5 SEO & Digital Marketing Updates From June 2023

Whether you’re concerned about how the proliferation of AI-powered tools will change SERPs or trying to keep up with Google’s latest approach to ranking search results, there’s always something new to learn in the ever-evolving world of digital marketing and SEO.

Despite some provocative takes shared on web forums, SEO isn’t dead. In fact, a comprehensive, ROI-focused SEO strategy has never been more vital.?

There’s an incredible volume of information out there, but you don’t have to sift through web forums and the latest SEO news sites to find the most important digital marketing updates—we’ve done that for you.?

Here are the top five most important SEO and digital marketing updates from June 2023.?

Universal Analytics Bids Us Farewell

June 30, 2023: the last day Universal Analytics will process new data. From here on out, your UA property’s only value will be as a historical reference.?

Hopefully, your new Google Analytics 4 property is already up and running. Our comprehensive Google Analytics 4 guide is a superb resource to help you get the most out of Google’s next-gen measurement solution.?

If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics 4 for your eCommerce site, the time for waiting is over, and the sooner you start, the sooner you can start tracking important metrics.?

In addition to the inherent advantages of GA4 compared to UA properties, Google has enabled GA4 and AdSense integration, meaning you can see AdSense data directly in your Google Analytics property. This takes your visibility to a whole new level, allowing you to further optimize your website for maximum conversions.

Google Analytics 4 also just received a new “Attribution Settings” option, allowing you to choose whether conversions are credited to both paid and organic channels, or paid Google Ads channels only. This is a fantastic means of bringing your ROI into sharp relief and understanding exactly what your digital marketing spend is worth.?

Google’s Search Generative Experience Takes Its First Steps

If you’ve been keeping up with SEO and digital marketing updates in 2023, you’ve likely seen the hype around Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE). It’s not fully rolled out yet, but waitlisted users were granted access in June via Search Labs.?

As the SEO community has begun to explore this AI-powered search experience from Google, the reaction has been a tad underwhelming.

Of course, in these early days of SGE, Google has its eye on building and augmenting the experience. Fortunately for them, there’s plenty of room to grow, as many users pointed out with screenshots and comments in recent weeks.?

Initially, the response time seemed relatively slow—something Google has since improved.?

The much more significant concern is the potential impact on site traffic. Many publishers—especially content marketers—fear that because generative search answers are served directly to users at the top of SERPs, CTRs will take a hit and might never recover.

Whether this may come to pass is uncertain, as the SGE isn’t quite open for business yet. However, some early access users have sounded alarm bells regarding generative answers that included content from sites other than the pages linked by Google, suggesting further optimization is necessary for accuracy and transparency.?

After making some improvements following the initial soft launch, Google invited more users to try the new SGE. Subsequent updates included the use of social media as a source for answers.?

The potential is there, but how Google implements and improves the SGE remains to be seen.?

We’ll have to wait and see whether the SGE is practical enough to prove transformative for searchers, devastates site traffic for publishers, or if there’s a happy medium that truly propels search into the future.?

Google Search Console Adds INP Issue Reporting

Google’s Core Web Vitals are extremely valuable for optimizing our sites and keeping them performing their very best. This is critical to ranking for the keywords that matter most to your business, keeping your bounce rate to a minimum, and ensuring a peerless user experience to drive growth.?

A significant change is coming in March 2024, when the First Input Delay (FID) metric will go the way of Universal Analytics and be replaced by Interaction to Next Paint (INP).?

In June, Google added INP issue reporting to Search Console. It’s not so much a practical change as it is foreshadowing; an indication that it’s time to familiarize yourself with this new metric and account for it in your site optimization work before it begins to impact your score in March.?

Whereas FID measured only input delay, INP is an overarching measure of page responsiveness.?

If you have scripts that load slowly, resources that aren’t quickly retrieved, or prolonged HTML/CSS parsing, expect these issues to impact your INP score negatively. Initial visual feedback is crucial, assuring the user that their input wasn’t lost in translation.?

Optimizing your site for this new metric doesn’t have to be an arduous process. With the best digital marketing agency at your side, your brand will benefit from the knowledge and thoughtful execution of a team of SEO experts.

As with any transition—including the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4—Google has given the digital marketing community plenty of notice before implementing this change, so now is the time for site owners and brand managers to seize the opportunity to tackle this task before the changeover next spring.?

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RELATED: 5 Advantages of PPC and SEO Working Together

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Meet Microsoft’s Predictive Targeting

Microsoft’s new AI-powered Predictive Targeting uses machine learning to help advertisers tap into new, ideal audiences for better CTRs and more conversions.?

Allegedly, this new tool can boost conversion rates by 46% on average and fundamentally change the sometimes cumbersome ad targeting process.?

However, some SEOs have pointed out that AI may not be a game-changing factor when it comes to search engines. After all, how much legwork are you really saving by using something like SGE compared to the current standard of Search??

AI’s chief benefit is its exponential productivity boost, and while this may not be immediately apparent for search engine users, it could be a huge boon for those of us wishing there was a better way to build remarketing audiences.?

Predictive Targeting can be used on its own or in tandem with your current strategies to go beyond established audiences and reach new potential customers.?

Flexible as it may be, entrusting your all-important digital marketing strategy to AI (at least in part) could prove a tough pill to swallow for many stakeholders. Microsoft will need to demonstrate some concrete examples of success before site owners and brand managers feel confident enough to embrace this new tool.?

Predictive Targeting’s rollout could also prompt larger discussions around algorithmic transparency, which AI critics continue to argue should at least be on the table as these new programs become more powerful and popular.?

Bing Chat (Allegedly) Coming to All Browsers

If you couldn’t tell already, Microsoft would really, really like you to download the new Edge and make it your go-to web browser. That’s why Bing Chat is an Edge exclusive—for now.

According to Mikhail Parakhin, who oversees Bing Search and Bing Chat, the near future will see Bing Chat available across all browsers. There’s no timeline for this expansion, but in a tweet, Parakhin said it’s coming “soon.”

He also pointed out that “there is an additional native support in Edge for the sidepane and stuff that [other browsers] don’t have”—because Microsoft would really, really like you to download the new Edge, even when Bing Chat is available in competing browsers.?

Experiments with these other browsers are underway, and the rollout will be gradual, according to Parakhin. As with SGE, we still don’t know if AI-powered search is the wave of the future or a puddle that most users will do their best to step over without getting wet—stay tuned.?

Questions? Ask the Experts at VELOX Media

Whether you’re looking to support your SERP visibility through a PPC campaign or you’re ready to invest in your company’s future with a made-from-scratch SEO strategy, the experts at VELOX Media are here to help.?

As a Google Premier Partner, we rank in the top 3% of digital marketing agencies worldwide because we leverage empirical techniques and the latest research to deliver results that consistently exceed our clients’ expectations.?

Try exponential growth on for size and see what sustained search engine dominance can do for your business. Contact VELOX today for a tailored, ROI-focused strategy that will take your brand to the next level.

This article was originally published on VELOXmedia.com.