This is part of our series on in-house SEO in which we dig into the operational challenges and opportunities that managing search engine optimization in-house presents. A shock to most non-SEO teams at large corporations is that they are the ones impacting SEO every day. They are even more surprised to learn that most SEO teams spend very little time “doing” SEO (because they can’t) and most of their time advising SEO. That’s what I’m going to talk about in this article. It’s one you may want to forward other teams. Most of my days are spent educating non-SEO teams at large corporations to understand the complexities of SEO and how much their decisions impact it. Often, I gently walk them through the ways numerous decisions by these teams have compounded organic optimization challenges for their sites. I have focused on in-house SEO since 2002, so this article comes with a lot of enterprise experience, and this is likely how SEO works if you are at a large company. Every company is either an SEO Avoider or an SEO Pacesetter (few are Pacesetters)My book, The Executive SEO Playbook, talks about every enterprise company being either an SEO Avoider or an SEO Pacesetter. Surprising to most, the designations have nothing to do with SEO teams’ knowledge. It has everything to do with SEO operations. This is because SEO operations is what makes or breaks SEO at a large corporation. SEO Avoiders are companies that are skipping (or not doing) SEO, either intentionally or unintentionally. SEO Pacesetters are companies in which everyone — company-wide — is contributing to the 20% of SEO that makes 80% of the impact on their businesses. At an enterprise organization, how great the SEO is on a site often has little to do with the skill level of the SEO team. While you still need strong SEO chops in a large company, this alone will not push you into SEO Pacesetter status. What enterprise SEO Teams can “do” for SEOAt a small company, the SEO team has more ability to actually do all the things recommended for SEO from content optimization and link building to sometimes changing code. However, in a large corporation, things are radically different. SEO teams cannot do SEO because they do not control anything on the website (except perhaps title tags and Meta descriptions). So why does your company have such a large SEO team (or even a single full-time headcount)? Because they spend their time chasing projects, putting out fires and trying to get other teams to do the things that will help SEO grow. They typically do activities along the lines of:
Notice how some of the key SEO tasks vital to doing SEO are not on the list (e.g., optimizing content, making the site SEO friendly, etc.), that’s where non-SEO teams come in. Non-SEO teams throughout the organization control the content, the code, the links and everything the search engine robots see when they visit your site. As a result, the people actually doing SEO are really the non-SEO teams — and this is a huge shock to every team I train. Non-SEO teams affect SEONow let’s talk about the most important people for an enterprise company’s SEO: every non-SEO team touching the website. The most important teams impacting SEO every day include:
To the surprise of many, these are the roles “doing” SEO. They are the ones responsible for a company becoming either an SEO Avoider or an SEO Pacesetter. The people in these roles need to understand and be consistently mindful of the impact of their own work on SEO. What does this mean for non-SEO teams?Non-SEO teams need training and tools that are proportionate to the level of organic ranking risk (and opportunity) each role has for the site. I believe that every role needs to master their 20% of SEO that makes 80% of the impact for their role. This 20% needs to be a core competency. This means these teams need training, and sometimes more training than their manager deems necessary. But the argument for it is training is to make your company an SEO Pacesetter. The manager’s team is not going to learn how to help grow organic traffic by double-digit percentages nor mitigate double-digit percentage risks in just an hour or two of SEO training. So when managers want to know why you’re pushing for SEO training, send them this article. Every non-SEO team influencing the site has the potential to grow organic traffic and outcomes exponentially, but only if they know how. If they don’t, they could accidentally trigger huge organic traffic drops. The post At enterprise companies, SEOs cannot ‘do’ most of the SEO (An article to forward to non-SEO teams in your company) appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/35cMIG3
0 Comments
The post SEL 20191231 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2ZCndgh
Are you unable to get work done in your home office? Try these awesome home office upgrades for productivity.
