Facebook is expanding its political advertising transparency measures, which require any ad paid for by a political group or candidate to be labeled as such, into 32 new regions, taking the total count of nations which are now required to adhere to Facebook’s advanced political ad regulations to 89. Facebook first launched its updated political ad transparency regulations last June, which relate to any ads about social issues (as defined by Facebook), elections or politics. As you can see in this example, all of these ads need to be labeled with a ‘Paid for by…’ tag, which also links through to additional information on the advertiser, providing more transparency into campaigning […]
You ever get those questionable emails that say something like: They seem not quite right, but you can also see how people would be duped by them – they use Facebook colors, they include links, it looks kind of legit. Except, Facebook usually refers people to ‘facebook.com’, not ‘facbook.com’ as listed here. This is an example of one of the many phishing scams in operation, where criminals try to steal information by tricking unsuspecting people into clicking dodgy links. And they work – many people do, in fact, click through on them, which is why Facebook launched an official listing of the emails it sends to each user within your individual profile […]
After first launching its ‘Restrict’ option to help users better manage their comment streams last October, Instagram is now testing a new process which would enable people to Restrict multiple users in one action, direct from their comments listing. As you can see in this example, which was shared by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, the new process would enable users to select multiple comments from their stream, then Restrict the relevant users in one hit. As noted, Instagram’s Restrict mode provides another way to manage your post comments, and weed out offensive or unwelcome commenters from your stream. Once you’ve chosen to Restrict an account, comments on your […]
If you’ve tapped on the Facebook options menu in the mobile app in the last few days, you may have noticed this. The listing has been changed from the all white layout to a blue gradient background, along with bubble tiles for each individual option, with alerts for recent activity beneath each. The team over at Android Police provided this comparison of the old and new menus side-by-side: The update certainly makes each individual option stand out – but as you would expect, some (on Twitter) have expressed their disgust at the change. So why would Facebook do this? The company hasn’t provided any specific insight, but it seems like […]
Twitter has this week brought its option to pin Twitter lists, and access them as swipeable, alternative feeds, to Android devices, providing another way to view your list streams. Twitter first launched the option on iOS last September, giving users another way to view tweet content, and easier access to their lists. As with the iOS version, Android users will now be able to pin up to five selected lists from their ‘Lists’ settings and have them appear as swipeable feeds from the home timeline. You can see where you are within your streams via the grey markers below the title of each. The option gives users more ways to access […]
Negative SEO can hurt your website and your work in search, even when your rankings are unaffected by it. In this week’s Whiteboard Friday, search expert Russ Jones dives into what negative SEO is, what it can affect beyond rankings, and tips on how to fight it. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! Video Transcription All right, folks. Russ Jones here and I am so excited just to have the opportunity to do any kind of presentation with the title “Defense Against the Dark Arts.” I’m not going to pretend like I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, but anyway, this […]
Have you heard conflicting stories about the usefulness of PPC automation tools? You’re not alone! On one side you have Google telling you that automations like responsive search ads (RSAs) and Smart Bidding will help you get better results and should be turned on without delay. On the other side you get expert practitioners saying RSAs are bad for conversion rates and Smart Bidding delivers mixed results and should be approached with caution. So how do you decide when PPC automation is right for you? I’d love to give you the definitive answer but the reality is that it depends because Google and practitioners are both right! Neither would win […]
Local search is powerful for small businesses: four out of five consumers use search to find local information, which means if your business isn’t optimized for local search, you could be missing out on 80% of your potential customers. In short, local SEO is critical if you want your business to stay relevant. To help you optimize your business for local SEO, we’ve created a comprehensive guide, which will cover local SEO tips and tools. By the end of the guide, you’ll have a firm understanding on how to optimize your business to reach potential consumers who use local search to choose which products or services they’re going to buy. […]
It’s been a challenging week for many SEO plugin users. Numerous users of the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP plugin by ExactMetrics are claiming that they’ve lost traffic data after updating to version 6.0. Meanwhile, the Yoast SEO and Rank Math plugins are producing incorrect canonical URLs when those URLs contain Unicode characters. Google Analytics data lost. Users of the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics plugin (formerly known as GADWP) have taken to Twitter and the plugin’s support page to report lost data. The issue, first brought to our attention by Dallas-based SEO Joe Youngblood, seems to be triggered after updating to version 6.0 of the plugin. ExactMetrics, […]
The new visualizations on the Overview page are part of an overhaul of Attribution reporting in Google Ads. Attribution reporting in Google Ads is getting an overhaul. In addition, the name is changing from Search attribution to simply Attribution, Google announced Thursday. The update significantly streamlines the reporting. The Attribution section is going from this: To this: Overview page. There’s a new look to the cards on the updated Overview page in Attribution, which is located from the Tools & Settings dropdown in the Google Ads UI. They show Path analysis indicating the share of conversions that had multiple interactions; Device analysis indicating the number of conversions that involved more […]