Today in Digital Marketing - The Case of the Re-Written Title Tags... Solved!

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

We finally know why Google was re-writing title tags — and the answer is stranger than you think... Also: You'll soon be able to sell directly on TikTok... Spotify's shoehorning of itself into podcasting is not going well... 122 days until Christmas, so you know what that means... and where exactly do your Google My Business posts go anyway?!• Get a Free 7-Day Trial of the Premium Newsletter (with exclusive content, videos, links, and more) — https://b.link/pod-newsletter GET YOUR WORD OUT:• Ads as low as $20! See https://todayindigital.com/ads• Be a guest expert: https://b.link/pod-expert JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!- Reddit: https://todayindigital.com/reddit- Slack: https://todayindigital.com/slack- Discord: https://todayindigital.com/discord ENJOYING THE SHOW?- Please tweet about us! https://b.link/pod-tweet- Rate and review us: https://todayindigital.com/rateus- Leave a voicemail: https://b.link/pod-voicemail FOLLOW TOD:- Twitter: https://b.link/pod-twitter- LinkedIn: https://b.link/pod-linkedin- TikTok: https://b.link/pod-tiktok Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin (https://b.link/pod-todsite) and produced by engageQ digital (https://b.link/pod-engageq). Subscribe at https://TodayInDigital.com or wherever you get your podcasts. (Theme music by Mark Blevis. All other music licensed by Source Audio.)Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, we finally know why Google was rewriting title tags Be protected. Be Zen. 22 days until Christmas, you know what that means. And where exactly do your Google My Business posts go anyway? It's Wednesday, August 25th, 2021. Happy Tomato Throwing Festival Day, Spain. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. And here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing, episode 454. And we return to the saga of the rewritten Google title tags. In the last episode, digital marketers everywhere were noticing strange behavior in their Google listings. Instead of using their web pages title tags,

Google was replacing some with text pulled from H1 tags, other places on the page, and in some cases, entirely different web pages. At first, Google liaisons just told the industry they never guaranteed your preferred title tag would be used. Now we learn, actually, they did indeed change the search engine's algorithm. And in disclosing this, we learned something somewhat surprising about how Google lists results. In a blog post addressing the change published late yesterday, Google said this, quote, we learned something somewhat surprising about how Google lists results.

In a blog post addressing the change published late yesterday, Google said this, quote, Before this change, titles might change based on the query issued. I'm sorry, what? Yes, apparently, all this time, the main title link in each web page's listing on Google could be different for different users, depending on what each searcher typed into Google. Maybe this is something everyone knew, but this is a complete surprise to me. Continuing with the post, quote, These dynamic title changes generally will no longer happen with our new system. This is because we think our new system is producing titles

that work better for documents overall to describe what they're about, regardless of the particular query, unquote. We also learned just how frequently Google is making changes to our title tags. Close to one out of every five listings in Google results do not use the title tag hard-coded into the page's HTML. Here's how they describe how this new system is choosing what to put there. Quote, or headline shown on a page, content that site owners often place within H1 tags, within other header tags, or which is made large and prominent through use of style treatments,

unquote. Remember, only about 20% of page titles are changed, but I think that's more than any of us thought it was. As for why they're changing this around, they say we digital marketers aren't always the best at writing them in the first place, which, you know, is probably fair. Quote, HTML tags don't always describe a page well. In particular, title tags can be very long, stuffed with keywords, lack title tags entirely, or contain repetitive boilerplate language, unquote. So what does this mean for us? Next time you're designing a web page, pause and give some thought to the big headlines on that page and think to yourself, if Google chooses this as the main link in our pages listing, will it still make sense? Google says this is a

core part of their algorithm now, and websites cannot opt out of having their page titles replaced by Google. TikTok says it's testing a new in-app shopping experience, part of its partnership with the Canadian-owned Spotify. This test is much more visual than we've seen before. It's a separate shopping tab on the profile of participating accounts with a scrollable list of products that will click through to a Shopify store. Quoting The Verge, in its current form,

this isn't really a full-blown monetization option for creators. The new shopping features require a TikTok for business account and a Shopify storefront, two things not every creator will have. It's really more of an expansion of the advertising partnership

TikTok and Shopify embarked on in 2020 than the future of making money on the platform, unquote. If this sounds a bit familiar, it's because TikTok first tried this with a single UK streetwear brand, a test that got a lot of attention in the digital marketing space. It's not clear how many brands are in this test, but it seems like it'll be a pretty short run. The Verge says Shopify plans to enable the shopping tab and product links for all US, It's not clear how many brands are in this test, but it seems like it'll be a pretty short run. The Verge says Shopify plans to enable the shopping tab and product links for all U.S., U.K. and Canadian merchants in the coming weeks, with more regions coming on board in the coming months. More TikTok news. We learned this week they're expanding their marketing partner program to the Southeast Asian region. The company is adding nine new agency partners that will help brands work with the platform.

