In this episode, we continue our conversation with Mark Traphagan about metrics that should be more important than rank. We also touch on whether Google even wants to give us clicks anymore, and how we might be wasting time even talking about them as much as we do in SEO. [00:04:44] What are some other metrics that should be more important than just rank? [00:11:25] It’s not about rank, at some point it’s a brand marketing position. [00:14:03] Does Google even want to give you a click?  [00:15:02] We can waste a lot of time complaining about changes from Google...Google’s taking with one hand, giving with another. [00:21:40] Over 1200 SERP features on Google [00:25:50] Google’s goal

On this week’s roundup of News from the EDGE, Erin Sparks and Wix’s Mordy Oberstein finally (yeah, our studio lost internet) get to cover the digital marketing and SEO news of the week.  We dove into a number of items, including:    [00:04:28]  iContact acquires Moz.  We’re saddened by the end of an era.   [00:08:39]  Google says that they don’t rank website pages differently than blog posts.  Really?   [00:15:47]  June 2021 Core Update has rolled through.  Another one is coming in July!

What are the problems when analyzing and acting on data from enterprise-level SEO projects?  With hundreds of thousands of pages to deal with, the utilization of machine learning is fastly becoming an essential resource.  Mark Traphagen of SEO Clarity gives us his insights into these issues.  He also gives us a perspective of what is a good make-up of an enterprise SEO skill set.  Happy to have been able to catch up with Mark and have a good solid discussion.   [00:06:22]  Getting behind the curtain of Big Data inside of a NSEO software provider [00:09:20]  The biggest issue in enterprise SEO. The time to move from data to insight to action [00:13:12]  Listening to SEO’s is an important part of developing SaaS SEO software [00:14:00]  How many enterprise SEOS actually “get” the goals of their business? What have you seen from the most successful SEOs? [00:16:34]  Do we have to move as fast as Google is?  [00:21:34]  Matching our machine learning to the Google machine

On this week’s roundup of News from the EDGE, Erin Sparks and Wix’s Mordy Oberstein a number of Google moves this week including very interesting jump links on featured snippets that don’t go off of headlines but off of Google reading and placing relevant references to the passages. There’s a brain at work here, folks! [00:06:46]  Google Search Console removes the generic Rich Results [00:09:53]  Google expands its Google Shopping integrations with eCommerce players [00:13:58]  Google’s featured snippets now showing “also on this page” additional jump links into the article (really cool)

Roger Montti shares with the EDGE audience some of his perspectives of the more contentious discussions that SEOs are having in the marketplace of ideas.  We dig into what Google is really doing with the SERP and what the challenges are in reporting the larger perspective for the different audiences he serves.  A key message in this interview is not to be afraid to put yourself out there.  Great takes from a long-time contributor in the field.   [00:02:41] The Zero-Click Discussion the realm of ideas [00:07:57] Google’s meeting 5 user intents at the same time [00:12:24] Nostalgia for ten blue links? [00:17:30] Ramping the first time SEOs into the conversation going on [00:19:59] Rodger’s process of targeted a particular SEO topic [00:25:53] High level of scrutiny from the community on what Roger publishes.  What are the challenges? [00:28:29] Don’t be afraid - put it out there.

On this week’s roundup of News from the EDGE, Erin Sparks and Wix’s Mordy Oberstein explore the ways MUM may change search behavior, fall in love with the new Google Maps updates and revisit what we think matters when it comes to Core Web Vitals. [00:04:24] Something Special Hanging in our Production Booth [00:05:16] How MUM may change search behavior [00:14:31] Google Maps has some awesome new updates [00:20:36] Core Web Vitals: We don’t need all three

In this two-part interview, Roger Montti of Search Engine Journal talks about how last year’s pandemic affected SEOs who want to see each other and learn from one another. He and Erin Sparks talk about how new SEOs can’t be afraid to be challenged, Montti’s perspective on CWV and discuss that Wix & Wordpress spat. [00:04:24] Roger’s Publishing History [00:07:03] The Effect The Loss Of Conventions Have Had On The Seo Community. [00:13:08]  Don’t Be Afraid To Be Challenged [00:14:19] Core Web Vitals, Roger’s Take. [00:24:57] Wix and Wordpress Slap Fest

On this week’s episode of EDGE of the Web, Erin Sparks and Wix’s Mordy Oberstein unpack the news about YouTube improving Creator Studio, new privacy-focused changes to Google Analytics and Tag Manager, Google’s statement on public blog networks and more.   [00:02:47] YouTube is improving Creator Studio [00:12:06] Google Ads has privacy-focused changes coming for Analytics, Tag Manager [00:17:07] Google says link schemes from public blog networks are obvious [00:20:21] Google may be writing (or rewriting) their own copy in SERPs?

