Another week, another Yoast update (hey, maybe give the team a few days off?) along with some big mobile and video announcements from the rest of the Internet.
The News
*Warning - Not SEO*
Instagram now supports landscape videos on IGTV app. This update offers more flexibility for creators, and could drive greater adoption and distribution of IGTV content across the Instagram ecosystem. For content marketers, this signals another format, platform, and audience to add to the toolbelt. Get testing!
A report from PubMatic states that 50% of video ads are viewed on a mobile device. Mobile video is taking over TV and desktop in watch time and interest, and global video ad spending on mobile is going to cross $29 billion mark. So… quick little reminder, mobile not only matters, but for a good portion of your audience it’s probably the preferred content consumption device.
OK now for some SEO updates.
You can order food for delivery directly from Google using Google Search, Maps or Assistant, furthering reducing friction during mobile food orders. To launch this new feature, Google partnered with popular food delivery services like DoorDash, PostMates and ChowNow. Basically, this update saves you from leaving Google and entering a separate food delivery app to complete an order. You can click the “order online” button directly from the knowledge panel in Google SERPs and choose delivery or pickup. Not only does this remove another layer of friction from the ordering experience, but it gives Google more ownership over the transaction. And a little more control of your life.
Starting July 1st, Google’s mobile first indexing is the default for new domains. This is great, unless you’re one of the few people that create websites that don’t work on mobile devices.So, in case you missed the last few years of SEO screaming… make sure your site is optimized for mobile!
Google reminds SEOs to do things differently. This is why I love SEO. It’s not all about checking “best practices” boxes. Thinking creatively and building remarkable things is an actual viable strategy in our world. We’re very lucky to work in a space that rewards these types of projects.
Google is already removing incorrectly implemented favicons from mobile search. To switch completely from my previous point about breaking rules, this is the case where you should absolutely follow the rules. The favicon in mobile search is an excellent branding and traffic opportunity, don’t miss out on it with bad code.
Yoast hits us with another update this week. Yoast 11.3 lets you set images for people with structured data. Once implemented, the image can show up in rich results and image search for related entity queries.
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New to backlink breaker? Check out the previous article, or the very first one!
