This week: the interstitial penalty did roll out, Instagram Stories hits a new record, and Google likes breadcrumbs on your site.
Here’s what happened this week in digital marketing.
Interstitial Penalty is Live & More Mobile Updates
Instagram Stories Daily Audience Hits 250 Million
Bad news for Snapchat: Instagram’s copy of its “Stories” feature seems to be resonating with audiences.
Every day, more than 250 million people watch Instagram Stories. That’s an increase of 25% since April.
During the same time period, Snapchat’s daily audience has grown only in single digits.
Instagram is also allowing users to replay live streams for up to 24 hours.
Google Likes Breadcrumb Navigation Links on Your Site
Maybe you don’t want to turn off breadcrumb navigation on your WordPress website.
As it turns out, Google loves breadcrumb links.
We likes them. We treat them as normal links in e.g. PageRank computation
— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) June 22, 2017
This past week on Twitter, somebody asked Google’s Gary Illyes about the company’s official position on breadcrumb links.
Here’s how he responded: “We likes them. We treat them as normal links in e.g. PageRank computation.”
Google’s Mobile-First Index Won’t Launch on a Specific Day
You won’t see Google’s mobile-first roll out on a single day. Instead, the company plans to roll it out as sites are ready.
This past week on Twitter, Google’s John Mueller was asked about the roll-out date. Here’s what he had to say: “We’re planning on switching sites over as we see they’re ready. It’s unlikely that we’ll have a single ‘launch date’. Details still in work.”
We're planning on switching sites over as we see they're ready. It's unlikely that we'll have a single "launch date". Details still in work.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) June 20, 2017
Remember, though, the new index probably won’t roll out at all until next year.
Google: Move Your M-Dot Site to Responsive Before Mobile-First Rolls Out
If you have an m-dot website (i.e., a website that forwards to m.yourdomain.com for mobile users), you should move it to a responsive website before the mobile-first index rolls out.
Why? Because Google indexes your desktop site. Your m-dot site won’t be fully indexed.
Again, it’s not likely that the new index will roll out this year, so it looks like you have at least 6 months to make that happen.
Google: The Mobile Interstitial Penalty Has Rolled Out
It’s official: the mobile interstitial penalty is here.
"I can confirm that the mobile interstitial algorithm did roll out." @methode #SMX
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) June 13, 2017
It rolled out in January. At that time, though, a few sites got hit hard but the overall effect seemed to be limited. That’s why some people didn’t believe it fully rolled out.
This past week at SMX, Gary Illyes confirmed that the algorithmic penalty rolled out.
