Google’s SERPs update is the key SEO news story of the past week, read more below on how it may affect your ranking.
SEO
Google’s SERPs update
Google has announced the SERPs are being translated into eight more languages, which allows an increase in traffic, globally. The added languages are Arabic, Gujarati, Korean, Persian, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
These translated results are a Google Search feature that automatically translates the title link and meta description into the user’s local language, using Google Translate or Chrome in-browser translation.
Social Media
While you may have had your eyes glued to the footy this past week, there were some key social updates you’ll want to know about.
Meta
GA4 Integration
You may have seen a message pop up in your ads manager, suggesting you should connect Google Analytics to your campaign which will see your performance increase by 22%.
While I would highly recommend linking your GA4 account to your Facebook ads/ad accounts, don’t expect the 22% increase. You’ll likely see an improvement in analytics, as the platform has more sources to draw from, and the same can be audience targeting.
Facebook is testing a ‘Clear Mode’ for Reels
Do you ever feel like the Reels interface is more cluttered than TikTok when you’re watching videos?
Well, after testing a clear mode on Instagram, which removes captions and the like buttons, they’re now testing it out on Facebook too.
Personally, I prefer the less encumbered viewing style!
Meta’s ad-free subscription offering...
The EU continues to be problematic for Meta, as they’ve reviewed Meta’s ad-free subscription service and found there’s a breach of the Digital Markets Act.
This enables users to opt out of ads and data tracking, but you have to pay €9.99 per month. Campaigners claim that this undermines GDPR, and want to protect against “data capitalism”
The EU commission has said:
“The Commission takes the preliminary view that Meta’s “pay or consent” advertising model is not compliant with the DMA as it does not meet the necessary requirements set out under Article 5(2). In particular, Meta’s model does not allow users to opt for a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the “personalised ads” based service and does not allow users to exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of their personal data.”
Threads
One year anniversary
Although it feels like only yesterday, it’s been one whole year since Threads was released! With that in mind, Meta has released Thead’s usage, and celebrated 175 million users.
They also revealed that the most popular Threads are: PhotographyThreads, BookThreads, GymThreads, ArtThreads, TTPD, which I’m told is The Tortured Poets Department (aka, Taylor Swift!).
Threads also shared this fantastic summary of Gen Z usage:
“Gen Z also has a clear goal for logging into their socials. 67 percent report they check their feed for entertainment-related news. Gen Zs also report they would check their feed for music-related news (60 percent), food-related news (59 percent), and fashion-related news (42 percent).⁵ With features like Topic Tags and Trending Topics in the U.S., which surfaces relevant topics within search and on the “for you” feed, Threads has quickly become a place to discover this type of news.”
It’s worth reading the full article they posted as there’s a lot of information to cover.
New safety features are coming to WhatsApp, and specifically, their group chats. You’ll now be able to report specific messages in group chats, report group chats entirely and control who can add you to groups – whether that’s contacts or non-contacts.
While this is nothing groundbreaking, safety feature updates are often seen across multiple Meta platforms when they are released.
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