10th May 2021 - What articles you need to be reading

Here are the articles that are making waves in digital and search that you should be aware of because they are going to be game changers

Learning about SEO?

Behind the scenes of Google Search “Search off the record” podcast

This episode’s discussion was about a new search engine call Steve not Stephen or Steven that could things Google couldn’t. They also discuss how things like HTTPS could be considered a tie-breaker for websites and John Mueller confirms JavaScript is evil and Gary supports Pineapple on Pizza.

Validate your startup idea via SEO with Fabrizio

During his sabbatical after 4 years at Wise, Fabrizio has taken 30 days off to research and validate the potential of a business and what key challenges he has to face as the project gains traction.

Social Media

@JoinClubhouse takes over @clubhouse on twitter

Back on the 22nd Feb 2021 I made a call that the social media app ClubHouse would take over the @clubhouse account and domain clubhouse.com from a software collaboration tool, turns out I was right.

Clubhouse finally launches Android app but it’s too late

Also it’s only on Beta in the USA and it’s invite only so you will need to pre-register and wait… the longer you have to wait the more users that will get used to Twitter Spaces. It’s been a year since Clubhouse launched on iOS and it’s taken a year to start to roll out the Android version, but I’ve got no intention of using it as other social media apps like Twitter and LinkedIn roll out their version with a larger audience.

Facebook finally copies a useful Twitter feature

Facebook has always lead the way in copying other companies features and well today was not different. But atleast it was a Twitter feature that will hopefully slow the spread of fake news articles that the users hadn’t actually read before sharing it.

Scroll a better way to publish and read on Twitter

Twitter has acquired Scroll which has changed how websites are monetising their content and has the potential to bring in more revenue than traditional ads. Also it deals with the growing number of users running Ad Blockers (USA 26.4%) and offers a better experience for the web.

Google Products

Hey Guys is the start of 36% of YouTube videos

It’s been the consistent greeting over the last 10 years but “Hey Guys” remains the #1 way vloggers greet their audience according to YouTube insights and accounts for 17% of introductions in the beauty video category.

YouTube legalized video stealing with YouTube Shorts

YouTube has thrown a hand grenade into creators with the auto-enabled Shorts permission across all their videos. The only option for channels is to manually uncheck this permission to “allow people to sample this content”.

YouTube offers brand extensions and browsable product images

YouTube is driving more ad features into YouTube as they seek to capture more ecommerce media spending that has traditionally ignored YouTube. The brand extensions conversions will be viewable in your Google Ads account. The browsable product images are probably going to eventually a huge impact on revenue for YouTube creators.

Media & Tech

Virtual clothing for social media influencers

An interesting new fashion brand DRESSX has launched e-clothing a completely virtual and sustainable fashion webshop. The business is setup to offer an alternative purchasing behaviour that often results in mass returns. It also opens up the opportunity for influencers to “wear” items that are out of stock or not yet available outside of tier 1 influencers.

The Ads Facebook won’t show you

The team over at Signal had a good effort to try and troll Facebook across it’s own Instagram ad platform but it seems Facebook had other ideas and disabled their account. The overall idea isn’t new but does highlight the massive amount of data has on it’s users that can be targeted by anyone with a Facebook account.

Conversion Rate Optimisation

21 tools to measure Core Web Vitals

Olga has done a great job of collating a list of 21 great tools but also has personally tested them all and offers some usage tips and instructions so you can get the most out of them. Drop by SEOSLY to see the full list

Ecommerce

Deliveroo Singapore offers your groceries in under 32 minutes

Deliveroo customers all across Singapore can now order more than 1,400 grocery items from 25 Cold Storage and 30 Giant stores, with an average delivery time under 32 minutes! It’s well overdue for these delivery companies to support more grocery chains around the world beyond the M&S launch in the UK in October 2020.

Security, Data & Privacy

200k people exposed for fake Amazon reviews

The SafetyDetectives found yet another open ElasticSearch database that contained 7GB of data of direct messages between Amazon vendors and customers willing to provide influenced reviews. The records show the fairly well known process of Amazon vendors sending a list of potential products that need a 5-star review, the customers then buy the product leave a 5-star review and send a link to their profile once the review is published and the money is repaid via PayPal.

Mental health startup Vastaamo data breach

The ransom demand went out to 30,000 people in Finland where Vastaamo ran a network of private mental-health providers in Finland. Vastaamo didn’t anonymize or encrypt any of the patent records it store. Patients had email addresses, social security numbers and patient notes written by their therapists. The patient database appeared earlier in January 2021 on atleast 11 anonymous file sharing services when pushed Vastaamo into liquidation and then bankruptcy. You can read the full story on Wired by William Ralston.

How Airbnb scaled metric consistency

Every corporate marketer knows that analytics is probably the most underinvested resource yet it produces the data & insight that you use to measure success or failure and base you business decisions on. Airbnb shared a fairly detailed overview of their analytics journey over the last 10 years and how Minerva has helped them scale their data which was essential during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Jobs & Careers

Reach - SEO Specialist - London, UK - Reach Plc is looking for a talented SEO Specialist to work on specific SEO projects across the group. This role is key to continuing the growth in natural search traffic for Reach Plc. Working closely with the SEO team, data engineers, and the wider product team, the successful candidate will have experience auditing niche websites with thousands of pages, a strong understanding of SEO and experience using leading auditing tools. Experience in media/publishing would be an advantage. Apply here directly