Ep172-Blocking Banner Ads From Getting Indexed

Episode 172 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 31 - August 4, 2023.1. OpenAI's GPTBot: The New Web Crawler That's Changing the Game - OpenAI has announced the launch of GPTBot, a new web crawler that uses large language models to crawl the web. GPTBot is designed to be more efficient and effective than traditional web crawlers, and it can be used to collect data for a variety of purposes, including research, development, and marketing.You can use robots.txt to block GPTBot from accessing your website, or parts of it. To disallow GPTBot to access your site you can add GPTBot to your site’s robots.txt:User-agent: GPTBotDisallow: /To allow GPTBot to access only parts of your site, you can add the GPTBot token to your site’s robots.txt like this:User-agent: GPTBotAllow: /directory-1/Disallow: /directory-2/GPTBot documentation. You can read the documentation on GPTBot.GPTBot IP ranges. OpenAI also published the IP ranges that GPTBot uses. It only lists one, but I suspect they will add more over time.2. Google Releases Responsive Search Ads Guide - Responsive search ads (RSAs) are a type of ad that allows you to create multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google will test different combinations to see which ones perform best. This can help you to create more effective ads that are more likely to get clicks.
To create an RSA, you will need to provide a minimum of 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Google will then test different combinations of these headlines and descriptions, and the best-performing combinations will be used in your ads.Now Google has released a Responsive Search Ads guide to help marketers improve their campaign performance.The new RSA guide includes Google’s advice and information on how: To write ads for maximum conversions. RSAs use Google AI to generate ad copy. To evaluate a campaign’s effectiveness. A Google spokesperson said: "Our goal is to simplify the work it takes to create high-quality ads that achieve your business objectives at scale. To do this, we’re hard at work applying the newest AI-powered innovations across asset generation, customizing assets for relevance, and both simplifying and improving tools for managing ads."Read Google's Responsive Search Ads guide (PDF) for more information.3. YouTube Shorts Adds Six New Features - YouTube Shorts, the short-form video platform from YouTube, has launched a number of new features to improve content creation. The new features rolled out on YouTube Shorts are: Collab – This new feature allows creators to film a Short alongside other YouTube or Short videos in a side-by-side format.  Multiple layout options are available. Q&A stickers – Content creators can use this new feature to ask viewers questions. The audience can then leave their replies in the comments section, enabling creators to give them a shoutout as they can see who left the response. Mobile-first vertical live – This new feature is what will allow live creators to get discovered in the Shorts feed. YouTube is hoping this will enable creators to connect live with a new audience and build communities in a more modern way.  Creation suggestions – YouTube can now automatically bundle the audio and effects from a Short you may be remixing. The platform can surface the same audio time stamp from the Short you just watched, and add the same effect as a creation suggestion.  Content creators also have the option to mix and match.  Shorts playlist – Creators