Andrew “Optimisey” Cock-Starkey continued his discussion with us as we explored his tenants to help businesses do the small but powerful things that improve their websites.  Things you can do right now. He clearly demonstrates the care he has towards his own clients and he used his Cambridge meetups to share information with his local business community. We also give the mic to Andrew to go through his run down of the Top 20 SEOS that You Should Follow, but possibly don’t. Andrew exemplifies the best of us in the SEO industry; a humble and sharing personality. Be sure to check our first segment with him in Episode 417.    Key points in our conversation:   [00:06:29] Why do you think people have a vested interest in painting SEO as complicated and tricky?  [00:10:36] SEO Basics: Improving Speed [00:14:41] SEO Basics: Quality Content [00:18:50] SEO Basics: Broken Links [00:24:33] The Top SEOs that you SHOULD follow

On this week’s News From The EDGE, host Erin Sparks, Wix’s Mordy Oberstein and EDGE Media Studio’s Creative Director Jacob Mann set expectations for Core Web Vitals, talk about the Moz analysis of GMB’s local justification, and weigh in on Clubhouse.   [00:04:26] Core Web Vitals claimed to be a minor tie breaker [00:10:11] Local Justifications give an edge to GMB users [00:16:19] Clubhouse launches on Android, but the hype might be gone [00:21:58] Barry Schwartz #SEOSUPERSHIRT

Andrew Cock-Starkey (aka Andrew Optimisey) started to hold small conferences at a local college to help inform some of the local businesses of the best standards for digital marketing and search engine optimization. But that small college was Cambridge and you would not believe who came to speak there. Free pizza and beer didn’t hold a candle to the top-level thought leaders sharing their craft. This is our SEO community and Andrew Optimisey may have just shown us how to get together again after 16 months of shutdown. Small, hybrid, tactical SEO conferences. That’s the play here on EDGE of the Web.   [00:07:41] The Cambridge events: Getting smart people to come and share. [00:09:47] SEO thought leaders who have spoken at the Cambridge events. [00:13:43] The SEO industry giving back, caring and sharing.  Is it unique among industries? [00:16:43] A Cambridge virtual event just won’t cut it. [00:00:00] Are small conferences the future for our industry?

Join Erin & Mordy as they unpack how Google’s adding links to featured snippets, the new ability to report indexing issues, Bing’s new shopping feature and our favorite topic, Core Web Vitals. [00:04:25] Comparison shopping on Bing[00:09:08] Report indexing issues on Google Search Console[00:13:24] Elementor updates for Core Web Vitals[00:18:00] Google’s adding links to featured snippets

Host Erin Sparks talks to Pedro Dias, Ex-Google and now Head of SEO at Reach PLC, about critical thinking in SEO, his experiences working at Google, and more. [00:04:18] What Pedro experienced at Google during the first large algorithm changes [00:20:00] The path of critical SEO thinking compared to how Google is understanding quality. [00:23:40] What do beginning SEO professionals need to know to start the critical thinking journey? [00:28:39] Should we use the tools we have or something else? [00:29:38] What is the key factor in working with client stakeholders?

Join us as we give our take on the SEO news of the week for you. Grabbing ahold of the headlines, Mordy Oberstein and I spend time giving our two cents on the key things you should be looking at this week.   [00:04:06] Google Testing Local Car Inventory [00:09:27] Google’s Scraping Its Q&A Function [00:13:51] Assessing The Impact Of The Product Review Update

Host Erin Sparks talks to Pedro Dias, Ex-Google and now Head of SEO at Reach PLC, about how Google views information, what companies should consider holding back and the philosophical challenges of controlling the world’s information.   [00:05:37] Pedro was in the thick of the first Panda algorithm rollouts with Google in 2011 [00:07:14] Pedro’s take on Google dominance [00:13:39] Businesses need to do something Google cannot [00:21:25] The philosophical challenges of being both the Vehicle and the Destination

