a dedicated section of the agency dashboard.
  • Location groups: All locations within an organisation are required to be held within a location group to simplify location management. Agencies can send/receive invitations to co-manage customer’s locations group listings.
  • User groups: Create and manage groups of users to easily manage access to certain locations groups.
  • Search: Quickly search for locations within the account or specific location group.

Google Search Consoles API now has access to 16 Months of Data

Although Google has provided users with sixteen months of historical data since the release of the new Google Search Console interface, a tweet from the Google Webmasters account confirmed in mid-June that users can now access this volume of data through the Search Console Analytics API. As a consequence, sixteen months of data can now be integrated within CMS and other tools:

Bing Announce Support for JSON-LD within Webmaster Tools

A month after Bing started supporting JSON-LD markup, Bing’s principal program manager, Fabrice Canel, announced extended support for JSON-LD markup within Bing Webmaster Tools during his appearance at SMX Advanced.

Bing Webmaster Tools announcement of JSON-LD support

 

This will now allow users to enter their JSON-LD code into Bing Webmaster’s markup validator and receive debugging information.

Winter Olympics: Content Highlights

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Throughout the last month, the world has keenly followed all the action taking place at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Media outlets and journalists from all across the globe have flocked to the tournament, broadcasting around the clock coverage of all the biggest highs and lows. So too have many of the world’s biggest brands, turning the biggest talking points into social media spectacles, building buzz on the ice and keeping at the fore of the moment’s most compelling conversations.

We’ve rounded up our four favourite instances of brands mixing content with skis and showcasing digital talent on the slopes!

Red Stripe’s new sled for the Jamaican bobsleigh team is on the house

Ever since its debut at the 1988 Games, the Jamaican bobsleigh team has been an iconic fan favourite.

The men’s team failed to qualify for this year’s tournament, but all wasn’t lost for Jamaica, as the female bobsleigh team qualified instead, marking their competitive debut on the international stage.

However, the bobsledders’ time in PyeongChang has been all but plain sleighing. The campaign was beset by off-the-slope disunity and a frosty team spirit, which resulted in the mid-tournament resignation of coach Sanda Kiriasis. To make matters even worse, Kiriasis owned the team’s only sled; her departure made their future prospects look incredibly slim.

When it all seemed to be going downhill at near-terminal velocity, Jamaican beer brand Red Stripe stepped in to save the day. The brand reached out to the team via a Twitter @ mention with the generous proposal of gifting them a brand new sled of their own with no strings attached, which was a sizable financial commitment at around £40,000. An amusing Twitter exchange between the brand and team ensued:

https://twitter.com/RedStripeUSA/status/964169363854151680

https://twitter.com/RedStripeUSA/status/964539273079939072

Eurosport dances on the ice with Wasserman

The advent of social media changed the relationship between sports and its fans forever. Today, 24/7 coverage and content creation from teams and journalists alike means there’s never been less of a delay between a newsworthy event happening and fans knowing about it.

To this end, sports media giant Eurosport saw the 2018 Winter Olympics as a chance to deliver the first ever completely digitalised Olympic Games.

Eurosport partnered with global ad agency Wasserman, and subdivision Cycle Media, to conceptualise and execute a compelling ‘always on’ digital strategy for the brand’s social portfolio, creating highly responsive content for fans’ entertainment and driving huge volumes of reach and engagement for the Eurosport social channels.

Jonathan Davies, managing director of advertiser partnerships at Eurosport, said that ‘this partnership brings together Eurosport’s outstanding Olympic Games content and audiences with Cycle’s cutting-edge creativity in the social space – giving brands the opportunity to produce bespoke content that engages with younger audiences in new and innovative ways’.

See a few examples of the content they produced below!

NBC calls for an Uber (and sends a Snap)

Eurosports have led the way in European coverage of the Games, and NBC have been putting in a similar shift for their North American viewers, reporting on the action around the clock and creating digital content for users to interact with.

To place their content in front of as wide an audience as possible, the broadcast organisation partnered with global transport company Uber, in a digital campaign that enabled Uber passengers to access exclusive NBC highlights and interviews from the Uber app while in transit.

‘We’re excited to partner with Uber to reach Olympic fans on the go’, said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. ‘Through great partner platforms such as Uber, NBC is able to fuel the Olympic excitement by surrounding the American audience with the great moments and stories unfolding in Pyeongchang.’

To complement this, NBC have also become the world’s first company to directly stream Olympic action through Snapchat.

‘We do believe that the best place to watch a live game and a live awards show is on television’, Ben Schwerin, vice president of partnerships at Snap, told The Wall Street Journal. ‘But if we can show the one moment that matters most on Snapchat, we think we can create a complementary experience’.

It’s interesting to see how the world’s biggest digital channels take to the phenomenon of streaming live events and matches; we’re sure this is something that will only grow more and more prevalent in the build-up to this summer’s World Cup.

P&G pushes back against prejudice with emotional TV spot

P&G, one of the world’s biggest brands, haven’t strayed far from the advertising industry’s spotlight recently, amid repeated threats from CEO Marc Pritchard to reduce P&G’s ad spend unless marketers could demonstrate greater ROI (spoiler alert: marketers did just that).

However, the brand – an Olympic Games official partner – recently demonstrated how on-point their advertising strategy so often is with an incredibly moving TV ad celebrating the diversity of the tournament’s myriad competitors.

It’s a brilliant piece of creative, which masterfully gets right the precarious equilibrium of channeling emotion and becoming overly sentimental whilst championing a powerful and relevant message.

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next month with more.

Content Marketing Predictions for 2018

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

As one year ends, another begins.

Throughout the month, join Fusion’s SEO, social and content teams as they explore how 2018 will shape up for digital marketing.

To start, we’ve identified the challenges of the year ahead and how the content we’re creating will change in response to developments both inside and outside our field.

Closing the book on machines

For a large part of SEO’s history, keywords have been an essential part of Google’s ranking equation.

Initially (and in the most basic of terms), if a site contained myriad mentions of the word ‘cat’, Google’s crawlers—its machine readers which continuously scan the web for new pages and changes in sites’ infrastructure—would determine it to be a useful source of cat-related content and raise its ranking position for cat relevant search queries accordingly.

Because of this, many SEOs would create content that tactically targeted keywords with an extremely close focus, which was often at the cost of scansion and readability. In essence, content was being created to be legible not for humans but Google’s bookworm machines.

Over the years, Google’s algorithm has been continuously refined, to the extent where ranking determination has become the responsibility of an incredibly sophisticated artificial intelligence, which is capable of judging content quality with a critical eye that’s very similar to human thought.

As entertaining as it might have been for Google’s hivemind to tirelessly wade through gigabyte upon gigabyte of keyword-dense articles, Google has now decided to minimise the bearing of keyword presence on ranking position. If a site’s content is unsuitable for human comprehension, Google will now deem its value to be much lower and ranking will be lowered in kind.

This marks a major (and much-needed) change to the field. Ranking will now be much harder to game through content that focuses solely on uncompetitive keywords and high-volume search queries. Instead, in order to have the desired SEO effect and be high quality, content must provide genuine insight that’s intelligible for human readers.

Following this, we expect all content writers to turn towards longer form pieces, covering articles comprehensively rather than merely flooding pages with now inert keywords. As a consequence, the web should become much richer with higher quality content, which will be great for both brands and users alike.

Lights, cameras, content

In line with the changes to Google’s algorithmic thinking, it’s evident today that legibility and content delivery are more crucial considerations in shaping quality content than ever before.

Traditionally, blogposts have been the most common way of providing web users with information. While we don’t expect them to vanish from the net, we anticipate another format to soon enter the ascendancy across both desktop and mobile browsers: video.

Chiefly, this is because video has one unique advantage over prose: the capacity for delivering information to your audience with greater flair and creativity. This is particularly apparent if your content features the involvement of influential figures – be they social media influencers or star names.

An excellent example of high standards of branded video is the digital offering of current Premier League leaders Manchester City, whose creative form is almost on par with their footballing ability.

City recently became the first team in the UK to accrue one million followers on YouTube, with an account that regularly posts varied and engaging content featuring a range of their star players and staff, such as tunnel footage before and after matches, unique interviews with players and humorous (and slightly off-kilter) seasonal content, like a Christmas singalong with Kolarov.

The channel combines ‘the creativity of De Bruyne, the execution of Aguero and the intelligence of Guardiola‘, said Tomos Grace, YouTube’s head of sport.

In addition, it’s arguable that no form of content has showcased a greater potential for reach than video has in recent years. These could come through social shares to users’ news feeds and timelines or native views on platforms such as YouTube; with over one billion users, the site’s visited by a third of web users worldwide.

The transition from still life to moving pictures might not be one that brands need to do straight away. Nevertheless, we anticipate that video in coming years will become more and more of a feature of brands’ creative output and content budgets.

ASA demands greater diversity – and brands need to listen

While Google has started to pay more attention to human reading, many of the world’s biggest brands and watchdogs have begun to think more critically about the messages that ads and content are presenting.

One instance of this is new legislation that the Advertising Standards Authority will enforce this year, set to punish campaigns featuring the representation of harmful gender stereotypes.

After undertaking a review of the effect of harmful stereotypes on viewers, the ASA has found that ‘harmful stereotypes can restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults’.

‘These stereotypes can be reinforced by some advertising, which therefore plays a part in unequal gender outcomes, with costs for individuals, the economy and society’.

These ads are not just negatively impactful – they’re also negatively received. A survey undertaken last September by global ad agency Havas Creative found that 47.8% of UK television viewers ‘resented’ ads presenting negative stereotypes, with women agreeing more strongly than men (at 50% and 45.2% respectively).

It’s clear that negative stereotyping not only puts brands in jeopardy with the UK’s advertising authorities; it builds distrust between the UK’s brands and customers.

Think about your creative content and ads. Are there areas in which your content could be more inclusive of a wider spectrum of people?

Come back next week where our social team will cover what 2018 has in store for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more!

Content Case Study: Spotify’s 2017 Wrapped

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

2017 has been a happening time for digital content: Wendy’s broke the retweets record; the world began reacting to the proliferation of suspect news; Twitter doubled its character count; and the world’s biggest brands continued capturing our imaginations through brilliant campaigns, as content proved that it firmly remains the king.

One of today’s greatest producers of digital content is leading music streaming service Spotify. From quirky Times Square billboards to esoteric partnerships with leading franchises like Stranger Things, its creative campaigns have continuously made headlines and captured the popular imagination.

Last month, Spotify rolled out 2017 Wrapped – its end of the year campaign – which may well be their best to date. The campaign collates each user’s top one hundred most played songs of 2017 into single playlists, and as users keenly published their enigmatic soundtracks to the year, these quickly filled the web.

Read on for our analysis of how 2017 Wrapped wrapped up Spotify’s 2017 so brilliantly.

Excellent presentation leaves excellent impressions

We’re all well familiar with the age old aphorism of never judging books by their covers. Nevertheless,  at a point in time when the Internet is brimming with curated content, and users’ attention spans are becoming slimmer and slimmer for engaging with the same, it’s crucial for content to lead immediately with points of interest that compel.

2017 Wrapped’s visual elements are perfect.  The campaign is centered on a micro-site with a homepage that’s animated, interactive and full of colour and life, which is accompanied by compelling copy that brings a sense of immediacy and gives the tool purpose. With conviction, it states: ‘In a year that many wanted to tune out, music gave us a reason to keep listening’.

It’s great for your campaign activity to be telling a rich story or glowing with meaningful content. However, it’s key for there to be high visual quality to match, to ensure that users engage with your work in the first instance.

Find what your audience loves

Spotify’s USP is how it allows users to freely listen to the songs that they want to hear, in playlists they curate, in orders they arrange.

It’s quickly obvious that the personal preferences of its listeners lies at the heart of the service.

2017 Wrapped links into these very same sentiments, creating content that’s unique to every user, which means that they’re more inclined to engage with the content.

Think about what motivations inspire engagement with your business or service. How could your content provide for them?

Increase engagement opportunities by going one step further

As extra elements of the campaign, Spotify included self-curated playlists covering the year’s most popular hits, such as ‘UK Top Female Artists 2017’, ‘UK Top Male Artists 2017’ and ‘Top Groups of 2017 ‘, and a quiz testing your knowledge of your listening habits.

By no means were these the main drivers of user interest. However, they proved to be simple ways of increasing the campaign’s breadth, which required minimal effort to make and expanded the opportunities for engagement.

Identify unique opportunities to create unique user experiences

2017 Wrapped creates Spotify playlists using data that none of Spotify’s competitors can access.

As such, the deliverables that 2017 Wrapped returns are genuinely original – they’ve never happened before and there’s nothing like them – which is an incredibly valuable asset at a time when every brand is competing for attention and clicks.

Netflix’s recent social activity has taken a similar direction, combining its data with inventive copy to hit enormous engagement figures on social:

Whilst GDRP need to be closely adhered to, think about the data you have that could be made into meaningful content. Be sure to make the most of the opportunity!

And let users share their results

Once a user has generated their playlist, they’re able to share it to their social feeds.

Though each share has a relatively microscopic reach, on a macrocosmic level they fulfill an essential branding purpose, as each sharing user becomes a brand advocate promoting Spotify’s created content to new audiences, driving expansive visibility and facilitating new user engagement opportunities.

When you’ve made excellent content that tells a compelling story, be sure for it to be easily sharable. Beyond anything else, your excellent work deserves all the reach it can get!

We’ll be back in 2018 to cover all the wonderful content the New Year has in store. In the meantime, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!  

We went to Facebook Blueprint Live

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

This November we attended Facebook Blueprint Live, an interactive training day exploring practical advice for running a successful Facebook advertising campaign, including tips for developing creative ideas that will stand out on competitive news feeds.

Defining goals

There are many objectives Facebook marketing can achieve:

  • Brand awareness – make as many potential customers aware of your brand as possible
  • Reach – put your brand in front of relevant audiences who may be interested in your products or services
  • Traffic – generate visits to your site
  • Video views – encourage users to watch your video to the end
  • Lead generation – collect information about people who are interested in your business to follow up with later
  • Store visits – increase foot traffic to bricks and mortar shopping destinations
  • Local awareness – promote your brand to residents and visitors in the immediate area
  • App installs – encourage as many people as possible to install your app on their smartphone
  • And website conversions –stimulate your brand’s digital sales

For many clients, conversions are the main consideration (and the main way return on investment is measured). However, it’s not advisable to go straight for conversions as an initial goal. Not all users will be at the conversion (or even consideration) point of the sales funnel when your ad reaches them, so, strategically, it makes sense to begin by raising brand awareness, then retarget users who engaged with your content, and then engage this even smaller pool with sales focused content to prompt a conversion.

