It’s common knowledge that Google knows a lot about you. Some see this as a fair exchange for their otherwise free services, but you might still be concerned about their data collection.
Everyone with a Google account should take a minute and pay a visit to Google’s Ads Settings page. By default, you’ll have interest-based ads enabled, which means Google will show you ads based on your Web history, YouTube videos watched, and other information.
By turning the switch to Off at the top of the screen, you can remove your personal info from the equation. You’ll still see ads, but they won’t be related to your interests.
After you’ve shut this off, there’s another page to visit: click the Control Signed Out Ads near the bottom of the page. The setting you just changed only affects you when signed into your Google account — Google still wants to show relevant ads if you’re signed out or on other websites, so it’s worth visiting the Anonymous Ads Page, too.
Here, there are two switches to turn off: the top for Google ads that show up on site beyond Google, and the bottom for ads inside Google Searches. If you’re concerned for privacy, it’s best to turn all of these off. You’ll still see ads, of course, but they’ll be related to your location or search terms instead of the profile Google keeps on you.
If you’re using Android, you can stop giving so much personal info to Google on your phone, too.
Did you turn all these settings off? Do you maybe prefer personalized ads? Have your say down in the comments.
Anyone who has turned on a TV, read a newspaper, or used the Internet in the last year has likely been bombarded by ads for the controversial fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings. The controversy stems from the uncanny similarities that fantasy sports, which is legal, has to online poker, which is illegal.
Despite growing criticism, these sites have remained legal, until last month when the Nevada Gaming Commission ruled that these sites constituted online unlicensed betting. Despite the great lengths that the executives and PR teams at these companies have gone to distance themselves from any statement that remotely resembled the words “online betting”, the Nevada attorney general cited as evidence something that the executives probably had no idea existed. Image alt tags.
Someone at DraftKings, likely seeking a little bit of extra SEO juice, decided to insert “betting” into the image alt tags describing a particular banner that was present all across the site. While the statement from the attorney general doesn’t offer an explanation of why this alt tag was used, they still use it as proof that DraftKings is an online betting site.
Here is that portion of the Nevada attorney general’s statement in full:
“Similarly, the DraftKings website uses the following image on its website for its pages for fantasy football, weekly fantasy football, fantasy college football, weekly fantasy college football, weekly fantasy golf, daily fantasy basketball, fantasy college basketball, weekly fantasy basketball, weekly fantasy college basketball, and weekly fantasy hockey:29 That image is identified on each of those webpages, through alternative text (‘‘alt text’’) 30 with a phrase that includes the word ‘‘betting’’ (i.e., ‘‘fantasy golf betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy basketball betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy hockey betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy football betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy college football betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy college basketball betting,’’‘‘Fantasy College Football Betting,’’‘‘daily fantasy basketball betting,’’ and ‘‘Fantasy College Basketball Betting’’). Although it is unclear why this image is identified using the alt text ‘‘betting,’’——whether it is because these sites are trying to draw Internet search traffic from gamblers, because ‘‘betting’’ is how the sites internally discuss their product, or for some other reason——it appears that although the sites’ representatives publicly state that they do not believe daily fantasy sports involve ‘‘wagers’’ or ‘‘bets,’’ they do use the terms ‘‘betting’’ and ‘‘wagering’’ when they are not dealing with law enforcement agencies.”
What This Means for Search Marketers
Even if an on-page SEO element doesn’t seem that important, it is a part of the page and visible to anyone who looks in the source code. If there is a product that a website is legally prohibited from selling, it is probably a good idea to never put that product’s keywords anywhere on the site, even in something as mundane as an alt-tag or useless as a meta keywords tag. Clearly there are people in law enforcement that know to look for these things and it will come back to haunt anyone that hides illicit keywords. It is not even worth using the keyword for a short amount of time because archives of the source code on sites like archive.org will always exist somewhere.
DraftKings does not currently rank for the term “betting” and ranking on that term would probably take a lot more than a rogue alt-tag. The short-sighted alt-tag decision certainly isn’t the only reason that DraftKings was declared to be unlicensed betting by Nevada, but this could turn into one of the most expensive alt-tag fails in history.
