Author: Adnan Riaz

The MalcolmColes website is a news and blogging website on the internet with a huge reader base seeking marketing news, measured analysis, and exclusive research on the hottest topics in digital marketing. They aim to keep the readers up to date on the marketing trends and ensure that information is accurate and readers are not misled by their content. The most popular topics on their news website were digital marketing stats, daily updates, and updates regarding changing SEO guidelines.

While other social media sites such as Facebook (now Meta) and Instagram are constantly evolving to keep up with their competitors, Twitter remains as popular with users as ever, despite the original concept of the site remaining mostly unchanged. There are a few factors that can help explain Twitter’s popularity:

It’s free to use 

It comes as a shock to nobody that the internet struck a massive blow to the traditional print news model. Newspaper circulation has been in steady decline for years, and even fell under 1 million in 2020. To combat financial losses – and in an attempt to “digitise” the traditional print model – many British newspapers decided to implement paywalls, where readers have to subscribe or pay one-off fees to access long-form articles. 

As of 2022, over two-thirds of leading online newspapers across Europe and the US operate an online paywall, while Twitter remains free to use. Not only does Twitter remain free to use, but newspapers are present and active on the site, allowing users to access headlines and news without having to pay monthly fees to access content. 

Most journalists use Twitter themselves 

Another reason Twitter is treated like a news site: it is largely populated by newspaper accounts and journalists. A majority of journalists use the platform to share their content with their readers, turning the platform into a news sharing site by default. 

Confirmation bias 

Issues such as Brexit divided Brits into warring camps, and much of these political battles were played out – and continue to be played out – online, especially on Twitter. This leads us onto perhaps Twitter’s key USP as a news site: it allows users to curate their own newsfeeds according to their own political and social sensibilities. 

What’s worse is that Twitter’s algorithm actively encourages users to create their own political echo chambers. As research by UK think tank Demos confirmed, Twitter’s algorithm is most likely to recommend users, tweets, and other content based on content you’ve already positively engaged with. While this might create a more user-friendly experience for individuals, it can amplify social and political tensions on a wider scale. 

24 hours news cycle 

In order to understand the breadth of Twitter’s influence, it’s important to first understand that the way we consume news has drastically evolved in the last fifteen to twenty years. In the pre-internet era, news stories typically broke in one of two ways: during TV or radio news bulletins, or on the front page of the daily newspaper. 

Nowadays, internet users are bombarded with endless streams of information: news, current events, politics, scandals, and more. The online content-generation business is thriving, but what is often labelled as “news” isn’t actually newsworthy. In addition to this, Twitter even exists cross-platform: readers read tweeted news outside of Twitter; via Instagram, Facebook and other social media sites. 

Commentary 

When trying to understand the Twitter phenomenon, it’s important not to leave out the commentary factor. Twitter isn’t just a platform for reading or sharing news, but a site where active commentary flourishes and thrives. Unlike your typical online newspaper comments section, Twitter users are able to debate and argue using fast technology, and are often rewarded with likes, retweets and followers for sharing their views. 

Twitter creates something of a positive feedback loop, whereby users are more likely to engage with news stories in the hopes of kickstarting a debate, finding like-minded individuals or simply expressing their views and opinions. On Twitter, reading news isn’t a passive activity; it actively encourages users to engages and debate about current events and news. 

Trust factor 

While Twitter is a largely liberal social media website – in the sense that users can generally post what they wish – the platform carries a certain legitimacy and trust factor that its rival Facebook hasn’t yet managed to achieve. This can be perhaps explained by the presence of high-profile figures, newspapers, and institutions that use the site extensively; for politicians and celebrities, it’s stranger to not have a Twitter account than to be a known Tweeter. The second-last US President even preferred to consult his Twitter followers about policy decisions before his press team. 

This trust factor is also due to Twitter taking misinformation perhaps more seriously than other social media sites. Twitter was the first social network to introduce fact-checking during the 2020 US Presidential election, and also implemented fact-checkers to monitor misinformation circulating around the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccines. 

Perhaps one of the most significant decisions taken by the company was the suspension of sitting US President Donald Trump in January 2021. Following the January 6th storming of the US capitol building by protestors, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account after he appeared to condone the protests. By suspending the most influential and powerful of its users, Twitter sent a strong message to its critics: that nobody was exempt from adhering to their code of conduct policies. 

Decisions like these – along with their attempts at moderating user content – has helped Twitter foster a reputation for trustworthiness that other social media sites have been unable to achieve. 

Distrustful of mainstream media 

With the liberalisation of information – thanks in large part to Twitter and the internet – the influence of alternative news sites and highly partisan reporting is increasingly wide-reaching.

 This has contributed to a significant decrease in media trust amongst Brits, which in recent years hadn’t been particularly strong to begin with. For example, in 2015, only 51% of Brits claimed to have trust in the mainstream media. As of 2022, this figure has plummeted to just 34%. Divisive matters such as Brexit and Coronavirus have driven users to engage with content that corresponds to their personal beliefs; in turn, “balanced” reporting appears untrustworthy.

First of all – you might be wondering why it’s so important for businesses to understand search queries in 2022. It’s simple: having access to popular Google search queries allows you tap into the current needs and wants of the average consumer. 

Google is the most heavily utilised online tool for finding data: the average person makes around 3-4 Google searches per day. If you have access to the most popular search queries, you can create engaging content that answers these questions while directing potential customers to your website and your business. 

