1. Facebook Reels Available Globally - Facebook is taking its battle against TikTok to the next stage with the full launch of Reels on Facebook, using the platform's massive scale to capitalize on the popularity of short-form video content.

Facebook Reels will include remix functionality to encourage trend engagement, while creators will also be able to post Facebook Reels up to 60 seconds in length, in line with Instagram's Reels extension launched last July. Users will also be able to share publicly posted Reels to their Stories, adding even more engagement potential.

In addition to this, Facebook's also adding Reels drafts and a new video clipping option "that will make it easier for creators who publish live or long-form, recorded videos to test different formats."

That last one is important because, like YouTube, Facebook's looking to use its short-form option as a complementary channel while also giving creators the opportunity to build community and maximize their monetization potential through longer content as well.

2. LinkedIn Has Launched The LinkedIn Marketers Group - LinkedIn Has Launched a New Group to Provide Insights and Tips for LinkedIn Marketers, which will aim to provide community support and direction for digital marketers. LinkedIn's redesigned Marketing Partner Community Group will focus on sharing industry knowledge and relevant topics and conducting discussions about new and upcoming changes and insights from the platform itself to improve LinkedIn marketing tactics.

You can visit the LinkedIn Group now and request to join. You should hear back about approval within 24 hours. Once you've joined, you'll see group posts in your LinkedIn feed.

3. What You Need To Know About LinkedIn Podcast Network - With the debut of its new 'LinkedIn Podcast Network,' LinkedIn is trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of podcasts by hosting a variety of shows centered on major professional themes, prepared by both internal and external experts. Listeners will be able to access all of LinkedIn's podcasts by following each podcast host in the app and subscribing to their newsletter, as well as via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other audio source. The key benefit of engaging with these hosts on LinkedIn, according to LinkedIn, is that you'll be able to expand the conversation beyond passive listening.

4. LinkedIn Reveals New Post Analytics - LinkedIn is hoping to provide interesting insights into content performance with new post analytics tools, which will provide you information about the people who are reading your LinkedIn updates, as well as the number of Reactions each has received. The new analytics will give you a better idea of who is viewing your content, with filters for job title, industry, geography, and more. This could be a terrific approach to make sure your material reaches the people you want to target. If you've created personas for your own branding or marketing efforts, this could be a quick way to double-check your target audience and fine-tune your strategy based on the information you've gathered.

5. Microsoft Advertising Rolls Out Dynamic Descriptions - Dynamically generated headlines are often helpful to drive relevant experiences and more traffic for your business. Now to help advertisers provide even more relevant ad experiences while also saving them time, Microsoft Advertising has announced dynamic descriptions for DSA, a new tool that's unique to the search advertising landscape. Dynamic descriptions are the default option for creating new DSA campaigns in Microsoft Advertising online. With dynamic descriptions, you can supplement your generic static descriptions with more relevant information to your searchers and help drive more clicks. This is now available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

When you're in your DSA campaign settings, you'll now see a new checkbox that says Enable dynamic search ad text. Once you've done that, you'll be able to start getting descriptions dynamically generated and powered by Microsoft Advertising's Artificial Intelligence. They are continually optimized to provide the best messages to your customers.

Starting in April, Microsoft Advertising will enable dynamic descriptions for all existing DSA campaigns, with any advertisers that are insensitive verticals remaining opted out for their current campaigns.

6. Microsoft Advertising Launches Auto-Apply Recommendations - Advertisers Opted In By Default - Microsoft Advertising's auto-apply recommendations are now broadly available, the company stated Monday. In March 2021, Microsoft Advertising released a beta version of this feature, which is currently generally available. Advertisers are automatically enrolled in all five of the platform's suggestion kinds. While enabling auto-apply recommendations will not boost your budgets, it does give the platform permission to make adjustments on your behalf without your input. You should decide whether or not that is acceptable to them, and if it isn't, you should opt-out.

Microsoft Advertising currently offers the following auto-apply recommendation types:

Advertisers can opt-out of auto-apply for any recommendations at any time. Each auto-apply recommendation has a check box in front of it. Simply clearing those who do not want to be adopted will opt-out, and they won't be added to the account moving forward. However, they can still be manually applied in the future.