Also for the rest of us, they're adding a new agency services category to their marketing partner platform. The company says, quote, this means advertisers can now select the local market in the main partner search dashboard and see corresponding listings. By adding campaign management to media buying technologies, we want to give brands more ways to access a complete spectrum expertise for TikTok campaigns, unquote. As socialmediatoday.com notes, quote, as TikTok continues to add more users and become a real rival for the bigger players, it certainly is becoming a much bigger consideration for a great many brands. The expansion of its partner program will help TikTok capitalize on that potential and become a bigger player within the digital ad space. When Spotify strong-armed its way into the podcast space, one of the biggest acquisitions it did

was of Joe Rogan's wildly popular interview show. They bought the rights for a reported $100 million and moved it deep within their own podcast ecosystem, cutting off the public feed. This meant that if you wanted to listen to that podcast, you had to do it through the Spotify app, not your preferred podcast app. So how's that going? A report published by The Verge today says, not well. Quoting from their piece, quote, the powerful podcaster's influence has waned since he went behind Spotify's wall. His show has declined as a hype vehicle for guests, and Rogan's presence as a mainstay in the news has plummeted, unquote. Since Spotify tellingly hasn't released download

numbers, The Verge had an interesting approach to determining how listenership had changed since the acquisition. Quote, We tracked the Twitter following of every guest who went on Rogan's podcast between December 2019 and July 2021.

Guests usually see a surge of new followers after appearing on the show. Prior to going exclusive, Rogan's guests could expect to gain around 4,000 Twitter followers in the week after their episode premiered. After he went exclusive, that number declined by half to around 2,000, suggesting a drop in listeners. Even the best months as a Spotify exclusive show only rival the worst months when his show was widely available. Unquote.

The Verge was careful to say there could be other explanations. Fans of the show could have coincidentally stopped using Twitter, for instance. But again, quoting from their piece, quote, is also having an effect on Rogan's broader relevance. Google Trends data shows that searches for his name spiked regularly in 2020 with interest remaining relatively high throughout the year. As soon as he went exclusive, however, those searches dipped. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes.

You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.C-A. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance,

your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. It's beginning to look a lot like the holiday planning season for digital marketers. I presume you're about to dust off your Black Friday Christmas marketing plans. And two platforms have come out with their usual planning guides. Facebook is called the Christmas Marketing Guide. Sort of strange language to use for a company that usually bends over backwards to be inclusive of different faiths. Anyway, it's 18 pages long and covers topics like using their pixel and the conversions API.

They also have a simple campaign planner chart, just in case this is literally your first day in marketing. Reddit has a guide out as well, which it calls a holiday marketing guide that contains what you would expect, an overview of ad options and so on. Theirs is 13 pages. Links to both are in today's premium newsletter. And finally, a strange new note inside Google My Business has some marketers confused. This is on the posts section where you can add store or brand updates. The text now says your posts will appear on Google services across the web like Maps Maps and Search, and on third-party sites. Wait, what third-party sites? It's really not clear what they mean here. Is this just legal coverage in case someone manages

to embed your posts on their website for some reason? Are they licensing the data out? Nobody seems to know, and we were not able to find any clarification from Google by deadline. Watch this space. Yes, it's tomato throwing festival day in Spain, or would be, were it not for a raging global pandemic. It happens in a small Valencian town about 30 kilometers from the Mediterranean, and it is exactly what you think it is. People get together, throw tomatoes at each other in a ridiculous food fight, which has no other purpose than shits and giggles.

It's been held since 1945, when an actual real fight actually kicked it off. It was at a parade. One of the characters on a float lost his big mascot head, flew into a rage, started smashing everything and everyone. The crowd retaliated. A market stall of vegetables was overturned. People started throwing tomatoes at each other. It actually took the Spanish police

to stop it. The year after, some of the original mob participants challenged a group of other participants to a pre-planned tomato fight and here we are. The festival was actually banned in the early 50s by the then-dictator because it lacked religious importance, but people still showed up, and they were promptly arrested.

This began a protest of the arrests, in which people gathered to yell, scream, and, you guessed it, throw tomatoes. But it worked, and the festival was allowed to continue until at least 1957, when it was shut down again. As a sign of protest, people held a massive tomato burial, walking through the streets with a band playing funeral music, carrying a coffin with a huge tomato inside.

And that worked too! The festival was back on, and in 2002 was declared an official tourist interest. Incidentally, the street where this all happens is considered one of the cleanest streets in the world, thanks to all the citric acid in the tomatoes.

I finally have some good news on the home automation front. I had a brain surge yesterday and discovered... What I usually do when I start to record the podcast is I manually set my watch and my phone to mute so that notifications don't, you know, make a ding noise. I realized I can automate that. So now, not only do I just say, I'm recording,

I'm not going to say the name of the device because, you know, I just say I'm recording. Not only does it mute my watch and my phone, it actually turns the light above my studio and upstairs, a couple of lights red, and a little bell goes off to indicate to my wife, who has her own office upstairs, that I'm recording. And then after I'm recording, I say that I'm done recording, it turns those lights green, and a little ding goes off. Anyway, I just, I'm very proud of myself.

I thought that was absolutely brilliant. So I'm going to play with that a little bit more. Talk to you tomorrow.