Hello and welcome to another edition of – our weekly column where we comb through some of the most relevant news and events that took place within the digital marketing world over the last 7 days or so.
Let’s see what “May 2020: Week 4” edition brings:
Alrighty then, let’s dive right in!
Google’s New Podcast May Reveal Undocumented Information
As SEJ reports, that may address and disclose some enticing pieces of information about its search engine. Namely, the podcast is called “” and we hope it indeed reveals some so far undocumented data.
New Podcast from Google Webmasters 🦄🎙🎧@johnmu @g33konaut and @methode talk all things Google Search such as:
🗣trending topics in SEO
🖥Search Console features
🎉fun stories, and more!
Find the full trailer and subscribe to Search Off the Record → https://t.co/8cQVTALyGD pic.twitter.com/iIUafSeIFr
The team behind the upcoming show is comprised of John Mueller, Martin Splitt, and Gary Illyes, who will be tackling some interesting and never before discussed topics, one of which includes “background information on the decision-making process behind launches.”
Here’s how John Mueller introduced listeners to Search Off the Record in the trailer:
“This is a new podcast series that we’re trying out to try to give some behind the scenes insights into what goes on at Google when it comes to search and the communications around search. Our goal is not to be another source of documentation, but rather to just give some background information on [what’s on our minds.]”
They will also share info regarding the projects they’re currently working on.
Learn How Google’s “Knowledge Graph” Works
Google decided to delve deeper into explaining how “Knowledge Graph” and knowledge panels work, and has done so through a recently published explainer article.
For those who are perhaps not familiar with this topic, the Knowledge Graph can be described as a substantial “virtual encyclopedia of facts” that Google references when generating certain elements of search results.
Over the years, this encyclopedia has expanded quite a bit.
According to Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, it now contains more than 500 billion facts about 5 billion entities.
Knowledge panel refers to the box containing a list of crucial facts about your query that are fetched from the Knowledge Graph:
Google’s Knowledge Graph has amassed over 500 billion facts about five billion entities — people, places and things. This post explains how the Knowledge Graph works, presents information in knowledge panels & how we work to improve it. https://t.co/fSWYTl6i4B pic.twitter.com/ZR4CR8BzTJ
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 20, 2020
“They’re designed to help you quickly understand more about a particular subject by surfacing key facts and to make it easier to explore a topic in more depth,” says Sullivan.
Read the entire article
Manually Creating a Sitemap (for Large Websites) Isn’t Such a Great Idea
John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, recently pointed out that sitemaps for large websites aren’t supposed to be created manually, and more importantly, provided better solutions.
The matter was addressed on a Reddit thread when one SEO asked Mueller how to manage the process of making a sitemap for a site that has more than 2 million products.
The SEO’s thread is the following:
“I have a client in a very technical, industrial niche. They sell industrial parts that are similar, but very specific. They have 2 Million + SKUs in their inventory.
My challenge here is to create a sitemap. Because there are so many pages, I have to create it manually. I have a list of URLs broken up by products and categories that our dev team pulled through API. Since sitemaps can only contain 50,000 URLs, I have 37 excel sheets with 50,000 URLs on them each…”
Mueller’s response was brief and direct:
“You need to get [the sitemap] from the CMS or the underlying database directly.”
To find out more about creating sitemaps for large platforms,
Instagram Provides Updates and Guidelines for Broadcasting Music
Instagram provided its users with within Instagram posts, stories, live videos, etc.
The post also introduced a handy new feature that notifies a user if they’re using music that is unlicensed and violates Instagram copyright rules.
The idea with these pop-up notifications is to help users curb Instagram’s automated muting and/or blocking that this platform does to content pieces that feature licensed music playing either for too long or in the background of a live video.
(Image Source: Instagram)
These alerts now pop up in a timely manner during live broadcasts so the user has enough time to remove the music and therefore obviate their content being disrupted or taken down completely.
New Twitter Feature: Choose Who Can Reply to Your Tweets
The social media bubbles are about to .
Twitter users will soon be able to customize who can – and more importantly – who cannot comment on their posts. The platform is currently testing this new feature, and despite its typical strategy of rolling out new updates without previously announcing them, Twitter is encouraging people to give this one a go.
Testing, testing…
A new way to have a convo with exactly who you want. We’re starting with a small % globally, so keep your 👀 out to see it in action. pic.twitter.com/pV53mvjAVT
“Unwanted replies make it hard to have meaningful conversations,” the Twitter team stated in their announcement.
Users will have a chance to choose who can reply to tweets while they’re creating them, and here are the 3 options they will have:
The followers who are in the latter 2 groups will still see the Reply button, but it won’t be clickable.
Facebook Rolls Out 15 New Courses to Help Businesses Earn More Online
The current environment has prompted more businesses to find a way to maximize their opportunities of ramping up their online revenue, and Facebook is meeting them half-way by releasing 15 new Blueprint courses free of charge.
The courses are covering a wide spectrum of key elements and components necessary for online success.
Here’s what Facebook stated:
“As businesses around the world are shifting their focus online, many are wondering where to start. To help with this transition, our business education program, Facebook Blueprint, launched 15 new courses that cover the fundamentals. As always, our Blueprint courses are free, and we’ve made lessons even more straightforward, putting concepts into context with storytelling and offering downloadable materials to help bring what you learn to life.”
Read Facebook’s official article in its entirety .
Wrapping Up
That would be all for this installment of Digital Marketing Week in Review by Four Dots. See you next week, until then – feel free to !
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