Latest News from the World of Digital Marketing – July 2024 Part 1
Information from Google about EEAT
Few concepts have generated as much buzz and speculation in SEO as EEAT.
This framework, short for Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness, has been the cornerstone of Google’s Search Quality Assessor Guidelines for years.
But despite its prominence, more clarity is still needed on how EEAT relates to Google’s ranking algorithms.
In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, search director and product manager Elizabeth Tucker addressed this complex topic.
Her comments offer insights into how Google evaluates and ranks content.
No perfect match
A key takeaway from Tucker’s analysis of EEAT is that no single ranking signal aligns perfectly with all four elements.
Tucker
“There is no EEAT ranking signal. But this is really for people to remember that it’s an abbreviation, something that should always be kept in mind, although, you know, you can say that different types of results need different levels of EEAT.”
This means that while Google’s algorithms consider factors such as expertise, authority and trustworthiness when ranking content, there is no one-to-one correspondence between EEAT and any specific signal.
The PageRank connection
However, Tucker offered an example of how a classic Google ranking signal (PageRank) aligns with at least one aspect of EEAT.
Tucker said:
“PageRank, one of our classic Google ranking signals, is probably on the authority line. I don’t know if it really necessarily matches up with some of those other letters that are in there.”
For those unfamiliar, PageRank is an algorithm that measures the importance and authority of a web page based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it.
In other words, a page with many high-quality inbound links is considered more authoritative than one with fewer or lower quality links.
Tucker’s comments suggest that while PageRank may be a good indicator of authority, it does not necessarily capture the other elements of EEAT, such as expertise or trustworthiness.
Why SEJ cares
While it’s clear that EEAT is important, Tucker’s comments underscore that it’s not a silver bullet for ranking well.
Instead of chasing a mythical “EEAT score,” websites should create content that demonstrates expertise and builds user trust.
This means investing in factors such as:
- Accurate and up-to-date information
- Clear sourcing and attribution
- Author experience and credentials
- User-friendly design and navigation
- Secure and accessible web infrastructure.
By prioritizing these elements, websites can send clear signals to users and search engines about the quality and trustworthiness of their content.
The evolution of EEAT
It’s worth noting that EEAT is not a static concept.
Tucker explained in the podcast that Google’s understanding of search quality has evolved over the years and the Search Quality Assessor Guidelines have grown and changed along with it.
Today, EEAT is just one of the factors Google considers when evaluating and ranking content.
However, the underlying principles (expertise, authority and trustworthiness) will likely remain key pillars of search quality for the foreseeable future.
Amazon
Amazon plans a new Shein-like store
Amazon is looking for a solution to face competitors such as Shein, AliExpress or Temu, which offer a very low price model. Specifically, the U.S. multinational is considering launching a section of discounted products that would be shipped directly from China.
Amazon has to compete with these platforms, which ship products with significant savings, so it is considering this option in order not to lose share. According to The Information, initially, it would be just an idea that is currently in the production phase.
To do so, the company will look for Chinese suppliers, offering them some benefits such as allowing them to set the price of the products, make batches or manufacture them on demand.
The idea is that Chinese vendors will be able to ship directly to consumers in the United States, as is the case with Temu and Shein, according to CNBC. This will increase delivery times (between nine and 11 days) but will allow sellers to save costs. Until now, Amazon sellers in China had to ship products to warehouses in the U.S. before sending them to customers.
Instagram unveils how to improve your reach
In a presentation given by Instagram during an event for creators in New York, the platform’s content team indicated that posting reels longer than 90 seconds hurts reach within the app.
The presentation included a slide showing two columns: one with factors that help content distribution and another with those that hurt it. While some of the tips are fairly generic, there are some more interesting ones.
In the column of factors that help reach, the slide doesn’t reveal much new and the advice given is stuff we already knew or could deduce. The four keys it lists are: boost authentic engagement, take into account when your audience is online, upload content with the highest possible resolution and publish your content at the same time as on other platforms.
On the other hand, the factors that hurt reach are: publishing content that is not original, that contains watermarks from other apps, with low resolution, that is “clickbait” just to generate engagement, and publishing reels longer than 90 seconds.
Regarding original content and reels, Instagram already gave some clues about how the Reels algorithm works. The platform recently modified it to boost original content and boost small creators, democratizing the possibilities of increasing reach.
