Welcome to Today’s Business’s second edition of 2021 Digital Marketing News and Updates! Right here, you can discover some choice information about digital marketing events and changes. This edition focuses primarily on data changes that have been happening over the past couple of months.

Recent News and Updates in Digital Marketing

FLoC is Coming Soon 

On March 15, 2021, Google mentioned they will not be using alternate identifiers to trace users for advertising reasons. Instead, Google will use FLoC, which has an algorithm that will investigate the URLs of sites that the user visited and the page’s content. Two challenges that FLoC faces are privacy concerns and targeting. Regarding privacy concerns, grouping users into cohorts can hide each individual within a crowd, but extricating data from individuals is an issue. Meanwhile, for targeting, the options will not change, but advertisers will target cohorts that compose of many people, unlike particular people. 

TB Take: It remains to be seen whether FLoC will satisfy the long term cookie-less future that privacy advocates are clamoring for. However, if it satisfies privacy concerns, we will have a better happy medium for marketing analysis.

Facebook Analytics is Shutting Down June 30th 

On April 1, 2021, Facebook Analytics announced it will no longer be operating after June 30, 2021. This announcement caught the attention of many marketers, as they relied on this tool. There will be three 1:1 business tools when Facebook Analytics is removed. The first is Facebook Business Suite which lets users control their business accounts. Information about a business’s trends, content, and audience will be included. The second, Ads Managers, allows businesses to see results for Facebook ads and campaigns, in addition to view, and modify changes. Last, there is Events Manager. This tool helps users to control and arrange Conversions API and Facebook Pixel. 

TB Take: The most important thing that users will need to keep in mind is exporting any pertinent data before expiration.

Google: Quality Issue if Copied Content Outranks Original  

On March 12, 2021, John Mueller from Google explained that duplicate content copied above an original source can cause a quality issue. Mohammad Medhi Abas, site owner, discussed with Mueller that his content is being taken and republished by other sites. The problem is that the stolen content is being ranked above Mohammad’s own. If content is being published without the owner’s permission, one option is the DMCA takedown procedure. The result is that site owners can report stolen content on a per-page basis to Google. If there is evidence that the content was copied without consent, Google may eliminate the page. Another option is reassessing site quality. Google’s algorithms may have difficulty seeing the quality of your site. Also, Muller makes note that Google can discern which site it should trust based on the quality. 

TB Take: This is a perfect example of why content is king, but it’s not the only factor that matters. Hijacking content has happened since the beginning of SEO. The best counter to this is to establish strong copyright policies on the website. We are happy to discuss this further with anyone interested.

Artificially Flat URL Structures Have No Benefit 

Google’s John Mueller discussed on March 28, 2021 that Google is not worried about the number of slashes in a URL. This does not determine the page’s importance or the probability that Google is to surface the page in search results. Also, the URL site structure may be used however the user wishes. Google looks at URLs as identifiers of content and does not harm the site.

TB Take: This alleviates concerns for mega sites that have several clusters of content that go deep into sub-topic after sub-topic. However, Google has made several statements like this in the past and data has proven them wrong. We still do not recommend going over three or four folders (slashes) deep, unless it’s absolutely logical.

PageSpeed Insights Scores Updated by Google 

On March 3rd, 2021, Google declared that the scores of PageSpeeds Insights shall increase. PageSpeed Insights is a mechanism that Google uses to give reports on the speed performance of a website. The tool is both mobile and desktop page speed reports and information about problems that were found. PageSpeed Insights has two options of reporting which are lab data and field data. Lab Data is defined as a report generated using internet speeds and simulated devices. Lab Data’s function is to note code-level factors that can allow the user experience to suggest ideas to solve problems and to degrade. Meanwhile, field data is information gathered through users browsing the site with Chrome. It is best for knowing what kind performance site visitors are experiencing. 

TB Take: This is important to note when comparing current vs. previous data. Otherwise, the only thing to keep in mind is that if your site has poor scores after the increase, definitely emphasize improving it while working with your dev team.

Let’s Talk Digital Marketing

Anything happen so far this year that you’re curious about learning more? We’re always game to talk to clients, potential clients, and fellow marketers about what we love. Contact us today to find out more.