Pure SEO’s This Week In Search series takes a look at the top SEO and SEM news stories from the week.
This week Facebook banned ads for financial products, updated its local feed and closed the gap between content producers and the platform on which their content lives. Instagram announced the possibility to schedule posts in advance, and Google Flights had three new updates to share.
We may be seeing a little less promotion for this hot topic with Facebook’s new policy which effectively bans ads for cryptocurrency, as well as other financial products. Facebook says they have made this decision to honour one of its core advertising principles – that ads should be safe.
Facebook’s new policy reads as follows:
“Ads must not promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, or cryptocurrency.”
Facebook believes that ads for cryptocurrency are often tied to misleading and dishonest practices. Their underlying goal is to make it harder for scammers to make an impact on the world’s biggest social network platform. This policy will also extend to Instagram.
The tools that utilize the Instagram Graph API now have the ability to schedule posts in advance, which is particularly useful for businesses who need to maintain a regular social presence. Multiple team members will be able to manage large volumes of content across a number of Instagram accounts.
The Instagram Graph API will also show users which posts they’ve been tagged in, and now other business profiles can be viewed using tools with the Instagram Graph API. To find out more, visit Search Engine Journal.
Facebook has updated its news feed and has stated that its algorithm will look at several signals when choosing which sites to show higher on the local feed.
“There are no constraints on which publishers are eligible, which means large local publishers will benefit, as well as publishers that focus on niche topics like local sports, arts and human-interest stories… To determine if a domain is local to you, we look at where its readers on Facebook come form. If you live in the same area as the majority of those people, it is considered local to you.”
So what kind of sites will rank higher? Local news, local sports websites and neighbourhood blogs will rank well. To find out more, read the full report here.
Good news for travelers! Google Flights will now inform searchers about even cheaper flights than what surfaced before, will start providing details about flight delays, and predict flight delays.
More airlines are offering ‘basic economy’ fares, so Google Flight has decided to include those fares in search results. Basic economy fares from American, Delta, and United will be included in search results.
Google Flights will also begin providing details about flight delays, so travelers can understand what’s going on, and will predict when a specific flight being searched for is likely to encounter a delay. According to Google, flight delays are predicted with 80% certainty, and are based on a combination of historical flight data and machine learning.
These updates are available to everyone using flights.google.com
Facebook has announced an initiative called Gaming Creator Pilot Program, which will help video game live-content creators accept donations from their large followings. In exchange for allowing video gamers to live stream and possibly earn a profit, Facebook will control every aspect of the live streaming gaming community.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re committed to building the fundamental architecture that gaming creators need to be successful, starting with foundational elements like enabling all creators in the program to livestream in 1080p/60fps. Most of all, with each new feature we add for gaming video, we’re committed to building it alongside our creators hand-in-hand.”
You can read the full report here.
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