Artificial intelligence
Runway gets a head start on Sora: Gen-3 Alpha arrives
The world of generative artificial intelligence is getting more and more interesting. Two weeks ago, Runway unveiled a video generation model called Gen-3 Alpha that was positioned as a direct competitor to OpenAI’s Sora. The company did not specify a release date, but said Gen-3 Alpha would be available “in the next few days.” Time has passed and this promising tool is finally available globally. It should be noted, however, that a paid subscription will be required to use it.
Runway says Gen-3 Alpha is the first in a new series of models trained on a multi-modal infrastructure. It boasts many improvements over its predecessors (Gen-1 and Gen-2) launched in 2023. A leap has been made in image quality, consistency and motion.
To help create professional content, Runway allows this model to be used with advanced Motion Brush, Advanced Camera Controls and Director Mode tools. “Gen-3 allows characters to be more consistent and stylistically controlled,” says the company on its official website. In addition, it has partnered with several entertainment and media companies to create customized versions of the video generation model.
Runway’s platform allows its previous model, Gen-2, to be used for free. For some users this may be a good start, although they will also encounter limitations, such as short clips and low quality. Runway definitely wants to gain subscribers with its products.
Amazon
Amazon's revolution with a new chatbot
In recent days many rumors are appearing about the efforts Amazon is making to catch up in the race for AI. It already has some pieces on the board, but now new data points to it preparing its own chatbot, or what amounts to the same thing, a new rival to ChatGPT.
According to Business Insider, Amazon is working on a conversational chatbot that will compete with developments like ChatGPT. The codename for this project is “Metis,” a reference to the Greek goddess of wisdom and thought.
It is expected that the chatbot can be used from a browser, something that is already traditional among this type of tools. Metis will be able to answer questions and also generate images, as well as include quotes and links in its answers. It will therefore be a theoretically very well-prepared competitor.
There has been talk for months about how Amazon has been working for some time on a gigantic LLM called Olympus. It is estimated to have 2 trillion parameters, twice as many as those supposedly used in GPT-4, and that will make it a theoretically formidable rival. Well: Metis will be based on Olympus.
One of the interesting features of this model, according to the leak, is that Metis will use a technique called retrieval-augmented generation. That means that Metis will be able to obtain additional information beyond the data it has been trained on. Thus, it will be able to query, for example, stock quotes to give us that data, something that other models cannot do.
There is also talk of how Metis could have the behavior of an AI agent, i.e., not only answer questions, but take actions based on those answers. That would make sense for example with the field of home automation and the entire ecosystem of Amazon solutions: Metis could then control that home automation and make decisions and take actions based on our requests.
In short
Latest Tech and Digital Marketing Updates
📌Your strategies may be affected. Apple is extending the 30% rate on Facebook and Instagram ad buys on iOS devices worldwide starting July 1. It is recommended to do so from desktop platforms.
📌 New tools for designers at Figma. They have redesigned their interface and put in new features such as: visual search tools, text and image generation, removing backgrounds, creating interactive prototypes…
📌 Google’s June 2024 spam update is now available. It’s taken 7 days to update, so if you’ve noticed your rankings have changed in this period, that may be why.
📌 Metricool’s study of social networks in 2024 has made one thing clear: we already knew that “Reels” are the star format but…. What is the best time to post them? 20:00. And the second best, 15:00.
📌 Estrella Galicia and the “cerbezas”. Many have criticized them for this misspelling on their bottles, and what it turns out is that they were drawing attention to and celebrating their certification as a B Corp company, thanks to their social and environmental commitment. The explanation here.
📌 YouTube against AI misuse. They have updated their policies to allow users to report AI-generated content that uses images of them or their voice. Image rights on point.
Meta changes the label “created with AI” to “AI information”, since the same label was used both for content created entirely by Artificial Intelligence and for content that had only been edited by Artificial Intelligence. It will now be better understood.
📌 Netflix gives us bad news. Starting in mid-July, they will stop offering the most basic plan without ads. If you want the cheapest plan, it will have to be with ads.
📌 Anthropic improves Claude. New features for organizing chats, sharing with your team members and “artifacts,” a way to create with a new interface for programmers, designers, content creators, data analysts…
📌The new social network Noplace, seems to be liked among younger people. It is a kind of combination between the short format of the traditional Twitter(X) and the personalization of Myspace profiles. At the moment it is only in the U.S.
📌Figma picks up cable. This week they had announced a lot of AI news, including “Make Designs”, which designed user interfaces. Well they had to pause it (for now) for plagiarizing the design of Apple’s “Weather” app.
📌Create avatars of yourself in WhatsApp. Soon this new feature will be available, in which you select the image and with text prompts will generate the avatar.
