Since 13th November, users have been reporting issues with data collection on Google Analytics 4 with reports that certain users are only seeing up to 50% of actual traffic figures.

Googles Response

Google responded to the issue on their Ads Status Dashboard stating,

“We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Analytics. There is an issue affecting the generation of standard reporting tables. Granular reports (accessed via the explore module) and BigQuery exports are unaffected. We are working on restoring the reporting tables.”

How to know if your GA4 is misreporting data?

To know if your GA4 is misrepresenting your data you can check the real-time report to see if data is being captured. If you go to your site and perform certain actions then check the real time reports and these actions aren’t showing then you can see something is misconfigured, your Google analytics isn’t working properly.

Why is it a problem?

Problems with data tracking on analytics make it harder for businesses to understand and interpret how well their site is performing. Historical data can be stored over a long period of time to affect future decision making processes and without accurate data this makes it difficult.

Alternatives to GA4

There are alternatives to Google Analytics 4 that can be used for data collection and analysis, should you be facing persistent problems with the tool.

• Google Search Console Search Console is another Google tool but rather than reporting on overall traffic levels and how users interact with the site, GSC only shows data on organic traffic levels and how you can improve organic search performance. GSC can be integrated in Google Analytics 4 but you can also use it separately to understand any data discrepancies in GA4 should they arise by cross referencing organic traffic levels.

• Publytics Is a cookieless Google Analytics alternative that is made for web publishers. If you have both Publytics and GA4 tracking set up you can use Publytics to cross reference data performance on GA4 if you think you are having issues.

UPDATE

Google has now resolved the issue with GA4 data on Nov 20th commenting ‘’The problem with Google Analytics has been resolved. We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.”

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a newly popular decentralised social media platform started by Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey and predominantly operated by Bluesky Social BPC. The platform features microblogging, with a mixture of short messages and visual assets like GIFs, videos and images.

Bluesky has seen a growth in accounts signing up from the beginning of November 2024. The dramatic influx of users seems to have coincided with the US election as a revolt against Elon Musk, X’s (formerly Twitter) owner, who has become politically entwined in the election.

Additionally, factors like Meta’s censorship of political content on Threads have likely driven some to sign up to the platform.

Bluesky offers users a platform reminiscent of Twitter in its prime, with no restrictions on how far links will go and no limitations around political content.

Currently, the platform has raked in 20 million users. According to a Similarweb report, there was a 350% surge in use in the UK and 500% in the US. Whilst these figures are high, they are not yet on the level of X or Threads, with X currently attaining over 611 million global users and Threads with 275 million.

Should my business create a Bluesky profile?

It’s always a good rule of thumb to create an account with your business’s commonly used handle in order to create consistency across different platforms. Even if your business doesn’t plan to use Bluesky actively right now, securing your account handle can save you the trouble of having to negotiate or purchase from another user in future.

Bluesky is still in its growth stage, with a much smaller community of users compared to other platforms. However, it creates opportunities for businesses to connect with their users on an alternative platform to X or Threads. Equally, establishing a presence whilst the user base is still small will enable businesses to establish their presence ahead of the potential boom of users.

Should Bluesky begin to roll out advertising features, those who adopt the app initially will likely have a competitive edge in comprehending the platform’s ecosystem. This will likely benefit those who do, as they would likely capture prime ad placement opportunities. 

Planning for the future is a critical part of your business’s long-term marketing strategy, whether that involves anticipating trends, experimenting with emerging platforms, or securing a handle. Pre-empting your online presence on slowly popularised platforms is a smart way to get ahead of the curve.

Imagine you’re standing in a store, eyeing a product that’s caught your attention. Wouldn’t it be great if you could instantly learn more about it—its price, reviews, and whether another store has it for less? Thanks to Google Lens, now you can!

