Ignite Search Weekly Wrap – 25th July 2018
100% Curated SEO/Online Marketing Goodness
Key Industry Updates:
SEO: Google releases speakable markup for news publishers interested in Google Assistant
Google has announced new markup aimed at news publishers looking to get their content into the Google Assistant. This new markup, named speakable, enables publishers to mark up sections of a news article that are most relevant to be read aloud by the Google Assistant.
SEO: Google Image Search tests bridging mobile design to desktop search results
Google image search on desktop tests tiled image layout with titles and URLs beneath the snippets
SEO: Google’s Search Algorithm Does Not Recognize Off-Site Sentiment
Google’s Danny Sullivan has confirmed, once and for all, that off-site sentiment does not impact search rankings.
SEO: Google My Business Showing Competitors Google Posts
As a way to encourage businesses to use Google Posts more, Google is now showing some businesses the Google Posts from their competitors in the Google My Business dashboard.
SEO: Google: Word Count Isn’t Indicative Of Quality
One of the things I see so often in the SEO space is that SEOs say you need your pages to have a word count of X for Google to want to index and rank it well. The truth is, that is not true.
Paid Search: Bing Ads Can Now Have Security Badge Annotations
Bing Ads advertisers can now add a new type of annotation, which lets searchers know that a site is secured.
Local: Google may notify you when your local business listing goes live in Google Maps & Search
Google My Business (GMB) is rolling out a new feature to notify business owners when their local listings go live in Google Maps and Google Search.
Local Search: Google rolling out new white local panel in search results
Forget that blue Google search results interface for the local panel. Read this blog to see Google’s new fresh look.
Local: Google hotel search results testing ‘price insights’
Google is now testing “price insights” in its hotel search listing results. Price insights show a searcher if they are getting a good deal or not for a specific hotel, date range and hotel they are looking at.
Local: Google tests location tab for hotel knowledge panels
Google is testing a new location tab and section within the hotel knowledge panels. The location tab contains information that tells you what is around the hotel, including sections such as highlights, top sights and a getting-around section. Sergey Alakov captured this test and provided the screen shots below.
Social: YouTube’s New ‘Explore’ Tab Helps Users Discover Videos Based on Viewing Activity
YouTube is testing a new tab in the iPhone app that is designed to help users find videos they may not have discovered on their own.
Helpful Strategies, Tips & Tricks:
SEO: Smart content execution will net a lot of inbound links
Ever wonder why that link-building campaign you spent a ton of time and money on didn’t take off? Contributor Paddy Moogan offers 5 content execution tactics that will help you haul in quality links.
SEO: Here’s why you should start thinking of content marketing as an SEO strategy
SEO is no longer about about low-quality, keyword-rich content. To make a website successful, SEO experts need a content marketing strategy.
SEO: Ask the SMXpert – Optimizing for voice search & virtual assistants
SMXpert Upasna Gautam continues the Q&A from SMX Advanced and discusses a number of topics including creating the right content, using homonyms, stressed words and quality metrics when optimizing for voice search.
SEO: How to project SEO traffic levels and avoid saying, ‘It depends’
Establishing a baseline and understanding historical trends helps forecast traffic trends and alerts you when traffic changes. Contributor Simon Heseltine lists steps you can take to predict incoming traffic and changes to your site.
SEO: Why You Need to Fix 404 Errors
Can an ever increasing number of 404 errors lead to negative impact on Google crawling and indexing? Can it also lead to Google taking longer time to rank a content? Read this blog to find out more.
SEO: Updated Tips for Optimizing Content
Sites with royal content don’t always rank as well as they should. Read this blog to find out a different approach for optimizing content and how to fix lost rankings that may be associated with content.
SEO: How User Behavior In Search Works: Everything You Need to Know
In this age of search, it’s not enough to know what ranking signals may-or-may-not be at play. You also need to understand the environment in which those signals operate. Read this blog post to find out more.
SEO: Video SEO for Universal Search: Tips, Tools & Techniques to Get Found
These are the best ways for getting your YouTube videos found in both Google Universal Search results as well as YouTube search results. Read this blog to find out video SEO best practices today.
Paid Search: 4 Tactics to Compete with Huge SEM Advertisers
The goal of this post is to help all the underdogs out there hold their own (or even beat) the big guys via a few simple don’ts. This post will focus on fending off marketplaces or large national competitors. The tactics should work in any space.
Paid Search: 15 Ways to Manage a Small PPC Budget
A small PPC budget is a challenge for many advertisers. How do you make the most out of it? Read on for tips to get started or to optimize your PPC program.
Social: 17 Really Simple Ways to Get More Media Coverage from Search & Social
Brands and marketers have more influence and opportunity for exposure than ever! Journalists don’t hold the only set of keys to publicity. Read this blog to find out some strategies and tricks.
Read Our Blog Post on: 5 Website Must-Haves for an Excellent User Experience
