By Maverick 
In this blog, we are going to take a look at what has changed regarding SEO in May 2023. This month was also successful concerning significant announcements that came from Google and other platforms that belong to the marketing and the website’s owners. Hence, it is quite important to comprehend such changes in regard to modification of your strategies, as the world of online marketing is changing and possibilities of being competitive within it are also shrinking.
Google Ads and Analytics Update 🚀
On April 6th, Google announced that it will retire specific attribution models in Google Ads and Google Analytics, including the G4 attribution models such as first click, linear, time decay, and position-based models. This is a huge change for advertisers since this will determine the attribution of conversion tracking.
The attribution will also encompass last-click data-driven and external attribution.
The attribution model assigns credit to various conversion touchpoints within the customer journey. For instance, if a consumer engages with a brand through its social media content, watches an advertisement on YouTube, and later clicks on SEO before purchasing the product, the question arises: Who should get the credit for that conversion? Who paid for the conversion?
Google reported that only 3% of conversions use such models, which led them to discontinue these models as they no longer found them useful. However, many marketers argue that businesses should not ignore even 3%, especially when considering the broader impact they can achieve. This shift implies that companies must quickly adapt to such changes and likely explore other attribution solutions.
Apple Twitter’s 🐦 Fresh Subscription Model
Twitter had some good news for its Blue subscribers on 6th April. Subscribers willing to spend $8 a month will see half the number of advertisements as non-subscribers. This is a timely development because it creates a good reason for users to subscribe to the monthly charge as the users will target the subscribed membership to avoid ads.
The decline in ads will not be noticeable in the home feed and the following feed, as promoted accounts and promoted trends, will still feature the same number of ads. Some users choose to subscribe and reduce the number of ads they see, while they are attracted to edit buttons and more characters for their posts. This development might affect how users engage with and advertisers target their strategies on Twitter.
Google’s Bard Updates
As of April 10, Bard, a recent invention owned by Google, now includes a status page, where users can follow the future changes. Bard’s purposes of coding and influencing sciences will also be added, as reported.
Also, the list of topics associated with any particular article will now offer more articles than before in order to enhance the users’ experience. This upgrade shows that Google is serious with its effort to enhance AI technology and provide users with more information.
Web Spam Report 2022 🕵 Watch your report parchment.
On the 11th of April, the company Google came out with the Web Spam Report 2022 for the year in question. This paper explains how Google has rather internalized the issue of search results spam tolerance. In what is often termed ‘bad news’, the report states that their spam detection system has improved remarkably. For instance, at least five times more spam was rightly ‘reported’ than in the past year.
Over time with the internet’s growth, Google’s systems are now combating spam on nearly 750 billion pages. This advancement highlights the persistent struggle that exists between search engine companies and spammers, and why optimizing websites is an important exercise.
Product Review Updates 🛍️
Google frequently discusses updates to its product reviews policy. On April 12, they rolled out an update that expanded the focus on reviews since the last change, broadening its scope globally. This update now includes reviews of services, businesses, and places. As a result, if you publish any reviews on your website, they must comply with Google’s revised policies.
For this reason, website owners go a step further by incorporating descriptive accounts alongside photos and videos instead of unspecific statements. Users are meant to post improved and more useful reviews online.
Changes to Video Search Results 🎥
On April 24, Google made changes concerning how searches display their video search results. Before this change, search results often displayed video thumbnails on pages to increase click-through rates. However, Google now specifies that video thumbnails will only appear when the page’s main focus is clearly on the video content.
A person searching for a video is unlikely to find it on a webpage dedicated to something else, even if there is a video embedded. This change motivates website owners to bring videos on separate pages for easier and better posting.
Instagram Updates for Creators 📸
On April 14, Instagram recently offered three features to its Reels creators. The first feature introduces a section for trending audio, allowing people to conveniently find popular audio. The second update focuses on GIF and sticker application to the videos and generally boosts the creative urge.
Web creators can also view the average and total watch time metrics of their Reels which provides an understanding of viewer retention as these are additional metrics provided as updates. These changes are in line with the objectives of Instagram as that of fostering the creator space and enhancing the user experience.
Google’s new search system with the assistance of intellectual computer 🧩
As regards while on April 16, the New York Times reported that Google is developing a fresh AI search engine under the working title Magi. We focus on enhancing the existing Google base search by incorporating AI functionalities in this project. As further heads up, this advances online search, possibly rather than focused on rigid text-only search results.
As time goes on and AI technology advances even further, we can expect that Google will be more prone to enhancing its search features in a way that will deliver more personalized and relevant searches, to the users of its search engine. Unfortunately, the exact features and advantages of this new search engine are still unknown.
Revisions Of Google Search Console 🚦
On April 19, the large multinational corporation Google made a press release indicating that the Page Experience report would no longer be available on the Search Console. This announcement caused some people to assume that Page Experience is no longer a ranking factor. And it is true – this one has been turned fully into a part of the Helpful Content System. Going forward, this will result in the demotion of pages that do not meet specific standards.
Such transition emphasizes the need to deliver valuable content to the users and also maintain a good user experience across sites. Therefore, it is important that website owners pay attention to the load time and overall performance of their pages to escape punishment in search results.
Conclusion 📝
In May 2023, SEO underwent changes and updates to better accommodate all users. These evolutions can affect marketing strategies significantly, including the adoption of new promotional models by Google’s withdrawal of the notation to new characteristics of social networks. For digital marketers, it is important to know about these changes as marketing competitions are becoming tougher.