by | Nov 30, 2018 | Local SEO
Instagram is launching a new feature that will allow users to share stories with close friends only.
This is an ideal solution for individuals who want to maintain a balance of personal and professional content on Instagram.
An increasingly common trend on Instagram is people creating fake profiles, or “Finstagrams,” specifically for sharing a different type of content with close friends.
Instagram’s new Close Friends option is likely a direct response to the Finstagram trend.
Users who have accounts with a mix of business and personal connections can now share stories only with people they know personally if they prefer.
In order to do that, users need to create a “Close Friends” list, an option that can be found in the side menu.
The next step is to add specific people to the list. No one can request to be added, and information about who’s in the list is private.
When creating stories there will be an option to share with just the close friends list.
Users viewing a story that’s shared with close friends will see a green badge on the photo or video.
Stories for close friends will also be indicated with a green ring around the person’s profile photo.
Close Friends is a feature that has been in testing for months. This past summer we reported on a test spotted by Jade Manchun Wong.
For those keeping scores, this is yet another discovery by Wong that ended up receiving an official release.
Close Friends is now available worldwide on Instagram for iOS and Android.
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by | Nov 30, 2018 | Local SEO
YouTube is now rolling out its Instagram-like stories to more users, a feature that has been in testing since last year.
Users with over 10,000 subscribers can publish stories on the mobile app, which can be viewed by subscribers and non-subscribers.
Stories will automatically appear in the “Up Next” sidebar when watching a video from a creator who has recently published a story.
They will also appear in a carousel at the top of subscribers’ home screens.
YouTube offers the same creation tools for stories as other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. However, that’s where the similarities end.
Users should be aware of some distinct differences between YouTube stories, and stories on other social media apps, before publishing one.
How YouTube Stories Are Different From Other Stories
Other than the 10K threshold required to use the feature, here’s what else makes YouTube stories different.
Stories stay up for a whole week
Unlike stories on other platforms, which expire after 24 hours, YouTube stories remain online for 7 days.
So creators should try to make sure what they publish will still be relevant up to 7 days after the posting date.
Responses are not private
When a user responds to a creator’s story it’s available for the whole community to see.
Replies to stories on other platforms are typically sent privately via direct message.
When a user replies to a YouTube story it’s added as a comment, which other users can upvote or downvote.
Strangely, creators can only reply to comments with a photo or video, which is then shared as another story.
Seems like every social app is jumping on the stories trend this year. For better or worse at least YouTube is taking a different approach to it.
You can see a demonstration of YouTube stories in the video below:
[embedded content]
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by | Nov 30, 2018 | Local SEO
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Promotion Building
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
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by | Nov 30, 2018 | Local SEO
This week in search I covered how this morning Google’s removed Search Engine Land from their index this morning by accident. Google started showing zero search results again and it looks like it will stick. Google may have done a big algorithm update on Thanksgiving day. Google said if you build a good site that is so good where if Google doesn’t rank it, it looks bad on Google then that is a good thing. Google said they confirm core algorithm updates when the non SEOs are confused. I just wish Google would stop using the line that they do hundreds or thousands of updates per day. Google is testing dropping the knowledge panel form the search results. Google is testing expandable related queries. Google is testing a video filer in the featured snippets. Google is testing a new image search design for image previews. Google is also testing an image carousel in the featured snippets. Google is going to sunset some of the reports in the old Google Search Console. Google Search Console updated their index coverage report to use mobile-first indexing data. Google wants beta testers for the Search Performance report. Google posted an FAQs on AMP indexing issues. Google is not yet done moving sites to mobile-first indexing. Google My Business explained what branded searches are. Google released version 4.3 of the Google My Business API. Speakable markup is now supposed by the Google Home Hub. Google AdSense payments are very delayed for some publishers and creators. Bing’s search spam fighter got a reality check. Dixon Jones won the Lifetime Achievement award and Kevin Gibbons won the UK Search Personality of the Year award last night. That was this past week in search from the Search Engine Roundtable.
Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:
[embedded content] For the original iTunes version, click here.
Search Topics of Discussion:
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by | Nov 30, 2018 | Local SEO
I keep getting asked if Google is now done migrating sites to the mobile first indexing process. The answer is no, there are many sites, including this one, that has not been migrated yet. Google said many times it can take years and years for it to happen.
John Mueller from Google confirmed on Twitter again that not all sites have been migrated yet. He said “We haven’t moved all sites yet, so that’s not a sign of a problem if it’s not moved yet.”
We haven’t moved all sites yet, so that’s not a sign of a problem if it’s not moved yet. Patience 🙂
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) November 30, 2018
So relax, enjoy the desk time of being in the desktop index. 🙂
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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