Snap a photo, get the details

Google has introduced a game-changing feature that makes in-store shopping smarter and more informed. With the Google app on your smartphone, you can simply take a photo of a product in front of you. Within seconds, Google Lens pulls up prices, reviews, and availability from both nearby stores and online retailers. You can even discover if a store’s price is competitive, or find similar products that fit your budget or preferences.

How does it work?

The process couldn’t be simpler:

1. Open the Google app on your phone.
2. Select the search option and snap a photo of the product you’re looking at.
3. Instantly browse detailed results, including:
   • Pricing from online and local stores.
   • Customer reviews and product ratings.
   • Availability at nearby retailers.

A smarter way to shop

This feature leverages Google’s powerful AI image recognition and a shopping database of over 45 billion products. According to Google, 72% of Americans already use their smartphones while shopping in-store. Yet, many leave without making a purchase because they’re unsure about their choices. This tool aims to bridge that gap, empowering shoppers to make confident, informed decisions in real time.

Why it matters for local businesses

For business owners, this technology offers a unique opportunity to attract tech-savvy shoppers into local stores. By ensuring your products are listed on Google Merchant Center, you can increase visibility and reach potential customers who are actively searching for what you offer—right from the aisles of a retail store.

Just in time for holiday shopping

As the festive season approaches, this tool is perfect for shoppers who want to hunt down the best deals without endless searching. Whether you’re gift-hunting or just browsing, Google Lens is here to make shopping quicker, smarter, and more efficient.

So next time you’re in a store, give it a try—just point, shoot, and discover everything you need to know about the product in your hand. Shopping has never been this seamless!

WordPress, the most popular CMS worldwide, released its latest version 6.7 ‘’Rollins’’ on November 12, 2024 with a whole host of new features including a new default theme, more design features, faster pattern loading and 65+ accessibility fixes to improve user experience.

Twenty Twenty-Five

Twenty Twenty-Five is the new default WordPress theme replacing the previous Twenty Twenty-Four theme with the latest 6.7 update. The theme was created to allow both big and small website owners to create unique designs. Here’s what WordPress had to say about their latest theme.

“Twenty Twenty-Five is designed for bloggers of all scales—from hobbyist writers to major news sites—capturing a balance between simplicity and versatility. It allows you to intuitively create a site that feels truly personal while offering the flexibility for complex designs. With a diverse array of patterns and templates for everything from landing pages to photo blogs, the theme is tailored to enable seamless storytelling for any purpose. Natural, universal imagery and thoughtfully chosen typography bring warmth and a timeless aesthetic that resonates on a global scale.”

“Built to support multiple languages and visual styles, Twenty Twenty-Five includes a curated selection of colour palettes and font pairings, ensuring both accessibility and elegance in design. Whether you lean toward a minimalist personal blog, a striking photo gallery, or a content-rich magazine layout, the theme’s templates and design tools empower you to build a site that is uniquely yours.”

New features

• Zoom Out Feature – WordPress has also released a new zoom out feature, which allows users to see an overall view of the page while making customisations instead of editing one block at a time. This enhanced view has been added to help users have a more streamlined process when it comes to creating new layouts.

• Improved Font Management Tools – WordPress 6.7 comes with improved font management, allowing users to now delete font size presets and use their own customizable presets site wide. Also dynamic font sizing or ‘’fluid typography’’ allows users to have dynamic scaling of fonts based on screen dimensions.

• Accessibility Improvements – WordPress has announced 65 accessibility fixes without going into too much detail about each specific change heres what WordPress had to say “65+ accessibility fixes and enhancements focus on foundational aspects of the WordPress experience, from improving user interface components and keyboard navigation in the Editor, to an accessible heading on WordPress login screens and clearer labelling throughout.”

• Performance Updates – WordPress 6.7 will have faster pattern loading times but also has a new auto image sizing feature that will improve loading times for lazy load images.

WordPress 6.7 is the latest in a long line of releases aimed at improving the user experience and enhancing features for developers. If you need help with your WordPress website or want to update to the latest version of WordPress, please get in touch info@intelligencygroup.com.

