Google News inclusion is automated, sorry publishers; Monday’s daily brief

Good morning, Marketers, and the job market in marketing is truly on fire right now.

I keep seeing tweets about openings that aren’t getting filled, search marketers being able to negotiate for the salary they want and people quickly getting promoted due to the demand for our specialized skills. But with great power comes great… potential for burnout.

I saw a great thread by SEO Kristina Azarenko about how, even in jobs we love, burnout can happen. Her tips for preventing it and ensuring you protect your time and mental energy are key:

• Take purposeful breaks during the day.
• Limit your working day (stop working when your workday is over!).
• Cultivate activities outside of work.

I hope you’re absolutely slaying in your job right now, but I also hope you’re taking time for you.

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Google News clarification: All sites are eligible, but that doesn’t mean you’ll show up

Danny Sullivan, public liaison for Google Search, explained some frequently asked publisher-related questions around Google News. The post covers where news appears in Google, how a site becomes eligible to appear in Google News, how to know if your site is showing in news, how to improve visibility for your site and some additional tips.

Why we care. This new blog post may help publishers understand that the process is automated and there is nothing that can be done manually to guarantee inclusion in Google News. One thing this shows is that Google is not planning on making any new changes to the inclusion process and that automation is the way the company is going (for now) with Google News.

Read more here.

Protect your search history with Web & App Activity in Google

The search company announced a new feature last week that helps users protect their search history on multiple devices. Your web history is saved to your account in order to provide a customized search experience across all devices that you use Google on. Now, you can add extra verification in order to access the My Activity section of the Web & App Activity settings.

“Maybe you share a device, and want to make sure others who use it can’t go into My Activity and look at your Search history,” wrote JK Kearns, product manager, search in the announcement. The extra verification could be a password or two-factor authentication. Along with this verification, “you can choose to have Google automatically and continuously delete your Search history, along with other Web & App Activity, from your account after three, 18 or 36 months” with the auto-delete controls.

Why we care. Google understands that privacy is top-of-mind for many searchers nowadays. This option is another move to help them feel in control of how their data appears and is found. It’s important to remember that deleting your history doesn’t delete it from Google for the purposes of things like cohorts and personalization. But it shows that Google is listening to feedback from its users.

Google introduces Mobile Web Certification for partners

Google Partners has introduced a new certification option called Mobile Web Certification, according to an announcement last week from Steph Clippert, program manager, Google marketing platform partners.

With Core Web Vitals and mobile-friendliness being key for many businesses this year, this certification ensures that companies can find verified partners who have Google’s recommended skills in these areas. “Partners certified in Mobile Web work with your business objectives to implement improvements to your user experience while helping you drive engagement on your mobile site, increase mobile conversion rates and generate first-party data to support accurate performance measurement,” said Clippert.

Why we care. This certification might be worth it for your team members who want to learn more about how to help clients offer a better experience on mobile. “A mere 0.1-second decrease in site speed can boost conversion rates by 8%,” added Clippert. “[M]obile best practices — from speed to user experience optimization — can drive user engagement on mobile sites, improve user sign-in rates and help marketers generate richer data for optimizing return on ad spend.“

On the hunt for something new in 2021? Here are the latest career opportunities in search

You may notice a new addition to our job postings. From today onward, we’re going to try to include jobs with listed salary ranges. We hope this helps with pay equity and ensuring search marketers are compensated for their experience.

Amazon PPC Manager @ Jarvis Recruitment Group (United States, remote)

• Salary: $60k-90k/yr
• Oversee Amazon marketing strategy to achieve goals
• Apply PPC & DSP best practices for ads
• Manage and refresh existing product pages

Digital Marketing Manager @ ClearScale (United States, remote)

• Salary: $80k-90k/yr
• Own digital marketing campaigns, including search engine marketing and display advertising campaigns
• Design, build and maintain our paid digital marketing efforts (e.g. Google PPC, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)

Content Marketing Manager @ stor.ai (United States, remote)

• Salary: $50k-80k/yr
• Design and implement social media strategy –to align with stor.ai’s business goals
• Help define and manage content calendar (blogging, social media, email)

Search Engine Optimization Consultant @ Forum Digital Marketing (California, United States, remote)

• Salary: $40-$50/hr
• Plan, develop and implement our SEO strategy
• Work towards organic search optimization and ROI maximization
• Regularly perform thorough keywords research

Enter a job opening for an opportunity to be featured in this section.

What We’re Reading: Why your marketing campaigns need more emojis

New data from Adobe indicates that the missing element to all your marketing issues is … emojis. Ok, maybe not exactly, but this article from Anna Meyer in Inc. indicates that they’re at least “a secret weapon in marketing, customer service, and social media.”

For World Emoji Day (it was Saturday, sorry we missed it, y’all), Adobe looked into how emojis in marketing affect email open rates, purchasing and more. Ready for some of the most interesting stats?

• Over half of those surveyed feel more comfortable using emojis than talking on the phone or in-person (do not call me, maybe).
• Emojis help people overcome language barriers and form connections that would otherwise be difficult to create (emojis are a universal language).
• Sixty percent of all emoji users–and 70 percent of Gen-Z users–say they are likely to open email or push notifications that contain emojis.

The data is global — collected from 7,000 people in the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia and South Korea. If you haven’t tested an emoji or two in your marketing, now might be the time to try! 😉