7. Google Page Experience Update For Desktop Is Live - Google confirms the Page Experience algorithm update is now rolling out to desktop search results. The update is scheduled to finish rolling out by the end of March. Back in November 2021, we shared about the Page Experience update when it was first rolled out to mobile search results, and now it will be applied to desktop search results. For the most part, Page Experience on desktop includes the same ranking signals as the mobile update except for "mobile-friendliness." Mobile-friendliness, which is a signal built into page experience for mobile search, will not apply to desktop.

This means the same three Core Web Vitals metrics: LCP, FID, and CLS, and their associated thresholds will apply for the desktop ranking. Other aspects of page experience signals, such as HTTPS security and the absence of intrusive interstitials, will remain the same as well.

Google Search Console has a new report dedicated to evaluating Page Experience criteria on the desktop versions of web pages. You can utilize this report to get an idea of how your site may be impacted by the update when it finishes rolling out at the end of next month. The desktop report can be accessed from the Page Experience tab in Search Console, directly underneath the mobile report. It looks identical to the mobile report, with the exception of the Mobile Usability section.

8. Google Merchant Center Adds Short Title Attribute - Online retailers can now add an optional short title to identify their products in Google Merchant Center. The new [short_title] attribute differs from the existing [title] attribute in that the short title should be concise and is intended to show in "browsy experiences," like Discovery campaigns and Shopping ads on Gmail. Full product titles often get truncated in the "browsy" contexts Google has mentioned, which means that users may not be seeing all the relevant information from your ad. Short titles provide merchants with an alternate, concise way to identify their products, which could help to improve click-through rates. While Google allows 1–150 characters for this field, it recommends using between 5 and 65 characters. Google also advises that merchants:

You should also highlight the most important details by placing them towards the front since users don't always read the entire title. And, adding a brand name is a good idea if it helps differentiate the product — this can be important when you sell similar products across brands.

9. Google Shopping Experience Scorecard - A new tool dubbed the Shopping experience scorecard has been announced by Google for Google Merchant Center retailers. In other words, if these merchants produce a "great customer experience," Google will reward them with "a boost on ranks," "a badge," and "other perks that will help people find your business" in Google Shopping tab of Google Search.

There is a help document that explains that "the program will monitor the experience you provide to customers in several areas, including shipping speed, shipping cost, return cost, and return window. You'll be given a rating of "Excellent," "Comparable," or "Opportunity" on each metric. "To see your performance for each metric and your overall score:

Suppose you are a merchant and part of Google Merchant Center and you know you can provide that level of "excellent" customer service. In that case, it might make sense for you to share these metrics with Google so you can gain better visibility in Google Shopping. 

Google did add that if you do not provide the data, you will "not be penalized" — so there is no reason to feel pressured to provide the data to Google, outside of knowing that other merchants might and they might benefit, while you may not.

10. Google Ads Launches Enhanced Conversions For Leads - Google has officially launched enhanced lead conversions. Google Ads' Enhanced Conversions feature can "increase the accuracy of your conversion measurement and unleash more effective bidding," according to Google. You may receive first-party customer data such as an email address, name, home address, and/or phone number when a client completes a conversion on your website. It works in conjunction with your existing conversion tags by securely delivering hashed first-party conversion data from your website to Google. This information can be collected using conversion tracking tags, hashed, and provided to Google in hashed form, where it can be utilized to improve conversion measurement.

11. Google SEO 'Discovered – Currently Not Indexed' Status - When asked how long webpages can remain discovered but not indexed, Mueller says:

12. Is There SEO Value Of User Comments On Websites? - Should visitors to your website be able to make comments? According to Google, user comments on web pages may bring additional SEO value, but they must be strictly regulated for spam and other concerns that may develop. It's incorrect to suggest that website comments are a ranking component because allowing users to submit comments will not improve your site's ranking. User comments can provide SEO value to web pages in the form of added context. If people stay on topic and provide comments that are relevant to the topic of the page, this information can help with search rankings. Comments relevant to the webpage's subject matter can help Google better understand the content and determine which types of queries it should rank for.

It's also true in the other direction. When visitors leave irrelevant comments, it might degrade the overall quality of the page. Off-topic comments may provide Google conflicting information about what the page is about and which queries it should appear for. Even if they are written by people who are not directly linked with the site, websites are accountable for user comments.

It's your responsibility if it's on your website.

For example, comments containing spammy links may result in a penalty or demotion in search results.