Meta, the company which owns Facebook and Instagram is planning to start showing ads on Threads at the start of 2025. Recent reports have indicated that the Instagram advertising team is leading the rollout and a small number of businesses will be allowed access to the platform in January.

What is Threads?

Threads was launched in 2023 as a competitor and alternative to X (formerly known as Twitter). Its interface allowed users to create and share quick posts about their lives, interests or current events. A major USP of Threads was its close links to Instagram making it easy for users to switch between the two. Meta introduced Threads to give people a fresh place for discussions and community engagement. By October, Threads had around 275 million active users each month, and about one million people were signing up daily, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

What will the ads look like?

Details about the appearance of ads on Threads are still limited, but it’s likely they will resemble the text and image-based ad formats used on X (formerly Twitter). For marketing teams, these ads will likely be managed through the Meta for Business platform, which should streamline campaign creation. This means campaign managers can easily incorporate Threads into their existing Meta campaigns without needing to learn a new system.

Does Meta have anything else planned?

Meta is also working on other big projects. It’s developing new technologies like lightweight holographic AR glasses called “Orion” and an AI-powered search engine to give people smarter answers to questions. This search tool will be used across its apps, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

These efforts are part of Meta’s plan to create exciting new technologies and make its platforms more useful and engaging for everyone.

Google has just announced the rollout of its November 2024 core update, which will unfold over the next couple of weeks. If you work in digital marketing, here’s what you should know—and, more importantly, what to expect in terms of impact on search results and traffic.

What is a core update, and why should you care?

Google regularly makes significant adjustments to how its search algorithms work. These updates, known as core updates, typically have a substantial impact on how websites rank in search results. They don’t happen in isolation; instead, they are part of a continuous effort by Google to improve the quality of search results, helping users find genuinely valuable and relevant information.

The November 2024 update comes on the heels of a busy year of algorithm changes, with the most recent core update being in August. Google explained on LinkedIn that this latest update is designed to “show more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.”

What can you expect from this update?

While it’s too soon to predict the exact outcomes, past experience shows that core updates bring volatility to search rankings. For digital marketers, this means you could see noticeable shifts in where your website or your clients’ websites appear in search results. Some businesses might benefit from an increase in traffic, while others may experience a decline.

Google has provided some clarity, however:

Quick recoveries may not be realistic: If a website was negatively impacted by previous updates, such as the September 2023 helpful content update, don’t expect immediate improvements now. Recovery from a core update typically happens over time, often requiring subsequent core updates before any major progress is seen.

Quality content is crucial: Google emphasizes that there’s no special trick or technical fix to quickly regain rankings. Instead, the advice remains simple but powerful: create content that’s helpful, reliable, and intended for human audiences, not just for search engines.

What should digital marketers do if rankings drop?

Google’s official advice hasn’t changed much over the years. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Don’t panic and make hasty changes: A dip in rankings doesn’t necessarily mean your website is flawed. It could simply be that other sites are deemed more relevant for certain queries.
• Review your content: Reflect on whether your content truly serves user needs. Google provides a list of self-assessment questions to help you identify areas for improvement. For example, is your content original and insightful? Does it offer value beyond what’s already available online?
• Patience is key: Although minor recoveries can occur between updates, meaningful improvements are often tied to future core updates.

A look back at core updates in 2024

The November update is just the latest in a series of core updates this year. The first, the March 2024 core update, was the largest ever, taking a staggering 45 days to fully roll out. It was followed by the August update, which completed in early September. Each update brought waves of change, leaving marketers to adjust strategies and analyze performance.

Why digital marketers should keep an eye on this

For digital marketers, core updates are more than just tech news; they’re moments that can redefine your SEO strategy. Whether you’re working to boost organic traffic for a brand or optimize a client’s search presence, understanding the landscape is crucial. Monitoring analytics in the coming weeks will be key. You may need to tweak content strategies or adjust expectations based on the update’s impact.

