Episode 195 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Jan 15-19, 2024.

1. Google's Guide to Seamless Website Transition Without SEO Hiccups - Google's John Mueller has provided advice for businesses transitioning to a new website without affecting their SEO. This guidance is crucial for small business owners who are considering or in the process of moving to a new website.

Mueller emphasized the importance of either removing or updating the old website. Keeping both the old and new sites live with conflicting information can confuse users and harm SEO. Inconsistent details, such as different business hours or addresses on both sites, can frustrate customers and make it challenging for search engines to index and rank pages correctly.

To ensure a smooth transition, Mueller suggests implementing redirects from the old site to the new one. This approach aids users in finding the correct website and helps search engines transfer any existing signals to the new domain, potentially boosting its standing. Mueller recommends getting help from a web developer or hosting provider to implement the redirects properly and suggests keeping them in place for at least one year.

Redirects are crucial when transitioning from one website domain to a new one. They ensure users who visit the old website domain are automatically forwarded to the new domain and pass on the value of links pointing to the old domain to the new domain. This link equity transfer is vital for the new website to retain its search engine ranking.

If redirects to a new domain aren't possible, Mueller suggests updating the old site with a notice alerting visitors that the content has moved to a new domain. If that can't be done, take down the old site completely. He assures that the new site won't be penalized by search engines for outdated content on the old domain. However, both the old and new websites may still appear in searches for a while, which may need clarification for users.

After making the transition, it's important to monitor the process closely. Use analytics software to check that redirects function correctly and traffic is sent to the right places. Keep an eye on your search engine rankings to catch any unexpected dips that might indicate a problem with the transition. Informing users about the change through emails, social media, and website announcements is also crucial.

In summary, moving to a new website is a significant change for any business. Handling the shift carefully is vital to maintaining search engine rankings and providing users with a continuous experience. Mueller's guidance should assist in making the transition from an old site to a new one go smoothly.

2. Google's Clarification on 'Index, Follow' Meta Tag: What It Means for Your Website - Google's John Mueller recently provided clarity on the use of the 'index, follow' meta tag, a topic of interest for many website owners and SEO professionals. The HTML meta element communicates metadata. Metadata is machine readable information that a crawler like Googlebot can read. Muller’s clarity sheds light on a common misunderstanding in the SEO community.

The 'index, follow' meta tag has been widely used with the belief that it instructs search engine crawlers to index the content of a webpage and follow its links. However, Mueller clarified that this tag is essentially redundant for Google, as indexing and following links are default behaviors of search engine robots. The tag looks like this: <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">.

Mueller explained that the 'index' directive in the robots meta tag has no function for Google and is completely ignored. Similarly, the 'follow' directive is unnecessary because Googlebot automatically follows links unless instructed otherwise. Google's documentation confirms that the default values for robots tags are 'index, follow', and these don't need to be specified. 

Furthermore, he wrote, “Google has https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags & https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag to document the meta tags that have functions. You can use anything else, it'll be ignored. <meta name="robots" content="topranking bestcheese"> is an option, if you want to throw people off.”

If the robots meta you want to use isn’t’ listed in Google’s documentation then Googlebot is going to ignore it. So don’t try to be cute or innovative unless you want to throw people off. The <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"> tag is still valid and tells the search engine crawlers to not index the content on the webpage and to not follow any links.

For small business owners managing their websites, this clarification means that including the 'index, follow' meta tag does not impact how Google crawls or indexes their pages. The focus should instead be on ensuring that the website is accessible, with high-quality content that serves the audience's needs.

While Bing treats the 'index, follow' tag similarly, it does allow explicit statements of 'index' or 'follow' if desired, as per Bing's documentation. However, for Google, the emphasis is on streamlining the website's HTML and removing unnecessary elements that do not contribute to its performance in search results.

3. Understanding the Impact of Changing from WWW to Non-WWW on SEO - In a recent discussion, Google's John Mueller clarified a common query among website owners and digital marketers about the impact of changing a domain from 'www' to 'non-www' on search rankings. This is particularly relevant for business owners who are considering such changes to their websites.

Mueller stated that switching from a 'www' to a 'non-www' domain should not significantly affect a website's rankings. He suggested that Google is adept at recognizing such changes, and the rankings are unlikely to suffer substantially as a result. This response came after a query about a large site that changed its domain URL to remove 'www' and implemented 301 redirects via user agent Mozilla. The site owner noticed a worsening impact over time, leading to concerns about Google's recognition of this form of 301 redirect.

Mueller clarified that server-side redirects like 301 do not use user agents, indicating a possible misunderstanding in the implementation. He emphasized that changing from 'www' to 'non-www' doesn't really change much in terms of SEO. If a website is experiencing significant changes in rankings, it is likely due to other factors.

It's important for business owners to understand that while such domain changes are recognized by Google, the key is in the proper implementation of redirects. Google is quick to pick up on changes like 'http to https' or 'www to non-www,' and these types of changes should not negatively impact a site's rankings. However, changes in URL structures or significant parts of the site might lead to slower reactions from Google.

4. Maximizing SEO: The Importance of Text Placement Over Images - In a recent discussion on Reddit, the topic of text within images on websites and its impact on SEO was explored. This is a consideration for business owners who are looking to optimize their websites for better search engine rankings.

