Damage Done

[00:00:00] It is Thursday, May 30th.

[00:00:03] Today, damage done.

[00:00:05] What next for the relationship between Google and the marketing industry after a huge leak

[00:00:10] exposes Google's SEO secrets?

[00:00:13] The news is not good for brands that rely on Facebook for traffic.

[00:00:17] Instagram is adding its strongest mute button yet.

[00:00:21] And another Google tool heads to the graveyard, this one a messaging tool used for business.

[00:00:28] I'm Tod Maffin, that's Ahead, Today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:33] After silence for two days, Google has confirmed that a massive trove of leaked confidential

[00:00:39] search documents are real.

[00:00:41] The leak contained 2,500 pages of internal API documentation, some of which seemed to

[00:00:47] be counter to advice it had publicly given marketers about how to rank higher.

[00:00:52] Rand Fishkin, the SEO veteran who first published the leaked documents, told Gizmodo,

[00:00:57] I think the biggest takeaway is that what Google's public representatives say, and

[00:01:01] what Google's search engine does, are two different things.

[00:01:07] Most industry people understood that Google reps had to be somewhat vague about the

[00:01:12] specifics of what makes a page rank higher.

[00:01:15] But what bothered many people in the SEO space this week was that the leaked documents

[00:01:19] revealed ranking levers that Google reps in the past have said didn't matter at

[00:01:24] all.

[00:01:26] One of those elements is called small personal site.

[00:01:29] The documentation doesn't reveal the weighting behind a site given that label, so we don't

[00:01:33] know whether Google gives such sites a penalty or a boost or by how much.

[00:01:37] But this is a good example of a lever Google has set in the past.

[00:01:41] It doesn't factor into how a site ranks.

[00:01:44] Quoting Gizmodo, quote, it's like the NFL's referees rewrote the rules of football

[00:01:49] halfway through the season and you're just finding out while playing the Super Bowl,

[00:01:53] unquote.

[00:01:55] As I mentioned yesterday, Google confirmed the documents were real but said, quote, we

[00:01:59] would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about search based on out of context, outdated

[00:02:05] or incomplete information.

[00:02:07] We've shared extensive information about how search works and the types of factors

[00:02:11] that our systems weigh while also working to protect the integrity of our results

[00:02:15] from manipulation, unquote.

[00:02:16] Of course, Google didn't share which parts of those documents were out of context,

[00:02:21] outdated or incomplete.

[00:02:23] Again, ran Fishkin, quote, this response is a perfect example of why people don't like

[00:02:28] or trust Google.

[00:02:29] It's a non-statement that doesn't address the leak, provides no value and might as

[00:02:35] well been written by an AI trained on the past decade's most soulless corporate

[00:02:39] messaging, unquote.

[00:02:41] The timing of all this, of course, couldn't have been worse for Google.

[00:02:45] It came as the company aggressively rolled out its AI summaries for search queries,

[00:02:49] a product that pretty much everyone except Google says is not ready for prime time.

[00:02:55] On the consumer side, it's giving out ridiculously inaccurate advice like adding glue to pizza

[00:03:00] and seemingly being unable to distinguish authentic content from satire sites like

[00:03:04] The Onion or shitposts found on Reddit.

[00:03:08] For marketers though, it's almost worse.

[00:03:11] The next evolution of Google's zero click strategy, giving users answers while downplaying

[00:03:17] links to web pages and stores, links that marketers rely on to drive traffic and build

[00:03:22] business.

[00:03:24] One thing is clear, this leak and now Google's response to it have not helped the company

[00:03:30] during one of its most pivotal times.

[00:03:37] Facebook has released its quarterly report on what content got traction on its platform.

[00:03:42] Facebook started doing these reports to counter a widely held belief that its algorithm

[00:03:46] pushes people toward controversial, emotionally charged divisive content.

[00:03:51] This report looked at this past Q4, or at least it almost did.

[00:03:55] The report somewhat hilariously redacts four of the top six videos that went viral.

[00:04:00] The content doesn't appear to have been redacted for the report.

[00:04:04] Rather that line item reads, this video is temporarily unavailable, which implies

[00:04:09] it was pulled because of policy violations.

[00:04:12] This means we don't know what the number one, number three, number four and number

[00:04:16] six videos were.

[00:04:18] We do know that they each had more than 43 million views before being pulled.

[00:04:23] Whatever the top video for the quarter was hit more than 50 million before being smacked.

[00:04:28] In terms of the websites most often linked to the top five are YouTube, a GIF search

[00:04:33] engine, TikTok, people.com and GoFundMe.

[00:04:38] If people being in there surprised you, it surprised me too.

[00:04:41] It turns out the content that people are sharing and Facebook's algorithm is pushing

[00:04:46] has turned mostly to Hollywood gossip.