Ultimately, this update could spell good news for some and a challenge for others. The hope is that Google’s algorithm continues to reward genuine, helpful content and that your marketing efforts align with what users—and Google—find valuable.

Stay tuned for more updates and keep an eye on your website’s performance. If you experience traffic drops, use this as an opportunity to review and refine your content for long-term success. After all, in the world of SEO, staying adaptable and user-focused is always a winning strategy.

This week, we’re re-rolling out our handy checklist for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to set your business up for success. These two days mark a significant spike in online shopping, with e-commerce sites experiencing a massive influx of customers and sales. This year alone it has been reporting there is an expected 27% growth in spending, increasing from £3 billion in 2023 to a forecasted additional £800 million.

Our checklist will help you spot and strengthen any weak spots, guaranteeing your customers a smooth and swift shopping experience. This way, you can ensure that buying your product or service is a breeze for current or new customers.

Without further ado, let’s get into how best to prep!

Website Preparation

You’ll first need to check your website’s user experience. This is something you should be on top of anyway, but it’s extra important for Black Friday.

Your website needs to be quick, and it needs to be responsive. For E-commerce businesses, this is extra important, because a slow speed can result in lost traffic. The harder a time a customer has purchasing something, the less likely they’ll convert.

Secondly, check that your website can handle an increased amount of traffic! It would be disastrous if suddenly no one could access it. Here are some ways you can mitigate a crash due to high volumes of traffic:

• Optimisation should always be done, however, if there are media assets or content that can be compressed. We recommend doing it!
• Checking the bandwidth limit of your website, if you think it cannot handle a large number of visitors. Explore using a content delivery network if optimising does not resolve.
• Caching your content can help reduce resource storage on site.
• Pre-emptively acquiring additional server space from your server host, this can be particularly useful or instances like Black Friday.

Finally, ensure that the checkout process is smooth as butter and that users have plenty of options for how they purchase.

Promotions and Discounts

Next up, let’s tackle promotions and discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You’ve got to ask yourself: are your deals ready to roll out? If you’re shaking your head, it’s time to brainstorm some tempting offers that reward both your loyal customers and your bottom line.

Make sure your discounts stand out. Display them loud and proud on your homepage because, let’s face it, hidden deals are as good as no deals. And why not sweeten the pot for your repeat customers? A little thank you goes a long way, and a loyalty reward could be just the ticket.

Some of the brilliant ways you can entice your customers is by offering incentives, creating product bundles or collaborating with influencers to spread your promo codes far and wide!

Marketing Campaigns

Now, let’s switch gears to marketing campaigns. Kick things off early – think early November – to capture your audience’s attention before the holiday rush. An email campaign that pops in their inbox? Check. Social media buzz that gets them talking? Double-check.

Don’t let past visitors slip through the cracks. Use retargeting ads to remind them what they’re missing. And for the cherry on top, referral codes can turn your customers into your best promoters.

Inventory and Product Management

Moving on to inventory and product management – it is crunch time. Take a good, hard look at your stock levels. You’ll want to have enough to meet the surge without ending up with a surplus gathering dust.

Equally, if your business is tackling surplus, utilising excess stock to incentivise sales is a great way to incentivise spending for the customer.

If your stock’s running low, get those orders in, pronto. Spot products that aren’t moving fast enough? Get creative with promotions to give them a boost. And make sure you’re clear about delivery times – nobody likes a late show.

Product Descriptions

Let’s not forget product descriptions – your secret SEO weapon. Craft them well, and they’ll help your products shine bright in search results. Detailed, clear, and SEO-focused descriptions can elevate your products from good to must-have. The perfect product description includes:

• Product dimensions/ weight
• Features of the product (including the description)
• Any benefits the customer will reap from your product/service.
• A link to any variants
• The price should always be clear to the customer!

Think about creating gift guides too. They are like roadmaps to the perfect purchase, especially when they bundle products for a complete experience.