The SEO News to pay attention to this week includes Google’s ability to deal with long-form questions, the postponement of the Core Web Vitals update, and if FLoC will be blocked by default on nearly half of all websites when it rolls out.    [00:03:19] Google Has Problems With Long-Form Question Answering A new research paper finds that Google still has issues answering nuanced questions that require complex elaboration.   [00:12:19] WordPress Proposal To Block FLoC A new proposal in front of WordPress asks them to treat FLoC like a security concern.   [00:18:53] Google Postponing The Core Web Vitals Update The Page Experience update has been pushed back to mid-June, with a gradual release through to August.

The face of tech has changed and the pie is getting bigger. We talk about Google’s FLOC and how the scene changes as privacy becomes paramount. Carolyn Lyden, Director of Search Content at Search Engine Land and SMX, also unpacks elitism, the backlash women in tech can face, how you can help, and how the narrative can be reframed to reflect inclusion.   [00:04:13] What is FLoC? [00:12:48] Does Google get to decide that they're the arbiter of privacy and data?  What do marketers say? [00:15:06] Carolyn’s take on the Zero Click effect. [00:16:49] Competitors in the Knowledge Panel? What the FLoC is that? [00:21:00] The discrepancy of females in the SEO industry. [00:23:34] Has Carolyn witnessed veiled attacks against women in SEO? [00:28:44] Key points about being an ally to Women in SEO

On this week’s episode, we unpack two new updates from Google on their algorithm and Search Console, explore more info on Core Web Vitals and attempt to play nice about that antitrust lawsuit Google’s wrapped up in.    [00:03:05] Google Announced Product Reviews Algorithm Update We suspect this update is aimed at all those affiliate links that websites are including in their reviews these days.    [00:08:00] Google Launches Two Improvements To Search Console They’ve improved comparison modes, which literally brings a tear to our eye.   [00:12:22] Antitrust lawsuit claims Google gamed its ad system to the tune of $213 million Using a program referred to as “Bernanke” in-house, Google allegedly gave favor to its own ads over rivals.   [00:17:32] How Often Will Core Web Vitals Ranking Factor Be Calculated? As Core Web Vitals crest over the horizon, expected to affect rankings in May, John Mueller answered a question regarding how CWV will factor into the algorithm.

Ahead of SMX Create (April 13) we have the answer to what narratives are going to be top-of-mind in the SEO community post-pandemic. Carolyn Lyden, Director of Search Content at Search Engine Land and SMX, is on-the-record for dedicating herself towards raising up women and BIPOC business leaders. If a story affects marketers, Search Engine Land is going to tell you about it. [00:03:53] How did the Director of Content for Search Engine Land start in SEO? [00:09:03] Coming into the editorial job from a perspective of an SEO content writer. [00:10:16] Does Search Engine Land’s content get hammered by SEOs? [00:12:13] Guiding SMX as the new Director of Content [00:15:37] How does SEL pick the topics to cover? [00:22:09] Writing content that can sometimes challenge Big Tech. [00:18:46] Carolyn’s take on the domination of Google on search [00:25:47] Her obligation to the SEO community

We grabbed the top headlines of the week and complained about a couple of google overreaches, in your host’s humble opinion.  Here what Erin and Mordy took on:   [00:03:24] Company Knowledge Panels Showing Competitors on Google You can imagine some choice words might be said when a business looks at its Google knowledge panel(s) to see “alternatives” included who are competitors.  [00:09:23] Expanded FAQs for Google Page Experience and Core Web Vitals Update  The Google core web vitals and page experience update FAQs have been expanded and substantially updated when compared with the first version. [00:16:57] Delivery and Pickup Enhancements to Google Business Profiles Both Maps and Search are providing more details about delivery and pickup options at stores such as supermarkets. Other useful features are also being added.

Ashley Segura, Co-Founder and Operations VP of TopHatSocial, explains how to navigate the challenges of repurposing content in your omnichannel digital strategy. She recommends auditing your content quarterly, explains what you should be looking for and how to use the insights for your next content plan. And if you haven’t started using SlideShare yet, don’t start now.   [00:03:43] What is content reuse in content marketing [00:04:58] When should you not repurpose content? [00:08:16] Is there ever a time that you shouldn’t repurpose content? [00:11:14] Recommendation: auditing your content quarterly [00:13:16]  What about slideshare decks? [00:14:52] Is there too much repurposing of content? [00:16:29] Tools and signs to measure content performance?

