Good day to you, fellow digital marketing warrior, and welcome to the newest installment of . For those of you who are unfamiliar with our weekly category, this is where we digest some of the most relevant industry-related topics and events we gleaned over the last seven days or so.
In our February 2020 Week 1 edition, you can read about the following events:
…and more
Let’s get crackin’!
Facebook Revealed The Ways It Stalks Us, Even When We’re Not Using It
The days of suspecting that the Facebook app is listening to us in order to target its users for ads are over, but not exactly in a good way.
The social media giant provided us with a long-awaited insight into how much information it is able to glean on, well, all of us. A few days ago, Facebook created something called the “” tracker that displays the extent to which this platform (along with its sister apps Instagram and Messenger) goes to track your activity, without even using your device’s mic, or – even creepier – while you’re not even using the app.
What the “Off-Facebook Activity” tracker basically does is displaying its users the data it gathered over the last 180 days via various other organizations and advertisers that this social media behemoth is in cahoots with.
“Even when your phone is entirely off, businesses can upload information about you making an in-store purchase,” write folks over at Washington Post. “One colleague found 974 apps and websites shared his activity.”
More on the
WordPress Version 5.4 to Add Lazy-Loading to All Images
The company announced that the upcoming iteration of its content platform – WordPress 5.4 – could be , enabling the “loading” HTML attribute on all IMG elements. This means that WordPress users won’t be needing JavaScript (or third-party plugins) in order to use lazy-loading for their WordPress images.
For those who are not aware of lazy-loading, it is basically an HTML attribute that provides your browser with information on whether it should wait before downloading an image or if it should download it instantly.
Two main lazy-loading attribute types are:
The latter will definitely improve and speed up the user experience on WP pages.
Google Search Console Rolls Out New Removals Tool
will be providing the users with 3 new options:
To access the new removals tool, you need to go to Google Search Console’s “Index” menu and click on “Removals.”
What this means from the SEO standpoint is that not only can we now quickly remove content from Google but also gain insight into why exactly a certain piece of content has been taken down via third-party requests.
More detailed info on
All Google Ads Campaigns Will Soon Be Utilizing Standard Delivery
As of May 2020, Google Ads will make standard delivery the one and only ad delivery method for each and every type of Google Ads campaign (including Video, Display, App, and Hotel campaigns). The migration from accelerated delivery to standard delivery commenced in October 2019 and started with Search and Shopping campaigns.
All ongoing campaigns that are currently utilizing the accelerated type of delivery will be automatically converted to standard delivery as soon as this change officially starts.
According to Google, standard ad delivery is optimal for all ad campaigns as calculates expected ad performance on a daily basis, while accelerated delivery isn’t cost-efficient:
“… for campaigns that are limited by budget, [accelerated delivery] can increase CPCs due to increased competition early in the day, or unintentionally spend most of your budget in earlier time zones. Alternatively, Standard delivery takes into account expected ad performance throughout the day and is better at maximizing performance within your daily budget,“ Google officials stated.
More info on
Google Will No Longer Be Deduplicating Right-Sidebar Featured Snippets
Right-sidebar featured snippets in Google search have URLs shown below. These URLs will, despite recent talks of Google removing them, .
For now, anyway.
The company will definitely, at some point, be removing the featured snippets from the right rail in order to place it to the main listings.
Currently, the URLs that managed to reach the right-sidebar featured snippet appear twice within the first page in SERPs.
Microsoft Says SEO Is The Most Important Hard Skill For Marketers In 2020s
According to a , the SEO skillset is currently among the most important ones alongside data analysis, copywriting, etc.
The research features a section regarding current trends in marketing skills, including the forecast on trends spanning over the next decade. The good news for all SEOs out there is that the list of crucial hard skills features Search Engine Optimization at its very top.
The data processed within the aforementioned study comes from a poll done via LinkedIn that included 600 global senior marketer participants. Here are the most important marketing skills to have in 2020s:
Hard skills:
Soft skills: