Why The IOS 14.5 Update Makes SEO Even More Important
May 1, 2021 | By Jeff | In Tips & Advice
As you may or may not have known, Apple just pushed out a new version of their mobile operating system, IOS 14.5. It includes many security updates and several new features. If you are a business that advertises on Facebook though, one of the most alarming updates is that from now on, every app on their phone will now require users to “Opt In” to having their activity tracked when not using the app.
What does that mean exactly? Well, if a user opts out (which most are), Facebook will no longer be able to track what they do on your website or app when they click your ad. That means that it’s going to be very difficult to see who converts on your ad and will make it almost impossible to optimize your ads to get served to similar audiences that would convert. This is going to make your ROI for Facebook ads drop dramatically as you’re basically just spraying & praying with your ads at this point.
Facebook has made several updates to deal with this issue. One of them is “Aggregated Event Measurement”. This only allows you to track 8 events on your website. These 8 events are arranged in order of importance. The ones at the top will get priority and only the ones with the highest priority will be tracked if a user engages in more than one activity. You also now have to verify your domain that conversion events are being tracked on.
Another thing that Facebook just rolled out is the “Facebook Conversion API”, which works similarly to Google Analytics. This tracks server activity to your website instead of using browser cookies. It will track server events that occur on your website. So, for example if a user clicks your ad and ends up on your website, and then fills out a form, Facebook will figure out that “somebody” clicked your ad and then filled out your form. You will no longer, though be able to gather certain demographic information, so you will probably start to see your custom audiences grow smaller.
What Does This Mean For My Ads?
Despite all of the new “bells & whistles” that Facebook has pushed out, it will still not be able to get by Apple users that opt out of tracking. Your ads will be gathering significantly less data from user’s activity offline, so therefore it will not really know who to serve your ads to optimally. Even with the new addition of the API, it’s all anonymous, so it has no idea what to do with that data. You will still be able to target audiences from data Gathered On Facebook Only, but after that you’re in the dark.
Because of all this, you’re going to be spending a lot more money on your Facebook ads, and you’re going to start seeing a significant drop in performance. As I said before, you’re now basically spraying & praying with your ad campaigns. And let’s be real, a large group of the folks with disposable income that would possibly buy your products or services are using Apple devices.
SEO Is More Important Than Ever
With the hamstringing of targeted advertising on Facebook, it has become more important than ever that you optimize your website for search engine visibility and buyer intent keywords. If you optimize your site correctly, and target keywords that your target audience would be searching for, you will probably have better luck than just burning your money with Facebook. Make sure to do the following on your website:
Perform Proper Keyword Research For Buyer Intent Keywords
For example, what would somebody who is ready to buy your product be searching for in search engines. We’re not talking about research & price browsing, but people who are ready to buy. Think about that and do some research. Secondly, make sure these are keywords that are actually being used. There are several free tools out there where you can do this research. One good one is Ubersuggest.
Optimize Your Title Tags, & Page Content For These Keywords
Start the titles of your pages with these keywords, but please take care to make the text flow naturally. DON’T SPAM! Try to work the words naturally into your content as if they belonged there. And don’t overdo it. Again, do not spam your page with the same keyword over and over.
Download My Free SEO Guide
SEO has become more important than ever with the release of the IOS 14.5 update. You will need to get on the ball with this if you want to keep getting meaningful traffic & conversions to your website. There are many other things that you need to do to make your site rank and I go over them in my Free E-Book “Unlocking The 5 Secrets To Getting Your Business Found Online”
Deimos Designs is a Monmouth County NJ SEO & web design company. If you'd like a free consultation, click here.