[00:04:49] The top three posts were Matthew Perry's death, Jeff Bezos moving to Miami and Martha

[00:04:54] Stewart's fashion.

[00:04:56] Almost all of the rest of the top 10 were similarly tabloidy.

[00:05:01] Quoting social media today, quote, in this sense, the report does succeed in showing

[00:05:05] that Facebook users may not be seeing as much political content as you'd expect.

[00:05:09] But again, this is a question of scale.

[00:05:12] And while these top links are being seen by millions of viewers, that doesn't mean

[00:05:15] that other URLs aren't also reaching millions too.

[00:05:20] Especially when you consider that news stories tend to have a shorter shelf life and are

[00:05:24] thus less likely to get the same levels as these gossipy posts, unquote.

[00:05:29] As for the marketing industry, one important takeaway is that the shift away from links

[00:05:33] continues.

[00:05:35] We've known for some time that Facebook's algo doesn't like to reward posts which

[00:05:39] take people off its site.

[00:05:41] And as the years go on, this only seems to be more pronounced.

[00:05:44] Fewer than 5% of posts shown to users in their news feed included a link in last

[00:05:50] year's Q4.

[00:05:52] Looking back to Q3 of 2021, that number was 13.5%, still low but much more than

[00:05:58] these days.

[00:05:59] You can probably see this trend in your own website traffic reports with visitors

[00:06:03] from Facebook in steady decline.

[00:06:06] There is one big caveat to these reports though.

[00:06:09] Facebook only reports what is shown on feeds.

[00:06:13] It doesn't include those shared between individuals via DM and, notably, doesn't

[00:06:19] include those shown in groups.

[00:06:22] I would argue that some of the more divisive content is being shared via those methods

[00:06:25] so it's not quite as transparent a report as meta would have us believe.

[00:06:30] We have a link to the full report in today's email newsletter which is free to

[00:06:33] sign up to.

[00:06:34] If you want to read the link at the top of the show notes or go to todayindigital.com

[00:06:37] slash newsletter.

[00:06:38] A year-long Google experiment that tested placing ads amongst organic results has

[00:06:47] ended and the results must have been good because that experiment has now become

[00:06:51] canon.

[00:06:53] Two months ago, the company changed its documentation about top ads to read,

[00:06:57] Top ads are generally above the top organic results although top ads may show below

[00:07:04] the top organic results on certain queries.

[00:07:08] This isn't of course where consumers expect ads to be.

[00:07:10] We're all trained that we can safely ignore the top few results and we can assume

[00:07:14] that's precisely why Google wants to shake things up.

[00:07:18] We first saw this in light testing last June, then mid-October that test group

[00:07:22] got much wider and people started noticing.

[00:07:25] Two months ago, Google's ad liaison confirmed that they had made the change permanent.

[00:07:30] So with two months under our belt now, Brody Clark writing for Search Engine Journal

[00:07:34] has run the numbers and given us a better sense of it all.

[00:07:37] He says, most commonly it's a unit of one or two ads that are placed within the top

[00:07:42] organic results, ads that normally would have been placed at the top.

[00:07:46] He says the most common layout is to place these ads directly below a featured snippet

[00:07:50] rather than above as had been in the past.

[00:07:54] Quoting from his piece, quote, the first situation mixed with organic results

[00:07:57] is pretty clear about Google's intentions to encourage more clicks on ads and desensitize

[00:08:03] users to ads appearing at the top with users mistaking ads for organic listings.

[00:08:08] In contrast, the second situation with featured snippets could be perceived

[00:08:12] differently while ads continue to appear in the viewport on desktop.

[00:08:16] The answer to the user's query is prominently displayed at the top of

[00:08:19] search results without ads getting in the way.

[00:08:22] I can't see this as being a bad thing for users or SEO as Google is making

[00:08:26] the organic listing more visible across these instances, unquote.

[00:08:30] There isn't anything to freak out about though, even though ads can now appear

[00:08:34] intermingled, Clark says it still actually doesn't happen very often.

[00:08:38] And it's almost as if Google is still treating it as a test.

[00:08:41] Again, quoting his piece, quote, based on my research, I believe the change

[00:08:45] should be perceived as neutral for Google users and SEO.

[00:08:49] If you see ads being mixed with organic listings in the wild,

[00:08:52] keep your wits about you, unquote.

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[00:10:49] Google is shutting down its business messaging service, an instant

[00:10:53] messaging client built into Google Maps.

[00:10:56] This feature allowed users to chat with businesses directly from their

[00:10:59] Google Maps or Google search results.

[00:11:01] A chat button on the business's place card in Google Maps will be disabled

[00:11:05] on July 15th.

