Providing up-to-date ‘digital intelligence’ is something MPH Digital typically provides one-on-one with clients.
This blog post falls outside the typical as I want to make sure clients past and present understand that Google is currently undergoing a once-in-a-decade business pivot … disruptive changes to the digital marketplace that shouldn’t be ignored.
No matter the reason, the changes under way at Google are indicative of sweeping changes coming to the Internet which will likely end with a turning of the tables … from the Internet using you to you using the Internet.
Note these events in the last 18 or so months:
- Apple’s OS14 (then OS15) keeps reverberating, including on Facebook’s stock price
- Facebook saw it coming.
- Google announced it is replacing ‘UA’ analytics — what you use now — with ‘G4’
- G4 will be the only data source for website analytics starting in July
- Google announced its browser Chrome is dropping third-party cookies at the end of this year
- It has since delayed the move **twice** and now says July 2024 is the date
- Dropping those cookies is a power play against Facebook, Amazon and Madison Avenue
- Means ‘Remarketing’ is going way
- Google announced a ‘significant’ algorithm update dubbed the ‘Helpful Content Update‘
- Google notes the change favors ‘content written for humans not bots’
- I can say if we wrote content or worked on your site your content is written for humans
- Reiterated and widely publicized its existing policy for ‘manual actions’ in AdWords
- These are sanctions after a human review of the account, ad and landing page
- Main target is ‘buying traffic’ to a page to display disruptive, or ‘black hat’ ads
- In early November Google announced it was ending ‘similar to’ audiences in AdWords in May, grandfathering ends in August
- Google creates these targeting audiences for each advertiser based on the existing ‘tagged’ audiences for remarketing
- This is Google ‘prospecting’ for you … using web history of converting visitors to ID ‘most likely to convert’
- Now, Google will retain and use that visitor data *for the advertiser* instead of making it available *to the advertiser*
From the above I conclude:
- Google is preparing for an antitrust suit
- Google expects ‘internet privacy’ legislation
- Google waited on cookies announcement until they had a ‘remarketing’ replacement
- Delays result most certainly from corporate partner pushback
That pushback tells me that the disruption is coming.
These changes may seem ‘macro’ to you but it is a strategic mistake to think so.
You’ve heard the saying ‘all politics is local?’
Well, for digital marketing to get leads for your business all Google is local.
Now is the time to get ahead of these changes.
If you don’t your competitor will and you will be lapped.
If you’ve made it this far in the post you’re getting the advice.
The vitals:
- Make sure your website has Google Tag Manager fully installed
- Has G4 running alongside your current analytics
- Ensure all clicks on your site are being tracked
Better yet:
- Clicks on your site you want (phone call, forms, etc.) are ‘conversions’
- Feed ‘conversion’ data to AdWords, even if you aren’t advertising
- Run a ‘RESP Display’ campaign to ‘test market messaging’ you can use in emails on website
Lap your competition:
- Have newsletter at least quarterly even if there are no subscribers
- This forces creation of new content, the *thing Google loves the most*
- Ensure quality internal linking from all new posts
Best of the best:
- You have newest ‘generation’ of WordPress
- That is Gutenberg editor and **no pagebuilder**
- This generates **very fast** page loads and Google *really likes* indexing these pages
Very last thing:
- Consider getting VPS server on static IP address with only your website on it
- This is the ‘least risk’ option providing the most control over your website
- This also reflects well on Google and provides a ‘test site’ for website changes