Mordy joins Erin to go through some of the digital news on episode 406.  [00:03:18] Will the SEMrush IPO Make a Splash? SEMrush went public last week with an IPO, including a total valuation approaching $2 billion. This is the first major IPO of a company that is laser-focused on SEO, not just digital marketing in general. [00:06:06] Hotel Property Promotion Ads Now Available Globally Google has launched its hotel property promotion ads initiative to help users see these ads when searching hotels without knowing which one they might want. Google will make them geo-sensitive for relevancy. [00:12:07] Zero-Click Google Searches Increased Sharply in 2020 During 2020 fully 64.82% of Google searches ended without any click through to a web property. Back in August 2019 that figure was more like 50%. And the 2020 figure is probably an undercount. Man, Mordy went long on this….

[00:06:13] How content consumption has changed in the last few years. [00:08:15] This virtual atmosphere is going to be permanent, to a scale. [00:09:36] Beginning content marketing research and building a repeatable model [00:12:09] Look at the data first  [00:13:57] Watch what your competitors are doing [00:17:36] Does our content marketing get skewed with topics that are trending too much? [00:21:51] Establishing business goals in content marketing [00:24:36] How do you measure trust?

We had a fantastic time with our 404-page contest, where we had our listeners submit their favorite three 404, Page Cannot Be Found pages from across the ‘net. We had over 90 submissions and found a huge spectrum of functional and entertaining pages to engage audiences that land on a missing page. Our contest winner will get a fantastic podcasting kit that we hand picked for the event. Join our judges Mordy Oberstein, Jason Barnard, JR Oakes, Lily Ray and our host Erin Sparks as we go over the top ten finalists and reveal the winner of the first and only 404 Awards Show for our 404th episode!

Kevin Indig, SEO Director of Shopify, in his second part of our interview, covers the scientific methodology and mindset necessary for SEO improvements as Google evolves. We discussed in detail the opportunities to test with reversion control and baseline factors to clearly produce SEO results to the C-suite execs. SEOs need to be watching business results, not ranks.  Check out this interview and tell us your thoughts about what we covered. [00:04:04] When Kevin witnessed changes in Google, now understood as user-intent[00:07:21] Using SERP features for queries to understand user intent to a better degree[00:09:51] Google’s changing understanding of topics. [00:13:34] Are the days of the SEO checklist gone?[00:15:29] Committing to the scientific method. Yup, it hurts.[00:19:11] Testing methodologies for SEO[00:27:01] Weeding out toxic SEOs and SEO agencies

Mordy joins Erin to go through some of the digital news on episode 402.  We have a special Twitter contest for the best 404 page for our upcoming 404 episode.  It was either that or have an episode you just wouldn’t be able to find, right?  Get it?   [00:04:51] YouTube Creators Outside the US: Tax Withholding Coming from Google? Google is going to be required to withhold taxes for non-US YouTube creators who earn money from US citizens viewing their videos.    [00:09:01]Local Estimated Prices Near You Feature Being Tested by Google In an effort to help users find local pricing information for specific kinds of searching, such as a roof repair job, water heater installation, and so on.   [00:16:20] Search Equity: Will Google Get On Board? It looks like Google is finally democratizing the SERP to help ensure the average business owner can compete in search rankings even lacking SEO expertise or huge resources to put into it.   [00:26:25] Our Twitter Contest announcement for our next episode 404!

Kevin Indig, Director of SEO at Shopify, shares some truly radical concepts towards how SEOs and business stakeholders should understand the ROI of SEO.  Moving away from linear models and departing from transaction-based success goals leads us to understand behavioral modeling.  Micro Conversions map our trail of understanding of how valuable SEO really is now and into the future.    [00:04:27] Kevin Indig’s history [00:07:24] What are the Director Of SEO responsibilities? [00:13:14] Did Shopify get flooded with help requests from new businesses during COVID? [00:15:50] Calculating the ROI on SEO [00:20:32] How are CEOs needing to be adaptable in 2021 towards SEO? [00:24:18] How to set up measuring the true SEO ROI, the Total Addressable Market (TAM) [00:32:58] What needs to be the modern understanding of SEO?

