Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – May 2024
It’s not just the weather that’s been warming up this May. There have been some exciting developments in the world of SEO and digital marketing, including advancements in AI search and major revelations from recent Google API leaks.
Google Gets Creative with AI
One of the latest developments is that Google is incorporating generative AI in their search results. This new search enhancement uses Google’s Gemini AI model to generate an overview answer to a user’s search query, based on information from multiple sources. Users can adjust the level of detail that the AI provides, and Google plans to introduce new AI generated categories such as dining and food recipes, holiday plans, book recommendations and more.
However, that is not to say there hasn’t been some teething problems, and some concerns have been raised about the validity of the suggestions generated by AI in search. One concern is that AI generated overviews could lead to a decrease in website click-through rates. However, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has claimed that there has been an increase in click-through rates on results with AI overviews than without.
The AI overview has also led to incorrect information being generated such as adding glue to pizza sauce to keep cheese from sliding off the crust which was cited from an old Reddit post. Google AI also suggested that eating at least one small rock a day is recommended, as they used the satire site TheOnion as a source of factual information.
Considering that both Google and OpenAI have signed deals with Reddit to use their data to train their AI models, we are sure to see much more diverse and incorrect information being served to users until their system is more refined.
(June 1st Update: It is now being reported that Google has since rolled back its AI search feature due to concerns over inaccurate and unreliable AI-generated overviews. Google has stated that whilst they are making adjustments to improve the AI overviews, they have no intention of removing this feature in the future.)
Google Search’s Secrets Exposed
May also brought one of the biggest SEO shake-ups of the last few years. An anonymous source (later identified as Erfan Azimi) shared thousands of leaked Google API documents with Rand Fishkin, one of the most well-known SEO experts and former CEO and co-founder of Moz. This leaked source, which Google subsequently acknowledged as authentic, contained the many ways that Google collects and uses data in its search ranking algorithms.
Some of the key revelations from this leaked report was that Google tracks Chrome browser activity and user behaviour to determine the most popular and important URLs on a site. This conflicts with what they have said in the past that they likely don’t use Chrome data for ranking.
Mike King, who was one of the first people to really explore these leaks in depth, stated that ultimately it is important to keep building content that users want to visit, engage with, click on and want to link to.
On a lighter note, sometimes we just want to search the internet without all the extra bells and whistles. Fortunately, on the 14th of May, Google introduced a new ‘web’ search option, which only displays text-based links in search results.
This option filters out any AI suggestions and other visual mediums such as videos, images, local business listings, shopping products, knowledge panels, featured snippets and top-stories. Currently, this option is only visible if you click ‘More’ first, and then choose ‘Web’, or by scrolling right on Mobile search.
Whilst there is hope that this change will improve the quality of results and overall SERP visibility, the extra step of selecting the ‘Web’ option may be a detriment to how often it is actually used.
The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA Nomination – Allica Bank
We were all slightly shocked last week at the news our work with our fantastic client Allica Bank has been nominated in the Finance Category at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA.
We’ll be against some of the biggest finance brands in the world, and it’s so satisfying to see our team’s work competing and a great validation of our long experience in financial services and fintech marketing.
Our entry focused on our 2024 integrated media campaign that launched Allica’s new flagship savings account to the market. Armed with amazing creative from our partners Rooster Punk, and spanning Search, Display, Paid Social, Video, Programmatic, Radio, TV and OOH, the campaign over-delivered on all expectations, achieving 58M impressions across 3 months, against a target of 33M.
Here’s the summary of the campaign we put in as part of our entry:
Business banking has become something of a necessary evil for many UK SMEs. Against a backdrop of seemingly constant branch closures, the very idea of personalised, relationship banking is fading to a distant memory, with automated phone systems, rigid lending rules and limited personal contact taking its place. Thankfully, there’s a solution. Established in 2019, Allica is an award-winning fintech set up with one core mission – combining traditional relationship banking with modern technology to give established business owners the business banking they deserve. While Allica had reached many of its existing customers via direct partnerships and affiliations within the accountancy sector, in 2023 it was time to hit the mainstream. With a shiny new creative proposition and a healthy six figure budget, the campaign objective was simple: put Allica Bank, and its new high-interest business savings accounts, on the map. In a fully-integrated media campaign that spanned TV, radio, OOH, YouTube, LinkedIn, Meta, Google Display Network and programmatic, this campaign sported a prime focus on building brand awareness in the key regions of Manchester, Birmingham and South Central England, while promoting the benefits of Allica’s newly launched range of highly-competitive business savings accounts. Kicking off in October 2023, this 3-month campaign over-delivered on all expectations, achieving 58M impressions across the campaign period, against a target of 33M. Branded searches jumped significantly, while subsequent brand awareness research indicated a marked increase in brand awareness across all target regions. Not bad for the newest business bank on the block!