Using video in Facebook advertising

Facebook Blueprint Live

One of the key messages we took from Blueprint Live is that video content is the present, rather than the future, and that social agencies should be putting video firmly at the focus of current content strategies.

According to Facebook, the average advertising video is 15 seconds or shorter. So, aim for brevity and directness when creating video content. The challenge is to tell a compelling story in limited time, encourage users to watch right until the end, and create a video that ‘fits’ naturally onto your target users’ timelines.

This clever example of a snappy video ad from Taco Bell lampoons the incredibly popular ‘Tasty’ instructional cooking videos and is a good example of a familiar yet unique take on a sponsored video post:

Think vertical

Unlike traditional TV advertising, the vast majority of mobile videos are optimised vertically, rather than horizontally, which means all photos and videos should be shot with this in mind. When creating video or creative content for Facebook, work mobile first, ensuring the experience for smartphone users is perfect, and then worry about optimising for desktop.

Hit the target

Amazing creative without clever targeting is doomed to fail. Strategic targeting of different audiences can present an opportunity to tailor creative to each demographic. For example: a jewellery brand may want to advertise its products directly to an affluent female audience, as well as targeting men with ads focused on gifting.

Delight without sound

Videos on Facebook auto play without sound, but Facebook says that 60% of brands still create videos that cannot be understood without audio.

When creating video ads, either ensure that the narrative can be understood without sound, or include clear subtitles right from the first frame.

The below video from Hotels.com is a brilliant example of knowingly acknowledging the limitations of silent videos, while encouraging viewers to watch right to the end of the clip:

Three second window

The average time to scroll a full screen on a smartphone is 2.7 seconds, giving advertisers a 3 second or lower window to catch the attention of notoriously fickle social media audiences.

Younger audiences scroll even quicker, giving advertisers just 2 seconds to stop the scroll and encourage users to engage. For video content, this means creating an opening shot that sparks curiosity immediately and avoiding drawn out introductions (or introductions in general).

GIFs and Cinemagraphs

Video may be the present (and future), but they are also extremely expensive to produce.  A handy compromise to add movement to your advertising posts is using GIFs and cinemagraphs – short, repeating videos with subtle animation that doesn’t require as much time or budget as a full length video. Check out some examples of this below:

The task

Facebook Blueprint Playbook

We were split into groups and given a task to create a social media advertising campaign for a randomly selected client. The task was split into several stages, culminating with a presentation about our campaign in front of the attendees and judged by a panel (incentivised with a mystery prize for the winning teams).

Each table received a brief from a fictional institution. In our case, it was from Wright Bank, a made-up financial company with a broad range of products (no frills credit cards, car insurance, retirement plans) and a fifty-year legacy within the UK.

Targeting

Targeting was our first important consideration – we created our customer personas based on the goals and products of the client. In my team’s case this was:

  • Young people looking to build credit with a no frills credit card
  • Couples looking for a great deal on a mortgage
  • Older consumers looking ahead to retirement plans

Creative

The creative for our campaign involved focusing on the young adult and college student audience to boost awareness and conversions, which manifested itself in a video wherein a 20-25-year-old’s head was placed on an infant’s body – an admittedly bizarre concept in the cold light of day.

The concept was intended to be surreal enough to stand out on a news feed within a few seconds, and to acknowledge the infantilising effect that financial insecurity can have for young people, presenting the credit card as a means of escaping this.

Presentation

We presented our ideas to the group (our illustrations of ‘the credit card kid’ raised a few laughs/eyebrows depending on the individual), which went down a treat. We weren’t the most polished of teams, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves in the creation of the campaign. And so…

Facebook Blueprint Flask

To the (third joint) victor, the spoils. We capped the day off by winning an extremely practical prize in the form of this Facebook flask.

All in all, a useful, enlightening experience, and a chance to gain insights about Facebook’s advertising platform straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. If you want to learn more about Facebook advertising, check out Facebook Blueprint for resources and advice for all skill levels.

Social Media Roundup: October

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Make a cuppa and take five minutes of your day to find out all about last month’s most notable developments in social media, courtesy of Fusion’s social team!

Facebook

Facebook’s main changes last month involved the introduction of several new features to its group functionality.

New additions include:

  • Automated welcome posts that admins can use to personally welcome new members to communities.
  • Badges that make admins’ and different members’ roles easily identifiable.
  • Group member profiles, outlining users’ interests, upcoming events and past contributions. For many users, groups form a major part of their Facebook experience. It’s great to see Facebook’s commitment to improving the service and making groups more inclusive than ever.

Simultaneously, the service announced new measures for tackling the proliferation of suspect political ads, which posed a major problem during the 2016 US election.

Firstly, Facebook will soon require all political advertisers to verify their identities before allowing them to post, which will minimise the influence of anonymous users. Simultaneously, they will ask advertisers to disclose political ads’ affiliations within the ad copy, making political posts easier to spot. Any posts in breach of these standards will be detected automatically through Facebook’s machine learning technology.

To complement this from a user’s perspective, Facebook will also introduce a ‘View Ads’ button which will enable users to see every ad that a page is running. It’s another way of increasing pages’ accountability for their campaigns.

All these changes will be rolled out in Canada next year, and introduced in the US in time for the 2018 midterm elections.

Twitter

Twitter faced similar criticism for its failure to moderate a high volume of low-quality ads. Like Facebook, they too have refined their services to improve ad standards and transparency.

To tackle the issue of political ads, Twitter has created a new template specifically for electioneering posts. These will look different to typical display ads. As on Facebook, they’ll need to clearly state their political affiliation.


Twitter’s vision of how the new electioneering ads will appear. (Credit: Twitter)

As a larger scale commitment, Twitter has also launched what it’s called its Transparency Centre. This will enable users to see:

  • All ads that are running on the service
  • How long ads have been running
  • All ad creative associated with campaigns that you are being targeted by
  • And personal information on which ads you are eligible to be serve

It’s interesting to see both channels’ responses to what’s been a crisis for the industry. We’re keen to find out how they continue developing these aspects of their service in the future.

Instagram

Last month, Instagram added two new features to help users create particularly quirky content.

For Halloween, the channel introduced a range of hair-raising stickers and frightening face-changing filters. Users were able to shapeshift into many of the season’s spookiest staples, such as bats, ghouls, zombies and more:

https://twitter.com/instagram/status/923592909403885568

They also added a comical camera effect called Super Zoom. When pressed, the camera suddenly zooms in, as an appropriately dramatic soundtrack plays in the background to set the scene:

https://twitter.com/instagram/status/923658815555493890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ffortune.com%2F2017%2F10%2F28%2Finstagram-update-superzoom-halloween%2F

Instagram has also kept up the pressure on rival mobile app Snapchat by introducing a new live-streaming feature called ‘Go Live With’. This allows live-streaming users to invite others to feature within their stream. For influencers and their fans this will create new opportunities for engagement and live content creation. We’re intrigued to see how the channel’s biggest stars respond!

Join us next month for more!

Halloween Campaigns Round-up

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Post-Halloween greetings from Fusion Content. It’s been the season to be scary. The world’s biggest brands and content creators headed outside to trick and treat, as campaign activity took a frightening turn towards the paranormal.

Now that the pumpkin lanterns are well and truly out, read on for the best examples of Halloween marketing this year.

Stranger Things turns the internet Upside Down (spoiler free!)

The Internet loves talking about what it’s been watching. In recent months, few series have received more hype than the newest Stranger Things. Netflix released the show’s second season on October the 27th.

As a goldmine of pop culture throwbacks and retro references, the series presented super partnership opportunities to a range of brands:

SPOTIFY

Spotify allowed users to find out which Stranger Things characters share their musical tastes. Firstly, they tailored playlists to the season’s main characters’ preferences. Then, they compared them with users’ listening histories. Options ranged from the Demogorgon’s Upside Downers to Eleven’s Breakfast Jams!

TOPSHOP

Topshop converted their flagship Oxford Street branch into a Stranger Things shrine. They recreated a range of the show’s most iconic locations, such as Hawkins Lab, the games arcade and the Byers’ heavily graffitied living room:

https://twitter.com/Topshop/status/925044696182910977

https://twitter.com/Topshop/status/924621868526653441

KELLOGG’S EGGO

These are the snack of choice of one of Stranger Things’ most iconic characters. Since series two arrived, the Eggo Twitter has practically become a Stranger Things fan account (with a few outrageously bad puns thrown into the mix):

All of these are instances of brands imaginatively tapping into mainstream pop culture events to create relevant and timely marketing. Kellogg’s activity is an especially excellent example. By capitalising on Eggo’s sudden uplift of pop culture relevance, and crafting a social strategy around it, they’ve been able to grow their brand in a new direction for a widened and younger audience.

Svedka Vodka uses display ads to haunt the internet

Svedka Vodka took an unconventional but eerily brilliant approach to its Halloween-themed marketing, which combined creative activity and remarketing to possess users’ social feeds with spooky Svedka Vodka content.

The campaign began by serving clickbait Halloween-themed cocktail recipes on users’ feeds. However, all wasn’t as it seemed. If a user clicked they link, they’d instead be spirited away to a video proclaiming that the curse had been laid:

From then on, they would be shown a cocktail of creepy banner ads. Geotargeting and retargeting methods made the curses uncannily unique: users in New York would be served New York specific ads, for instance.

And the user could only lift the curse by sharing one of the clickbait articles from Svedka Vodka’s Halloween hub. The curse would pass on to their friends and the cycle would begin again!

The brand’s multi-channel strategy created a memorable, outside-of-the-box campaign. Whilst we wouldn’t normally advocate shaping a digital strategy around hexing your audience, it certainly paid dividends on this occasion!

Burger King clowns around with McDonald’s and IT

Like Kellogg’s Eggos, Burger King’s Halloween content tied into pop culture happenings. Yet, rather than using pop culture to promote their own product, Burger King used it instead to take a swipe at a rival. The target? Historic arch-nemesis, Ronald McDonald.

This Halloween, BK invited the world to dress-up as scary clowns and, in many of its biggest locations (such as Leicester Square), offered free burgers as a reward. The campaign’s motto summarised the endeavour succinctly: ‘Never trust a clown’.

This isn’t the first time that Burger King has trolled its competitors in its Halloween content. Last year, one outlet dressed up as McDonalds’ ghost:


Credit: AdWeek

Nevertheless, it’s an inventive approach that capitalised on a seasonal opportunity to create conversations and serve up buzz around the brand at a competitor’s expense (which is risky, but fits within Burger King’s wider brand identity).

Come back next month, where we’ll be chatting all things Christmas!

Knightsbridge Furniture Appoints Fusion Unlimited as New SEO Partner

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Fusion Unlimited are delighted to have been appointed as the new SEO partner of Knightsbridge Furniture.

Knightsbridge are market leaders in producing high quality and bespoke B2B furniture solutions. Their specialism is furnishing hospitality and healthcare locations. They’ve been based in nearby Bradford for over eighty years.

Fusion met with Knightsbridge to discuss the performance of their digital channels. With extensive experience of B2B SEO, we outlined a clear vision for improving the company’s holistic digital approach, and succinctly presented the expertise that we can bring to the table.

Our proposal met a glowing response. ‘We loved Fusion’s expertise and commitment to detailed planning’, said Knightsbridge Furniture CEO Alan Towns. ‘Their pitch showed us that they understood exactly what our business is hoping to achieve, alongside a proven track record of success in B2B markets.

Fusion has strong experience working with big names in our target sectors and we’re confident that their in-depth strategy will achieve real results’.

Craig Broadbent, Fusion Unlimited Technical Director, said: ‘We’re really looking forward to applying our specialist B2B SEO knowledge to Knightsbridge. There are clear search marketing opportunities within the contract furniture market and we’re delighted to be partnering with Knightsbridge in the next stage of their growth’.

Working with Knightsbridge is an exciting opportunity. We look forward to helping the company grow online and enjoy all of the benefits that a best-in-class SEO strategy can bring.

September Campaigns Roundup

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

From a LADbible campaign asking the UN to recognise a country made from trash, to Cristiano Ronaldo showing he’s as good at marketing football as playing it, Fusion Content round up five of September’s best campaigns.

Unicef drives empty school busses through New York streets to highlight children’s education in war zones

Unicef estimates that around 27 million children aged 6-15 are unable to access an education due to the immanent threats of war and conflict. In the run-up to last month’s UN General Assembly, they combined with non-profit ad agency KBS in a creative campaign that poignantly illustrated the statistic by driving twenty-seven empty school busses through the streets of New York, bearing banners like ‘Books not bombs’ and ‘Avoiding land mines shouldn’t be an extracurricular activity’ and carrying just one passenger, Muzoon Almellehan, a Syrian refugee whose family fled the country’s civil war in 2013.

The busses brought the statistic to life with an appropriate urgency. Their convoy almost resembled a blockade as they drove sombrely towards the UN building, slowing down traffic and creating physical space in which the issue was able to become present and enter public consciousness.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZKNHoclIE4/?taken-by=unicef

Netflix gestures to the Upside Down in zany Stranger Things cease-and-desist letter (and shows us all how to do our monitoring)

From Narcos-inspired ads in nightclub toilets to giant billboards declaring ‘Netflix is a joke’, Netflix’s marketing strategy has lately been relatively out-there. They’re doing it incredibly well.

One of the company’s most recent successes showed succinctly how a creative strategy shouldn’t just be targeting big wins, as they turned a cease and desist letter into a brilliant basis for content:

The letter addressed to a Stranger Things based pop-up bar lacking the studio’s authorisation encapsulated the show’s kooky and charming tone to a T. The writer begins by confessing that their ‘walkie talke is busted so I had to write this note instead’, before saying soon after:

Look, I don’t want you to think I’m a total wastoid […] but unless I’m living in the Upside Down, I don’t think we did a deal with you for this pop-up. You’re obviously creative types, so I’m sure you can appreciate that it’s important to us to have a say in how our fans encounter the worlds we build.

This was a deft and elegant way of handling a potentially difficult situation, illustrating how brands can still – when appropriate – keep negative engagements with consumers engaging. ‘We love our fans more than anything,’ it ends, ‘but you should know that the demorgorgon is not always as forgiving. So please don’t make us call your mom’.

LADbible dives in at the deep end in Plastic Oceans campaign

Each year, eight million tonnes of plastic are deposited into the world’s oceans, devastating marine wildlife. The figures are so great that by 2050, scientists anticipate the plastic in the ocean will outweigh the fish. To confront the issue head on, LADbible teamed up with activist group Plastic Oceans and a star-studded line-up of influential names, like Mo Farah, Judi Dench and Ross Kemp, in an outside-of-the-box campaign that sought to make the UN acknowledge the country status of a giant patch of trash in the Pacific Ocean, which they’ve Christened ‘The Trash Isles’.

