In this month’s digital roundup our news mostly revolves around the Google-verse, with changes made or announced that you should be aware of. We also discuss Tik Tok search ads and how this could change the search landscape as we know it.
Keep reading to learn more about updates across the industry, as well as tools we’ve been loving this month, and key dates for your November marketing plan.
Results Remain Volatile Following Google’s August Core Update
Google rolled out their latest core update on August 15th, announcing it was complete on September 3rd. Since this rollout there has been increased volatility recorded across the SERPs throughout September and remains high in October. If your keyword results have been shaken up, it’s likely that the update has impacted you and may take some time to settle. To read more about this take a look at this article on Search Engine Roundtable.
Google’s Generative AI Is Appearing More for More Niche Topics
Google’s AI has begun appearing for more niche topics. This feature takes information from other websites to try and answer the users query, whilst also providing search engine results. This was initially rolled out in the UK in April in its testing phase, and has become more prominent, now appearing for more niche questions as it learns more.
Google Retired Cache Feature
In September we said goodbye to Google’s cache feature. This feature allowed you to see how your website looked when Google crawled and rendered the page, and the last time this was done. This was a historical tool used for when websites were running slowly or servers were not responding. Used by those in SEO it gave insight into Google’s view of a page and was helpful if you needed to troubleshoot an issue.
Google Announce Images Will Be Clearly Labelled as AI, Edited or Camera Images
Google’s ‘about this image’ feature will let users know more details about an image so users can quickly determine whether they are AI, edited images or the real thing. As AI becomes increasingly popular it can be hard to tell whether it is a real image or not (unless there are hands in an image, which AI is notorious for getting wrong). Labelling images gives more transparency for users and can build trust. You can read more about it in Google’s blog article.
TikTok Launches Search Ads In the US
Tiktok has launched search ads onto its platform in the US, which allows advertisers to target those users on the search results page. A study found that younger audiences are now using social media platforms to search, instead of traditional search engines like Google. With this new feature, advertisers can personalise their ads to match users behaviour and intent giving them ways of reaching users searching for content like theirs. It is unlikely Google will see this as a threat in the US however, with the potential ban of TikTok in the US in January 2025.
Tools We’re Loving
Wordtracker Scout
This tool allows you to find out the most common keywords used on a page. You can use this to look at the types of keywords your competitors are targeting within their content. Why not try the Wordtracker Scout for yourself.
Semrush Sensor
We’ve been utilising this tool since the last algorithm update was rolled out to check the volatility of results across different industries. It’s a great tool that displays the SERP volatility over the last 30 days so you can assess whether any keyword fluctuations could have been caused by any of the updates to the search engines. You can also compare how results differ on both desktop and mobile results.
Dates For Your Digital Marketing Diary
- 04 November: Stress Awareness Week UK
- 05 November: Us Presidential Election
- 05 November: Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes UK
- 08 November: National Stem Day
- 09 November: Social Media Kindness Day
- 10 November: Remembrance Sunday UK
- 16 November: Global Entrepreneurship Week
- 19 November: International Men’s Day
- 21 November: Thanksgiving US
- 22 November: Black Friday
- 30 November: St Andrew’s Day Scotland
Increase Your Online Presence With Wildcat Digital
With constant changes and algorithm updates, it can be hard to keep on top of maintaining and improving your website’s visibility. If you’re looking for expert help and advice on scaling up your online presence, get in touch with a member of our team today. In case you missed it, read September’s digital roundup.
Looking to punch above your weight online? Enquire about our tailored SEO, PPC and Paid Social services.
Thea Chapman
SEO Account Manager
