There’s a lot to be thankful for this November.

Google has given us a lot of information over the past year to help us better serve our consumers online.

Social media platforms have implemented many new features to make it easier to reach out to consumers personally.

As we reflect on the past year of givings from the digital marketing world, let’s recap what’s happened in November…

Digital Marketing News Roundup - November 2018

Algorithm Update

There is suspicion a Google algorithm update happened around the 22nd. Yes, that was Thanksgiving day. Most SEOs and webmasters held their breath along with their turkey leg waiting to see if the traffic changes had to do with the holiday or an update. The conclusion was that it was a double whammy. The holiday caused traffic to drop and there was an update. Many people reported their traffic bounced back pre-August 1st update.

One person tweeted this:

Health niches seeing a huge ROLLBACK of 1st August. Most of the dropped keywords are going up again since yesterday, but mostly today. Gained plus 30-40 contemporary users in analytics real-time statistics.

So if you were wondering what happened to your rankings and traffic, it may be the result of yet another Google update.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

New Google My Business App

Google has released a new update for their GMB app. The interface is much more user-friendly and there are a few new features.

What you can expect from the new app:

  • A better business profile editor
  • Bottom navigation bar for access to your business profile and customer information
  • Easy to find New Post button to share updates, announcements and photos
  • A Customers tab allows businesses to track who is following them, respond to messages and see reviews
  • Analytics information and real-time notifications are also available

Google wants GMB to be an interactive platform where businesses and customers can interact. If you’re thinking that it’s a lot like social media, you’re right. The difference is that this platform will solely be for businesses instead of having both personal and business pages as part of it.

Business owners should use this new app and their profile as much as possible. The interactions will be seen by Google, and could have some influence in local pack ranking.

Shopping Options Roll Out on Instagram

Instagram users can now shop on the platform. A couple of weeks ago, Instagram rolled out three new tools for businesses to use to market their products.

Shopping Collections

Instagram announced this:

Now when you come across a must-have item, save it to your Shopping collection to revisit it later. When you tap a product tag in Stories or Feed, tap the Save icon in the bottom right corner to save it to your Shopping collection. Just like existing collections, you can access your Shopping collection from your profile. It’s an easy way to keep your wish list up-to-date and store creative gift ideas for the holidays.

The assumption is that this will make it easier for users to find items later to make a purchase when it is convenient for them.

Business Profile Shopping

Business profiles will now have a Shop tab with their products stored on it. Users can go straight to that page to see what is for sale.

Businesses will be able to tag their products, so then users can search for products on Instagram and the search results will be based on the tags.

Video Tags for Shopping

Tags will be able to be placed on videos as well. If someone is wearing a hat, scarf, and jacket, those items can be tagged so someone interested in them can click and buy.

This could turn into businesses creating videos that promote their products, and then people simply just click on it to go to the website that sells them. It could also encourage people to promote products for affiliate commissions. The possibilities are endless.

Heading Into the Last Month of 2018

Get ready, the last month of the year is sure to be a wild one with all of the holiday traffic and sales. Google and social networks will take note of how users are interacting with their platforms to come up with more changes for the coming year.

We’ll be here next month to tell you what has changed, and what will likely happen in 2019. Don’t forget to come back each and every month for more digital marketing news.