To be recognised as a country, a region must meet several criteria, and LADbible has ensured that the Trash Isles ticks the boxes: it has a defined region, a newly-formed government, an increasing number of registered residents (vis-à-vis a Change.org petition), is in dialogue with other states, and even has a beautifully designed currency that’s humorously called Debris.

The UN Charter dictates: ‘All members shall co-operate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem’. In other words: because UN member states are responsible for ensuring that member countries are ecologically responsible, gaining membership for the Trash Isles would oblige the UN globally to assist in a clean-up of the ocean.

This is an excellent campaign, supported by influencer campaigns, social media activity and onsite content, by a ground-breaking brand, whose 3.2bn generated views in March this year made them rank as the month’s most popular video creator in the world.

Lyft heads to the Wild West for new prospects as Uber’s stock continues to fall

After becoming embroiled in various scandals and controversies often of its own causing, the last few years for Uber have been a fairly bumpy ride. Their misfortunes have presented a rare opportunity for rival rideshare apps to increase their foothold in the market. To increase their brand’s prominence in relevant conversations, competitor company Lyft has begun honing its brand identity, in a series of humorous ads starring actor Jeff Bridges that tie into the American history of journeying with surreal references to the trends of today.

The ads show actor Jeff Bridges in various Western settings with nods to 21st century pop culture: one sees Bridge’s character sat in the passenger seat declare ‘Shame they haven’t invented the football yet. Sure would be good to have something to talk about’, whilst another sees a passenger texting ‘lol’ through a typewriter.

Capturing a sense of history with tongue-in-cheek flair, the ads demonstrate the worth of taking time to work on fleshing out your brand’s identity itself, rather than solely promoting your products/services. Doing the first can massively help with the latter.

FIFA brings Ronaldo off the bench for ad campaign

Few dates in the video games calendar are more hyped than the release of each year’s new edition of FIFA. This year, the game’s publishers EA Sports brought their marketing strategy literally to life by involving Cristiano Ronaldo, asking him to create his own footballing skill that would be included in the game.

It’s a brilliant example of using an influencer’s input to promote your own material. Fans keep returning to the video game because it enables gamers to embody their favourite football players. Personally involving Ronaldo’s creative input, FIFA has made that connection stronger than ever.

Come back next month, and we’ll see what October had in store!

Halfords Acclaimed for Super Summer

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Whilst the intermittent wet weather of the last two weeks seems set to bring the British summertime to a close, we’ve recently been delighted to see the wide acclaim received by our client Halfords for their exceptional performance throughout the summer, making headlines in leading publications such as Internet Retailing and The Telegraph.

Halfords’ strategy focused on the on-trend phenomenon of staycations. Growing numbers of British families are swapping ten-hour flights for fish ‘n chips and pitching their tents a little closer to home. As one of the UK’s leading suppliers of holiday-making must-haves like sleeping bags, tents, bikes and roof-racks, it was essential for Halfords’ voice to be at the heart of the conversation.

In collaboration with Halfords’ internal teams, we implemented a cross-channel strategy to bring Halfords’ vision to life. With the objective of maintaining and increasing Halfords’ visibility for the camping category, we sought to create compelling content to drive organic visibility and secure coverage with major publications and features on high-quality lifestyle blogs. Production of an interactive camping guide whilst working alongside influencers to produce unique stories and advice helped Halfords increase SoV by 3.86% with over 50 pieces of coverage. Additionally, we supported staycation-specific products with promotional PPC ad copy to harness intent driven by the wider content strategy. Granular Shopping structure allowed dynamic support of key products during peak periods.

Image of Halfords' camping guide by Fusion Unlimited
A snap from our work on the guide! (Halfords)

Revenue-wise, our combined activity provided the brand with a summer to remember. In comparison to the first twenty weeks of the last financial year, total sales rose by 11.2%, revenue from retail services (such as bike repairs and car -part fitting) increased by 18.3%, and overall revenue went up by 4.8%.

Another significant action by the brand was their perfecting of their in-store collection services. 85% of all digital orders are now picked up in Halfords stores, which is important for a brand who specialise in items difficult to ship. The availability enables customers to enjoy the benefits of easy online purchasing whilst minimising the hassle of delivery.

It’s always great to see our clients gain the recognition their efforts deserve, and we’re excited to how our brands’ successes will be received in the future!

Interested in how we can help your brand flourish online? Explore our range of digital services.

Social media roundup: August

Posted on by Nicola Fairchild

August saw a number of updates within social media. From the battle against fake news to new face filters and ad tech updates, here’s a breakdown of the top news from the last month…

Facebook:

In an increasing bid to compete with the likes of Amazon and Netflix with owned video content, Facebook has now rolled out ‘Watch’ to limited users in the US. This new video platform will host video content from a variety of creators and publishers, and aims to bring communities of TV lovers together through engagement, enabling audiences to see comments and connect with friends or other fans whilst watching the shows that they love.

A reported $1B investment on original shows next year would put Facebook in a similar ballpark to the likes of HBO, illustrating their commitment to the endeavour. The Watch tab, which is available across mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps, will also provide a new stream of ad revenue for both Facebook and its partners, who will take 45% and 55% of the ad revenue respectively. 2018 certainly looks set to be an interesting year in the world of video content – ‘watch’ this space!

In August, Facebook also took further steps in its on-going battle against fake news and misleading content. In order to maintain the integrity of information on the platform, Facebook will now be demoting posts that feature fake video play buttons as well as static images disguised as video. The aim of this is to reduce click bait stories and prevent deceptive practices which often lead audiences to accidentally click through to low-quality landing pages from their feed.

Furthermore, as a build on their current prevention of ads which link through to false stories, Facebook will now be blocking ads altogether from pages that repeatedly share false content. They will continue to use third-party fact-checkers to deem whether or not content is false, which should ultimately help to prevent both the spreading of harmful misinformation and disrupt any potential economic incentives from doing so.

There have been some notable new Facebook features introduced in the last few weeks, too, many of which seem aimed at bringing people together. For example, it’s now possible to share personalised birthday videos as well as monthly or seasonal memory recap stories.

Usability has been high on the agenda with design updates to improve navigation and readability within the platform. From an engagement and community building perspective, comment styles have been improved to give better visual clarity between comments and direct replies to other comments on a post.

Instagram:

Throughout August, a number of new face filters were made available on Instagram. Many of these provide a bit of light entertainment – such as the new kitten and sparkle filters. You can now also convey your mood through weather-inspired face filters which provide a “fun way to express how you’re feeling”. Other updates are more meaningfully inspired by the diverse community of Instagram users – such as a rainbow light filter.

New functionality has also been introduced to improve conversations within Instagram. Comment threads have been added – helping users to keep track of conversations, and making it easier to respond to a specific thread. In an effort to utilise the visual nature of the platform to improve conversations, users can now reply to specific videos, photos and reshared posts in Direct with photos and videos.

Finally, with over 250 million daily users, it’s no surprise that Stories continues to be a core focus for Instagram, and the latest development sees Stories become available on the mobile web, so that even more users can enjoy watching Stories from friends, influencers and brands alike.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn has joined the growing ad ecosystem with the launch of its own Audience Network (LAN). This will allow advertisers to buy inventory outside LinkedIn itself, whilst still utilising the platforms demographic data – placing ads across a huge network of mobile sites and apps. The LinkedIn Audience Network was introduced in beta at the beginning of the year and is now set to roll out across English-speaking countries.

It seems an obvious business move given the depth of personal information shared by users within the platform, and the ad tech will now provide organisations with valuable retargeting capabilities as well as the potential to build out larger audiences for marketing activity and content. This is just one of many developments since Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn – and we’re sure there will be many more to come as it looks to increase revenue from its Marketing Solutions.

August Campaigns Roundup

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

As the Internet catches its breath after last season’s Game of Thrones, and ‘winter is coming’ becomes more and more of a reality, the greatest minds in digital marketing continue to produce buzzing campaigns and pique the attention of the Internet.

A tea giant ran a giveaway in their cricket whites, the National Gallery introduced Van Gogh to Facebook, and an airline produced its own take on John Cage’s 4″33. Read on for five digital media happenings that caught the attention of Fusion’s content team last month!

1) Yorkshire Tea hits the content for six

In the build-up to last month’s match between England and the West Indies at our very own Headingley Stadium, an inspired Yorkshire Tea competition asked entrants to film themselves bowling their teabag into their cuppa as spectacularly as possible.

The prizes didn’t stray far from the wickets. The lucky winners received VIP tickets to the game, a signed cricket bat, and the opportunity to chat with legendary English cricketer Michael Vaughan.

The competition benefited the brand in several ways: it enabled them to highlight their Yorkshire roots and tap into pop culture interests, whilst encouraging the creation of unique user generated content that created animated conversations on social media.

2) Vincent Van Gogh gets social with the National Gallery and Facebook

Recently, Vincent Van Gogh has enjoyed an unlikely pre-eminence in digital media. In February, Airbnb partnered with the Art Institute of Chicago to build a real life version of his iconic painting ‘The Bedroom’, making it available for art-minded guests to stay in. Now, he’s starred at the heart of a foray into VR by the UK’s National Gallery, who used Facebook Live to host a virtual exhibition that united his legendary ‘Sunflowers’ paintings – displayed in galleries all over the world – for the first time in their history.

The exhibition functioned as a relay between five galleries. Each had fifteen minutes to present their own portrait to the audience, before passing the impressionist baton on to the next.

‘We launched our first Facebook Live a year ago’, said Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the Gallery. ‘They’ve been growing in popularity ever since, so we are delighted to be teaming up with galleries all over the world and Facebook for the first ever live relay focusing on Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’. This collaboration is a key step in the National Gallery’s Digital Strategy, which will see us fully explore the potential of immersive media to create new ways of experiencing art’.

The joint effort provides a wonderful example of a brand capitalising on the new opportunities that new channels present to create unique, ground-breaking content. We’re excited to see how marketers will pick up on Facebook’s Live availability in the future!

3) easyJet gets ambient with charity album

Musically, August delivered a fairly happening month for the airwaves: Leeds and Reading Festival came and went, as thousands of starry-eyed festival-goers discovered the invention of the beer bong and depleted the country’s Frosty Jack’s, whilst Taylor Swift deleted her social media channels, before springing back with a new single which remained very Taylor Swift. However, what piqued our interest the most was the astonishing arrival of an ambient album from easyJet, with the release of their two-song EP titled ‘Jet Sounds’.

This wasn’t the sign of a change of heart for the airline brand, but a clever example of a zany, high quality campaign. It followed the UK Sleep Council’s recent findings that 22% of the population get a poor quality of sleep, and their recommendation that one way to remedy this is by listening to white noise before we go to bed – a monotonous and droning sound that soothes our minds and eases out distractions. As the low humming of an aircraft’s engines meets these criteria exactly, the airline decided to record two tracks of it on a plane flying from Gatwick to Nice!

All of the release’s proceeds go to The Children’s Sleep Charity. If you’re feeling a little tired yourself, or just fancying some Boeing 737 beats to liven up your weekend predrinks, check out the album on iTunes here.

4) Airbnb criticised over email marketing campaign

After the devastation of flooding in Houston by Hurricane Harvey, Airbnb waived rental fees across the city, enabling hosts to let out their properties for free and provide shelter to the tens of thousands of people left homeless. However, the company simultaneously received criticism for the poor timing of a concurrent email campaign which promoted an opportunity for holidaymakers to stay in a ‘floating world’, spending a trip in a home on the sea ‘without touching dry land’.

Striking too much of a chord with the events unfolding in Texas, the brand received an overwhelmingly negative backlash on social media:

An Airbnb spokesperson said: ‘The timing of this email marketing campaign was insensitive and we apologise for that. We continue to keep everyone affected by Harvey and all the first responders and their families in our thoughts’.

Whilst Airbnb has thorough disaster response measures, it’s essential for all brands to ensure that their content schedule remains suitably responsive to current events.

5) The North Face challenges Trump’s wall in campaign championing social mobility

Since Trump’s election as President of the USA, talk of the border wall with Mexico continues to dominate the headlines. Leading outerwear brand The North Face alluded to it heavily in their latest campaign, cleverly titled ‘Walls Are Meant for Climbing’.

Integral to the brand’s campaign are themes of unity and community-building, opposing the barriers that divide us. ‘Some people build walls. Other people climb them’, says the print copy. Whilst there’s no direct mentioning of White House policy, the reference’s political elements are readily apparent.

On a less metaphorical and more practical level, the campaign centres on the brand’s objective of making climbing more universally available. They’ve invested fairly heavily to do this: they donated $1,000,000 to the USA’s Trust for Public Land, for them to build climbing walls and facilities in public spaces across the country, and partnered with gyms across the world to establish August the 19th as a global day of climbing, allowing people to climb, for a day, for free.

The North Face’s campaign placed the brand within an important, relevant and politicised conversation, which – as shown by Pepsi earlier this year – can be a risky line for brands to tread. When doing this, it’s essential for the brand to support marketing efforts with practical and impactful activity. Here, however, the North Face accomplishes this impeccably.

Come back next month for more!

July Campaigns Round-up

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

July proved to be a busy month on the football pitch: the England women’s team demonstrated superb quality throughout the European Cup, defeating France for the first time in forty-three years to reach the quarter finals, before losing 3-0 to a clinical Netherlands side in the semis, whilst various high profile moves have consistently dominated the headlines.

Lest we get too carried away, last month was busy for content, too: some campaigns gloriously hit the back of the net, whilst others variably missed the mark. Join us for post-match highlights of last month’s campaign activity and trends!

Converse goes back to school

Amidst the new trailers for the second season of Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown, one of the show’s star actresses, has been making headlines all of her own, teaming up with Converse for a quirky back to school campaign titled ‘First Day Feels’:

Big Spaceship, the agency behind the campaign, converted the video into a range of GIFs, to be shared by leading relevant publications such as Buzzfeed and Teen Vogue.

Converse win feels boom success GIF

It’s a neat example of a brand creating compelling content by combining with a key influencer who bears enormous appeal to target audience.

Converse reaction crying upset cry GIF

Simultaneously, with her performance as Eleven fresh in our memories, Bobby Brown creates a great link between the brand and the Stranger Things series – a show that perfectly hits the retro notes that Converse are looking to replicate.

Whilst Tourism Ireland heads to Westeros

For years, vast parts of HBO’s iconic series Game of Thrones have been shot in Ireland. To commemorate the launch of season seven, Tourism Ireland immortalised the exploits of the series’ characters in a gigantic artwork based on the Bayeux Tapestry. At a colossal seventy-seven metres long, it’s actually seven metres longer than the original!

The artwork is available online in all its glory. The physical original is on show in Belfast’s Ulster Museum.

Football gets creative with transfer announcements

As cheques matching the GDP of small countries continue changing hands, the world’s leading football teams have decided to replicate their investment on the pitch with their creative endeavours off of it, producing imaginative, weird and wonderful videos to announce their new signings’ arrivals.

