Weekly Digital Breakdown – 11.15.19
Weekly Digital Breakdown
Nov 15
Google Rewards Site Speed
In the ongoing effort to increase Chrome user experience, Google is furthering it’s evaluation criteria of sites with plans to identify those with insufficient load times. Knowing that more than half of users abandon a mobile page that takes more than 3 seconds to load, Google plans to push site publishers to improve their site speed across platforms.
In the official announcement on the Chromium Blog, Chrome reinforced its focus on speed as a core company principle for evaluating web pages. As sites were reviewed, slow load times were a recurring area that continues to lack. To encourage improvement, Chrome plans to reward sites with faster load times with a certification badge. Specifics on criteria and processes have confirmed as they are still testing to determine which options will resonate best with users. The identification process may also be expanded to alert users if the cause of latency is due to their device or network conditions.
Google plans to begin evaluating sites gradually while formulating increasingly stringent criteria. In an effort to further assist website publishers with the process, they have also identified resources such as PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse to begin evaluating site performance before mandatory requirements are put in place. These are intended to give website developers the opportunity to get ahead of the upcoming badging process.
While not mentioned in the blog, the badging process will also likely be a factor for Google search rankings, particularly for SEM and SEO. Google will continue its efforts to force site developers to improve user experience if they want to stay relevant.
https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/google-plans-to-tag-websites-that-dont-download-quickly/567103/
Walmart Picks Apple For Shoppers
Walmart officially partnered with Apple and expanded its Walmart Voice Order capabilities to Siri this week. Much like the voice-activated shopping with Google Assistant-enabled devices the company introduced earlier this year, shoppers will now be able to add products to their list with the help of a Siri shortcut.
To get started, users will be required to set up a Walmart shopping account which will need to be paired with their Google account credentials. They can then simply ask Siri to add items directly to their Walmart Online Grocery with a simple command of “Add to Walmart” followed by naming a specific product to build their shopping list as items come to mind. Once they place an order, a personal shopper will complete the shopping and items can either be picked up in-store or delivered to the customer’s doorstep.
When initially using the voice-enabled shopping, customers will need to be very specific with the product descriptions such as “Great Value organic orange juice with no pulp.” However, as the program learns the users shopping habits, it will become more personalized and not require specifics but rather “orange juice” will suffice, making shopping less cumbersome and sticking to a budget more manageable.
Voice shopping continues to be a growing market as brands are seeing its immense potential. Customers are slowly shifting habits as they become more accustomed to the convenience of voice assistance.
https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/walmart-launches-voice-shopping-for-grocery-on-apple/567239/
Instagram Hides Like Counts
In a follow up to Instagram’s announcement in June that it would be testing the removal of like counts, Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, addressed expanding its testing to US users this week at the WIRED25 Conference. While they do not plan to remove like counts from all users nationwide, it will be done strategically throughout the country as they consider making it a permanent policy.
Mosseri continues to stress the move is an effort to make the site more focused on people connecting and fostering a creative community rather than a competitive space for attention. Instagram has not released any data confirming success of its findings but the expansion to the US suggests results are positive.
While the move would definitely be a change, particularly for influencers, it’s not as extreme as it may sound. Users can still tap on “others” next to “Liked by” for a full list of users who liked the post. A running total will just no longer be displayed for public viewing.
With the new policy, many are anxious to see how this affects reach and engagement. Many influencers are also sought out based on these metrics,so it will be interesting to see how standards shift as adjustments are made.
