Google Ranking Recommendations, Reddit Advertising

Google’s Danny Sullivan speaks out on what to focus on if your website still hasn’t recovered from the Google algorithm updates and YouTube updates thumbnail editing to enable greater customization options. Plus, new structured data for videos allows you to prevent videos from being seen in set regions and Google Analytics adds new features to streamline reporting and incorporates hover tips to help users navigate the platform.

Google’s Ranking Recommendations: Post-Algorithm Update

Google’s newest update is a continued effort on Google’s part to refine its ranking algorithm with the goal of better providing high-quality content to its users. But, as we saw with the update earlier this year, there wasn’t a mass recuperation of traffic that some users were expecting after getting hit by the previous updates.

Google’s Danny Sullivan shared his thoughts, as well as some recommendations on what to do if you’re still waiting for traffic to be pre-updated levels as well as what how to move forward with content in general in a Google Search Liason LinkedIn post.

Advice for Content Writers

If you haven’t seen improvements, keep creating user-centric content. You know your audience, you know their pain points, and how your service or product benefits them. As long as you are writing for them, you’re already moving in the right direction.

“As I’ve said several times on social elsewhere, if you know you’re producing great content for your readers, that’s your touchstone. Your north star. Whatever you want to call it, if you’re feeling confused about what to do in terms of rankings. Our systems want to reward this type of content. If you know you’re producing it, keep doing that — and it’s to us to keep working on our systems to better reward it.” – Google Search Liason, Danny Sullivan via LinkedIn

If you are already ranking well, avoid drastically changing your top-performing pages. If your content is already ranking highly, it’s likely that Google views it favorably. Minor adjustments are fine, but significant overhauls could negatively impact your rankings.

Google acknowledges that not all sites have recovered yet, but staying focused on quality content remains the focus.

Reddit Improves Advertising with Interest-Based Targeting

Jyotsna Vaidee, Reddit’s VP of Ads Product, spoke about how Reddit is improving interest-based targeting in a recent AdExchanger Talks podcast. Reddit’s current ad targeting primarily relies on interest-based targeting from users’ interactions with content on the platform but they are moving towards auto-targeting, which uses machine learning to review user behavior and deliver more relevant ads. This means advertisers can reach audiences based on demonstrated interests, even if those interests aren’t directly related to the advertiser’s product or service (remember how we kept telling you about social search optimization?).

Authentic Engagement with Users

Reddit’s ability to facilitate authentic conversations among passionate users creates a unique opportunity for marketers and business owners to connect with target audiences in a trusted, contextually relevant environment. In fact, 60% of Redditors actually want brands to participate in their communities and interact with them.

The platform is also heavily investing in AI-driven advertising solutions. With AI integration, businesses can expect more advanced targeting options, auto-optimization of ad placements, and creative customization—similar to what we’ve seen with Google Ads.

Reddit Is Not the First Social Platform to Use Interest-Based Targeting

While Reddit is making strides in interest-based targeting, other social platforms are also updating their targeting features:

• Facebook (Meta): Facebook, now Meta, has enhanced its targeting capabilities in 2024. Advertisers now have access to advanced targeting options that allow them to reach even more specific audience segments based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Meta has also introduced new retargeting options to re-engage users who have previously interacted with ads or visited websites.
• TikTok: TikTok has been focusing on AI-driven advertising solutions as well. In 2024, TikTok’s ad targeting system uses AI to boost clicks by 10% and sales by 16% on average. The platform also offers targeting by interests, behaviors, and topics being discussed, with over ten thousand topics in 25+ categories.
• Twitter (X): Twitter, now X, continues to refine its targeting options. In 2024, X offers cool targeting options like talking topics and finding followers who are similar. This makes ads cheaper and more effective than on other sites.
• Instagram: Instagram, part of the Meta family, has also been improving its targeting capabilities. The platform now offers more precise targeting options, allowing advertisers to reach specific audience segments based on interests, behaviors, and demographics

If you’re looking for a primarily male demographic social platform in the 18 to 29 age group, Reddit may be your new go-to for digital advertising.