In particularly dramatically notes, Sevilla announced the return of their former captain Jesus Navas:

Whilst last month, Chelsea humorously revealed the signing of AS Roma’s Antonio Rüdiger:

https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/884064814150111233

Of all teams contesting for creative premiership, however, AS Roma look set to clinch the metaphorical title, passing deftly to absurdity in their surreal announcements of Başakşehir midfielder Cengiz Ünder and Manchester City full-back Viktor Kolarov.

For Ünder, Roma’s fancy announcement video parodies the concept of YouTube highlights reels:

https://twitter.com/ASRomaEN/status/886495642968838144

For Kolarov, Roma’s fancy announcement video parodies the concept of, well, fancy announcement videos:

https://twitter.com/ASRomaEN/status/888873801831727104

Airbnb and Audi link up for Bayern Munich giveaway

As one of the world’s leading companies, it makes sense that Airbnb’s campaigns should rank amongst the best. Recently, we covered Airbnb’s partnership with a Chicago gallery that enabled guests to sleep in a real life envisioning of a Van Gogh painting.

Last month, Airbnb partnered with Audi to promote the Audi Cup, a football tournament based in Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, lacing up their imagination and offering one lucky family the chance to sleep for a night on the stadium’s pitch, as the guest of FC Bayern defender, Jerome Boateng.

https://twitter.com/JB17Official/status/886263151045554177

The prize was a holistic Audi and Bayern experience: a driverless Audi A7 collected the winners from the airport and drove them to the stadium, where they were introduced to the Bayern Munich players and given VIP seats for Bayern’s match against Liverpool. After the match, they were able to catch up with Bayern player Jérôme Boateng, one of the world’s best footballers, before getting a good night’s sleep on the green!

Like Converse and Bobby Brown, Audi and Airbnb’s partnership benefitted both brands considerably, especially with football thrown (or rather, kicked) into the mix: both Audi and Airbnb capitalised on promotional opportunities, where their combined contributions strengthened the overall campaign’s effect all the more.

With that, it’s auf Wiedersehn from us! Come back next month for all of August’s content news!

Social Media Roundup: June

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

June’s been another busy month in the social media universe, one where Facebook celebrated Pride Month with a new reaction; Twitter had a makeover and a “pointless” social media app rose to prominence. As ever, we’ve rounded up the biggest news below…

Twitter

The most obvious change of this month has been Twitter’s design overhaul. A number of visual changes have occurred, most notably the new emphasis on curved icons which has caused a headache for a number of brands…

Alongside a host of surface level changes, a new feature updating tweet activity and stats in real time has also been launched, with the aim of emphasising Twitter’s fast paced nature. However, the most important consequence for businesses will be keeping their profiles suitable for the new layout, and ensuring that it meets expectations from their audience’s perspective.

Twitter has also been rolling out action buttons in DM conversations with bots. This new feature allows bots to provide a number of CTA options whilst messaging, in order to facilitate actions taken outside of the conversation. For example, these buttons could open an exterior website link or compose a template tweet related to the conversation that has taken place in DMs. With the focus on bots clearly increasing across multiple social networks, businesses need to think about the ways they could use them as part of their strategy. For instance, thanks to this new update, bots could be used to start a conversation with a specialised customer service account, or to build trust in the brand by linking to relevant, helpful content.

Facebook

You may have noticed a new rainbow reaction on Facebook this month – for those wondering what it’s all about, this is a temporary feature added by Facebook to celebrate Pride Month. This reaction was only available after liking a specific page on Facebook, which implies a high level of malleability with regard to Facebook’s reaction options. As such, there is a chance that this may result in the possibility of branded reactions going forwards, in the same vein Twitter’s branded hashtag emojis, which could represent a particularly strong opportunity for brands looking to build awareness.

Another feature spotted this month (although only in testing), is that users are being encouraged to watch Facebook Live videos on TV screens. This is a clear statement from Facebook, who, given their recent focus on live video, are looking to expand to the TV market and are testing ways to make their content easily accessible on larger screens. It’s worth keeping an eye on future developments in this area, as this will likely become one of Facebook’s next big directions.

Finally, Facebook has expanded its Creative Hub tool, a feature which allows users to mock up adverts to see how they would look on its different advertising platforms. This new update gives the possibility of getting “actionable insights” on creative before an ad goes live. Although it’s not specified exactly how this would be gathered in practice, the ability to get feedback before putting an advert live is a particularly handy tool for new advertisers, and one worth keeping an eye on for the possibility of optimising creative before an ad has even gone live.

Instagram

Instagram have backed away from the ephemeral feeling to their live stream feature, now giving users the ability to share the streams as a Story for the following 24 hours too. This could be the tipping point for more users and brands to use the live stream feature, as the work that they put in could now reach some of Instagram’s 250 million daily users of the Stories feature as well, rather than just disappearing at the end of the stream.

Binky

Finally, with a lot of talk about the metal health issues of social media returning to prominence recently, it’s notable that a new app has risen up based on its, well, pointlessness. Positioned as the antithesis of social media, Binky – which started out as a joke – provides a random feed of posts (or Binks) to interact with, with the ability to like, comment and re-Bink them… all of which does absolutely nothing.

As it’s meant primarily as a satire of social media’s influence, it’s unlikely any business possibilities will come from this, but it’s important to note that this app arises from a general feeling of malaise towards social media and its effects, which may come to influence the industry’s future.

Google Launches Google Posts

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

To a mix of excitement and surprise, Google have launched their new Google Posts feature, allowing all Google My Business customers to microblog directly onto the search results stream, enabling brands to reach their audience with unprecedented ease.

The Google Posts interface was first trialled in January 2016, in the build-up to the US election: Google gave electoral candidates the chance to summarise their responses to pressing political concerns in posts of up to 14,400 characters, and then made those responses visible on relevant search queries.  Searching for issue X, for instance, would show you the stances of politicians Y and Z towards it.

A year and a half later, Google has completely reimagined the tool and expanded its availability, now enabling all businesses to post content directly to the search feed.

Brands’ posts will be visible for up to seven days before they disappear, exhibited in a scrollable carousel that rotates up to ten posts at a time, in a move that encourages businesses to keep their content fresh and vibrant.

Like Facebook and Twitter, posts can be brought to life with images and photography, although the interface doesn’t currently support GIFs or video. There’s a 300 words limit; only the first 100 characters will appear immediately in the Knowledge Panel, encouraging brands to balance creativity and concision when delivering their message.

There’re various ways that posts can be made more actionable: they can be created as ‘events’, causing the content to display for the event’s duration as defined by the user, or they can be rounded off with a call to action, be it a link for users to follow for more information, or an ‘add to cart’ functionality for quick and easy purchasing.

The whole of the interface is superbly tailored for mobile use; it’s clear that mobile search lies at the heart of Google’s bold philosophy and plans for the future.

It ties in beautifully to the company’s ever-expanding focus on local search, empowering small businesses by giving them an even greater opportunity to spread the word of their services through curated content.

Google Posts equally presents a brilliant opportunity to larger multi-location brands, allowing for the publication of bespoke content relating to each store locality.

If there’s going to be an exciting event or a brilliant promotion running in your Leeds’ store, for example, you’ll be able to use Google Posts to advertise it specifically on the Leeds store’s GMB page.

It’s very new, and there’s certainly scope for several of the interface’s features to be improved, such as widening the list of available calls to action and broadening the reach of the Insights module, providing greater information for analysis.

Needless to say, Google Posts is an exciting direction for Google to be heading in, opening another channel for the creation and promotion of content, and one that brands would be wise to think about, too!

Fusion Cannes Lion Roundup

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

When we think of Cannes, we think of films. The stunning gowns and clothes of the awards ceremony, the gilded prizes, the sunshine rippling on red carpet and Hollywood’s brightest glimmering upon it.

Happening each year in May, Cannes Film Festival is one of the most acclaimed and prestigious events in the entertainment calendar. However, that’s not all the lights, cameras and action that the summer has in store for the glamorous Riviera city.

Every June, the Cannes Lions festival celebrates the greatest achievements in content creation across the globe: showbiz meets SEO, acting and Adwords, as best actor morphs into best advert and Spielberg into Google.

Across the many categories, so much of the content that’s been nominated is of an exceptionally high standard. Read on for our five favourite pieces from the Cannes Lions prize winners and nominations!

Chicago Gallery Brings Van Gogh to Life With Airbnb

The bedroom of Vincent Van Gogh’s 1890s’ home in Arles is arguably one of the most famous rooms in the history of art: it’s the subject of three paintings by the Dutch master, the first damaged by river flooding and the second and third painted as ‘repetitions’.

Last year, the Art Institute of Chicago had the unprecedented opportunity of presenting all three versions of Van Gogh’s painting in the same exhibition. In the run up to the event, the Institute partnered with agency Leo Burnett, creating a striking campaign that enabled the world to experience Van Gogh’s masterpieces more vividly than ever before:

The gallery and Leo Burnett commissioned a team of artists and designers to recreate the iconic bedroom as a real room, which they then placed on Airbnb for guests to rent out at just $10 a night, including tickets to the exhibition!

It’s a brilliant instance of an impeccable use of technology, mixed with some phenomenal thinking outside of the box and artistry. Life as art turns to art as life. We love it!

Björk Buzzes As VR Music Video Picks Up Grand Prix for Digital Craft

VR took the plaudits this year in the Digital Craft category, and no-one exhibited a better understanding or application of the increasingly-deployed technology than Björk in the sublime music video for her song ‘NOTGET’.

The jury unanimously praised Björk’s masterful and bold deployment of virtual reality, perceiving the video’s VR elements as being essential to the content’s success, profoundly facilitating the telling of its story.

Previously, brands have been criticised for excessively incorporating VR into their content for limited, novelty purposes, adding an advanced UX to material that may otherwise be completely lacklustre. This year saw content creators really adapting to VR’s opportunities; Google won second place in the category for their VR tech, the Google Tilt Brush.

Bank of Aland’s Green Cards Bloom with the Grand Prix for Cyber Tech

As part of a wider Unesco-supported education programme called ‘The Baltic Sea Project’, the Bank of Aland-who operate throughout Scandinavia-were applauded for their development of environmentally friendly payment cards and awarded the Grand Prix for Cyber in kind.

Made from biodegradable plastic, the cards provide customers with monthly insights into the impact of each transaction on their carbon footprint, advising how they can reduce it in the future.

Overall, it’s a really cool and smart campaign, executed with style and flair, and for a great and relevant cause, too.

Twitter’s Minimalist # Strategy Makes Major Impression

Known for being one of the most happening corners of the Internet, it’s no surprise to see Twitter in the Cannes Lions running. However, you may not be expecting the category in which they won their Grand Prix: Outside Advertising!

Using just the iconic Twitter #, the campaign shows a sophisticated, creative understanding of what it is we think of when we think of Twitter, masterfully and succinctly capturing and reflecting the brand’s essence.

‘Like My Addiction’

The winner of the Direct category was an advert we’ve already covered: Burger King’s iconic, mischievous ‘Google Home of the Whopper campaign’, facing off fierce competition from New York agency McCann and defeating their Fearless Girl statue by just one vote.

Another entrant in the category that caught our eye, and made enormous, continuous impact on the web, was a campaign led by BTEC Paris for French alcohol awareness organisation Addict Aide, titled ‘Like My Addiction’ and based around an influencer: Louise Delage.

From her Insta content, Delage seems like your typical online socialite: a Paris-born bon vivant with over 100,000 followers, jet-setting all across the world to live her flashiest life, regularly uploading stylish content along the way.

Delage’s Instagram presents a person who loves, lives, to party: there’s a drink in literally every photograph, no matter what she’s doing. Her fans followed her revelry with every like, watching her journey through day, night and the early hours.

Here lies the twist: Louise Delage doesn’t exist; she never has. She’s a character that BTEC Paris and Addict Aide created, an online persona on a fake Insta account posting scheduled and studio-crafted content, her social media presence inflated by the use of bot followers and the participation of leading influencers for outreach.

Vividly, and with outstanding creative commitment, the campaign illustrated the difficulty of identifying addiction and reflected back to us-the viewers and users of the Internet-the casual ways in which we can enable such behaviour with every like and share.

May Campaigns Round-up

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

June began with the Champions League final, seeing a scintillating Juventus side square up to a fiery Real Madrid.

The match’s twists and turns made a fitting end for May, which proved to be a high-octane month across the spheres of social media, digital campaigns and content.

We watched a burger brand bravely contest the monarchy of Belgium, a Playstation ad play games with the laws of physics, a shark dramatically steal a 90s popstar’s thunder, and a crisp brand unknowingly create a content piece fusing Gary Lineker with Rebecca Black (a little less conventional than salt and vinegar!).

Read on for post-match highlights, analysis and more of five of the last month’s most noteworthy campaigns!

Walkers wave “the Walkers Wave” goodbye

Walkers’ “Walkers Wave” was an innovative approach to the competition format, but an unfortunate tactical oversight caused the campaign to be abandoned in less than twenty four hours.

The competition, presenting entrants with the opportunity to win tickets for Cardiff’s Champions League final, revolved around user generated content: they asked people to send in a selfie, converted the selfie into a video of the person’s picture being held up by Gary Lineker and then automatically tweeted the video back to the user from Walkers’ verified Twitter account.

The process of posting tweets to Walkers’ feed was automated. Herein lies the fatal flaw, for many of the selfies that were submitted were not actually selfies at all.

The campaign, quickly peaking into virality, witnessed Lineker welcoming into the Wave people that ranged from Joe Biden to Rebecca Black, alongside more unpleasant images such as mugshots of criminals.

A high profile, high cost campaign, Walkers supported online activity with media elements such as supersized displays of the social stream in Cardiff city centre, which unfortunately added all the more publicity to the brand’s own goal.

User generated content catalyses campaign’s momentum, increasing interest and visibility on social, but it’s vital to only integrate moderated content into your brand.

As epitomised by last year’s beloved Boaty McBoatface, the denizens of the Internet enjoy a near-endless supply of spanners for every possible works.

It’s best not to take risks that can have serious implications down the line.

Discovery makes a splash with Seal

A whole host of famous figures errantly ended up in Walkers’ waters. Across the pond, the Discovery Channel combined with a celebrity of their own to announce this year’s “Shark Week”.

We’re happy to give Discovery a bye over the pressing safety concerns of putting on a show by shark-infested shore, because the ad’s creative risk-taking boldly pays off.

Its bleak and ironic humour moves the nature brand into waters that are largely unexplored by its competitors, whose creative incentives are to either impress a sense of horror or awe: think of Planet Earth 2‘s photography and the commanding voice of Attenborough!

Like a strong keepie uppie, it’s good to keep the football metaphor going. Take creative inspiration from Xavi and Iniesta and look out for creative directions that your competitors aren’t occupying.