Roll on the awards ceremony in June….
Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – April 2024
As we head into Spring, it’s time of us to take a fresh look at some of the latest updates from Google and the world of digital marketing. As ever, the only constant, is constant change!
Completion of Google’s March 2024 Core Update
On the 19th of April, Google finally announced that their March 2024 core update was complete, taking a mere 45 days to roll out. The focus of this update was to reduce the amount of low-quality and unoriginal content on search results, ensuring users were directed to helpful, high-quality content instead. They have reported a reduction of 45%, which is up from their earlier estimate of 40%.
Poor Performance Permits Pausing States Google
Over on the PPC side, there is news that starting in June 2024, Google will pause any low-activity keywords. This means that any keywords which have had zero impressions in the last thirteen months will automatically be paused. Google has stated that in making this change, it will help advertisers to simplify their accounts so that they can instead focus on specific keywords that get results. But fear not, if you want to give your keywords a second shot at life, you can unpause them, however Google will pause them again if they receive no further impressions over the next three months.
The Battle Heats Up
As we shift our focus away from search and into the world of social media, there has been a recent report that Threads has surpassed X in the amount of daily users from the US. The stats reported from the 23rd of April reveals that Threads receives an average of 28 million daily active users, which relates to users who have opened the app once in a 24 hour period. Compared to X, which only has an average of 22 million active users, a reported 21% reduction in usage rate.
Whilst X still shares a substantial audience in various other markets, it does hint to Threads gaining momentum which doesn’t look good for the future of X, especially with X losing a reported 71% of its value at the start of the year.
Mackerel Media – A look back on 2023
And just like that, we’ve reached the end of 2023! It’s been another whirlwind year of new projects, client wins and team growth – and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
While we’ve been winding down our projects for the year, we’ve also been taking a moment to reflect on our biggest highlights of 2023 – and we’re proud to say there’s been a few…
Welcoming New Clients
After expanding our international client base in 2022, we were thrilled to welcome several new UK clients to our roster in 2023. This included none other than the UK’s largest garden centre retailer, Dobbies, and the newest (and coolest) business bank on the block, Allica Bank.
From large-scale technical SEO overhauls to big budget multi-channel media campaigns, we’ve had a great time getting stuck into these new projects, leveraging our B2B and B2C experience to achieve exceptional results, while welcoming two lovely new in-house teams to our network.
Bigger and Better Media Campaigns
With new clients on the books, and even bigger ambitions (and budgets!) from our existing clients, 2023 allowed us to take our paid media campaigns to the next level. Touching every stage of the marketing funnel, from TV, Radio, OOH (Out-Of-Home) and Print to the full suite of digital channels, we had the opportunity to flex our media-buying muscles, while working closely with our performance teams to produce truly integrated campaigns, every time.
Supercharging SEO
2023 was a big year for Mackerel Media’s technical SEO capabilities, initiated by the appointment of Technical SEO Manager, Alex, in January. With experience managing 500,000+ page websites for some of the UK’s largest news brands, Alex boosted our internal SEO skills, managing a selection of complex website migrations and technical redirect projects for our clients.
Prompted by this growth, we were able to expand our SEO team even further, welcoming Elliott to the agency in September. Not only a total SEO-whizz, but an actual real-life magician (!!) Elliott has made a huge impact on our SEO-driven projects, while providing first-class entertainment at our festive night out…
Seasonal Socials
Speaking of nights out, we made a point of keeping our team get-togethers regular this year, resulting in four ‘seasonal’ soirees across the year. From bank holiday drinks to Fringe fun, Halloween-themed pub quizzes and, of course, a Christmas hurrah, we worked our way around some of Edinburgh’s best restaurants, bars and venues, while enjoying some well-deserved downtime away from our desks.
Recognising the Wins
As well as taking time to celebrate our brilliant team, 2023 has been a year for shining a bigger spotlight on our client work – and showcasing the excellent results we’ve delivered on behalf of our clients.
Dipping our toe back into the world of agency awards, we were thrilled to be shortlisted for ‘Best Small Integrated Search Agency’ at the 2023 UK Search Awards. Not only did we have the pleasure of seeing our work recognised by some of the UK’s leading industry experts, but we also walked away with a renewed sense of motivation to give our clients, projects and wins the recognition they deserve – watch this space for 2024!
Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – February 2023
Social Media Marketing takes the stage in this month’s roundup. While TikTok continues to soar in popularity, Meta riles creators with a new subscription model.
