With the second month of 2017 over and done with, it’s time to scrub the failed attempts to flip the pancake off the ceiling and quell our excitement for the release of the live action version of “Beauty and the Beast“. This month we’ve seen a beautiful friendship blossom between Stormzy and Ed Sheeran (thanks for telling us exactly how to slide into someone’s DM’s). Storm Doris ruined a few things for a few people and Danny Dyer told us just how stressful raising kids is in Channel 4’s Parenting for Idiots. Alongside this, February has seen some big changes for the digital marketing, social media and SEO world. Here are 10 great things that happened in digital marketing this February.
Pinterest’s new app allows your phone’s camera to become a search bar
On Wednesday 8th February, social networking platform Pinterest released their very own version of Google’s neglected Goggles apps. Their new app, ‘Lens’ uses the phone’s camera to recognise an object and pulls up similar items via Pinterest. Although this app is only in the testing phase, we’re interested to see whether this changes the way we search in the future… Check it out here.
Our client rankings improved after Google’s Algorithm update
On February 7th there was an unconfirmed Google Algorithm update (that is now claimed to be a phantom update). We suspect it targeted low quality links, and after inputting back link reviews, and other SEO best practices, we had seen excellent ranking improvements. Check out our bragging rights here.
Shutterstock tracked their visual content trends
This month, Shutterstock released a great infographic showing the best visual trends they’d seen in 2016. It is no secret that visual content is changing the way we approach digital marketing and social media marketing; Tweets with images are getting 313% more engagement and Facebook posts with photos are seeing 2.3X more engagement. Digital Marketing is an ever evolving industry, and we’re pretty excited to see if there are any changes in 2017. Have a look at these visual content trends here.
Snapchat reported their revenue skyrocketed to $404.5 million in 2016
Everyone in the digital marketing and SEO world loves a good statistic – and Snap, parent company of Snapchat delivered. Snapchat has set the pace for social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, and after the death of Vine, it is always interesting to find out about the successes and failures for these platforms. You can find out more Snapchat statistics here
Google and Bing to demote piracy websites
On February 20th The Guardian announced that search engines Bing and Google would be making it harder for users to find sites that host illegally streamed content such as live football matches, music and pirated films. This is definitely a welcome step for digital marketing – and we wonder if there will be a spike in subscriptions to legitimate streaming sites. Interested? You can read more here.
Sleeknote found 101 ways to grow your email list
Email marketing has one of highest ROI when it comes to finding what’s best for your digital marketing strategy. But trying to build your email list with the right people who will see the message in their inbox and convert is a challenge everyone in digital marketing faces. To give us a helping hand, Sleeknote compiled a list of all the ways to grow your email list. Hungry for knowledge? Find out more here.
Google’s ‘People Ask’ gives deeper exploration of topics
Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ section was first introduced in 2015, and this month Satyajeet Salgar announced that Google will be making it smarter by dynamically loading suggestions. We assume this new feature will see people asking questions about topics they’ve never even thought of before and getting lost in Google’s plethora of information. Find out more from Search Engine Journal here.
We discussed how your business can avoid duplicate content
Everyone in the SEO industry knows that duplicate content is a problem for search engines – it’s the search engine’s job to provide the most relevant pages. If the same page is available through multiple URLs, there’s a strong possibility they will end up competing with each other, which can result in problems when it comes to the content ranking. Have a peruse here.
Google added a new carousel to expand search results
February had seen Google change the way users could filter their search results, by enabling them to expand their results via a carousel-style slider at the top of the desktop and mobile SERPs. Search Engine Land trialled this, and we agree that it isn’t the most attractive way to display these results, but it’s progress and that is always exciting. Read more here.
Instagram allows users to upload more than one video or image in one post
Instagram users are now able to add more content to one post. This update means that users can share up to 10 photos or videos in a singular post, rather than choosing their favourite one. Whilst many argue that this will make Instagram’s feed more ‘cluttered’, we’re not entirely sure – this could mean that more is uploaded in one post rather than users uploading a string of posts. Check out their announcement here.
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