?? The Evoluted Excerpt: February 2024

Ey up, online oracles - welcome to the latest Evoluted Excerpt, looking back on the key industry news and the pick of the resources produced by our team over the last month.

We're a little late with this one owing to a pile-up of momentous happenings including award ceremonies (like our UK Dev Awards triumph, above - have you ever seen a more photogenic cheersing?), the announcement of our big summer Sheffield DM marketing event, achieving B Corp? status, and the launch of Nottingham DM, a new meetup we're co-organising.

But you're not here for excuses, are you - so let's get into it:

??? This month's digital news roundup

This week a seismic Google algorithm update hit the SERPs and it's got many SEOs - a doom-mongering bunch at the best of times - cowering in fear as it leaves a trail of destruction in its wake.

The update tackles scaled content abuse (read: churning out blogs en masse with AI), site reputation abuse and expired domains abuse, and appears to be tougher than previous updates, with reports of offending domains being delisted from search entirely.

While this is probably a good and much-needed thing for the internet in the long-term, in the short-term Google's acknowledged it will likely cause severe rankings fluctuations as the new algorithm intertwines with existing ranking factors - hold on to your hats.

Sticking (partially) with Google, the Gmail provider - along with Yahoo - introduced new email marketing requirements in February to tackle spam.

If you use an email marketing platform like CampaignMonitor or Mailchimp, you may have had a notification about updating your domain name authentification records (known by acronyms like DKIM and DMARC which sound like pop group member names) to prove you're a credible sender.

While the changes target businesses sending over 5,000 emails per 24 hours for now, it's worth getting your ducks in a row at this stage before its focus is widened. Other regulations coming into play include implementing one-click unsubscribe features and maintaining spam rates below 0.3% - or risk send failures and damage to your sender reputation.

?? Resources and Guides

The Big 'Un: Website project spec guidance - but we'll keep it brief ??

Having a new website built is one of the most important digital projects a business can undertake, requiring months of work and substantial investment.

But we often see website briefs that are misguided or rushed, dooming the project to avoidable delays, spiralling costs and fundamentally, a website that doesn't meet its original aims.

So Evoluted founder Ash Young and MD Sam Biggins have put their combined 25+ years' experience dealing with thousands of website briefs to good use, producing this definitive guide to creating the perfect spec through easy-to-follow Do's and Don'ts, actionable tips and case studies.

From how to communicate your budget to who to assign as project stakeholder, and from choosing CMSes to how to plan out your site's roadmap, our experts share insights to help you chart your course for success at every step of the website build process.

Download for free here!

Thinking 'AI could do with a helping hand?' ??

As we've heard, those using AI to scale low-quality content are currently getting their comeuppance. But there are plenty of above-board ways to incorporate AI tools into your marketing which save time, improve efficiency and unlock new capabilities in your day-to-day role.

In this guide for Brands & Agencies , our Senior Digital PR Specialist Joanna Rammell walks us through some of her favourites.

Howdy, [Google Ads] partner ??

If your businesses uses Google Ads you've probably found it difficult to reach official support on occasion when dealing with an issue in the platform. To combat that, Google have begun sending partner agencies (of which we're one) customized recommendations to improve campaign performance.

Our Paid Media Manager Chris Ridley dug into what these recommendations involve and shared his findings with Search Engine Land in this interview.

Exclusive insights and tactics? That's a Tik(Tok) ?

But the party don't stop now - we've partnered with analytics giants Databox to produce a report packed with insights into TikTok marketing for eCommerce and B2C. If you want access to the exclusive findings shared by marketers from a wide range of businesses, take the survey here.

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About Evoluted:

We're a full-service agency specialising in digital transformation for ambitious ecommerce brands. With specialist teams across Web Design, Development, SEO, Paid Media and Content Marketing, we help companies to Create, Build and Grow all under one roof.

If you need expert digital support, let's work together.