via ShoeMoney https://ift.tt/39kcATA For businesses that operate in the physical world, Google My Business (GMB) has become the center of the digital universe. Google is relying increasingly on content in GMB for ranking and less on third party citations and off-page signals than in the past. A lot happened with GMB this year, far too much to summarize in one post. (Joy Hawkins does a great job of capturing and summarizing most local SEO-related changes.) In addition to four major Google algorithm updates there was at least one major local algorithm update tied to neural matching, although BERT will affect local results as well. Below is a summary of most (though not all) of the GMB updates and changes that happened this year, together with a few that don’t strictly belong to GMB. I’ve also tried to add some perspective at the end with an assist from local SEOs and experts Carrie Hill, Adam Dorfman, Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm. January: Messaging, SAB flow, virtual office rules
February: Map reviews, AR directions, join waitlist
March: Duplex rollout, Core update and SAB addresses disappear
April: Assistant local results, GMB paid services survey
May: Popular dishes, food ordering and CallJoy
June: Mapspam and Shortnames
July: Get a quote and place topics
August: Carousel pack, bulk reviews, Google Screened
September: Post highlights, food ordering opt-out
October: Search by photos, Incognito Mode for Maps
November: Local algo update, follow local guides, no more phone support
December: Review carousels, auto-Posts, choose area
The local SERP is evolvingMost of these changes above impact local marketers, but there are some developments that are clearly more important than others. Google is using machine learning extensively to improve relevance and auto-generate content (Posts, reviews in carousels) for uses that vary by query and context. It’s also making local-mobile search results much more visual. Accordingly, David Mihm pointed to “image-focused packs and carousels” as a new and significant change. Mike Blumethal agreed and said, “Repurposing reviews to answer Q&A, provide more granular review understanding and answer product queries via the carousel” were key changes. Carrie Hill also emphasized the query carousel and remarked, “Surfacing review, Q&A Posts and product feed content above address and phone [information] is a big change.” Finally, Adam Dorfman added, “The survey regarding packaging of potential products and services businesses could pay Google for was one of the larger signals of where they are likely to head.” I agree. The post The big list of Google My Business changes, upgrades and tests in 2019 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2Q7R9xs Microsoft has introduced Bing Rebates, the successor to its now-defunct Cashback shopping program. The new program makes rebates available to select Microsoft Rewards members when they make purchases through participating retailers on Bing. Why we careIn the wake of numerous developments in the e-commerce sector, such as PayPal’s acquisition of Honey, Google’s revamped Shopping experience and third-party coupon sites partnering up with publishers, Bing is offering incentives for users to do their shopping on its search engine. If the rebates are competitive, it may attract new users or disincentivize current users from shopping elsewhere. More on the announcement
The post Bing revives its cashback program with Rebates appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2SKUfcm How to achieve full-time income in network marketing…Recently, I got a message from a guy on in my organization asking how to achieve a full-time income in network marketing. I’ve got a couple of different answers to this… The first is pretty simple… Personally enroll as many as it takes. The bottom line: as many as it takes. After 24+ years of experience being involved in network marketing and building that equal over one million active customers, I’ve heard a lot of strategies. My personal favor (sarcasm) is the “I’m going to enroll 5, that enroll 5, that enroll 5 and I’m going to enroll anyone else until I’ve helped them get 5.” or the “I’m going to give away my personals so my downline will stick around” bullsh*t. That’s a welfare mentality. Personally, I think that’s a broken system. If you give enrollments away and constantly building people’s team… They have NO incentive to build it themselves. In theory… It makes sense… But you don’t gain mastery in network marketing with theory. You gain mastery and a full-time income in network marketing by doing the work… Not philosophizing and reading books about it. The reality when trying to achieve full-time income in network