Lesson for All Websites
Clearly, the directive to avoid the use of the word “betting” didn’t make it all the way through to the SEO and front end web teams, and this can serve as a lesson to all companies that specifically want to avoid using certain words. Whether you are a webmaster or marketer, make sure blacklist keywords are never used anywhere including in any code, and everyone all across the company has to be informed.
When it comes to paid advertising, the search engines have blocks put in place that prevent you from running ads on prohibited ads; however, with SEO you are on your own. If you have even a slight amount of doubt over whether to use a specific word anywhere on your site, err on the side of caution and don’t use it. Even a barely visible metatag can come back to haunt you.
Facebook launched Instagram Ads a while ago and while the launch was highly anticipated, many businesses didn’t jump on the opportunity to advertise on Instagram. The Instagram audience might not be for everyone and ads required a linked Instagram account that of course needs upkeep.
Starting form the first week of December 2015, businesses can now run Instagram Ads without having an Instagram account. This means that advertisers can now increase engagement and scale up low cost conversions with Instagram Ads without ever having to create and use an Instagram account.
What’s New With Instagram Ads
Before the latest change, advertisers needed to link an Instagram account their Facebook Business Manager.
Disadvantages:
Businesses needed to create, optimize and manage an Instagram page
Businesses needed to create an audience on Instagram to create some organic reach with their posts
Businesses often didn’t want to allocate resources to an Instagram profile without knowing if it’s worth their while
Starting from the first Week of December 2015, Instagram ads can be created by using the Facebook Ad Manager without having an Instagram account and without having to link an Instagram account to the Facebook Business Manager. Instagram Ads are now available as Placement and can be selected as target of an ad set.
Would it be better to have and link an Instagram account? Facebook says yes:
“We recommend (but don’t require) connecting an Instagram account to run ads on Instagram. Representing your business with an Instagram account may help you get better results for your ad.” – Facebook
How to Set up Instagram Ads Without an Instagram Account
1. Go to your Facebook Ad Manager and create a new campaign (or use an existing campaign.) Go into an ad set of that campaign and add Instagram as a target method of your ad set:
2. Go into the ads of that ad set and create a new ad.
3. When creating the ad, select your Facebook page as a destination
You will now be able to advertise on Instagram. Advantages of Instagram ads include but are not limited to:
Use all of the targeting methods available on Facebook
Use all of the bidding options available on Facebook
Pay only when somebody clicks on your Ads
Manage your Ads directly from the Facebook ad manager
Track conversions though the same pixel you already use for Facebook ads
This post originally appeared on international-ppc.com, and is re-published with permission.
Image Credits
Featured Image: tulpahn/Shutterstock.com All screenshots by Rocco Baldassarre. Taken November 2015.
How much do most businesses spend on Google ads each month? Are podcasts still a viable content marketing strategy? Is content marketing really a thing, or all hype?
If you have ever asked yourselves these questions, you are not alone. At SEJ, we spend a lot of time thinking (and talking) about the digital marketing industry, and we had some questions.
So, we decided to start an annual survey of digital marketers to see what you have to say about the changes in our industry. (Plus, we like numbers, so there’s that.)
The State of Digital Marketing
In order to see where our industry is growing and how strategies are changing, we created a short survey—and we need your input.
Please, if you have the time, share your thoughts about the state of digital marketing in this short survey.
The survey has four sections: SEO, PPC, social, and content marketing. Each section has around five questions, for a total of 23 questions. Then entire survey should take no more than ten minutes of your time. (We timed it at six minutes, so it might take you way less time if you are quick!)
Please answer the questions to the best of your ability, and feel free to choose the “not sure/not applicable” answer if a question is about an area you aren’t familiar with. Please note that all answers are anonymous. BUT we do ask for your email address — but for good reason.
Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card
We’d never ask you do to something for nothing, which is why we are offering every person who completes the SEJ Annual Survey the chance to win one of two $100 Amazon gift cards. (Only one entry per person!)
Buy your self something pretty, get started on Christmas shopping, or, you know, be responsible and buy food or something. It’s totally up to you.
Take the survey now and get registered to win an Amazon gift card. Do not forget to give us your email at the end of the survey, or you won’t be registered to win! (Don’t worry, we won’t add you to any mailing lists or send you the results unless you check Yes!)
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Paulo Bobita In-post Photo: TCmakephoto/Shutterstock.com