Digital marketing moves fast, and there’s something new going on every week. No matter if you’re a digital marketing producer yourself or a leader who wants to communicate more effectively with your marketing partners or team, it helps to know what’s going on out there.

When something changes in digital marketing, it usually means companies big and small need to change with it. The sooner you make the shift, the easier it will be to avoid any negative consequences from using an outdated approach. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest changes to hit the digital marketing world in May 2024:

TikTok faces uncertain future in the U.S.

The clock is ticking on the Biden Administration’s “TikTok ban,” which requires the platform’s Chinese owners, ByteDance, to divest from the platform to continue the service in the United States. The sale has nine months to complete, with an additional three-month extension possible, affecting all 170 million U.S.-based users.

Although the situation will take a while to play out, there’s a good possibility users will start migrating right away, in keeping with other platform closures. They may end up on Instagram, YouTube, or even Facebook.

What does it mean? While there’s still a very good chance TikTok will ultimately continue in the U.S., now is a wise time to make sure you’re making maximum use of your video storytelling assets. Once a video is made, it becomes easy to reformat it so it works well on other platforms. Always emphasize the platforms your customers use most, but be wary of focusing exclusively on just one platform or format.

Google Clarifies Two Important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Topics

In recent announcements, Google has weighed in on two of the most common questions in SEO:

• Having multiple websites has no negative SEO impact as long as the content on each is different.
• Changing hosting providers has no negative SEO impact in and of itself, with some caveats.

What does it mean? While changing your website host won’t negatively impact SEO on its own, that’s not the whole story. If your new website host causes your website to be slower or less secure, that can harm search engine optimization. Any transition to a new website host should be carefully planned and executed.

Google to Roll Out Changes to Fight “Parasite SEO”

Parasite SEO refers to practices that unfairly use the authority of an existing website to rank material unrelated to the topics relevant to that website. One of the most common approaches in parasite SEO is to buy up an old domain name, which can boost new content in search rankings much faster than average.

What does it mean? Google already significantly reduced the impact of other domain-related “SEO hacks,” like using keywords right in your domain. In the coming weeks and months, old domain names that get bought up by new buyers will likely lose their outsize SEO impact—although penalties are unlikely.

Facebook Ad Prices Are Rising … But It’s Not Because of What You Think

In the past, we’ve discussed why online advertising isn’t always the best bet for small and mid-sized businesses, especially service-based businesses. That was underscored recently by a report from Bloomberg disclosing that some ads on Meta platforms have been affected by glitches that drive prices up.

What does it mean? If you’re using online advertising on Facebook or Instagram, now’s a wise time to get your ad campaigns looked at by a digital marketing agency that can determine if you are getting your money’s worth.

New Plugin Promises Faster Loading for WordPress Websites

New York Ave customers have already heard a lot about why WordPress is perfect for service-based businesses. Now, a new plugin created by the WordPress Performance Team adds support for the Speculative Rules API, a tool for defining rules to pre-fetch website content based on user interactions.

What does it mean? Faster loading is better, so WordPress website owners should strongly consider adopting this plugin.

Don’t Let Digital Marketing Changes Leave You Guessing – Choose New York Ave

At New York Ave, our blood gets pumping when we hear all the new and exciting changes coming down the pike in digital marketing. These days, digital marketing is equal parts science and art. You need data, but an understanding of your audience is just as vital – and it all has to come together with clarity and consistency.

We know that not everybody loves the ins and outs of this world the way we do. That’s why we have worked so hard over the last ten years to professionalize digital marketing in a way few others can match. Select New York Ave as your marketing partner and you’ll get bespoke marketing by serious marketers – human beings, not AI.

Contact us to find out more or get started today.