We know it can be hard to keep up with ever-changing digital marketing news and trends. But no need to stress – we’ve got you covered! Check out our roundup of the latest news and trends in the world of digital marketing for January 2020.
SEO, Organic Search and Google News
Rich Apparel Search Results
What Is It? Since January 15, 2020, Google has displayed ecommerce apparel products – clothes, shoes and more -- organically on mobile search results. Products that appear in this section are pulled from your product feed in Google Merchant Center.
Say that you search for “floral dress” on mobile. When you scroll below the ads section of the results page, you find a new Popular Products section with imagery, product filters, product pricing and more.
What Does it Mean for Marketers? Historically, Google Merchant Center product feeds were used to generate Google Shopping Ads. Now your feed will generate free, organic traffic from Google as well!
How Should You Respond? Even if you are not running Google Shopping Ads, now is the time to make sure you have a product feed set up in Google Merchant Center, to take advantage of organic traffic. (Assuming that you have an apparel ecommerce business.) To measure the impact from this new search result type, visit your Performance Report in the Google Search Console.
January 2020 Google Core Update
What Is It? At about noon on January 13, Google began to roll out the January 2020 core update. This type of global “broad core algorithm update” occurs several times per year.
Based on early data from several third-party data companies, the update especially affected Your Money, Your Life categorized websites. The Your Money, Your Life category comprises pages that have an impact on your well-being – physical, financial, safety, etc.
What Does it Mean for Marketers? Continue to produce quality, relevant, useful, digestible content for your target audience. Quality content is the anchor of your website. It makes your website useful for the end consumer, and that makes your site useful for Google to feature. Measure results. Know – don’t guess – which content types yield the best results, and double down on those content areas.
How Should You Respond? If you were hit by Google’s core update, see Google’s advice here.
Social Media News
LinkedIn Events
What Is It? The recent introduction of LinkedIn Events gives you the ability to create private and/or public events. This feature resembles Facebook’s venerable event feature, plus all the benefits of LinkedIn.
What Does it Mean for Marketers? Do you host workshops, webinars, seminars or conferences? LinkedIn Events is the perfect place to create your anchor event and invite potential attendees. You’ll have the benefit of seeing attendees’ roles, businesses and more.
How Should You Respond? Create a LinkedIn event for your next real-world professional event. Follow LinkedIn’s guide to create a new event.
LinkedIn Showcased Services
What Is It? LinkedIn now allows you to showcase, on your profile, the professional services you offer. Potential clients can discover you by searching LinkedIn for those services.
What Does it Mean for Marketers? An entirely new avenue for spreading the word on your services, via the world’s largest professional platform. Thank you, LinkedIn!
How Should You Respond? Set-up the Open for Business feature on your LinkedIn profile. This feature does, however, require a premium subscription to LinkedIn. Follow LinkedIn’s step-by-step instructions here.
New Instagram Insights
What Is It? Instagram recently launched new features to help you better understand your reach and presence on the platform. This includes growth insights, stories insights, age gating, and flexible profile displays.
What Does it Mean for Marketers? You now have the ability to see more granular detail of your reach on Instagram. For example, you can:
- See which Instagram stories generate the most followers.
- Place age restrictions on your account and only allow consumers in a specific age range to view your content.
- Decide which aspects of your profile make sense to display to the public for your individual business.
How Should You Respond? Spend some time reviewing your Instagram business dashboard and digest your current insights. Have certain stories attracted new followers? If so, double down on those types of stories.