Below deck: July 2024

It has truly been a month of twists and turns. We’ve had a global IT outage, a 180 on third-party cookies, and Google abandoning its continuous scroll. Here, we discuss these latest happenings from the digital marketing landscape, and explore how we expect brands to leverage them throughout August and beyond. 

Global IT outage presents media commentary opportunities

The catastrophic Microsoft IT outage that swept the globe this month caused turmoil for many, but created opportunities for others. With several of our clients operating in the IT and digital realm, our crew got to work securing national media coverage, adding their valuable commentary to the breaking news. 

This included:

• Disaster recovery and backup specialist virtualDCS’ CEO, Richard May, and chief technical officer, John Murray, being featured in The Daily Star and i paper.

• Iain James, computer systems manager of care management software provider, Fusion eCare Solutions Ltd, being quoted in GB News and BusinessCloud.

In the world of PR and media relations, this highlights the importance of understanding your clients’ specialisms. That way, you can be super reactive, quickly securing relevant, timely coverage that positions them as thought leaders in their industry.

Ellie Ismail, media relations manager, Scriba PR

Google retains third-party cookies but introduces enhanced privacy controls

Google has announced a significant shift in its approach to third-party cookies, deciding to keep them active for users who don’t disable them, while introducing a one-time prompt to set user preferences across all Google browsing experiences. This new strategy marks a departure from Google's initial plan to phase out third-party cookies by 2022, a timeline which had already been extended multiple times due to industry and regulatory challenges. 

The decision reflects Google's aim to balance user privacy with advertising effectiveness, with feedback from regulators, publishers, web developers, and advertisers influencing the updated approach. Google's Privacy Sandbox, designed to replace third-party cookies, faced significant scrutiny and concerns about its impact on digital advertising performance. Recent tests indicate that Privacy Sandbox APIs can deliver strong results, but the advertising industry remains cautious. 

Amy Taylor, PPC and tracking manager, The Bigger Boat

Google to drop continuous scroll in search results

Google has announced the discontinuation of its continuous scroll feature on both desktop and mobile search results. Initially introduced in October 2021 for mobile and December 2022 for desktop, the continuous scroll feature allowed users to see more results as they scrolled without needing to click ‘Next’. Desktop search results have now reverted to the traditional pagination system, with mobile search following in the coming months. 

Google stated this change aims to improve the speed of serving search results and enhance user satisfaction, as automatically loading additional results didn’t significantly boost user experience. For marketers, this shift means that being on the second page of search results might result in fewer clicks, potentially impacting website traffic and Search Console data. At The Bigger Boat, we’ll monitor these changes closely and adjust our SEO strategies to ensure clients' websites maintain visibility and engagement in search results.

Liam Hayward, digital account manager, The Bigger Boat

Shopping under the influence

Step aside, celebs: the generation of ‘influencers’ is taking over – breaking down social media barriers by providing access to their daily routines and products they use, and highlighting their personality quirks all at the same time. It’s relatable content that resonates with the user, so it's no surprise it’s changed how we shop.

This shift has altered the product purchase journey, dramatically shortening it to a few simple clicks – and Gen Z are leading the way. For young consumers, social media has become the main source of inspiration for industries such as fashion, beauty, travel, and more.

With consumers relying on social proofing and reviews for assurance when making a purchase (myself included), it’s no surprise there are statistics such as ‘49% of consumers making purchases at least once a month because of influencer content’, and ‘89% of consumers making a purchase inspired by an influencer at least once a year’.

So, are you utilising influencer marketing to bolster your business? And if not, what are the roadblocks stopping you?

Lauren Boyles, junior social media manager, Scriba PR

Putting the leaked Google info into practice

Back in May, a huge document was leaked which basically spelled out how Google works. Since then, we’ve had plenty of time to decipher it, digest it, and put it into practice. If you’ve not had time to do the same yet, or could do with a refresher, grab up a cuppa and dive in.

User behaviour is a ranking factor. Google hasn't been firm on this in the past, but we now know that how a user behaves on the site feeds into its ability to rank. Where a user comes from, and where they go after leaving your site also sends signals to Google. We've always held a user-first approach to SEO – prioritising user experience over technical compliance – but it's reassuring to have it in writing that this is the correct approach. 

We've always known brand is important, championing brand awareness, brand mentions, and relevancy in our work. However, it may hold more weight in the eyes of Google than our industry realised. Google sees brands as online entities – and makes associations between that brand, their products, and their services. Consistency is king here, with the idea being to prove that you’re an expert in your field. If you frequently speak about different subjects, or with a different tone of voice, Google will struggle to make that association. People talking about your brand, and even brand mentions without links (known as citations) are an important factor in this. This is why some of the largest brands in the world can rank well without adhering to Google's best practice. 

Google has long spoken out about using AI-generated content on your website, and while no information was provided on how this works, we did learn it has a tool in place to determine how much 'effort' is put into a piece of content. We've said it before but it's worth repeating: do not publish AI-generated content on your site. 

We also picked up a couple of tidbits which we’ll use when producing content. It’s widely known anchor text is a ranking factor. However, we now know the copy surrounding the anchor text is also taken into consideration and sends signals to Google. Internal linking has long been a key consideration of our content production, but we’re now getting even more strategic with its use.

Ewan Burkinshaw, digital marketing manager, The Bigger Boat