marketingYou’ve got to go personally produce and put in enough people to find LEADERS! Network marketing is a sorting business… You have to sort through some chickens (people who don’t produce) before you find an eagle. Don’t think I’m talking negatively about anyone… It took me 5 years to get to a full-time income… I was a chicken myself! The only eagle-like quality I had was that I attended all the training and events. If you’re not having success yet… …and you’re reading this blog, watching my YouTube videos, reading my book… You’re an eagle in training (; Now, let me tell you something my mentor told me… The fastest path to earning a full-time income in network marketing…Simply to recruit 30 people fast (no, I’m not guaranteeing that). For me, after my 5-year struggle… I finally made the decision to make sh*t happen and recruited 30 people into my organization in 30 days. Now, I’m not saying that you have to do that (In fact, I don’t believe I’ve ever recruited that many people in 30 days again…) But those 30 turned into thousands! I got to a six-figure income. Sometimes you have to enroll 29 chickens in order to get one eagle. If you’re serious about going full-time in network marketing… Shoot for enrolling 30 people. The faster, the better. See, there’s a thing called… Using the Law Of Compressed Activity to reach a full-time income in network marketingThis law states: The effort that you put in, in a compressed amount of time is going to pay you way more money than the same amount of effort put in over an extended period of time. Why? The speed of the pack is determined by the speed of the leader. If you’re out recruiting… Your team is looking at you. If you’re making sales… Your team is making sales. If you’re getting retail customers… Your team is getting retail customers. If you’re slacking off… Your team is slacking off. It’s a follow the leader type business. Ask yourself this question: “How many people did you personally enroll last month?” If the answer to that question gets you excited… Good! You’re well on your way. If not… You’ve got some work to do. Bottom line: you’ve got to personally produce. Make a commitment right now that the next 30 days you’re going to set a personal record. Email me at [email protected] and let me know your COMMITMENT to the number of people you’re committed to enrolling in the next 30 days. Go make it happen. If you want to discover the 7 specific strategies I’ve used to go from being a broke swimming pool salesman to creating 7-figure results in my network marketing organization…Head over to 7strategiesbook.com. I just released my new book that acts as the starting ground… The FOUNDATION necessary for achieving a high level of success. If you want some advanced training on leadershipFeel free to hop over to LeadwithMatt.com. I’ve got some strategies there on becoming a powerful leader and recruiting powerful leaders. I’d love to hear what your biggest takeaway was out of this in the comments below. If you feel like this can add some value to some others, feel free to share it. Take care. If you’d like to learn how to impact others, check out this blog post. Go Make Life An AdventureBe sure to check out my Facebook and Instagram accounts for daily motivational and inspirational content. Matt Morris The post How To Achieve Full-Time Income in Network Marketing appeared first on Matt Morris. via Matt Morris https://ift.tt/2ZDmeMT In the ebb and flow of content marketing trend analyses comes the return of the “content fatigue” narrative. We’re told content marketing doesn’t work as well as it used to, that it’s redundant and that there’s too much of it. But as long as we have the Internet, content is going to be the playing field for our sport. We need to focus on making better content. Not less, not more—just better. In this issue of Agency Perspectives from Sharpspring, you’ll learn:
Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download “Mission Possible: Quality Content Marketing.” The post How to create content your target audience actually wants appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2EZc4fU Of the dozens of changes that rolled out across the paid search landscape this year, what had the biggest impact? This was the question I put to the dedicated marketers still monitoring the Twittersphere this holiday week. Two negatives quickly rose to the top. Biggest negatives: A tie between close variants expansion, Google Ads supportYou could almost hear the “hearts” being clicked after Julie Bacchini of Neptune Moon named Google’s expansion of same-meaning close variants to phrase match and broad match modifier and the decline in Google Ads support as the changes that had the biggest impact this year.
