Pure SEO’s This Week In Search series takes a look at the top SEO and SEM news stories from the week.
This week Instagram and Google reveal updates, and Apple and Google team up to make it easier to watch YouTube videos.
Shopify and Instagram Unite
Have you ever found yourself lusting after a pair of shoes or a watch on Instagram, but had no clue as to where to buy it from? Now you can shop directly off the Instagram app, thanks to a new partnership between Shopify and Instagram.
The ‘Shopping on Instagram‘ feature has already been tested by a few users this year, but now it will become available to thousands of more merchants, just in time for Christmas. A post can be tagged with a product, and users can purchase a product by tapping on the tag. Products can be purchased directly from the Instagram app, making it a conveniently seamless experience.
Instagram Stories Introduces Interactive Polls
Instagram users can now use their stories to get their followers voting. An interactive poll can be added to a story by tapping on the icon used to add stickers and selecting the ‘poll’ button. The user can choose the poll’s question, list of possible answers and its placement on the photo.
The poll’s results can be seen by both the user and their followers in real-time. Users can check who voted and what they voted for by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. The poll expires when the story does, so take a screenshot to save the results!
Google Lets You Add to Street View
Soon, Google will make it possible for anyone (with the right hardware) to add to street view, through a program called ‘Street View Ready.’ The Insta360 Pro camera that’s needed to add to street view retails at approximately $6000.
This is no ordinary camera. It can be mounted on a vehicle and captures images in 8k resolution at 5 frames per second. The camera can be controlled with the Street View app.
Google Doubles AdWords Budgets
Google has made significant changes to AdWords budgets. Now, campaigns can spend up to twice their average daily budget, which means that on high traffic days, costs could reach as high as double the set budget.
Google said they made this change to help advertisers reach their goals, and noted that it’s balanced by days when costs are below budget. However, the advertising community are unhappy because they don’t like the idea of spending their monthly budget earlier than usual.
This change to AdWords won’t cost advertisers any more, but it means that if they see extremely high traffic days early in the month, it’s possible they could spend their budget before the month is over. This would mean that ads would cease to show for the remainder of the month, but it would also mean that advertisers have met their goals.
iMessage Lets You Share YouTube Videos Without Leaving the App
YouTube for iOS has been updated with iMessage support, so now users can watch and share YouTube videos without leaving the app. On both YouTube and iMessage apps, users can now share videos and continue chatting to iMessage contacts and enjoy a shared video watching experience. The video can be viewed on a partial screen, or enlarged to full screen.