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Good morning, Marketers! Let’s discuss the never-ending cycle of spam and why some might unknowingly be misguided.
In the newsletter below, you’ll learn about Google’s 2020 webspam report, which highlights the increase in spam but also the improvements in Google’s efforts to detect and block it. As long as search engines are popular, spam will always pose a challenge for Google and other search engines.
In What We’re Reading, I included an article I wrote: Brands Value Domain Authority Because They Mistakenly Think Google Values It. This forms a vicious cycle. Brands mistakenly believe DA is a Google metric and thus buy links from high DA sites. This misconception propels site owners to increase their DA scores to attract link buyers, leading to non-compliant practices that eventually harm their Google rankings.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines strictly forbid this type of link selling. Consequently, sites selling links often experience a drop in search rankings as Google stops trusting the links and the sites themselves.
Furthermore, marketers who buy these links are wasting money since Google doesn’t count them. We’ve discussed this issue before.
In summary, marketers should stop obsessing over metrics like DA, which isn’t even used by Google. The focus should be on creating websites with valuable content that earns natural links, solves user problems, and is recommended by others. This approach results in long-term success on Google, not high DA scores.
Stop wasting your time, money, and resources on vanity metrics.
Barry Schwartz,
SEO spam good cop
Google Search Spam Prevention Continues to Improve, Says Google
Google recently released its annual webspam report, showcasing improvements in detecting and blocking webspam in Search. In 2020, Google detected 40 billion pages of spam daily, a 60% increase from 2019. Google attributes this to its AI capabilities, which reduced auto-generated and scraped content by over 80%. Hacked spam detection improved by 50%, and efforts to protect COVID-19 related searches from misinformation have been substantial. Fighting spam is a continuous challenge for Google, ensuring long-term job security for its spam fighters.
Google Ads API Version 7.0
Google released version 7.0 of the Google Ads API, introducing several new features:
- New assets for test accounts including callout, structured snippet, and sitelinks assets.
- Promotion assets are now available in both production and test accounts.
- The API supports reporting for Apple’s AKAdNetwork.
- The Keyword Planning tool now allows refining keywords using annotation data, selecting custom date ranges for search volume, and requesting aggregated metrics.
- Manage bidding strategy and campaign simulations.
Why we care: Users of the Google Ads API can now utilize additional features to improve their workflow, making their daily tasks more efficient. Explore the full release notes for further details on these enhancements.
Facebook Revenue Nearly Doubled: What It Means for Advertisers
Recent earnings reports reveal that Facebook almost doubled its Q1 earnings compared to last year, with advertising revenue up 146% and daily active users increasing by 8%.
The increase was attributed largely to higher ad prices, according to the CFO: “The 30% year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 12% increase in ad delivery drove our strong advertising revenue growth in Q1 2021.”
Pricing changes correspond with privacy initiatives. Lauren Clawson from Portent noted increases in cost-per-click and cost-per-purchase across their client portfolio following platform changes responding to IDFA adjustments. Additionally, some social media managers reported declines in the performance of lookalike audiences, likely due to a reduced attribution window limiting data points.
Why we care: Facebook’s CFO projected stable or modestly accelerating total revenue growth in Q2 2021 compared to Q1, supported by increased ad prices, which will continue to boost revenue.
Google Discover Ranking Issues, Dofollow Links, Google Publisher Center, and More
Suspending sites in Google Discover: Paul Bakaus from Google clarified on Twitter that sites aren’t generally suspended; they may not appear in Google Discover due to insufficient quality after a core update.
Google news video and regex: John Mueller released a video detailing recent SEO news and changes at Google Search, including humorous moments with regex pronunciation.
Google Publisher Center updated: The center, which allows news publishers to manage their sites on Google News, has received some design tweaks and help document updates.
Dofollow clarification: John Mueller reiterated that there is no “rel=dofollow” link attribute. All links are followed by Google unless specified otherwise.
We’ve Curated Our Picks from Across the Web for You
- Brands Value Domain Authority Because They Mistakenly Think Google Values It – Search Engine Roundtable
- Google Translate: One billion installs, one billion stories – Google Blog
- Loud and clear: AI is improving Assistant conversations – Google Blog
- Study: Driving impact with search advertising – Microsoft Advertising
- Understanding the Magic Behind Google’s “Price Drop” Rich Result for eCommerce SEO – Brodie Clark Consulting
