It is fair to say that January has seen a very interesting start to 2017; January 16th was dubbed the ‘most depressing day of the year‘, the inauguration of Donald Trump highlighted the way in which we use social media to manipulate how people perceive us, and we’ve lost British legend John Hurt to pancreatic cancer.
However, January hasn’t been that bad. For example, Ryan Gosling, La La Land swept us off our feet with 14 Golden Globe nominations, and Norway intends to gift Finland a mountain for their birthday as an, “unprecedented show of kindness.” It’s also been a pretty big month for the SEO, Social Media, and Digital Marketing industry, and we’re going to tell you all about it. So, without further ado here are ten great things that happened in Digital Marketing this month!
Facebook has seen a rise in m-commerce transactions
The festive period saw a 10% rise in Facebook transactions made on mobile. From 1st November to 31st December 2016 51% of Facebook transactions were made on mobile, and the social media conglomerate said they are still seeing a massive shift to mobile transactions after Christmas. You can find out more from Fashion Network here.
TechWyse released 121 podcasts to help you become a successful marketer
If you want to progress and become successful in your marketing career, then TechWyse‘s list of marketing podcasts will help you learn the tips and tricks of the trade. Whether you want to know about Digital Marketing, Social Media or Conversion Rate Optimisation, the best of the best have been reviewed for you. What makes this even better is the fact that all of the podcasts are embedded directly into the post. Find your favourite podcasts here.
60% of voice users want answers over search results
According to a survey from Stone Temple Consulting, the most common uses for voice search was to make calls, search, look up directions and text. Alongside this, they wanted their search results to directly answer the questions they were asking, instead of showing multiple options in the SERP. With Alexa, Cortana and Siri becoming more prominent in our everyday lives, we’re really interested to see how voice search will affect the way in which businesses deliver their information to users. You can find out more about it here.
HTTPS is now essential for Google Chrome
If your website stores sensitive data and personal information, it will become a requirement for your website to use Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure from the end of January. This is when Google will start marking non-HTTPS sites that utilise personal information such as passwords and payment information, in a bid to keep people’s private information safe on the Internet. This is something we’re pretty happy to see, and we’re interested to see just how it will affect non-HTTPS sites. Check out more about it here.
We looked at 5 ways your blog can generate more leads
Getting your business’s blog to generate more leads is a real challenge, but when your blog content has potential to play a key role in your overall marketing strategy it is imperative that you make sure your blog is giving you as many leads as possible. From a bit of shameless self-promotion to adding a CTA at the end of every post, we looked at ways you can create more business from your blog posts.
Search Engine Journal released 9 data backed SEO predictions for 2017
You’ve probably read 1001 SEO/social media/digital marketing (delete as appropriate) predictions for 2017, but Search Engine Journal’s predictions were the ones that really stuck with us. They use statistics to back up their predictions and we’re looking forward to a few of them coming true. Apart from the one where they talk about an SEO company dying, obviously. Find out more here.
Google banned 200 sites for publishing fake news
In November Google and Facebook announced they were beginning to crack down on websites promoting fake news sites; the sites in question would no longer be able to use the advertising services both Facebook and Google provide. Since then, Google has banned 0ver 200 fake news sites from using said services. They’ve also removed 68 million ads for healthcare violations and 17 million ads for illegal gambling violations. Its safe to say that we’re interested to see where this will take ‘bad ads’. Find out more here.
Snapchat adopts offline purchase ad targeting
This month Snapchat announced they were going to use third party ad targeting that their CEO had branded as, ‘creepy’. This next step makes sense, as it follows the likes of their competitors (Twitter and Facebook) and is a way to keep up with the constant updates of these platforms. They’ve partnered with third party offline data provider Oracle Data Cloud, giving Snapchat advertisers the ability to access data regarding the user’s offline purchasing habits in order to more accurately target ads. Whilst it is good to see that there’s an option for users to opt out, it will certainly change marketing strategies for companies. Check it out here.
Google Doodle celebrated 125th birthday of Bessie Coleman
January 26th was the 125th birthday of first African-American female aviator, Bessie Coleman which was marked with a Google Doodle. The Doodle blog said, “Bessie Coleman didn’t just chase her dreams – she soared after them […] As Lieutenant William J. Powell writes, “Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream. Today’s Doodle honors Coleman on what would be her 125th birthday.”
We came up with 5 mobile trends to help your business
Mobile search has become more important than ever, especially after mobile search overtaking desktop in 2015. Last year Google announced they were going to index mobile and desktop separately, so it is essential for every business to stay ahead of the curve. Check out these five mobile trends that will help boost your site this year.