[00:11:06] By July 31st, the service will be completely shut down.

[00:11:10] It was first launched in 2017 with the awkward name Google My Business

[00:11:14] Chat.

[00:11:15] It was originally integrated with SMS.

[00:11:17] In 2018, the company made it a standalone service within the Maps app,

[00:11:21] eliminating the need for third party apps.

[00:11:24] Businesses used this feature for customer service, and Google even

[00:11:27] created an API for large businesses to manage customer messages.

[00:11:31] So what now?

[00:11:32] Well, if you need chat data out of it for compliance or regulatory

[00:11:35] reasons, you will be able to download past chat conversations using

[00:11:39] Google Takeout.

[00:11:40] The company says it does not plan to replace the service and advises

[00:11:43] businesses to use alternative communications channels.

[00:11:47] It is a strange decision to be sure, especially given that two of its

[00:11:51] biggest competitors, Apple and Meta, both offer business messaging

[00:11:55] solutions.

[00:12:00] Instagram will now let you mute incoming messages from everyone except

[00:12:05] users on your close friends list.

[00:12:07] This is of course a consumer feature in the app.

[00:12:09] It's nothing I expect businesses would want to do.

[00:12:12] When you enable limits for everyone but close friends, you'll only see

[00:12:15] DMs, tags, and mentions from those on your close friends list.

[00:12:18] Others can still interact with your posts, but you won't see these

[00:12:21] updates.

[00:12:22] Sadly for the anti-social among us, that setting will automatically turn

[00:12:26] off after four weeks and you'll need to manually extend it.

[00:12:30] Also, the app has expanded its restrict feature and now lets you

[00:12:33] prevent a specific user from tagging or mentioning you in addition

[00:12:37] to hiding all their comments.

[00:12:43] And finally, you think you're having a bad month?

[00:12:46] At least you're not the Google employee who accidentally deleted

[00:12:49] all of the data of one of its biggest customers.

[00:12:53] That customer is a $135 billion Australian pension fund.

[00:12:58] They used Google to store their data and woke up one day to discover

[00:13:03] everything they'd put there was gone.

[00:13:06] But no problem, at least there were backups too, right?

[00:13:09] Nope, Google had deleted those as well.

[00:13:12] Luckily, they did have the whole thing mirrored in a completely

[00:13:14] separate geographical regions.

[00:13:17] Unluckily, Google deleted that mirror too.

[00:13:21] This caused two weeks of downtime and deep concerns from the hundreds

[00:13:24] of thousands of members wondering what happened with their retirement

[00:13:27] savings.

[00:13:28] A very apologetic joint statement from the Google Cloud CEO and

[00:13:31] the pension funds CEO followed, then some soul searching.

[00:13:36] This week, Google posted a report on what happened and it turns out

[00:13:40] someone just forgot to fill in a field.

[00:13:43] Quoting the statement, quote, during the initial deployment of a

[00:13:46] private cloud for the customer using an internal tool, there was

[00:13:49] an inadvertent misconfiguration by Google operators due to leaving

[00:13:53] a parameter blank.

[00:13:56] This had the unintended and then unknown consequence of defaulting

[00:14:00] the customer to a fixed term with automatic deletion at the end

[00:14:06] of that period, unquote.

[00:14:08] And if you're thinking, well, surely there must be some kind of

[00:14:11] notification or confirmation screen or hey, you sure you want to do

[00:14:15] that kind of pop up box on before big things like that happen,

[00:14:18] Google says, yes, there are, but those only appear for customer facing

[00:14:22] controls.

[00:14:23] Google employees don't get any confirmations.

[00:14:27] The pension fund says they've reconstructed most of their data now

[00:14:30] thanks to a third party fail safe backup provider they'd been using,

[00:14:34] though they didn't say how up to date that backup to the backup was.

[00:14:38] Google says the issue only happened with one customer and they've

[00:14:41] made some changes and totally checked everything so it shouldn't

[00:14:44] ever happen again.

[00:14:46] Really?

[00:14:48] Pinky swear.

[00:14:54] Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to announce that our pet Daschen

[00:14:58] cross mini schnauzer, maybe we're not entirely sure,

[00:15:01] successfully pooped outside.

[00:15:04] I know, I know.

[00:15:06] Laugh if you want.

[00:15:07] Hey, it's a big deal if you've ever trained a puppy before.

[00:15:11] Much celebration was had inside the house.

[00:15:14] I think actually the puppy was a little confused as to why my

[00:15:16] wife and I were so happy and giving her all sorts of treats

[00:15:19] and playing, but she took it.

[00:15:23] She was happy to enjoy the benefit of that.

[00:15:25] So hopefully we can continue the run.

[00:15:28] I'll see you tomorrow.