There could be a good reason why content creators haven’t followed a particular creative path – e.g. sharks. Equally, there might not be. Just because someone else isn’t doing it doesn’t mean that it’s bad; you could just be the first to spot the opportunity!

Sony enjoys eureka breakthrough with Gravity Rush 2

Strikingly executed and based on a simple yet stunning concept, a Sony advert for the new video game Gravity Rush 2 received an extraordinary response across the web.

Some things defy words, others defy gravity. This incredible creative piece by Tokyo agency Hakuhodo speaks boldly for itself:

Gravity Rush 2 revolves around the player manipulating the laws of gravity. As such, the ad’s a brilliant example of demonstrating a product: it shows, rather than tells, what you’re able to do.

The ad complements the creative flourish with gameplay footage towards the end, giving a full illustration of the product’s functionality and confidently overcoming a problem that the field of game advertising has historically struggled with, sometimes showing inaccurate video animation that doesn’t actually reflect the game at all.

This is an advert that might seem to totally flip the box upside down, rather than merely think outside of it. However, it’s based on a simple premise done exceptionally well, making small but enormous changes to the rules of physics we take for granted, showing the massive effect that can be made in subtly tweaking the everyday!

McDonald’s television ad receives backlash from charities

Social media and charities alike responded harshly to a recent McDonald’s ad, accusing the international fast food giants of manipulating childhood bereavement into a marketing strategy.

Dr Shelley Gilbert, president of Grief Encounter, said that ‘Parents [are] telling us their bereaved children have been upset by the advert, and alienated by McDonald’s as a brand that wants to emotionally manipulate its customers’.

Like last month’s ill-advised Pepsi campaign starring Kendall, it’s vital for brands to only incorporate social issues into their branding work if the product or service has direct relevance.

Without making too much in the way of comment, it seems that, in respect of the above, the Filet-o-Fish certainly doesn’t.

‘Il n’y a pas de place pour deux kings en Belgique’: Burger King lose bid for Belgian succession

We wrote about BK in last month’s round-up and they’ve featured in previous months too, because of their penchant for the absurd throughout their creative:

Having just spoken about Maccies, you’d think that Burger King would regard them as their competitors. Not so, apparently, with Burger King last month launching an online campaign against, erm, the King of Belgium, instead.

The campaign, directed by French agency Buzzman, featured a poll on the website www.whoistheking.be that gave users the choice of picking between two kings: the King of Belgium or the king of Burgers.

Any attempt to vote for the King of Belgium led to prompts in BK’s favour, such as ‘Are you sure? He won’t cook you fries’.

Perhaps they anticipated it, perhaps they didn’t, but Burger King’s campaign met a guarded response from representatives of the Belgian royal family.

Spokesman Pierre Emmanuel de Bauw said that ‘we would not have given our authorisation’ for the king’s likeness to be used in the material, landing the American brand in a sticky situation.

Moreover, Burger King actually lost the election – albeit narrowly – with 51% of its electorate preferring their current royalty to the House of Hamburger.

The combination of the above led to Burger King stopping the campaign. However, they handled it with flair and creative grace, editing the website, removing ‘King’ from their logo, and declaring in a caption: ‘There isn’t room for two kings in Belgium’.

The brand used controversy for promotional gain, which is an incredibly risky strategy that we wouldn’t necessarily advocate, but it paid off.

They may have lost the election, capturing the attention and ire of the Belgian royals in the process, but BK’s campaign was certainly a success, bringing more attention to their zany, off-kilter branding.

Thanks for dropping by and see you next month – we look forward to finding out what June has to offer!

Social Media Roundup: May

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

May has seen another deluge of developments in the social media universe – but don’t worry if you didn’t keep up with everything, we’ve got the biggest news wrapped up for you here.

 

Snapchat

In a boost for advertisers looking for new and innovative ways to deliver their messaging, Snapchat has introduced a self-serve tool allowing all marketers to advertise on the platform. Instagram saw massive growth after implementing a similar tool, so this could provide a breath of fresh air for Snapchat after its cash flow troubles in recent months. Currently this tool is only restricted to video formats but it features a detailed range of targeting and optimisation, as well as its own version of the Ads and Business Manager (which must have been nice for Snapchat to take from Facebook for a change). Although this is still an unproven channel for mainstream use, Snapchat advertising provides a new opportunity for companies aiming at a millennial audience to reach their target demographic via an innovative method.

 

Twitter

Twitter has continued to press on with their focus on live video this month, signing 12 new deals with content producers to bring a host of original programming, sports and live events to the network, including a 24-hour news network in collaboration with Bloomberg. By providing exclusive video content, Twitter is aiming to boost its number of users whilst increasing its advertising revenue. Moreover, Twitter is experimenting with introducing curated live video at the top of the feed, as well as using push notifications for relevant live events. If there ever was an indication of the importance of live video for Twitter’s future, the fact that they’re testing placing it front and centre of the feed is it.

Finally, Twitter has announced a unique new feature for advertisers – the ability to promote chatbots. This allows businesses to promote ads with up to 4 CTAs with the aim of drawing users into personalised conversations with a bot via DM. Although there seems little benefit with regard to driving direct sales from this ad format, this could help build fun experiences around brand awareness, and encourage positive sentiment.

 

Facebook

It has been spotted this month that Facebook are testing the possibility of connecting Pages to Groups – which can involve linking to, or even posting in Groups from a Page. This could be particularly useful for brands aiming to build communities organically, as this will encourage engagement with fans inside relevant groups, alongside greater capacity for branded discussion and building trust.

Furthermore, Facebook has declared that it will be clamping down on misleading live videos such as polls or countdowns on a static background. This comes in the wake of Facebook reducing the reach of “inauthentic” posts which ask for engagement, alongside the reasoning that predictable live videos will reduce the appeal of the much-vaunted format, and so reduce future engagements. However, it remains to be seen whether this will have the desired effect for Facebook, as these videos are often some of the most engaged with content on the social network – a factor that they constantly encourage.

 

Finally, Facebook has announced its collaboration with delivery companies in the US to order food directly from the app. Although some will see this as Facebook’s further intrusion into every facet of life, this shows the importance of integrating businesses with Facebook when opportunities arise. Given the size of the Facebook user base and the ever more frictionless paths to product discovery and payment, businesses need to be ready to respond to new updates to get the jump on competitors when similar features get rolled out in the UK.

 

April Campaigns Round-up

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

It’s the month of pranking your friends and eating chocolate eggs for breakfast. Perhaps April’s content was always destined to be a little weird.

We watched a burger brand use ads to turn smart speakers into marketers, saw a cycling Mads Mikkelsen crash a Danish dinner party and followed one man’s mercurial mission for a year’s supply of nuggets manifest in the most viral tweet of all time.

It was the best of content, it was the worst of content. Read on with our round-up of four of the month’s most noteworthy campaigns.

Responsibly thanks you for drinking Responsibly

We’re all familiar with the advice at the end of drink ads, calling on us to drink responsibly. Ubrew played off of this familiarity to create an ingenuous piece of content that made sizable, hoppy ripples across the web. Introducing the latest beer in Ubrew’s extensive range: Responsibly.

Drink Others

Thank you "other beers" for advertising Responsibly. Today we want to give something back to you!Responsibly the beer all the other beers ask you to drink. #DrinkResponsibly #ResponsiblyTheBeer

Posted by UBREW on Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Ubrew’s piece provides superb insight for content creators everywhere on creating fresh and relatable content: namely, that to think outside the box you don’t need to throw the box away. Instead, there’s a lot of joy to be had in making subtle yet compelling tweaks to material that we’re already familiar with!

Burger King’s TV ad gets the AI talking

Whilst Ubrew’s resourcefulness finds the beer brand hitching a ride on their rivals’ airtime, Burger King have been taking similarly mischievous strides in an ad targeting home smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa.

The ad sees a Burger King worker confess that there’s not enough time ‘to explain all the fresh ingredients in the new Whopper sandwich’, before daringly saying: ‘Ok Google – what is the Whopper burger?’ In response, smart speakers proceed by reading out the entirety of the Whopper’s Wikipedia entry, forming the basis of a content piece lasting substantially longer than the ‘fifteen second ad’ Burger King claims it to be.

The campaign wasn’t all plain sailing: for one, Google revised their Home system so that it passed over the ad altogether, whilst various Wikipedia users impishly and inevitably edited the Whopper’s page so that its recipe included a platter of unsavoury flavours – ‘rats’ ranked high amongst the worst.

Even with its complications, Burger King’s content built buzz, attracted attention and created conversations. Arguably, the creative way that users engaged with the content complements the brand’s holistic digital strategy that veers wholeheartedly towards the stranger side of the content spectrum:

Carlsberg returns to Cophenhagen and drives home its Danish roots

Ubrew’s ironic ad departs starkly from the campaigns of many of its competitors, with drinks brands such as San Miguel, Thatchers, Peroni and Stella Artois (‘it’s cidre, not cider’) turning towards antiquity and authenticity, asserting premium from brand heritage.

Carlsberg’s latest campaign, titled ‘The Danish Way’, sees the Danish company adapting their marketing strategy to better meet the work of their competitors whilst retaining the playful notes of their previous material, in a humorous yet charming advert starring Mads Mikkelsen.

The ad follows Mikkelsen cycling through a series of enigmatically Danish scenes – along the circumference of an outdoor bath, through a quaintly decorated apartment – as he contemplates what it is that makes the Danish people ‘the happiest in the world’. Is it that they make the ‘world’s best beer’? ‘Probably’, is what the advert concludes.

Carlsberg’s piece is a perfect example of intelligently tailored content: it responsively follows the lead of its competitors whilst retaining the popular humour of Carlsberg’s previous campaigns. What’s more, the ad links nicely into hygge, demonstrating the value that’s to be had in keeping your brand’s notes aligned to the zeitgeist.

Wendy’s takes on Ellen with #nuggsforcarter

When he tweeted American fast food diner Wendy’s asking how many RTs he needed for a year’s supply of free nuggets (Wendy’s answer: a feasible ’18 million’), Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) could never have imagined the response he’d receive:

Huge portions of the Internet threw their support behind Carter’s fast food plight, with world leading brands sharing the tweet as a basis for their own content, major celebs getting in on the action and millions of members of the online public virtuously supporting what must at first have felt like an impossibly up-hill climb.

In the interim, Wendy’s consistently sustained the tweet’s visibility, steadily monitoring their social channels and creating engaging and responsive material.

At the time of initially writing, the tweet was just 3,000 retweets away from becoming the all time most shared tweet. As of today, however, Carter has now overtaken Ellen DeGeneres to become the esteemed holder of the accolade of having written the most retweeted tweet of all time. More importantly, Wendy’s have granted Carter his wish; he might need a bigger trophy cabinet to showcase all those nuggets!

Firstly perceiving a relatively arbitrary tweet as an opportunity for generating humorous content, and then helping that tweet become the most viral tweet ever, Wendy’s illustrate superbly the value of having a highly responsive digital strategy that facilitates the creation of dynamic and captivating content.

Whilst we don’t think anyone will be overtaking Carter any time soon, you never know – we certainly don’t! Join us again next month to see whether we have any new Twitter title contenders, and how May’s campaigns fare in comparison!

March Campaigns Roundup

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Spring’s here and busily getting underway: the buds are opening, the birds are singing. Undoubtedly, May will alight with thunder and June will snow us in, but for now everything seems perfectly peachy, particularly because March proved to be such a superb month in content, seeing a sequence of stellar campaigns spanning myriad channels and topics, online and off.

Join us in exploring five of last month’s most vivid and stimulating campaigns. As with February’s entry, we’ve contemplated the factors that made these ads so successful, identifying the key lessons that every brand can take from them to refine and enhance their own image in the future.

Twin Peaks returns with more cherry pie

With Twin Peaks set to make its long-anticipated return to television in May, the show’s promotion has taken in an idiosyncratically Twin Peaks turn.

Last month, billboards began cropping up across North America that displayed nothing but a picture of a single cherry pie. A favourite food of the Twin Peaks population, there was little doubt among the show’s die-hard fans of what they were referring to!

That the campaign only makes sense to Twin Peaks fans seems like a risk, signifying a strategy that’s fated to lose rather than gain a potential audience. However, the confidence and directness with which the ad targets the show’s most committed fans is also its greatest strength.

People return to Twin Peaks because of its quirks and the way in which the show regularly and fearlessly gestures to narratorial obliqueness. It’s a show that’s situated as far away from ‘normal’ as television tends to get; marketing it as being anything otherwise, just another show to perch at the end of a Netflix queue, would fail to connect the fans who love Twin Peaks for its weirdness while missing out on an opportunity to create vivid content to get social channels abuzz!

The campaign summarily made sweeping impressions across social media, alerting viewers to the fact of the show’s return and reminded them of the quirkiness for which they loved Twin Peaks to begin with.

There’s so much value in being mindful of the ways in which you’re using your mediums. Could you be utilising your channels to get an even bigger slice of the cherry pie? Seek ways of expressing your brand in the recognisable terms and ideas that inspire your audience to keep returning to it.

Heinz adds Mad Men to the sauce

As opposed to Twin Peaks‘ quirky promotional campaign for an equally quirky show, Heinz have incorporated AMC’s series Mad Men into their latest campaign to bring a new yet vintage lease of life to their iconic tomato ketchup.

Mad Men follows the story of Don Draper, a fictional advertising exec working in the New York of the 1950s. One plot-line sees Draper actually pitching to Heinz; he proposes a thoroughly minimalist campaign that, to the puzzlement of the Heinz execs, omits the ketchup bottle entirely. Instead, Draper’s concepts simply show photos of the foods that ketchup best accompanies, alongside the caption: ‘Pass the Heinz.’

Mad Men‘s fictitious Heinz responded negatively to Draper’s proposal, but the Heinz of the real world today have made a considerable, belated U-turn and are now running Draper’s ads across the billboards of NYC!

AdWeek spoke to Nicole Kulwicki, Heinz’s head of brand, who said: ‘What we loved about the campaign is that it doesn’t require paragraphs of copy to explain it. It features mouth-watering food images, and all that’s missing is the Heinz.’

The campaign’s a perfect example of a well-known brand maximising the potential of pop culture references to expand a brand’s image, using Mad Men’s artwork to transform Heinz from a household name into a brand with a desirable vintage, emblazoning it with the retro notes that Mad Men’s stylistic flair and lush cinematography emanate.

Think about the potential of pop culture affiliation to shape your brand’s image and consider the exciting and vivid openings to which life combining with art can lead.

Nike pumps the nostalgia to the Air Max

Sunday the 26th of March marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Nike’s iconic Air Max 1. Like Twin Peaks shaping its promotion to reflect the aesthetic it’s famous for, Nike celebrated the birthday in quintessentially Nike fashion, evoking the contemporary flair and edge by which the global brand continues to be epitomised, in a series of “fake ads” that they, ironically, commissioned.