This process is part of what is called an SEO (Search engine optimisation) strategy. If you want your business to be competitive in the online market, an SEO strategy is essential

Google Ads Sitelink Extensions are a powerful way to improve the performance of your text ads on Google which is strongly recommended by any professional SEO Agency you consult. 

Simply put, these Google Ads Sitelink Extensions are used to drive more traffic to your website, thereby, automatically increasing sales. 

Every Google Ads sitelink extension should include a short, and catchy headline, a brief description of your business, and a link to your website which could be in the form of texts or images.

In addition, Google Ads Sitelink extensions allow you to indicate different ad campaigns for each link. Not only that, they allow you to showcase different aspects of your business, such as a promotion or a new product as well as help to create a user-friendly customer experience where they can easily click through to the page they need without necessarily having to search for it.

Google Instant was a feature implemented onto the search engine back in 2021. The aim of the feature was to speed up the user experience by offering search predictions based on the user’s location, global and local trending topics, and the user’s search history.

In short, it was an enhanced version of Google autocomplete, which was first launched on the search engine back in 2010. While Google autocomplete was once synonymous with generating bizarre and often downright offensive suggestions, Google Instant is markedly more intelligent. Google itself has put work into improving the feature, eliminating offensive search predictions.

Online abuse can take many forms, and doesn’t necessarily have to take place on social media. Online abuse can include the following:

• Name-calling 
• General harassment; i.e. persistent insults, messages, encouraging fellow social media users to attack or insult an individual 
• Defamation, aka lying about an individual online Using sexist or racist slurs 
• Creating fake profiles of an individual to “troll” the individual, or spread misinformation 
• Threats of violence or sexual assault 
• Threats of doxxing (doxxing means to reveal an individual’s address, workplace, or real name if they post under a pseudonym.) 
• Threats or harassment in gaming forums such as Discord or Roblox 
• Stalking (this can include creating multiple social media profiles to skirt around being blocked)

Like any type of abuse, social media abuse exists on a spectrum. Certain incidents of online abuse are more serious than others: while some arguments or disputes might be resolved via a direct message, other cases go to the police.

Automated auction

It’s also important to note that Google Ads (previously Google Adwords) uses an automated auction – rather than a manual auction – to assign ad space. What this means is simple: whoever selects the top bid (provided that their product is considered ad-friendly) will bag the top spot for their chosen keyword. Typically, companies will have several keywords that they’re trying to target and monopolise on Google’s search engine.

 For example, a tech company might want to target a highly competitive keyword such as “smartphone cheap.” For Google to suggest their product when users type this particular keyword into the search bar, the company would need to set an incredibly high maximum bid to outdo their competition. 

As you can imagine, Google Ads is a highly competitive – and financially lucrative – platform for businesses.

RSS feeds are recognized to be a  handy way of keeping track of new content on websites you are interested in, without having to check them all the time, which in turn, helps you channel your energy and focus on more important things.

RSS, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication” is a format for delivering content from websites to readers. Despite being the most powerful tool to stay on track, it is pretty much a straightforward process.

All you need to do is subscribe to an RSS feed which automatically informs your reader to keep you regularly updated by sending you an alert (usually in the form of an email or a notification), this way, you never miss the chance to remain on the top.

It is typical for a professional SEO consultant to recommend utilising RSS feeds if you need to keep up with your favourite sites but don’t have the time to visit them all every day or if you are constantly on the go.

If you have been trying to rank your website for a while, you must be familiar with brand vs non-brand search. 

Branded keywords are those that are specifically related to your company or product while non-branded keywords, on the other hand, are keywords that are generic and can be applied to any business in a given industry. 

For example:

• “Apple” is a known keyword typically referred to as the electronics giant, so its non-branded keyword will be “phone”, which is not specific to one brand but is a type of product.
• Another illustration would be the keyword, ” Nike”. Nike is a brand keyword for Nike Company while “running shoes” is an effective term for its non-branded search. 

When it comes to SEO, you not only want to use effective strategies but also consult an SEO Agency which is the fastest way to rank top as soon as possible. 

Google defines its Autocomplete tool as a tool “designed to make it faster to complete searches that you’re beginning to type”. Also known as Google search predictions or Google search suggestions, It is embedded in the Google search box and the Chrome address bar. 

The main function of Autocomplete is to reduce the time used in typing by giving predictions and suggestions, which oftentimes are correct. It is estimated that these Google search suggestions cut back a whole 200 years of typing by users. Typically, it reduces the average user’s typing time by 25%. 

Since 2004, it has been a feature on desktop devices. However, it is a more welcome advancement on mobile phones, as most people find it harder to type on mobile devices, as opposed to the big keyboards that desktop devices have. The Autocomplete feature saves time for many and makes Google searches easier. 

As mentioned above, the Google search predictions provided by Google Autocomplete can be used to get content ideas, improve SEO strategies, get keyword suggestions, customer problems, and so on. This valuable feature can either be used by an SEO agency, digital marketer or business analyst.

When you start typing a query on the Google search bar and predictions start popping up, you might wonder, “how does Google autocomplete this query?”. Well, it does this using certain data. These data include;

• The language of the query
• The location
• Trends
• Past searches

Using these data, Google Autocomplete can then predict your search and show results that are unique to your location, e.g., breaking news.

Additionally, Google search predictions might also predict individual words and phrases based on data from other searchers, as well as word patterns found across the web.