SEO & Google’s Move To Mobile-First Indexing

This week: Google will show favicons in search, people aren’t using Facebook more than they used to, and wait until you hear about how many B2B professionals prefer webinars over other types of content.

Here’s what happened this week in digital marketing.

The Time People Spend on Facebook Remains Flat

According to a new report from eMarketer, the average amount of time that people will spend on Facebook this year remains flat at 38 minutes. That number is expected to drop to 37 minutes per day in 2020.

“Facebook’s continued loss of younger adult users, along with its focus on downranking clickbait posts and videos in favor of those that create ‘time well spent,’ resulted in less daily time spent on the platform in 2018 than we had previously expected,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at eMarketer.

The average amount of time that people spend on Snapchat remains the same as well. According to the forecast, adult users will spend 26 minutes per day on the app through 2021.

Non-adult users weren’t included in the eMarketer study.

The average time spent on Instagram this year stands at 27 minutes. That’s up a minute from last year.

The research projects that the time people spend on Instagram will grow one minute per year through 2021.

(For more Google topic article you may want to check this one: Google SEO mobile-first-update)

Study: 91% of B2B Pros Prefer Webinars Over Other Content

The vast majority of B2B professionals prefer marketing with webinars over other types of learning content. That’s according to a study by BrightTALK, a B2B content marketing platform.

The research shows that 91% of those polled relied on webinars over other methods of engagement.

Respondents also said they like to reach out to people with:

• Industry articles (60%)
• White papers (48%)
• Blog posts (42%)

More than half of those polled (54%) said they use webinars on a weekly or daily basis.

Here are the types of content that B2B pros value most:

• Tips, tricks, and best practices (70%)
• Industry trends and predictions (62%)
• How-to guides (61%)
• Expert interviews (60%)
• Case studies (59%)
• Data insights (55%)

Coming Soon: Mobile-First Indexing for All-New Websites

As of July 1, Google will use mobile-first indexing for all new websites.

Google says it’s making the change because, as a rule of thumb, newer websites are already prepared for mobile-first indexing.

The company will continue to monitor older websites to see if they’re ready for mobile-first indexing.

Google still recommends responsive web design. That’s a design style that adapts the web page output to the size of the screen.

Study: 23% of Small Businesses Say Visual Content Is Most Effective

According to a recent study that appeared on Visual Objects, 23% of small business owners say that visual content is the most effective.

The same research shows that nearly three-quarters (74%) of small businesses publish content on a website monthly.

Here are the types of content that owners prefer to publish:

• Company info (67%)
• Visuals (58%)
• Product descriptions (51%)
• Reviews (43%)
• Videos (42%)
• Blog posts (30%)
• Podcasts (11%)

Google Adding Favicons to Search Results

This move is probably overdue.

Soon, Google will display favicons at the top of cards that appear in search results.

If you’re unfamiliar with favicons, they’re the tiny images that appear just to the left of website titles in your browser tab. They’re often just 32×32 pixels or 48×48 pixels.

Google is making the change so that people can more easily identify the source of the information in search results.

Additionally, Google is changing how ads are identified. The green “Ad” label will be replaced by a black label.

According to Google, the new look will appear in mobile search results first. Look for it in the coming days.

Google Penalizing Sites That Don’t Follow Favicon Rules

Continuing with the theme from the previous topic, Google is already penalizing sites that don’t follow its rules regarding favicons.

Here are the rules:

• The favicon file and the home page must be crawlable by Googlebot.
• The favicon should visually represent your brand.
• The size of the favicon image should be a multiple of 48×48 pixels. That is, you can use 96×96, 144×144, or some other multiple of 48×48. Google will shrink the image down to 16×16.
• The favicon URL shouldn’t change frequently.
• The favicon shouldn’t display anything inappropriate (such as pornography or hate symbols).

What’s the penalty for sites that don’t follow the rules? Google will use a default icon instead of the site’s favicon. In other words, the result will lack branding.

Via: https://ignitevisibility.com/facebook-falls-flat-ignite-friday/