The expansion of close variants was named by several others — “and not in a good way,” as Jeffrey Baum, director of services at Hanapin Marketing, put it. “Very much agree with close variants. Terrible results and they continue to get worse,” added Sam Kessenich, chief digital officer at RyTech, LLC. Mark Skinner, managing director at Rare Digital Marketing Ltd. in England, said the “close variant changes have been one big negative.” He also cited poor Google support as a problem, adding that it seems to take longer to get display ads approved. Frequent complaints about Google Ads support were heard throughout the year, with stories of support reps not having up-to-date and accurate information about recent changes to giving just plain bad advice. Cypress North partner and digital marketer Greg Finn said “Google Support somehow getting worse” topped his list of problems. “Issues do happen, and it is now a minimum of 2 hours to get any simple issue resolved. Productivity killer,” he wrote. With security and expediency as motivators, Google Ads said it will stop fielding customer support questions via its social accounts as of January 1, steering users to an online form that can then be directed to the appropriate team. It’s not clear that this will have any broader effect on response times, however. With productivity on the mind, Steve Plimmer, director of client services at BlackbirdPPC, noted reporting challenges caused by the close variants changes and the removal of average position: “The death of average position has meant a big overhaul of reporting templates & client education. That and the Exact Match dilution is making YoY comparisons murky to say the least!” Honorable mentions: ITP headaches, Facebook ad policies and more. Apple continues to make changes to Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari, making retargeting to and measurement of typically high-value iOS audiences a challenge. “ITP on iOS had huge remarketing impact for us,” said Andrew McGarry, founder of The McGarry Agency in Scotland, which focuses on fashion and lifestyle e-commerce. Two marketers noted challenges posed by changes to Facebook ad policies. “We work in marketing for the staffing industry, so the Facebook changes for Employment Ads had a HUGE impact,” wrote Matt Lozar, director of recruitment Marketing at Haley Marketing Group. Matt McGee, former Search Engine Land editor in chief and current real estate marketer, said Facebook’s changes, which affect real estate ads as well, have been disruptive. As of March, advertisers could no longer use age, gender or zip codes in targeting housing, employment or credit ads in the U.S. Starting in late August, Facebook began requiring those advertisers to use a special ad category and limited lookalike audience targeting. On the positive: Smart bidding, Audiences, Bing and low social CPCsFinn cited Google’s Maximize Conversion Value bidding as a big positive change this year. “Huge for those with wide variety of products/prices!” He added that the newest audiences update, combined audiences for Search, has also been a good addition: “Great for bidding up on B2B clients!” McGarry called paid search campaigns on Bing “one of the few happy stories in 2019.” This year, Microsoft Advertising added many new ad features and took over serving all Yahoo and AOL search ad inventory in a new deal with Verizon Media. On the paid social front, Skinner said, “The low CPCs on Facebook has resulted in our clients investing more in Paid Social.” Embracing automation. The forward march of automation continued this year, and more marketers seemed to transition from pessimism about things like smart bidding to what might be described as optimistic skepticism. This mind shift was best captured by Matt Umbro. “Automation and machine learning. I finally allowed myself to embrace these features and my accounts are the better for it,” Umbro wrote. The post The PPC changes that bugged and elated marketers most in 2019: An unscientific poll appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/364rsDs Our paid search community is dedicated to helping fellow search marketers and as we say goodbye to 2019, we look back at a few insights that were popular with our readers. 1. Where Google RSA inventory comes from may surprise you“Just like broad match will eventually stop showing ads for related queries that fail to turn impressions into clicks, so will RSAs,” explains Frederick Vallaeys of Optmyzr. “Google makes no money from impressions; they make money from clicks. And Google is pretty strict about not showing things that seem irrelevant, i.e., RSA variations that never get clicked because these are a waste of space and a detriment to Google’s position as the provider of useful answers.” MORE >> 2. Use your video content on YouTube to enhance lightbox ads“When creating a display campaign with the goal of ‘product and brand consideration,’ you can create custom lightbox ads which are actually pretty fun to build,” explains Joe Martinez of Clix Marketing. “You can customize these lightbox ads with a variety of elements such as images, a retail feed from your merchant center, messages, call-to-action buttons, stylization and videos. With a lightbox ad, you pay on a cost-per-engagement bidding strategy. When the ad is visible