Visual Branding:

For visual branding, it’s all about making a splash. Design bold, sale-specific graphics that capture the Black Friday vibe. Plaster them on your site, your emails, everywhere. Make sure they scream ‘deal of the year’ to anyone who sees them.

Consider using a bright and contrasting colour for your ‘buy now’ buttons. Studies have consistently found that red buttons garner more success. Make the switch and count the clicks!

Social Media Optimisation:

Don’t just post on social media – own it. Your profiles should be fine-tuned machines, ready to engage and convert. Regular updates with catchy, sale-focused content? That’s one great way to convert sales.

Customer Service and Support:

Finally, customer service can make or break your sales days. Staff up your support team to handle the hustle. Consider a live chat feature – it’s like having a sales assistant right there on the page, ready to close the deal. Customer satisfaction is the goal, reducing negative responses whilst saving time is just one of the many benefits of a chat bot.

Keep your team on their toes, responsive, and ready to turn frowns upside down. Happy customers are repeat customers, after all.

Conclusion

In conclusion, nailing Black Friday and Cyber Monday is about much more than just slashing prices. It’s a full-on strategy that starts with your website and flows through to the final click of the purchase button.

Remember, it’s the details that count – a fast site, standout deals, early-bird marketing, stocked shelves, sharp product descriptions, eye-catching visuals, an engaging social media presence, and top-notch customer service.

Get these elements right, and you’re not just selling – you’re creating an experience that customers will come back for, year after year. So, gear up – it’s time to make this holiday sale season your most successful one yet!

An XML Sitemap is a file submitted to search engines that tells them everything about the structure of your site including what pages live where and what pages you want them to crawl and index in order to show up in search rankings. This helps search engines explore your site quicker and improve your search engine rankings more effectively.

Is an XML Sitemap important?

XML Sitemaps are important for modern websites as they allow search engines to understand and crawl your site structure. If you don’t have an XML Sitemap, search engines will have to follow internal links on your site to understand where different pages live and this can take a lot longer. Also if you have pages on your site you want to show up in search rankings that don’t have a lot of links pointing to them it may take a long time for search engines to find these pages.

How to create an XML Sitemap

Most website owners will not have to create their XML Sitemap from scratch as the majority of content management systems will already have an XML Sitemap automatically created and updated. For example, WordPress, the most used CMS in the world, automatically generates a site map for its users, if you want to view the sitemap you can simply visit URL/sitemap.xml.

If your website does not automatically generate a sitemap you can use an online sitemap generator tool to create your sitemap. Some people will choose to use a sitemap generator as it allows them to have more autonomy over what’s appearing in their sitemaps. You can also use plugins on the back end which allow you to edit the contents of your XML Sitemap. Below is an example of a WordPress sitemap generated through YOAST. The most common type of sitemap on the web.

How to submit an XML Sitemap

If you don’t submit your XML Sitemap to Google it will still crawl and index your pages but it could take months before your new pages are found and indexed into search results. Best practice when you have created new pages is to submit your sitemap to Google via Google Search Console. GSC is a free tool that allows website users to track and update their organic Google performance in order to see better search results.

In order to submit your sitemap to GSC you must first set up GSC for your site. Once you have a GSC you can go to Indexing > Sitemaps > Enter your sitemaps URL > Submit sitemap.

If you need to update your sitemap at any time, due to the creation or deletion of a number of pages, you can resubmit your sitemap in the same location and delete your old sitemap after Google has finished crawling and indexing all your new pages.

You can also request indexing of individual pages to Google if only a small number of pages have been created and you don’t want Google to recrawl your whole site.

Needing help?

If you need help with website performance and want to improve your search rankings, please don’t hesitate to get in touch info@intelligencygroup.com.

Meta has reported that Instagram now has more users than Facebook in the EU in terms of monthly users compared to Facebook. This trend is currently specific to the EU and could be due to stricter data privacy laws and changing user preferences, as Facebook growth remains steady in other regions around the world.

