As we pull together another month’s worth of digital marketing news, it should come as no surprise that Google ruled the headlines at all of our go-to publications. The company made waves across all three segments—SEO, paid media, and digital analytics—and all for varying reasons that we’ll unpack in this article.
Let’s take a look at the top digital marketing stories of February 2022.
SEO stories
Google Page Experience update rolls out across desktop
As we noted last month, Google’s Page Experience algorithm update has indeed begun to roll out across desktop with plans for it to complete at the end of March. But guess what? It actually finished earlier than planned. As noted by Search Engine Journal, the primary difference between the mobile and desktop versions of this update is that the desktop version doesn’t include a mobile-friendliness signal. This means you should strive to hit the marks on the three same Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, FID, and CLS) along with HTTPS and an absence of intrusive interstitials. You can learn more about this update at Google’s Search Central blog.
Google launches new Search Console URL inspection API
More news from the land of the big G as the company launched a new URL inspection API for Search Console. Per the announcement, this new API has several interesting use cases for search marketers and developers, such as debugging structured data for a group of pages and monitoring pages over time.
Paid media stories
Facebook and Instagram to leave the EU?
Does the news of Facebook and Instagram potentially being closed down in the European Union sound familiar? It may if you saw very similar news from 2020. In this case, Meta (the parent company of FB, Instagram, etc.) is threatening to leave the EU behind because of an ongoing legal battle over the use of user data. We won’t know whether those apps will indeed leave or not, but a decision could come within the next few months, according to Social Media Today. We’ll keep you posted.
Google Merchant Center introduces new “short title” feature
Google Merchant Center launched the new “short title” feature and it gives advertisers even more control over how product titles appear. It’s worth noting that this is an optional attribute for ads, but it serves as a more concise way to describe products. Let’s consider the following example from Google:
- Product name: Google Shoes
- Title: Original Google shoes, mens, size 8, blue and orange
- Short title: Running shoes
Want to know more about how you can use this in your own ads? Check out Google’s explainer. We’d recommend you place your core keywords in your short title.
Digital analytics stories
LinkedIn buys Google Analytics challenger Oribi
LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, made some news this month when it announced the acquisition of Oribi, a challenger to Google Analytics. According to LinkedIn’s announcement, the platform will leverage Oribi’s code-free analytics technology so customers can “benefit from enhanced campaign attribution to optimize the ROI of their advertising strategies.” It also aims to help with measuring conversions and building audiences.
France finds Google Analytics in violation of GDPR
As predicted last month, France is the latest European country to find Google Analytics in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The country’s regulator, CNIL, ruled that Google could personally identify someone by using the unique identifier assigned to each visitor and the associated collected data. Does this mean the entire EU could be next? Potentially, and you can read more about this story at CPO Magazine.
Ayima news
We also have a bit of news to share with you from the Ayima team.
Upcoming speaking engagements
Just a reminder that we have some upcoming speaking engagements to mark on your calendar for April:
- Paola Didonè (Senior SEO Consultant) and Rich Ingilby (Client Growth Manager) will both speak at brightonSEO in April 2022.
Ayima Insights articles
Here’s what we published in January 2022:
- Integrating SEO and PPC: Client Growth Manager Richard Ingilby provides a deep dive into the whys and hows of a full SEO and PPC integration in 10 steps.