Explore the full updates below, as well as our take on Bing’s adoption of AI-assisted search.
Meta introduces subscription service, Meta Verified
This month, Meta introduced a paid subscription service, Meta Verified. For $15 a month for iOS users, subscribers can gain access to the highly sought after blue verified tick, as well as extra customer support, account protections and increased reach.
Pitched as a solution to ‘increase security and authenticity’, the announcement comes hot on the heels of similar models implemented by Twitter, Youtube and Snapchat. As advertising revenues continue to fall against increased competition from the likes of Amazon and TikTok, subscriptions are quickly becoming the go-to revenue booster for global social platforms (while Twitter’s attempt has taken a nosedive, Snapchat has already reached 2 million subscribers).
While it’s true that government-backed identity checks are likely to improve security and privacy on the platform, creators view the model less positively. As platform updates have reduced the amount of customer support available, and algorithm upgrades have limited organic reach in favour of recommended content and sponsored ads, many creators view the change as a crass attempt to make a profit from services which were once fundamental to the platform (just browse the comments on Mosseri’s post below…).
The model will launch in Australia and New Zealand initially, with a view to expand globally if successful. We’ll be interested to see whether resistance from creators will affect this expansion, especially as Meta’s biggest rival, TikTok, continues to prioritise organic growth and creator features (more on that below).
‘New Bing’ gets people talking
After much anticipation, Microsoft has launched ‘New Bing’, a new and improved version of its search engine with the addition of the AI-powered chatbot, GPT-3.5.
Surpassing 1 million sign ups in just 48 hours, New Bing is still accessible via waitlist only, with plans to roll out more widely in the coming weeks.
Screenshot of the ‘New Bing’ homepage
So far, reviews have been mixed. On one hand, the new GPT-3.5 overcomes some of the previous limitations of its predecessor, ChatGPT. It is no longer refined to web data until 2021, so is able to source up-to-date answers from across the internet – including from social media platforms. It also has an impressive crawl time for newly published content, and includes citations for all answers – overcoming previous attribution concerns.
However, the AI-powered search function comes with its fair share of drawbacks. For one, it has the ability to spit out some pretty scary answers, including false claims, accidental racism and concerns about its own memory… To combat, Microsoft has introduced daily chat limits, but we imagine reaching the core of these issues will take some time.
Despite these initial challenges, overall feedback has been positive. Users are pleased with the new speed and showing greater-than-expected interest in ‘chatting for fun’. As Microsoft continues to streamline and overcome initial challenges, we look forward to monitoring these updates in real time – and keeping tabs on how Google’s AI equivalent, Bard, measures up.
Browse our initial thoughts on ChatGPT and SEO here.
TikTok introduces Promote tools
The world’s most popular social media platform has introduced a variety of new features to help brands promote their content and creators.
To increase visibility and engagement, brands now have the ability to add CTAs to their sponsored posts, encouraging either profile visits or direct messages depending on their goal.
Examples of TikTok’s new Promote tools
They also have the option to magnify influencer-generated content by turning organic creator posts into ads. Similar to Meta’s branded content ads, this function allows brands to maximise the visibility and reach of content which is already performing well.
These are the latest of a slew of new platform upgrades from TikTok, which is continuously improving its user experience, while elevating the opportunities available to both creators and brands.
For example, new updates to the TikTok’s Creative Center allow brands to browse the most popular products being sold on the platform (even more invaluable in the era of ‘TikTok made me buy it’. The TikTok Insights tool also enables marketers to dive into trends and shifts across industries.
Fundamentally, TikTok is the one to beat when it comes to social media marketing. While engagement across all other platforms continues to fall, TikTok achieved a stellar 5.69% in 2022. Offering competitive ad rates, and allowing creators to protect their organic reach without having to pay a premium, it’s time for Meta to tread carefully if it wants to compete…
Looking for more insights on your search and social media strategy? Reach out to a member of our team today.
5 SEO ‘green flags’ for an effective website migration
Q1 is a popular time for website migrations.
Refreshed from the festive break and fuelled by the rewarding ‘clean slate’ mentally of a New Year, we see many organisations turn their attention towards ‘bigger picture’ projects during this time – with new websites being a popular choice.
At Mackerel Media, this has certainly been the case for 2023. We’re currently supporting a number of web development projects for our clients, in sectors spanning real estate to payments systems and marketing technology.
As we reach the midpoint of Q1, and with a very gentle nod to Valentine’s Day 2023, we are reflecting on the biggest SEO ‘green flags’ we love to see for a successful website migration.
Enjoy!