to the user, they will only see a thumbnail image. The user has to hover their mouse over the ad for a couple of seconds to see the content on the inside. Once the ad opens, then the advertiser will be charged. Any actions that a user takes after they are engaging with your ad are free. In addition to images, having a user engage with my videos and sending them back to my website to me is a more qualified user. They didn’t accidentally click on my display ad. They hovered over it, explored the ad, possibly watched my video content, then clicked to my website. I’d rather remarket to an engaged user first over a page visit audience, and videos can help keep users engaged.” MORE >> 3. Google Ads’ new ‘affinity audiences’ provide new options for ad targeting“With Google’s new affinity audiences, you can connect someone’s search intent with their passions,” explains Matt Lawson of Google. “It’s not only that someone is searching; it’s that they’re searching for something they’re excited about and already into. There are over 132 segments are available across 12 categories and can be deployed by certain types of industries that may have written off audience targeting. Health care, financial and religiously-affiliated advertisers, and plenty of others, can use affinity audiences.” MORE >> 4. Search partner clicks convert at a lower rate than core search, but cost less too“Looking at the conversion rate of search partner traffic relative to core search, partners clearly convert at a significantly lower rate,” explains Andy Taylor of Tinuiti. “In July and August, search partner conversion rate improved relative to core search across device types. This makes sense if Google’s image search change really did take a few months to roll out, since the transition of image search clicks from the partner network to core search would likely put downward pressure on core search conversion rate. Regardless, the disparity in conversion rate might be enough to send some advertisers running to Shopping campaign settings to shut down the partner network. However, looking at relative CPC, search partner traffic also consistently tracks well below core search in the price paid for clicks as well.” MORE >> 5. Stuffing your ad copy is a grave mistake“After years of being betrayed by spammy search results, our brains have been trained to filter out keyword-stuffed ads as irrelevant,” says Jacob Baadsgaard of Disruptive Advertising. “In other words, if your ad copy looks generic, overly corporate or sales-heavy, your potential customers may skim past your ad without even realizing it – their brains will simply filter it out before they even have a chance to read it.” MORE >> Pro Tip is a special feature for SEOs in our community to share a specific tactic others can use to elevate their performance. You can submit your own here. The post Pro Tip: A look back at some notable tips from our Paid Search community in 2019 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2tWajhi Search was a roller coaster of ups and downs in 2019: Structured data-powered rich results helped to push zero-click searches to an all-time high. Regulatory scrutiny heated up as numerous antitrust investigations of Google were announced domestically and abroad. BERT brought enhanced natural language understanding to search engines. Bing turned 10 — it’s been more disruptive than it gets credit for. We said goodbye to Google+, the company’s biggest (and doomed) push into social media. And, after 21 years, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down and appointed Google CEO Sundar Pichai to lead Alphabet. From algorithm updates to emerging trends, here we look back at the big SEO stories of 2019 that will shape search for years to come. Search updatesGoogle Search algorithm updates. In 2019, Google became a bit more forthcoming about big core updates. On top of confirming the March core update, the company introduced a naming convention (sure, they’re not as fun as the names SEOs came up with, but at least we all have a common language around them now). And, at long last, starting with June, Google began giving SEOs and site owners a heads-up before rolling out core updates. It did the same with September’s core update. The company also made other, more specific updates, including one to givemore weight to signals that indicate expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E-A-T) for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) queries. A diversity update aimed to limit listings from a single domain to two results for a given query. In August, a recency update emphasized more timely featured snippets and another, introduced in September, was designed to give more preference to original reporting. Most significantly, Microsoft and Google both introduced improved natural language understanding via BERT. For a deeper dive, see our roundup of the big 2019 Google search algorithm updates. The search results. Searches ending without a click to website content hit an all-time high this year, now constituting more than 50% of Google searches, according to Jumpshot data. The decline of organic clicks has been brought on by UI changes on the search results page. For example, rich answers, which often eliminate the need for users to click through on a result, have