Nike collaborated with artists Ava Nirui and Alex Lee to refashion and customise old-school Nike Air Max ads materials, mixing their artworks with Nike’s classic branding.

Originally appearing in Dazed and now making waves across social media, Nike’s innovative collaboration with Nirui and Lee makes a vibrant, stylish example of high-quality content generating correspondingly high-quality conversations.

BT Sport channels Neymar and enjoys sublime night in the Champions League

When Barcelona met Paris Saint-German in the Champions League round of 16 at Camp Nou, it wasn’t really a matter of ‘playing’ a match; it was a rout, a masterclass in getting revenge, as Barça’s battalion of superstars combined to constellate one of the Champions League’s greatest ever performances.

BT Sport broadcasted the match on UK television and were able to get in on the action, running a dynamic a Twitter campaign that saw the brand’s average interactions increase by a whopping 1,730%. Some golazo for the BT Sport social team!

Rather than merely posting a timeline of the match’s events, the relatively new but leading sport channel posted graphics like GIFs and delivered their content through engaging, creative copy.

We looked last month at the power of creative social posting, vis-à-vis the kooky Tweets that American restaurateurs Denny’s continue serving up, and the same applies here. It’s also a great example of keeping your content current and flowing and allowing your social channel the freedom to start conversations when opportunities for them arise!

Refuge goes viral with moving music video

Content that’s done well is content that creates conversations. After all, the web’s a pretty big animal and every piece of content’s just another drop in the ocean. But the best content gets the ocean going, and when they combined with BRIT-nominated singer Frances to produce a music video for her song ‘Grow’, Refuge, the charity, achieved exactly that.

The video shows an animated woman walking through her daily life, returning at night to a starkly-coloured home, into which the camera never ventures. Only half visible, drawn as if a ghost, the figure becomes a moving, hard-hitting metaphor for the struggle people face for their struggles to be heard.

Eventually, after encountering someone who offers her a helping hand, the woman becomes fully visible; listened to and supported, she’s able to come alive, as the video’s pallet shifts to brighter tones, reifying a final sense of fulfillment and recovery.

Though Refuge only released the video on the 19th March, it’s already reached over 150,000 YouTube views. Seeking to go viral to spread awareness of the support that the charity provides, the campaign is a moving and important example of the impact that well-made content can have!

Fusion Win Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year

Posted on by Joshua Carter

We are very proud to announce that Fusion Unlimited & Halfords have been awarded Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year at this September’s Online Retail Awards.

The special recognition award highlights our combined efforts with Halfords across PPC, SEO, affiliates and content marketing, with Fusion Unlimited coming ahead of competitors across the online retail sectors.

The Online Retail Awards aims to show the achievements of online retailers and digital agencies regardless of size, with international and independent business nominated in the same space. The awards highlight websites that are “the embodiment of excellence for their customers”, seeking out “examples of retailers’ web, mobile and tablet strategies that offer great online shopping experiences for customers”.

We’ve helped deliver best-in-class digital strategies alongside Halfords for more than 10 years and it’s always rewarding to be recognised for our performance orientated approach.

Following our accreditation as an ‘Elite’ agency in this years’ Drum Independent Agency Census , 2016 is proving to be a great year for the team and our clients.

Social Media Roundup: January

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

The first month of 2017 has been as busy as ever for social media, with countless new developments springing up across multiple channels. But never fear, we’ve put together a roundup of the most important ones to keep you in the loop.

This new year has begun as the last one ended, with Instagram announcing a whole host of expansions to its service. After all of its recent improvements to Stories, Instagram boasts over 150 million daily users of this feature and are now capitalising on this by introducing ads. There’s a clear opportunity here for businesses to take advantage of on an engaging, sound-on video advertising format, which is hard to find when advertising through other platforms. These ads are soon to roll out in the UK, and although they will only be optimised for reach to begin with, Instagram has promised the expansion of this to a greater range of objectives in the coming months.

Businesses will also be pleased to know that Instagram is now showing basic insights (reach, impressions, replies and exits) to report back on Stories, helping to optimise content for what is becoming an increasingly important component of Instagram. To capitalise on this even further, Facebook has announced the trial of its identical story-based feature (the inventively named Facebook Stories), so expect even more developments moving forwards.

Furthermore, if live video wasn’t already impossible to escape, Instagram is now offering its own service… but with a twist. Following a live stream these videos won’t be archived – so once the broadcast has finished, this content is gone. This adds a more spontaneous avenue for those businesses interested in live video, and this range of channels to broadcast on allows greater refinement of live content dependent on the audience.

Elsewhere, news has emerged that Facebook has begun to test mid-roll ads – advertisements that take place during a video. Advertisers have been desperate for a way to capitalise on the captive audiences in engaging video content, but Facebook has been reluctant to introduce pre-roll ads so far. Mid-roll may be the method that suits the company best; however any disruption of videos may generate negative sentiment among users, so we’ll be eagerly watching to see how this test turns out.

Facebook has also announced its Journalism project, an attempt to improve ties between the news industry and the social network in the wake of the controversy over the prevalence of ‘fake news’ on the website. The new features arising from this range from storytelling formats (like presenting collections of stories at once) to tools that allow users to subscribe to publications directly from Facebook. Although limited to the news world at the moment, these features could give an idea of what could eventually be rolled out to more pages in future.

Finally, perhaps symbolic of the New Year, January has seen Twitter starting afresh with certain areas of its service. Firstly, Twitter is consolidating Moments, search, trending hashtags and live video into a new Explore tab – although not a huge change, this reveals the company’s diminishing focus on the Moments tab, which has not seen the success that many had hoped. Additionally, Twitter is removing the “buy” button, a feature used to drive sales in certain tweets, which puts an end to Twitter functioning as a sales channel for those ecommerce-focused brands using it. This reinforces Twitter’s increasing spotlight on customer relations offerings, leaving Facebook and Pinterest (and soon Instagram) as options for those brands who wish to use social media as a sales channel. Twitter clearly has an eye on repositioning itself, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on any further developments it decides to make…

Fusion Nominated for 3 UK Search Awards

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Uk Search Shortlist

We’re delighted to share that Fusion Unlimited has been shortlisted for three awards at this November’s UK Search Awards, for our work across PPC, content marketing, and proprietary software development.

Our creation of a bespoke, hyper-local PPC campaign for Your Move and Reeds Rains has been shortlisted in the Best Local Campaign category. In the Best Use of Content Marketing category, we’ve been nominated for our execution of “The Ultimate UK Camping Guide” campaign alongside Halfords. Last but by no means least, our fresh from the lab Feed Catalyst tool is in contention for the title of Best Search Software Tool.

Now in its 6th year, the UK Search Awards is one of the most renowned celebrations of PPC, SEO, and Content Marketing work in the UK, spanning 28 categories and attracting hundreds of entries each year.

We’re proud to have been recognised for our hard work and innovation, and look forward to seeing if we can bring the awards home on the evening!

 

 

Social Media Roundup: November

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

November has been yet another intriguing month in the fast-moving social media sphere, with countless developments across multiple channels. We’re going to take a look through those which will likely have the greatest impact.

Firstly, it has emerged that Facebook has stopped insurer Admiral from using social media data to set policy prices. Admiral had planned to use data concerning the way people write statuses and the number of likes they receive as a method of perceiving which users will be safer drivers and adjusting prices accordingly. However, after a number of objections raised by prominent privacy-protection agencies, Facebook blocked Admiral’s plan at the last minute, claiming that the scheme would have contravened its privacy guidelines. As noble as this may seem, it is worth noting that if users begin to distrust Facebook with their personal data, their targeting systems for ads will become less effective, which implies that this decision could originate from a more self-serving perspective.

Furthermore, Facebook have announced a swathe of changes to their metrics, the most notable of which concerning organic reach. According to Facebook, summary figures over 7-day and 28-day periods on the ‘Page Insights’ dashboard had previously been miscalculated due to repeat visitors being treated as multiple unique users, and will now be on average 33% and 55% lower respectively. These errors have challenged faith in Facebook’s metrics once again, with many led to believe that non-paid posts had reached more people than they had. Facebook have claimed to be introducing greater third-party verification in their metrics in an attempt to dissuade the growing negative sentiment.

Over to Twitter now who have announced that they will be rolling out customer services bots into their direct messaging feature in an attempt to entice more brands to use it as a customer service platform. These automated responses can range from simple welcome messages responding to a DM, to helping with a range of common queries (for instance, allowing customers to get more information about the tracking of an order). This is encouraging news for businesses, as these features present a new range of customer service options, and may encourage users to direct complaints to a private channel, rather than airing their grievances over the public timeline. Although this is a step forward for Twitter, in reality this just playing catch-up with Facebook who launched a comparable service on their Messenger app back in April.

A series of interesting developments for businesses on Instagram have been announced this month. Firstly, Stories are getting more dynamic – the Boomerang app has now been attached to this feature, which will facilitate the creation of simple yet engaging video content, and the addition of Mentions to Instagram Stories provides the opportunity for businesses to engage with consumers in a new way. For instance, brands could tag users in their story as a more personalised way of interacting with customers in their premises or at their events, without having it remain on their feed permanently. Secondly, Instagram is introducing e-commerce features, designed to make the transition between finding inspiration and purchasing items easier. Although currently a US only trial, businesses will soon be able to tag products in their photos, provide information about them, and link through to their website with “Shop Now” buttons. This is extremely interesting news for retail businesses as it provides a key opportunity to mould an engagement channel into a sales channel. Lastly, following on from Facebook and Twitter’s further forays into live video last month, it should come as no surprise that Instagram are also planning on getting in on the act. As we mentioned in last month’s roundup, live video presents a world of opportunities for businesses, so this should be one to watch.

Finally, after last month’s mourning of Vine, it seems that its resurrection is already on the cards. According to multiple sources, Twitter has already received a number of bids from companies vying to purchase Vine. A new owner may mean new developments for the app, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how this one turns out…

Social Media Roundup: October

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

Throughout October, we have seen a range of developments in the world of social media. One of the most intriguing of these has been the addition of a series of features on Facebook which encourage the eliciting and sharing of recommendations. Now, when users ask for advice, a prominent request on the News Feed is shown, which lets friends know that users are looking for suggestions and respond accordingly.

Furthermore, Facebook is rolling out methods to book appointments, get quotes and even purchase items immediately through businesses’ pages. This feature may become vital for companies, as the buying process is streamlined and the entire purchase journey can now be made entirely through Facebook. These options are available due to partnerships with third party firms like Ticketmaster, so local businesses will need to be connected and integrated with the relevant company in order to profit from this opportunity.

As word of mouth is widely considered the most persuasive of advertising, these updates could become incredibly important for businesses. Consumers are much more likely to act on the advice of a friend, so local businesses should look into capitalising on any attention gained through these new features.

In video news, Facebook is improving its Live API service, allowing verified Pages to schedule live video events in a more engaging manner. Users are also given a reminder of these streams in advance, and can connect and interact with other viewers, helping to build a sense of community around the video provider. On a related note, Twitter is expanding its Periscope app, allowing users to stream from a greater range of devices, including professional cameras, apps and even virtual reality devices, providing the opportunity for more professional and polished content through live video.

These live video updates should reinforce the burgeoning importance of this platform for businesses, as they provide a novel way of interacting with users and customers on an increasingly personal level. Through streaming live events or providing behind the scenes access, businesses are able to give a more personal and inclusive experience. Live video could also be used for demonstrations and tutorials, allowing the promotion of products whilst providing unique and helpful information to consumers.

In Instagram news, the Stories feature is expanding to the explore tab. As mentioned in August, Instagram Stories has presented an opportunity for businesses to post more ‘authentic’ and live content, and according to Instagram over 100 million users use this tab every day to find content from creators that they are not currently following. This expansion of Stories presents an opportunity for businesses to widen the benefits of Stories to reach a whole new audience, and by providing well curated and engaging content on this platform, this could be a way to draw more users to their social media channels and hopefully through to being customers.

Finally, Vine – RIP. In the wake of a recent announcement that hundreds of layoffs were coming, Twitter has announced that it will be shutting Vine, the 6-second video app. Although it has proved an attractive platform for younger generations, Vine has struggled to keep its user base up when competing against the likes of Instagram and Snapchat, and Twitter has since shown greater interest in its integrated video and Periscope developments. For businesses, however, there will not be too much to mourn. Although Vine had some unique features, it was these very features that made it difficult to deliver engagement-driving content.

Social Media Roundup: August

Posted on by Jenny Connelly

There have been important updates for Facebook and its subsidiaries across August, which have wider implications for marketers and other businesses.

Facebook has branched into a new direction with its app that is aimed squarely at teenagers: Lifestage. Lifestage, currently only available in the US, is an app that relies heavily on user-generated video content and such videos are only visible to others at the same high school. Ironically, Lifestage replicates Facebook’s early days when it was used as an on-campus social networking service. Facebook has come under some criticism for not protecting vulnerable younger people. The app’s design, with lots of ephemeral video content, can be seen as a move against Snapchat and their current social media dominance over teens. Facebook is gradually falling in popularity with teen users, especially as more of their parents (and grandparents) move on to the app, therefore Facebook-owned Lifestage is an antidote to this trend. However, how well younger uses will take to the app instead of Snapchat remains to be seen.

Another of Facebook’s subsidiaries is also taking on the Snapchat market, this month Instagram has launched Instagram Stories. This in-app feature allows users to post pictures that will disappear after 24 hours, thus not appearing on (or interfering with) their perfectly-curated home feed. As Instagram stated in their introductory blog, “you don’t have to worry about overposting”. Users can edit their Instagram Stories with Emojis and their own drawing edits. Instagram Stories allows brands a major opportunity to create exciting video and image content that has a more authentic and ‘live’ feeling than a regular Instagram post. Brands will not have to worry about negative comments or responses, as this feature has been disabled on Stories. Particularly, businesses would be wise to be an early adopter of the Instagram Story, and post engaging ‘behind the scenes’ content which further humanises the brand.

In an attempt to reverse long-term trends of user growth stagnation, Twitter has introduced greater user controls over their own notifications. Users are able to select to receive notification from people they follow. This will help remove spam notifications that many users find an irritant. Other changes include adding a ‘quality filter’ to users’ home feeds. The algorithm behind this change will theoretically remove ‘spam’ tweets, which include automated tweets, repeated content, and account origin. Users that turn on this feature will see more content from accounts that they have previously interacted with and only people the user follows. Businesses and brands would be wise to keep posting varied content, as this algorithm could reduce reach if it deems content too similar and filters it from users’ feeds.

SEO Market Updates: August 2016

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Google Updates Local Pack Algorithm

Google’s local pack results algorithm has had a big update as of last week, and various SEO forums have lit up with webmasters detailing the various changes to rankings they have noticed, with some saying this update is the biggest change to local rankings in a long time.