Instagram Now Has More Users Than Facebook in the EU

This data was released last week by Meta and show that Instagram’s user share has increased. As the numbers show, Instagram has 269.1 million monthly users, while Facebook has 260.6 million. Just a few months ago, both apps had about the same number of users. But Instagram has pulled ahead, while Facebook’s growth has slowed down a bit and even declined slightly in recent months.

Is This Trend Happening Everywhere?

While Instagram’s rise is clear in the EU, it might not be a worldwide trend. Meta no longer reports user counts separately for Facebook; instead, they provide a combined total for all their apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Threads). However, based on the last time they did report Facebook’s numbers, it looks like this shift is mostly happening in the EU and possibly the U.S. In 2023, Facebook’s EU user count dropped a little and had already been slowing down since 2022. In other regions, Facebook is still growing steadily.

Why Are EU Users Moving Away From Facebook?

There are a few possible reasons why Facebook may be losing ground with European users. One reason could be that Europe’s data privacy laws have given users a clearer picture of how Facebook collects and uses data, which might have caused some users to step away from the app. Others may feel that Facebook has become outdated and are choosing newer apps. Whatever the cause, it’s clear that Instagram may be on its way to becoming Meta’s main app in some regions.

ChatGPT Search is OpenAI’s groundbreaking feature that integrates AI-powered conversation with real-time web search. Unlike traditional search engines, it delivers precise, ad-free answers supported by trusted sources. Marketers no longer have to sift through irrelevant content; instead, they get streamlined responses in a chat interface, making research efficient and effortless. By leveraging partnerships with major data providers and fine-tuning their AI models, OpenAI ensures that ChatGPT Search delivers relevant, up-to-date information.

Why ChatGPT Search Matters

OpenAI has designed this tool to simplify the research process for marketing professionals. Whether you’re gathering insights for a campaign or staying current with news, ChatGPT Search saves time by understanding your queries in a natural, conversational way and sourcing answers from reliable information hubs. Instead of hopping between search engine results, you get what you need, complete with clickable citations that boost transparency.

How It Works

Using ChatGPT Search is intuitive. You can either allow the AI to determine when to search the web or manually activate it by clicking the search icon. This functionality is available on chatgpt.com, as well as desktop and mobile apps, and a Chrome extension even allows you to make ChatGPT your default search engine. While currently accessible to ChatGPT Plus and Team users (with SearchGPT waitlist members included), OpenAI plans to roll it out to Free users soon.

For a deeper dive into these features, read the announcement blog post.

Categories and Visual Enhancements

One standout aspect of ChatGPT Search is its category-specific design. Marketers benefit from up-to-date visual displays in areas such as weather, stocks, sports, news, and maps. This kind of tailored content is perfect for planning and strategic decisions, providing rich, accurate insights at a glance.

Why It’s a Game-Changer

ChatGPT Search’s ad-free, user-friendly experience sets it apart from traditional engines like Google. Its ability to drive referral traffic has already shown promise, with some brands seeing more engagement compared to other AI search platforms. This new approach also eliminates distractions, focusing on delivering relevant content that supports marketing goals effectively.

OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, Varun Shetty, emphasized to The Washington Post that this AI search improves relevancy and reduces hallucinations (incorrect AI outputs) thanks to real-time web integration. This is a vital feature for marketers who rely on accuracy.

Future Prospects and SearchGPT’s Role

OpenAI’s commitment to refining this tool is clear. While SearchGPT remains an experimental prototype, it serves as a testing ground for future ChatGPT Search enhancements. OpenAI has plans to optimize the experience further, especially in areas like shopping and travel, which could open up new possibilities for marketing professionals.

This innovative approach isn’t just about convenience; it’s about evolving the way we access and utilize information. As AI technology continues to reshape digital experiences, ChatGPT Search positions itself as an invaluable resource for marketers looking to stay ahead in an increasingly data-driven world.

Explore more in the OpenAI announcement blog post and see how it can transform your marketing efforts today!