more than doubled in mobile search results since 2018, a Perficient Digital study found. The introduction of support for FAQ and how-to structured data drew mixed reactions from marketers for its potential to increase their visibility on the search results but at the cost of possibly disincentivizing the click. The prevalence of rich results has affected the way people navigate search features, giving rise to what the Nielsen Norman Group refers to as the “pinball pattern,” in which users bounce their attention between elements in a nonlinear fashion. If their study is representative of the way users interact with the search results page, there is a clear incentive for brands to optimize for Google’s ever-growing number of search features. Google rolled out a mobile search result redesign with black “Ad” labels for paid listings and favicons for organic results. Some members of the SEO community pointed out that the redesign was likely to lead users to further mistake ads for organic results. Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Google employs human contractors to evaluate its search results and, although they do not directly influence rankings, those evaluators provide feedback that helps Google improve its algorithms. In 2019, the guidelines that those evaluators are instructed to follow were updated three times. In May, the guidelines were refreshed with more explicit references to E-A-T and provided directions on evaluating interstitial pages and content creator expertise. The September guideline revisions added more emphasis on vetting sources, particularly for news and Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) content. It also added the potential to spread hate as one of the grounds for which a rater might apply the lowest content rating. Google attempted to encourage impartiality with its December update to the guidelines, in which it reminded evaluators that users come from diverse backgrounds and that ratings should not be based on “personal opinions, preferences, religious beliefs, or political views.” Crawling, indexing and rankingMobile-first from now on. All sites previously unknown to Google prior to July 1 are now indexed using mobile-first indexing. However, older sites are still being moved over to mobile-first indexing when Google deems them ready. The bots go evergreen. In May, Google launched the evergreen version of its web crawler, Googlebot, meaning that the crawler will stay up-to-date with the latest version of Chromium. Bingbot also went evergreen as Bing adopted the Chromium-based Edge browser to render pages and run JavaScript. Although some limitations still exist, evergreen web crawlers based on the same Chromium platform mean more of our content can be seen by Bing and Google, and fewer instances of troubleshooting for a particular crawler. No longer directives. As of September 1, Google withdrew support for unpublished rules within the Robots Exclusion Protocol, putting an end to noindex as a directive within the robots.txt file. New link attributes. Google introduced rel=”sponsored” and rel=”ugc” to indicate paid and user-generated content, respectively. On the heels of that announcement, it also said that it would be treating all link attributes, including rel=”nofollow,” as a hint for ranking purposes rather than a directive. The “hint” treatment and the optional nature of the new attributes had many SEOs contemplating who was likely to gain from their adoption and the value in implementing them at all. Farewell, rel=prev/next. In March, we received a belated confirmation from Google’s John Mueller that it had stopped supporting rel=prev/next, a pagination markup that the company itself launched in 2011. Inferred headings. In October, Google revealed that multiple H1 tags on a page, or even the lack thereof, would not trip up Google’s systems. Similar to the reaction to the rel=prev/next announcement, many in the SEO community pointed out that the tag’s application is broader than SEO and that employing proper headings provides a better user experience, regardless of how Google treats it. The Google AssistantThis year, the Assistant’s growing capabilities were bolstered by moving speech processing from the cloud directly to the device, which delivers answers up to 10 times faster, Google said. In July, another important transition occurred when Google swapped out voice search in favor of the Assistant on Android devices. Google’s AI-powered appointment booking system, Duplex (first demoed in 2018), brought automated restaurant reservations and movie ticket purchases to the Assistant this year. It also rolled out more widely to both Android and iPhone users. Local searchFor local business owners. Google My Business added more tools for business owners, namely bulk review management, a new screening program called Google Screened and searchable shortnames. Yelp launched paid profile upgrades, including verified licenses for local providers, business highlights and a portfolio section. Local rankings. Members of the SEO community witnessed local rankings volatility in early November. Joy Hawkins, owner of Sterling Sky Inc. and the Local Search Forum, suggested that the changes were mainly related to relevance and that Google seemed to be doing a better job of understanding a