The update is thought to mostly be the spam algorithm refreshed, with new results appearing for certain terms for the first time in years, while other pages are suspended. These findings indicate that the update is either a core local ranking change, or a clean-up of the spam in the local index. Either way, spam is no longer ranking as well in local.

Google hasn’t commented on the changes.

New Mobile Penalty Arriving Early 2017

Google have announced that they will be clamping down on “intrusive” interstitials on mobile devices which impede their users’ browsing experiences. The new algorithm will launch in January 2017 with the aim of making pages running certain interstitials “not rank as highly” as previously. Google advised that the following would be affected:

  • Sites using pop ups that cover the main content, whether it’s immediately after accessing the page, or while browsing it.
  • Sites displaying an interstitial which users have to dismiss before accessing the page’s content.
  • Sites that use layouts where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.

Google has also advised that the following would not be penalised, if used responsibly:

  • Interstitials that appear due to a legal obligation, for example for cookie usage or age verification.
  • Login boxes on websites where content is not publicly accessible. For example, this would include private content such as email or unindexable content hidden behind a paywall.
  • Banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space and are easily dismissible.

Google to Drop Mobile Friendly Label

Google announced on the 23rd of August that they will be axing the ‘mobile friendly’ label from mobile search results. It’s important not to confuse this with the idea that Google are scrapping the mobile friendly ranking factor/signal – that remains as important as ever. Instead, Google is simply removing the indicator on search results which tells readers whether a site will load well on mobile, and the change is thought to be mostly cosmetic.

Additionally, Google have commented that “85% of all pages in the mobile search results now meet this criteria and show the mobile-friendly label”, indicating there is no longer a great benefit to the label.

Fusion named as ‘elite’ independent agency

Posted on by Mark Curtis

The Drum’s 2016 Independent Agencies Census, conducted in partnership with the Recommended Agency Register, has named Fusion Unlimited within it’s  Elite Agency  listings for  independent media agencies.

iac_2016

Agencies were ranked on Client satisfaction scores, including client service , strategic thinking and value for money (collected through recommendedagencies.com) and we’re delighted that we gained a Top 10 listing in this category.

Agencies were also measured on financial performance across 6 measures, including both business growth and efficiency, and again fusion appeared within the top 20 agencies.

I think that’s the right way around for us, as an independent agency, that our client satisfaction scores beat our financial scores, but to still be in the top tables for both categories.

Only those agencies who were able to rank at the top of both client satisfaction and financial tables are considered for an elite listing. At this point overall performance is measured in a head to head against the other media agencies that made the cut, (not all of these are digital marketing agencies) and fusion made the  top 10 elite agency list at number 7.

We’re proud to be an independent agency, and to have great client satisfaction scores and still keep developing new approaches that drive results is all down to the very talented  team here at fusion unlimited.

Details of the results can be found here: http://www.thedrum.com/independentagenciescensus2016/media

Fusion shortlisted for 4 Online Retail Awards

Posted on by Mark Curtis

We are very proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for four Online Retail Awards, including the prestigious Digital Agency of the Year, for our work with Halfords, Lloyds Pharmacy Group and YorkTest.

 

Fusion Unlimited - Online Retail Awards Finalist 2016

 

Our work with Halfords has been nominated for the special recognition category  of Online Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year, whilst both Lloyds Pharmacy and YorkTest are both shortlisted within the Pharmacy and Health Category.

The Online Retail Awards are international and independent business awards for all online retailers, regardless of their size or location, and Fusion are thrilled to be among the nominees.

“The winner of an Online Retail Award is in the top flight of the world’s online retailers, with sites that are the embodiment of excellence for their customers. The aim of the Online Retail Awards is to seek out examples of retailers’ web, mobile and tablet strategies, that offer great online shopping experiences for customers and reward them.”  www.onlineretailawards.com

The winners will be announced at an awards dinner in London on September 13th, at the 5-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, with the Online Retail Conference taking place during the day. You can be sure that team Fusion will be in attendance on the night to do some networking and hopefully come back with some awards. Great work everybody!

 

McCain appoint Fusion for social launch

Posted on by Joshua Carter

McCain Foodservice has appointed Fusion Unlimited to handle the launch of its B2B social media strategy after a two way pitch in April. With a cohesive organic and paid strategy already managed by Fusion, McCain understood the value to be gained from a holistic search and social marketing strategy aligned to deliver their goals for the next twelve months.

We are excited to be working with such a strong brand in the food industry as McCain , and look forward to developing their social platform for the Foodservice business over the coming months.

Additionally,we will work alongside our sister agency Principles Media (part of the Principles Communications Group) who successfully retained the McCain Foodservice integrated media buying account, having worked together for the past 11 years.

Facebook’s Recent Newsfeed Update Makes Friends & Family Top Priority

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

It wasn’t so long ago that Facebook announced their topic-related newsfeed update enabling users to consume more content that is relevant to their interests.

However after hearing feedback from their Facebook community, they noted that users wanted to stay as connected as possible with their friends and family.

Therefore, with this in mind, Facebook recently announced that their updated newsfeed algorithm will ensure that users don’t miss any content posted by their friends and family.

What does this mean for businesses?

Facebook has warned that this may have an effect on page reach and referral traffic. Therefore businesses who are trying to connect with their followers through their Facebook page may see a slight decrease in their overall reach.

As Facebook is one of the largest sites for referral traffic, beating even Google, this change to Facebook’s newsfeed means that businesses may have to rethink their strategy when it comes to reaching their target audiences.

Influencer campaigns are one way in which businesses could increase the reach of their page and still fit in with the recent newsfeed update.

SEO Market Updates: May 2016

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Voice search reporting may be coming to Search Analytics report

Hints from Google seem to indicate that voice query reporting will feature in the Google Search Console’s Search analytic report, although the company has remained vague on when that might be.

John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, announced that Google is searching for ways to display voice queries to webmasters via the Google Search Console. Mueller explained that Google are looking for ways to divide up whether people search via voice or keyboard in the Search Analytics report. According to John, Google are seeking to “make it easier to pull out what people have used to search on voice and what people are using by typing. Similar to how we have desktop and mobile set up separately.”

John went on further, to explain that because voice searches are usually done with long sentences, Google Search Analytics may not detect the search volume for the topic and group it together it with less-common keywords. John explained they are still debating internally what the best way to circumvent this issue is.

Search Analytics report gets update

The way in which Google calculates impressions and clicks in the Search Analytics report within the Google Search Console has been updated. Google posted the following on their ‘data anomalies’ page:

We refined our standards for calculating clicks and impressions. As a result, you may see a change in the click, impression, and CTR values in the Search Analytics report. A significant part of this change will affect website properties with associated mobile app properties. Specifically, it involves accounting for clicks and impressions only to the associated application property rather than to the website.

In your Search Analytics report you will see a line saying ‘update’. This is in reference to the new metrics which will come into use as of the 26th of April. John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, explained: “Other changes include how we count links shown in the Knowledge Panel, in various Rich Snippets, and in the local results in Search (which are now all counted as URL impressions).”

While most users noticed no change in their Search Analytics report, Google suggested that mobile users might notice the largest difference.

Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm boost rolls out

Google has released their latest algorithm, which is designed to provide a ranking boost for mobile-optimised websites in the search results.

Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller, took to Twitter to make the announcement of the second version of the mobile-favouring algorithm. Google had previously hinted they would boost the algorithm back in March.

Google’s stated intentions with the update are to “increase the effect of the [mobile-friendly] ranking signal.” Additionally, the company has said any sites which are already mobile-friendly needn’t worry, and won’t be affected by the update.

The mobile algorithm is a page-by-page signal, which is the reason the update has taken some time to roll out fully, as Google has to asses each page separately. This means the impact of the update can take time to materialise.

One concerned Tweeter asked John Mueller if this update meant “mobilegeddon”. “No, not really. :)” came the reply.

Google expands featured snippets

Google has begun to use extended feature snippets for certain queries. Featured snippets are the information displayed at the top of a search, before any site results. This information is displayed when Google is able to collect information that it is confident can answer your query immediately.

Now, Google has extended this feature, with ‘related topics’ appearing below lengthened snippets. The related topics contain a brief explanation and links to other Google queries.

Fusion SEO Market Updates: March 2016

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Google reveals top 3 ranking signals

Last year Google stated that it considers RankBrain – it’s machine learning technology – to be the third most important search ranking factor. Whilst this information led to much speculation about what exactly RankBrain is and does, many were more concerned with another question; if RankBrain is only the third most important signal, then what are the other two?

Until last month, this wasn’t information that Google seemed ready to divulge, even after repeated questioning. However, in Q&A with Google’s Search Quality team, the top two signals were finally revealed; links, and content.

This information doesn’t exactly come as a huge surprise; Google has driven in the importance of “quality content” and linkbuilding for years.

Plus, given that RankBrain isn’t so much a signal as a system that uses signals, and that links and content are influenced by a number factors, this is just the latest in Google’s long list of vague announcements.

Google updates search quality guidelines

Google has released another version of it’s search quality rater guidelines, less than 6 months after the release of the previous document.

The documents don’t appear to be too different from those released back in November 2015, with many sections remaining unchanged, and others receiving only slight tweaks.

However, a number of areas appear to have been de-emphasised. Supplementary Content, the potential negative or positive effects of which have been explored in previous documents , now receives much less attention.

On the other hand, areas such as local search – now termed “Visit-in-person” in the updated guidelines – have been emphasised and redrafted. Mobile also receives more attention, with more illustrations of high and poor quality search activity using Mobile search as an example.

Other sections have been completely cut, leading some to believe that Google no longer requires human evaluation of these factors, relying solely on algorithmic evaluation. If anything, the revision of the guidelines so soon after the previous release also illustrates the constantly evolving nature of natural search.

My Business ranking factors documented

Google has updated it’s help section on improving local rankings, vastly expanding on the previous document with a number of more in depth pieces of advice.

Whilst much of this appears to be common sense – ensure your business is verified, make sure to post accurate opening hours, respond to reviews, add photos of your business – it’s good to have what Google considers important for local business search in writing in one place.

The section frequently mentions and stresses the importance of three factors when creating My Business listings; relevance, distance, and prominence. A listing has relevance if it closely matches the terms users are searching for. Distance refers to how close a listing is from the terms users are searching for; e.g. are users searching for a different location than that stated in the listing? Prominence relates to how well known a business is, and takes into account existing offsite information such as reviews and articles and how these can positively affect local rankings.

What I’ve learned as an Intern

Posted on by Nicola Fairchild

Before I started as an intern, I thought that the main use of social media was to reconnect with old friends, keep up to date with new ones and to see what was happening with far away family members. If I liked or followed a brand on social media it was either to be the first to hear about promotions and offers or to show on my page that I was a fan of said brand. When considering an internship in digital marketing I first thought about Search Engine Optimization and AdWords. I did not know that there were so many opportunities for marketing products on social media and was surprised by the amount of time put into social media marketing and the positive results it garnered. Here is a list of the most salient things I have learned in the past three months.

Influence of social media on brand image

• Customer services Rather than being put on hold and re-directed to person after person, using social media to provide customer service is quick and easy. When a person has a complaint to make we can point them in the right direction and ensure that they are in contact with the right person straight away. Answering customer’s problems publicly on social media is a great way to show current and potential customers how good your customer service is, and is a transparent way of dealing with complaints. Customer feedback is received instantaneously and can be recorded and responded to. Furthermore, we can keep track and record complaints to see what the most common problems are so improvements can be made in this area.

• Brand loyalty Social media brings the customer closer to the brand and allows the two to communicate directly. Using Twitter, for example, to reply to customer comments about a brand or product shows the customer that the brand is glad for their custom and is concerned about their enjoyment of the product. Social media is an effective method of increasing business transparency as how the business conducts itself and deals with negativity can be seen by anybody.

Rising social media use

• Advantages of social media In a world surrounded by smartphones, tablets and on-demand media, traditional media cannot always connect and converse with customers to the extent that social media does. By using Twitter to let your fans that follow you know that you have a new product out, you are not missing out any audience sector by advertising solely in magazines, for example. Last but not least, using social media means you can always keep an eye on the activity of your competitors in order to stay one step ahead.

• Importance of connecting with influential bloggers Rather than relying on celebrity endorsements, using ordinary people to promote a product is more likely to appeal to people who look for reviews online. Potential customers can relate more to bloggers than they can to celebrities. Bloggers can introduce your product or service to their followers, many of whom may not have previously been aware of the product’s existence or advantages. The effect of using bloggers is manifold as blogger outreach can also be a way of increasing brand awareness, greater site traffic and improving search engine visibility.

The planning behind social media content

• Researching the best posting times There are tools that record times of high levels of traffic on Facebook, for example, but also programmes such as Pulsar, whose main function is to collect as much information about a brand’s social following as possible. Times of heightened traffic are the best times to schedule posts to go live in order to achieve maximum visibility. There are times when people are more likely to check Facebook or update Twitter, for example after work in the evening or during lunch breaks.

• Brainstorming content After the best posting times have been determined, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas. A great deal of thought goes into what is posted on a brand’s social media channel. If the content is interesting and attention-grabbing, followers will feel compelled to share what you have posted, thus spreading your content onto people who may not follow you. The content that is posted on social media has to be well thought out and presented in the right way. The success and failure of different types of content has to be continually monitored so any post that does not achieve the expected level of success is not repeated.

• Organising giveaways Competitions and giveaways are very popular online and are a useful way of reaching a large amount of people. Ideas for running a great competition that will get customers excited and engaged have to be thought of, and ways to carry these out online have to be considered before they can go ahead.

Overall, the most important thing I will take away with me is that there are so many advantages to marketing online, and that social media marketing is particularly effective. So much more goes on behind the scenes than I had first thought, and digital marketing strategy is not only a more meticulously thought out and detailed approach than I had first considered, it is an innovative and exciting new way of marketing products and services to a wider audience.

Fusion SEO Market Updates: November 2015

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Google changes search results location filter

Location Filter - After

The location filter in Google’s search results page has been changed, with users now being unable to manually choose which area they see search results from.

Changes to the feature were recorded throughout November, with many assuming that these were likely to just be testing on Google’s part; features are often rolled out (or removed) on a sporadic basis for short periods of time, before reverting back to normal.

However, it appears that as of late November, the filter has been dropped altogether. Google confirmed this, stating the filter “was getting very little usage, so we’re focusing on other features”.
The feature allowed users to manually see search results for a specific location, which could either be a country or a smaller town or region. However, Google is now only showing results based on what they know of a users precise location, meaning that users can no longer see the search results for locations they’re not physically in.

Updated search quality guidelines released

Checklist (resized)

November saw Google self-release the full version of it’s quality rater handbook for the first time, after first being leaked by an independent source. This handbook contains the guidelines used by search quality raters, who are responsible for reviewing sites Google flags up for manual action.

