DIGITAL MARKETING INSIDER SECRETS SEPTEMBER 2020: NEW GOOGLE ‘CALL’ BUTTON + WEBSITE UPDATES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In July 2020, Google revealed how it plans to protect Google Chrome users from submitting insecure forms, beginning in Chrome M86. The search engine giant announced that the new update will warn users against completing forms on secure (HTTPS) webpages that fail to submit securely.

 

The idea behind this new development

Google says that forms on HTTPS sites that submit insecurely, a.k.a. “Mixed Forms” can pose a huge risk to users’ security and privacy. As per Google, any sensitive information submitted on such forms can be picked up and altered easily by malicious parties.

 

So what will happen to the insecure forms?

1. Autofill will be disabled. However, Chrome’s password manager that helps users input unique passwords will continue to work on mixed forms with login and password prompts.

 

2. Users will see a warning text. When users begin filling out insecure forms, a warning text will appear to alert them that the form is not secure.

 

 

3. Users trying to submit an insecure form will see a full page warning. This warning page will alert users of the potential risks and will ask them to confirm if they still want to submit the insecure form.

 

 

To justify these new measures, Google said that the current ones fail to effectively communicate to the users the risks of submitting sensitive data in an insecure form. Currently, the mixed forms are only marked by removing the lock icon from the address bar.

 

How will this affect your site?

Google is making it very clear to all the website owners out there that the time to fully migrate the forms on their sites to HTTPS is NOW! If any developer has questions, they should send an email at [email protected].

 

It has been quite some time now that Google has been giving us signs and indications to fully migrate our sites to HTTPS, which is not very difficult these days.

 

One thing is for certain, migrating your site completely to HTTPS should be on top of your to-do list right now. If your website is still in HTTP, which is not at all recommended, you can get in touch with us and our expert team will assist you with making your site and forms secure.

 

 

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Recently, Google added the all-new Call Button to their business knowledge panels. Although there is no official word yet about the addition from the Search Engine Giant, it looks to be rolled out extensively, as it was very easy to find it on the web.

 

 

What’s Next?

With the introduction of the Call Button, desktop customers can easily click and call to connect with businesses. This could result in a plunge in your trackable incoming calls.

 

When we conducted a test ourselves, we found out that you could use Skype or a similar program to make a call while using a desktop. If you have your phone synced to your desktop, then it could push the call from there too! Before the launch of this new addition, GMB Insights could only track calls from mobile users. But now, we could very well see the rise of calls from desktops being reported as well!

 

Do You Have Questions About Google? Ask Us!

 

 

 

Google just added new functions to its ‘access your Google My Business (GMB) listing’ feature in Google Maps and Search. Here’s what Google stated:

 

“Now you can create posts, reply to reviews, add photos and update business information right from Google Search and Maps.”

 

Though this feature of managing your business listing from Search has been in function since September 2017, it is now that businesses will be able to make suitable changes to their listings from Google Maps.

 

Take a look:

 

 

Besides adding these new functions, Google is also presenting new features that’ll be available on an upgraded merchant interface. These new features will offer “helpful recommendations” to help businesses enhance their Google presence while learning how the business performs. Here’s what Google had to say,

 

“Business owners and managers will see a revamped performance page with new customer interaction insights. This page will provide refreshed metrics on a monthly basis and will evolve over the coming months to share more helpful data to business owners.”

 

For now, the new functions are only available in English, but Google has said that they will “expand to other languages over the coming months”.

 

How to use it?

Sign in to the Google Account associated with your Agency/Business. To access these tools on Google Maps, tap your profile picture on the top right corner of the mobile app and select ‘Your Business Profile’. To update your profile on Google Search, find your business by name or search for ‘my business’.

 

Questions On Your GMB? Let Us Help!

 

 

 

 

Bing’s recently released, updated webmaster tools give you great new tools. Check out the new tools that we think are showstoppers here.

 

1. URL Inspection Tool – Just like Google’s URL Inspection Tool, this tool reports on the status of the URL from Bing’s perspective. But, there is one difference. Unlike Google, there is no focus on AMP. This tool gives you more overall usable data points. You can see the schema markup listed on the page, SEO tips like missing image alt tags when the URL was first discovered by Bingbot, and more.

 

 

2. Robots.txt Tester – This tool tests your robots.txt file. Bing explains this tool as “Robots.txt Tester helps Webmasters to analyze their robots.txt file and highlight the issues that would prevent them from getting optimally crawled by Bing and other robots.”

 

3. Site Scan – This tool acts just like the typical scan tool. It allows you to scan your site for technical SEO issues. Though, it is a step away from Google’s tool offerings. Bing describes this tool as “Site Scan is an on-demand site audit tool that crawls your site and checks for common technical SEO issues. Fixing these issues will make your website search engine and user friendly. With this tool, you can improve your website performance not only on Bing but on other search engines as well.”

 

 

The tool is easy to use and also reports on all the typical parameters. The only issue with this tool is that the scan is very slow. So you will either get your results later that day, or it might even take the next day. Your results will be sent to you via email.

 

Actionable Strategy

If you haven’t used Bing’s Webmaster Tools yet, then we recommend you give them a try. All you need to do is, give a quick click of a button and a couple of seconds to import sites from Google Search Console. Bing has already announced that they are still updating these tools. So you can soon expect something more coming up. We will keep you updated.

 

Do You Have Questions About Bing? Ask Us!

 

 

 

Looking at the growing popularity of online retail shopping, Microsoft Advertising is now looking out for ways to help retail partners make the most of this change.

 

 

Here’s an announcement that they made last month,

 

“…the availability of free Product Listings, which allow you to show your product offers for free on the Bing Shopping Tab starting in the USA and soon rolling out to other markets — United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, and Germany.”

 

Steps to Enable Product Listings

• Customers that are already a part of Microsoft Shopping Campaigns do not require to take any action for participating. Microsoft Merchant Center automatically opts all the approved product offers.

 

• If it’s the other way round, you can simply create a Microsoft Merchant Center store, submit all the products that are eligible and make sure that they are approved. Once the Merchant Center store is successfully created, you’re opted-in to the free Product Listings offering.

 

• All the approved products get reflected in the free products listings section on the Bing Shopping Tab.

 

Things to Know

• Product Listings reporting will be available in Microsoft Merchant Center by this fall.
• To avail all the benefits of Product Listings, it is advisable to send a complete product feed, along with your entire inventory and more fields to provide a rich data source.
• Clicks from the Product Listings section within the Shopping Tab are free of cost.
• All products are required to –
• Abide by Microsoft Advertising policies and Product Ads policies
• Meet the product specification requirements (similar to paid ads today)
• To opt out of receiving this free traffic, you can click on Show Free Product Listings through the Settings page of your merchant center store in the shopping tab toggle.

 

Bing is also looking forward to partnering with more retailers in order to offer a wider selection of products.

 

Actions to Take

For more information, click here! You can send in your queries and feedback to Microsoft Advertising account manager or email directly to [email protected] or you can reach out to us for assistance.

 

 

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