[00:06:07] Will Google Pass the Cost of Digital Ad Taxes to US Advertisers? Maryland is the first state to pass a tax on digital advertising. In countries such as the UK, Austria, and Turkey, Google has passed those costs to advertisers. Will it do the same in the US? [00:14:48] Search Results are Being Upgraded at Microsoft Bing The five key Bing features being updated include intuitive highlighting of content, integrated visual search, expandable carousels, infographic-like SERPs, and richer results for local queries. [00:21:44] Why Did My Site’s Rich Results Disappear? If a website suddenly loses its rich results on the Google SERP, John Mueller says it might indicate a site-wide quality issue serious enough to make Google not trust the site anymore. [00:27:42] Bonus Article; Google brings Full Coverage news to search results by Barry Schwartz

Craig Campbell visited the EDGE team to share some key understandings around Personal Blog Networks for inbound link building.  He also shared his many tips for “website flipping”: finding old domains, making them sparkle and building the value of the site for sale.  Entrepreneurship is the name of the game here today on the EDGE. [00:02:35] Is there Black Hat & White Hat SEO anymore? [00:09:26] What are PBNs?  [00:14:19] How tough is SEO now? [00:17:43] How does the process of buying websites work? [00:22:55] How tough is it to scale? [00:26:09] Where can you buy websites?

Craig Campbell, long time SEO, gives us a deep and dark look into the running of an agency and how it can affect you.  There are stresses and challenges there that are not for the faint of heart.  Is running a digital agency worth it in the long run, especially if it harms your health?  Frank candor is the coin of the realm and Erin and Craig share some common ground on this episode.   [00:08:08] How Craig got into the consultancy space [00:12:22] Employees that leave and compete with you [00:14:41] When is enough, enough? [00:21:17] What do you recommend, pivot from entrepreneur agency ownership to individual consultancy [00:27:58] Know your stuff, or you’ll get laughed off the park [00:30:12] Don’t Drink and SEO - a PSA

[00:03:22] Site Ranking Smackdown: Wix vs WordPress All other things equal, does one website CMS (content management system) platform have an edge over the other when it comes to local search rankings? Google’s John Mueller weighed in on the topic with ideas and tips. [00:16:47] Core Web Vitals Reporting is Changing for the Better Changes in the Google Search Console often cause panic among SEOs and site owners, but the changes being made to Core Web Vitals reporting for LCP, FID, and CLS look like they should make site owners happy. [00:25:59] What You Can Do with the Associations Feature in GSC There’s a new feature coming to Google Search Console (GSC) called “associations” for linking your GSC account to other Google accounts, such as Google Analytics, YouTube, various Android apps, and so on.

Jason Barnard, the Brand SERP Guy, joins the EDGE to talk about Brand SERP Optimization.  We cover a host of steps to improve Google’s understanding of your brand. Learn about rich site links, twitter and video card and how topical, relevant content makes its way into the Brand SERPs. This is the modern business card and managing the data brings you more into focus for Google and your customers.  You cannot just ignore it.   [00:07:45] Why is the Brand SERP so important? [00:10:04] Google is like a child [00:14:46] Rich Site Links are underestimated [00:19:10] Your Contact page is important in the Brand SERP. [00:21:40] It’s about what is relevant, TODAY. [00:25:13] Stay away from Wikipedia

[00:03:48] Desktop Users Will Now Have Messaging for Google My Business It was only a matter of time for desktop users to get GMB messaging, and it’s now rolling out, so keep an eye out for messages appearing in your GMB desktop dashboard. [00:10:19] Free Top Product Results Gets Scroll-to-Text Feature on Google  Click on a result that has scroll-to-text and Google takes you to the web page and the spot on the page with relevant text is highlighted. This will now be on free top product listings boxes. [00:19:40] US English Search Results Now Have Google Passage Ranking Passage ranking is now live. Google expects passage ranking to affect up to 7% of search queries when it’s fully rolled out globally for all languages. Have your rankings changed?