The guide still asks raters to specifically look out for what Google calls a site’s E-A-T; expertise, authoritativeness , and trustworthiness. This basically means checking for a number of factors considered positive – authoritative non-user sourced content, knowledge graphs – alongside negative indicators like distracting advertisements, hidden text, or a general lack of purpose.

Alongside this, the new guidelines place a big emphasis on mobile factors, which essentially encompasses what we already know through mobile friendly guidelines. In fact, the guidelines state that if a site is already flagged as not mobile friendly, it will automatically receive a low quality rating. As ever, this means that webmasters need to be on the ball when it comes to mobile, and treat it just as importantly as desktop; something that Googlehas emphasised throughout 2015.

Google begins indexing app only content

App only results

Content only available within apps is now indexed and being shown within search results, Google has announced.

Previously, content within apps would only have been indexed and displayed if Google found a web page that corresponds to or mirrors this content. However, Google is now displaying app content that has no corresponding web page. Users that have the app installed can click through to open it, whilst those that don’t can view a stream of the app that is stored within Google’s cloud.

At present, only displaying content from certain “partners” is being displayed, including the U.S National Parks app Chimani, hotel booking app Hotel Tonight, and horoscope apps Daily Horoscope and My Horoscope. However, it’s likely that this feature will be rolled out on a wider scale in future. Speaking about the changes, Google’s Engineering Manager Jennifer Lin said “Because we recognize that there’s a lot of great content that lives only in apps, starting today, we’ll be able to show some “app-first” content in Search as well.”

The new feature represents a significant marketing step for businesses with apps, who may now have the opportunity to target potential customers with relevant for information only contained within in app content.

New Penguin set to be an update, not refresh

Penguin 2 (resized)

In October Google announcedd that the next update of Penguin is likely to happen before the end of 2015, and is set to roll out continuously in real time.

Alongside this, Google’s Gary Illyes has confirmed that the next Penguin is set to be a true update, rather than a refresh. This means that rather than simply being a re-run of the previous Penguin update (released in 2013), the upcoming Penguin will incorporate new ranking signals. As such, sites that were not affected by the last refresh could very well be at risk of being hit this time round.

Penguin was initially released to penalise sites viewed as engaging in “spammy” tactics, targeting sites that engage in keyword stuffing and manipulative link building. Sites hit by Penguin in the past would have had to wait long periods to recover, essentially until the algorithm either refreshes or updates again. However, with Penguin being rolled out in real time, the hope is that the recovery time will be much faster.

The exact date for the next Penguin update still isn’t known, although webmasters should be making efforts to ensure they’re well prepared for a surprise roll-out, and shouldn’t expect any warning from Google when this happens.

Fusion SEO Market Updates: September 2015

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Google warns of harsh penalties for repeated guideline violations

JUDGE

Google has warned that sites found repeatedly violating webmaster guidelines, or that have a “clear intention to spam”, could face harsher manual action penalties.

Usually, if a site receives a manual penalty for violating guidelines, they need to rectify the violation and send a reconsideration request to Google in order for this to be revoked.

However, if after a positive reconsideration request a site then proceeds to further violate guidelines, the new blog post states that “further action” will be undertaken.

This “further action” will make any future reconsideration requests more difficult to carry out, less likely to be accepted, and in general reduce the chance of any manual actions being removed.

Summing this up, Google state that “In order to avoid such situations, we recommend that webmasters avoid violating our Webmaster Guidelines [in the first place], let alone [repeat this]”.

HTTPS acts as a “tiebreaker” in search results

In a recent video hangout, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes emphasised again the slight ranking boost given to HTTPS sites, clarifying it as a “tiebreaker”.

In situations where the quality signals for two separate sites are essentially equal, if one site is on HTTP and one is on HTTPS, the HTTPS site will be given a slight boost. This reflects Google’s recent attitude towards HTTPS; whilst Google doesn’t regard encryption as essential, it is heavily recommended.

This doesn’t mean that HTTP is viewed as a negative by Google, and Illyes clarified that it’s still “perfectly fine” for a website to not be HTTPS.

However, whilst having a site on HTTPS alone isn’t enough to result in a positive SERP ranking, “if you’re in a competitive niche, then it can give you an edge from Google’s point of view”.

Google hints that structured data could be used as a ranking factor

How to make toast

Although data that is relevant to a specific site or niche works to make a sites SERP snippets richer, and in turn could potentially improve CTR, it’s not something currently used by Google as a ranking factor.

However, new comments – alongside the fact that Google now issues penalties for improper schema implementation -suggest that this could change in future. Acknowledging the usefulness that structured markup can have to users, Mueller stated that “over time, I think it is something that might go into the rankings”.

Mueller gave a brief example of how this might work, saying that in a case where a person is searching for a car, “we can say oh well, we have these pages that are marked up with structured data for a car, so probably they are pretty useful in that regard”.

However, it was emphasised that this wouldn’t be used as a sole ranking signal, and that a site would need to have “good content” as well being technically sound in order to benefit from any potential structured data ranking factors.

Study finds increased CTR on position 2 results with rich snippets

Blue nile snippets

Market research company Blue Nile Research has suggested in a new study that rich snippets could shift CTR percentage from position 1 to position 2.

The study compared responses to three scenarios; a result in position 1 with no rich snippets, a result in position 2 with rich snippets (such as stars, images, videos etc), and a result in position 2 with no rich snippets.

A comparison of clicks for each scenario found a 61% click share for the position 2 with rich media, whereas the position 1 with no rich media had only 48% click share. Meanwhile, position 2 with no rich snippets had the lowest click share at 35%.

The study looked at the search habits of 300 people in a lab environment, and as such doesn’t necessarily give the most accurate representation of natural user activity. However, it does suggest that structured markup and rich snippets have a valid part to play when considering how to boost click through rate.

Google says linking externally has no SEO benefit

Links

Although it’s common knowledge that gaining links from good quality sites can have a positive SEO benefit, the effect of linking out externally hasn’t always been as clear cut.

It’s often been thought that whilst not comparable to earning links, linking to external sites could provide a marginal search benefit. Although not ever explicitly confirmed, this belief has been reinforced by Google; in 2009, Matt Cutts stated that “in the same way that Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites or bad neighbourhoods, parts of our system encourage links to good sites”.

However, new comments have suggested that this isn’t the case. When asked “is there a benefit of referencing external useful sites within your content?”, Google’s John Mueller clarified that “It is not something that we would say that there is any SEO advantage of”, but that “if you think this is a link that helps users understand your site better, then maybe that makes sense.”

So, although linking eternally appears to have no direct SEO benefit, it should still be considered as a valuable part of creating a user friendly site architecture.

Fusion SEO Market Updates: May 2015

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Search Updates - May 2015

Google shakes up search rankings with “quality update”

May 1

At the start of the May, webmasters reported seeing both positive and negative ranking changes across multiple sites, leading many to assume a possible Google Panda update had taken place. After initial denials of any changes, Google eventually confirmed that an update had taken place at the beginning of the month – but not to Panda.

Google’s John Mueller described the update as “essentially just a normal algorithm update” taking place to “increase the relevance and the quality of the search results”, and advised webmasters of affected sites to “work on your web site in general”.

The lack of specificity regarding the purpose or intent of the changes have led many to dub it the “quality update”, and at the time of writing the reasons for sites being affected isn’t yet known. However, Mueller recommends that webmasters keep “focusing on your site and make it the best it can possibly be” to prevent ranking updates to similar updates in future.

Google clarify how Panda and Penguin algorithms operate

Recently, the operational nature of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates has caused much confusion. Google’s contradictory statements have often been the driving force behind this uncertainty, with both algorithms being stated as operating manually and real time.

However, some clarification was reached in May, with Google confirming that the seemingly oppositional statements they’ve previously made are both true; Panda and Penguin operate both manually and in real-time, simultaneously.

Google employee Mariya Moeva stated that “Panda and Penguin are built-in in the real-time infrastructure, but the data has to be updated separately”. That explains why ranking changes can appear to be sudden, as whilst the algorithm is constantly running, the data that affects search rankings needs to be manually updated or refreshed for a change to take place based on this.

Webmaster tools rebranded as “Google Search Console”, new features added

As part of a wider “inclusive” rebranding process, Google have renamed Google Webmaster tools “Google Search Console”. Citing that Webmaster Tools is “not just for webmasters”, the name Search Console appeals to the toolset’s apparent wider user base of “hobbyists, small business owners, SEO experts, marketers, programmers, designers, app developers”.

Alongside the rebranding, Google have added two new features into the tool, both based around app indexing. Search Analytics now allows webmasters to see top queries, pages and country specific data specifically for apps. Also added is an Alpha version of Fetch as Google for apps, which allows app developers to see the results of Googlebot attempting to fetch and index the apps.

Google search results page now shows real-time tweets

May 3

As a result of the partnership between Google and Twitter announced back in March, Google now displays real time twitter results in the mobile search results page. Relevant tweets relating to a search term are shown in a scrollable “carousel” format, appearing either at the top of the page – as seen in the example to the right – or sometimes lower down the page.

Google have stated that the changes represent “another way for organisations and people on twitter to reach a global audience at the most relevant moments”. At the time of writing real time tweets are only displayed in search results on mobile devices, although a desktop roll-out is expected to take place soon.

Google Maps fix causes local business ranking changes

A fix made by Google to prevent offensive search terms leading to locations on Google Maps appears to have boosted the search rankings of some local results. Google acknowledged and apologised for the offensive results after the problem – which caused racial slurs to lead to the White House – was brought to wider media attention, and stated they would make algorithm changes to fix the issue.

The exact cause of the problem is not yet known, although there have been a few suggestions. One of these is a Googlebomb, where users make deliberate steps to manipulate results by attempting to make webpages, or in this case locations, rank highly for irrelevant terms . Another is Google’s local search Pigeon algorithm, which looks for references across the web to influence how local results rank.

Whatever the cause, many webmasters reported significant changes in local results traffic (as seen in the left example) after Google said they’d resolved the issue, leading some to presume that the algorithm changes were responsible. Google have neither confirmed or denied these suspicions.

Image Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-twitter-deal-live-221148

Fusion Unlimited Shortlisted In The 2015 PROLIFIC NORTH AWARDS

Posted on by Craig Broadbent

Prolific North Awards 2015

We’re excited to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been shortlisted as best SEO & PPC Agency in the PROLIFIC NORTH AWARDS 2015.

This year, the third annual Prolific North Awards will celebrate industry excellence and highlight and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the creative and media industries across the North of the UK.

The 2015 award ceremony has attracted over 700 of the north’s leading creative and media professionals.

Winners will be announced at the award ceremony on Thursday 30th April at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club.

We’re  delighted to have been nominated for best SEO and PPC agency category and look forward to another awards night!

How to Ace Visual Content on Social Media

Posted on by Nicola Fairchild

Image collection

We know that when it comes to social media, organic reach is dropping. This effectively means that brands have to work harder at delivering quality content that genuinely interests and engages their fans.

Images are often what hook audiences, and so visual content is becoming increasingly important. You only have to look at the success of visual sharing platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram to know that images are in high demand. However, because of the current level of competition, this type of content now needs to be purposeful to be rewarded with likes and shares (if that’s what you’re after). Ultimately, it needs to resonate with your target audience.

The beauty of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter is that they allow users to make human connections; which for many brands is central to their social media strategy. Visual content can be utilised to show that there’s humanity and substance to a brand, a way to build lasting relationships and showcase personality – here are some brands that have done it successfully:

&OtherStories

The Swedish fashion brand has successfully hit the ‘deconstructed glamour’ nail on the head. Each upload is carefully curated and styled – but the ‘behind the scenes’ approach gives the impression that the brand is effortlessly cool.

Absolut

Absolut have long been recognised for innovative and creative marketing, so we’ve come to expect strong visuals from them. Their most recent mix includes some hand-drawn illustration, which shows their willingness to go the extra mile to produce truly original imagery.

Absolut

Cath Kidston

One of the key things I look for in successful visual content is brand consistency – and this feed sings along nicely to the Cath Kidston tune. By including flowers, babies and pets, the brand show a real understanding of their target audience, and provide imagery in accordance with their interests and lifestyle.

rsz_11cathkidston

ELLE UK

The true value of visual content can only be unlocked when it is shared across relevant platforms. ELLE magazine have taken this one step further by sharing across multiple profiles. Granted, it takes some real trust, but by using their staff as brand ambassadors – who post varied and creative visual content – the brand proves its understanding of the need for human connection within social media. In this Red Nose Day video, it’s also refreshing to see a playful side to these glamourous fashionistas.

ELLE

Butterkist

Visuals don’t necessarily have to be polished and retouched; sometimes a raw aesthetic is more relatable. That’s why, as part of our work with Butterkist, we post agile and informal content. We recently ran a successful campaign, #getpopcorny, and utilised imagery to show off the brand’s personality. By setting the images up in a home environment, the campaign immediately felt inviting and accessible to the Butterkist audience.

Pancakes

Budweiser

Budweiser ran a ‘lost puppy’ campaign for their Super Bowl advert. This emotional hook encouraged user-generated visual content which no doubt helped further their campaign promotion.

rsz_budweiser

Tory Burch

American fashion designer Tory Burch’s social media channels are full of beautiful and engaging visual content. The content is extremely varied, encompassing lifestyle, products, behind the scenes, inspiration, videos and cute animals. The brand feed proves that variety is the spice of life.

ToryBurch

What does the future hold for visual content on social media?

In recent years, tools such as Wordswag, Abeautifulmess and Canva have allowed brands to create professional-looking graphics in just a few taps. These have led social media marketing into a new phase, by putting beautiful and engaging imagery within the grasp of a broader spectrum of businesses.

As an increasing number of brands improve their visual content, there will be more pressure on the most successful brands to be innovative and creative. The production of visual content will become even simpler, allowing marketers to share content in a more reactive, ad-hoc way.
With Facebook videos receiving 3 billion views a day, it seems video content will see continued growth as audiences seek even greater insight and connection to their favourite brands.

Fusion Unlimited nominated for 2 Northern Digital Awards 2015!

Posted on by Katie Harling

Northern digital

We are are very excited to announce that Fusion Unlimited have been nominated for 2 awards at the Northern Digital Awards 2015, in the competitive categories;

Best SEO Campaign for Ronseal and Best Digital Marketing Campaign – Finance for NatWest.

The Northern Digital Awards recognise the very best in digital marketing campaigns and talent in the North as well as reward websites across a number of sectors to reflect the ever-expanding online world that we trade and communicate in.

The ceremony will be hosted at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 22nd January 2015, and we are really looking forward to a great night with our clients and let’s hope we come back with a couple of shiny new awards to add to our collection!