1. SEO involvement from day one
Launching a new website is exciting. You have complete creative freedom and a blank canvas to create a truly engaging user experience (UX), not to mention a chance to address all those pet peeves from your previous site.
While it can be tempting to jump straight in and treat SEO as an afterthought, this can be detrimental to your site’s overall performance. Effective SEO weaves through your entire website, from the initial sitemap and information architecture (IA) to page layout decisions and SEO style guides – did you know some sites aren’t even built with the capacity for editing titles and H1s?
Aside from offering guidance in the set-up and overall planning of your site, engaging an SEO expert early also allows you to:
- Maintain domain integrity, existing visibility, rankings and traffic acquisition, and ideally improve them
- Update and streamline existing content
- Revise the existing IA and sitemap to maximise any unrealised SEO opportunities
- Ensure all existing urls are redirected efficiently (we’ll come back to this shortly)
2. The right expectations
It’s a common misconception that a drop in organic site performance is to be expected from a website migration, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Done properly with effective SEO planning, site migrations are actually a chance to improve organic SEO growth by identifying content gaps, smoothing technical issues and enhancing site performance.
Put it this way – when looking at your analytics in the days, weeks and months after migration, it should be impossible to tell the exact date and time it took place…
3. A perfect date
Speaking of date and time, getting this right is another integral component of a successful website launch – and a huge green flag if we see it planned well.
Ideally, you should opt for a time where website traffic is low but when key team members are available to address any issues. For this reason, it’s generally best to avoid weekends and instead opt for weekdays (we always recommend Mondays and Tuesdays). Additionally, aiming for the afternoon/early evening allows a good amount of time to ensure everything is running smoothly before traffic picks up again in the morning.
4. Effective planning
The hallmark of any successful website migration is a comprehensive redirect plan. We mean it – this is the absolute bread and butter of a successful migration and a crucial step in ensuring SEO equity is maintained when the new site goes live.
This plan should start with a complete crawl of the website to collate all urls. From here, we recommend sorting by the highest performing pages, which is a prime opportunity to identify outdated or lower-performing content that’s in need of an upgrade.
Importantly, this process offers an opportunity to identify the content which is no longer bringing value to the site and remove it as part of the migration (we call this our sunset list). This list might include duplicate content, out of date content, or content that is directly competing in the SERPs. Weeding out these pages not only makes for a better user experience, but streamlines the size of the site for better technical performance.
Our top tips for an airtight redirect list:
- Start planning the list early, while the new site is still being built
- Prioritise 1:1 mapping – not only is redirecting to general category and homepages sloppy, but it makes for poor user experience too. Ensure all URLs are mapped to the correct locations (correct being the most relevant and/or similar to the original URL)
- Ensure all redirects are permanent, not temporary – we’re talking 301s over 302s
- Minimise change wherever possible – if it’s possible to keep the URLs of your blog and news the same, or similar, then do
- Always consider and include external platforms such as customer support and resource pages. These are often left behind in a migration and it can be surprising how much organic traffic they attract
- Ensure you have a custom 404 page setup to avoid losing customers if they land on a page that doesn’t exist
- Don’t forget to redirect internal links – while it can be tempting to leave links as they are in the knowledge that they’ll be taken care of by 301s, this can cause excessive site bloat. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to identify all internal links and update them to the new domain urls.
5. Consistent check-ins
The migration process doesn’t end when the new site is live – far from it. The days and weeks following site launch are crucial in ensuring everything is running optimally.
Using the preliminary site crawl as a benchmark, full crawls should be carried out consistently after migration – we recommend the day of launch, 24 hours after, 48 hours after, 72 hours after, 7 days after, 14 days and 28 days after. This not only allows your team to combat any issues, but allows you to ensure all redirects were set up correctly and that no URLs have been lost in the shuffle.
Alongside site crawls, this is also the period where you can start to monitor the site’s wider performance in Google Analytics and Google Search Console. As we said, if all has been done correctly, you shouldn’t see any drops, but you may start to see some improvements in visibility, traffic and organic ranking – true markers of a website migration done well.
Top tip: If you’re planning on updating to Google Analytics 4 and launching your site in the next four months, you’re in luck. A site migration offers the ideal opportunity to coincide the update with your site launch, to start fresh with a brand new and fresh configuration.
And that concludes our list of top SEO ‘green flags’ for an effective website migration. There are many more steps in the process, but these are some of the most important, and the ones we most often see overlooked. If you’re looking for more advice on maintaining your organic SEO performance during a website migration, upgrading to Google Analytics 4, or just about anything else related to technical SEO support and organic SEO growth, get in touch with Mackerel Media.