broader set of search terms as they might be applied to a single business. Contributor Craig Mount, founder of Classy Brain, said that the update doubled-down on proximity signals. Google confirmed the update in early December, referring to it as the “Nov. 2019 Local Search Update,” following the naming convention it uses for core search updates. In its announcement, the company stated that update was related to neural matching, which would help it understand when a query contains local search intent. This update has rolled out to all countries and languages worldwide. The bane and lifeblood of local businesses. Local listings are a valuable channel for many businesses, but the system is far from perfect and many are concerned by the direction that Google seems to be headed. In April, the company sent out a survey to local businesses asking how much they’d be willing to pay for some of the features they were already receiving for free. Local SEO practitioners’ responses ranged from excitement at the prospect of better customer support to criticism for abusing its position in the search market. Competitor ads began appearing on local profiles in August, reminding businesses that Google is the true owner of their My Business listings. The option to remove these ads has not been made available. Businesses in need of immediate help with their Google My Business listings found themselves with one less resource when the company shut down its toll-free customer support line in November. Anyone wishing to speak directly to a support specialist must now fill out a form to request a call back. In addition to the changes in Google’s local service offerings, spam listings have plagued local results. Local SEOs have been keen to point out that Google stands to gain even with the spam problem, as legitimate businesses may be driven towards paid ads to regain visibility. Google has highlighted its spam-fighting efforts, but they have done little to alleviate concerns from the SEO community and business owners. Travel verticalGoogle became an even larger force in the travel sector by launching hotel search in March and adding vacation rentals to it shortly after. Google Hotels features much of the same functionality and tools as other booking sites like Expedia or Kayak; however, one of its biggest advantages is Maps and Search integration. Maps and Google’s other travel offerings became even more tightly integrated when the company launched Trips in May, combining flight and hotel search, destination research and a timeline of reservations into a single web interface. Bing also made more inroads into the travel vertical by adding real-time data and direct integrations with airlines to strengthen its flight search capabilities. These moves by Google and Bing may hurt traffic to online travel agencies as users get used to planning their trips from the search results page. The rise of visual searchGoogle Lens received a wide array of feature additions this year, including live translations, the ability to scan and research menu items and “style ideas” that leverage its image recognition capabilities for e-commerce. Pinterest has made headway with visual search by enabling users to isolate items in pins to search for similar objects. In September, the company strengthened its e-commerce offerings by bringing shoppable pins to visual search for home and fashion products. Microsoft also brought Bing Visual Search to the Windows search bar, enabling users to take a full or partial screenshot to search right from their desktops. Antitrust and privacy at home and abroadState attorneys generals from across the U.S. announced investigations into Google (and Facebook) in September over alleged anti-competitive behavior. The multistate investigation will be conducted with the cooperation of federal authorities and focus on the degree of control Google exercises over the digital advertising sector and whether it acquired companies to stifle competition. Google continues to face regulatory scrutiny in Europe. In March, the company was fined $1.7 billion over “abusive” AdSense publisher contracts, pushing the total fines from three antitrust complaints spanning 2017–2019 to $9.3 billion. In November, EU antitrust regulators announced that they were investigating Google’s collection and use of data, with a focus on “data related to local search services, online advertising, online ad targeting services, login services, web browsers and others.” Around the same time, complaints against Google from rival shopping comparison engines also caught the attention of the European Commission. As part of one of its earlier settlements with the European Commission, Google will be prompting Android users in the EU to select a default search provider beginning in 2020. The bidding process it’s using to select which competitors will appear on the search engine choice screen has drawn complaints from critics. Finally, looking ahead, with CCPA taking effect January 1, 2020, tech platforms, brands, agencies and publishers must be prepared for further privacy and data management restrictions to come stateside. The post SEO year in review 2019: Zero-click searches, BERT, local spam and more appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2EQGjFQ |
Archives
April 2024
Categories |