The primary concern raised was whether Google can effectively read and understand text that is embedded within images. The consensus is that for optimal SEO, it's important to ensure that key text is not confined within an image. While Google has made advancements in image recognition and can understand some text within images, relying solely on this method is not advisable for critical content.

John Mueller from Google responded to the Reddit thread, suggesting a pragmatic approach. He advised considering whether the text within the image is just a repetition of text already present on the page (like a company name or address) or if it's unique and substantial content that would be missing if the images weren't there. If the text is important and unique to the page, it's better to have it as real text rather than embedded in an image.

For business owners, this means that while designing your website, it's crucial to ensure that important text, especially content that you want to rank for in search engines, is placed as actual text on the page and not just within images. This approach ensures that search engines can easily crawl and index this text, improving the chances of ranking higher in search results.

In cases where text must be part of an image for design purposes, using alt tags on images can help Google understand the image and the text it contains. Alt tags provide a text alternative for search engines, which is useful for both SEO and accessibility.

5. Google's New Email Rules for Bulk Senders: A Must-Know for Business Owners - Starting next month, Google will enforce stricter rules for businesses and groups sending large volumes of email to Gmail accounts. This is crucial for business owners who rely on email marketing.

Initially announced in October, these new policies aim to reduce spam and enhance email security. Entities sending more than 5,000 emails per day to Gmail addresses must now adhere to specific guidelines:

For businesses needing to implement these practices, Google offers guidance:

While these requirements are mandatory for entities with over 5,000 subscribers, smaller email lists can also benefit from adopting these standards to improve email deliverability.

Looking ahead, Google's new requirements are not a perfect solution but are expected to help reduce spam and abuse. Email marketers who comply with these rules can continue reaching their subscribers effectively.

For business owners, understanding and adapting to these new email rules is essential. It's not just about compliance; it's about maintaining a trustworthy relationship with your audience and ensuring your marketing efforts are effective and respectful of user preferences.

6. LinkedIn Introduces New Sponsored Post Option for Enhanced Lead Generation - LinkedIn is rolling out a new advertising feature that offers a fresh approach to lead generation for businesses. This introduces a sponsored post option that is now available to all users, providing a novel way to maximize the benefits of LinkedIn content.

With this new feature, when a company page posts an article on LinkedIn, page admins will have the option to promote it. This promotion includes the ability to add a Call-To-Action (CTA) button, such as "Unlock Article," which requires user signup to access the full content. This functionality not only enhances lead generation within the app but also offers a more direct method to measure response and optimize content performance on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is currently developing this option and plans to integrate additional post amplification and CTA options over time. This expansion could eventually facilitate more customer connection processes while simultaneously incentivizing businesses to maintain active posting on LinkedIn, thereby boosting platform usage.

The CTA option is similar to LinkedIn's existing lead generation ads, but having it more directly tied to in-app engagement could be more beneficial for both LinkedIn and businesses. However, the effectiveness of this feature depends on the quality of the articles. Ideally, you want to attract leads genuinely interested in your products or services, not just any audience. With the right content, this new feature could prove to be a valuable driver for business connections.

Currently, only company-authored articles are eligible for sponsorship under this new feature. This presents an opportunity to leverage LinkedIn's vast professional network more effectively. By creating compelling, valuable content and utilizing the sponsored post option, businesses can enhance their lead generation efforts and potentially drive more meaningful engagement on the platform.

7. YouTube's Upcoming Thumbnail A/B Testing - On January 18, 2024, YouTube announced an upcoming feature that could significantly impact how creators optimize their content performance. YouTube is set to introduce a thumbnail A/B testing option for its creators. This development is particularly relevant for business owners who use YouTube as a platform for marketing and content distribution.

The new thumbnail testing option will allow creators to upload three different thumbnail variations for each video and run comparative tests for up to two weeks. This feature will enable creators to determine which thumbnail is the most effective at grabbing viewers' attention, thereby potentially improving video engagement.

Initially previewed in June 2023, YouTube had stated that the option would be rolled out in 2024. However, there had been no updates on its availability until recently. YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie shared that the thumbnail testing is still in the testing phase. As of late last year, the testing expanded to 50,000 channels of various types, sizes, and regions across YouTube. This number is still relatively small considering the vast number of channels on the platform.

The testing will continue until the YouTube team is confident that the product meets creators' needs. While there is no specific timeline for the launch, YouTube has assured that it will notify everyone once the feature is ready for a broader rollout.

Thumbnails are a critical element in attracting viewer interest on YouTube. The ability to test and choose the most effective thumbnail based on actual viewer data could lead to increased views and engagement. This tool represents a shift towards more data-driven content optimization on YouTube, allowing creators to make informed decisions about how to present their content effectively.

8. Maximizing TikTok Ad Performance: A New Guide on Effective Bidding Strategies - TikTok has released a comprehensive guide on optimizing ad campaigns, particularly focusing on ad bidding strategies.  This appears to be a valuable resource for business owners looking to enhance their promotional performance on the platform.

The 13-page guide offers insights into various bidding options and strategic approaches, enriched with case studies, data-backed notes, and more. It's designed to help advertisers understand how to structure their ad accounts for maximum efficiency and provides key guidance on common best practices in TikTok advertising.

Key highlights from the guide include:

For business owners, this guide is particularly useful as it offers a deeper understanding of how to leverage TikTok's advertising platform effectively. Whether you're new to TikTok ads or looking to refine your existing strategies, the guide provides valuable insights that could potentially change your approach and improve your ad performance.