Google Analytics Ads Section Overhaul

Google Analytics has simplified its reporting structure by consolidating all advertising-related content into a single, streamlined advertising section. These changes are to provide a more tailored experience for both behavioral insights and advertising or publisher insights.

The changes in this update are:

• Reports and features for Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and publishers are now located in the Advertising section.
• Access to the Advertising section now requires linking to at least one Google Ads, AdSense, AdMob, Google Ad Manager, or Google Marketing Platform account.
• The Publisher ads report has been moved to the Advertising section.

Plot Rows Bring Enhanced Data Visualization

GA4 also now allows users to visualize up to 5 rows of data directly within detailed reports. This feature enables quick comparisons and trend analysis:

• Select desired rows in the data table
• Click the “Plot Rows” button
• View selected metrics plotted as individual lines on the time series chart

Source: What’s new in Google Analytics

Anomaly Detection

GA4 has added an anomaly detection system in detailed reports to help identify potential issues or opportunities:

• Automatically flags unusual data fluctuations
• Helps spot unexpected traffic spikes, sudden drops, or other noteworthy trends
• Anomalies are visually highlighted on charts for easy identification

Improved Report Navigation

To help with user understanding, GA4 has added hover-over descriptions for report titles:

• Brief explanations provide context for each report
• Include links to more detailed information about the report’s purpose and metrics

Key Event Marking in Events Report

Users can now prioritize important events in the Events report:

• Mark events as “key events” using the three-dot menu at the end of each event row
• Helps track and prioritize significant data points

New Transactions Report

For eCommerce businesses, GA4 has introduced a new Transactions report:

• Provides granular insights into revenue streams
• Offers detailed information about each transaction using the transaction_id parameter

Scope Changes in Acquisition Reports

GA4 has refined its acquisition reports to offer more targeted metrics:

• User Acquisition report: Focuses on user-related metrics (Total Users, New Users, Returning Users)
• Traffic Acquisition report: Emphasizes session-related metrics (Sessions, Engaged Sessions, Sessions per Event)

Watercooler Highlights

YouTube heard the call and answered with new YouTube thumbnail editing options. And to help make sure your videos are being seen in your targeted regions only, Google updated structured data to now include an option for not showing videos in certain areas.

New YouTube Thumbnail Editing Features

While YouTube Shorts currently trails its competitors in average views, YouTube has hinted at exploring more functionality for Shorts thumbnails, suggesting a continued focus on improving the platform’s short-form video offerings. Honoring that, these new features offer creators more customization opportunities.

YouTube’s new thumbnail editing features for Shorts allow creators to:

• Add text, filters, and emojis to Shorts thumbnails
• Choose and edit a thumbnail frame after uploading a video
• Customize thumbnails to make content more engaging

To access these features, creators can:

1. Tap the pencil icon in the top left corner of the Short
2. Scrub through the video to select a preferred frame
3. Add text, emojis, or filters using their respective icons
4. Save changes with the checkmark in the top right corner

Worth noting is that these customized thumbnails won’t appear in the primary Shorts feed. They will be visible in search results, hashtag pages, audio pivot pages, creator channels, and home and subscription feeds.

Google Adds New Structured Data Property: ineligibleRegion

Google now accepts the ineligibleRegion property as part of the video structured data. This property allows you to specify regions where a video is not eligible for playback.

When You Would Use ineligibleRegion

This allows content creators to now explicitly define areas where their videos should not be shown, complementing the existing eligibleRegion property. With this, there is an improved opportunity for compliance with regional licensing agreements or content restrictions. Plus, by accurately specifying ineligible regions, you can prevent users from accessing content that isn’t available in their area, reducing frustration and improving geo targeting efforts.

How to Implement

First, be specific. Use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes for precise region specification and for complex geographical restrictions, use both ineligibleRegion and eligibleRegion properties.

To use the ineligibleRegion property in your video structured data, you can add it to your JSON-LD markup. Here’s an example of the video marked as ineligible for playback in France:

Source: Plan Left

Pro-tip: Don’t forget to regularly review and update your region restrictions to maintain accuracy.