Jason Barnard, the Brand SERP Guy, joins the EDGE to share the concept of the Brand SERP and how it affects our digital visibility.  Learn about Jason’s backstory, how he came to be the leading authority with 500 knowledge panel experiments going at this moment.  Also find out how he has been in Erin’s head for the last 17 years, without even knowing it.  The digital business card is here and you need to learn how to bring it into “focus”.  Be sure to listen to the second segment of the show as well where we cover the real estate of the Brand SERP and optimization techniques.   [00:09:58] How Jason Segued From A Billion Pages Per Month Site Into The SEO Industry. [00:14:58] What’s The Current Real Estate On The Brand Serp? [00:21:08] Jason’s Own Brand Serp Domination [00:22:35] Experimenting On Himself [00:27:23] Identifying The Trusted Data Sources.

[00:06:00] Google News and Discover Abuses Targeted by New Manual Actions When a site is reviewed by humans for alignment with Google’s webmaster guidelines, a manual action might be the result for violations, and there’s a whole new set of those manual actions. By Barry Schwartz   [00:11:02] No Difference by Site Type in Google Core Web Vitals  When Google provides a Core Web Vitals score for a site, it does not differ according to the type of site, although Google’s John Mueller understands why it might feel that way sometimes.  By Barry Schwartz   [00:16:59] New “About This Result” Feature in Google Search Users will soon be seeing three little dots on the top-right corner of a search result snippet they can click on to learn more about a specific result before following the link in the result. By Barry Schwartz   [00:21:31] Can Google and Australia Avoid a Bad Breakup? Australia wants Google to compensate some Australian news publishers for linking to their content. Google says a deal is in the works, but will it satisfy the Australian government? By Roger Montti

Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications at SEMRush, digs into the SEMRush World Data Trends of 2020 they published and we discussed the ability to see world-wide social consciousness trends.   Want to get a tour through the entire SEMRush platform?  We went through the platform with Fernando, and covered the three main layers of the tool.  We found out Fernando’s favorites and shared our favorites as well.   Get a great take on what SEMRush has in store for the future of the tool as well, on this podcast.  Be sure to check out the first segment of the interview as well at EDGEofthewebradio.com [00:01:47] SEMRush World Data Trends of 2020 Infographic[00:09:58] Most trending fashions in 2020? Sweatpants![00:18:29] The three layers of SEMRush functionality[00:28:35] SEMRush Projects[00:33:34] Future innovations of the SEMRush platform

[00:03:35] Are Google Local Services Ads Tanking Google Ads Accounts? Google launched local services ads for lawyers in September and many lawyers are seeing steep increases in cost per conversion coupled with big drops in conversions. Those are seriously negative impacts.   [00:11:05]  How Will Australia React to Google’s Counter-Offer? Google has added a banner to Australian news search results expressing its willingness to pay to support Aussie journalism, essentially making a counter-offer. Will Australia accept?   [00:18:02] New Privacy Standard Proposal: Global Privacy Control (GPC) Privacy advocates are proposing this new standard, Global Privacy Control (GPC), that would strongly signal users don’t want their data shared with third-party data brokers.

Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications at SEMRush, shares his thoughts on the changes that the company had to go through over the course of the last year. We cover the management of 1,000 staff going to remote, the stresses of that change and the opportunities for innovation that it caused. We learn about how businesses reached out to SEMRush for their advice and counsel during the shut down.  Throngs of businesses didn’t know where to start in marketing and needed the help of SEMRush.  Listen in as we learn how they helped.

[00:03:37] Price Drops Featured in New Google Rich Results Consumers love finding out about price drops, and Google is launching a new rich results feature to highlight product price drops. Online retailers just need to use the right structured data to get in on it. By Roger Montti   [00:07:20] Do Contextual Links in Featured Snippets Threaten Click-Through Rates? SEOs are concerned that more links in such a high-visibility search results feature will hurt brands by potentially reducing click-through rates. Is this a legit concern or just SEO panic? By George Nguyen   [00:14:09] Google Turns up the Heat Down Under Everyone knows Google doesn’t pay content publishers to link to their sites, right? Except Google just agreed to do that in France. So where does that leave Australia? By Barry Schwartz

Sam Tomlinson joins us to discuss the issues revolving around the antitrust cases of Google & Facebook.  We unpack each company’s challenges and the concepts of fairness.  Isn’t this Big Tech’s platform that they invested in?     [00:05:27]  The argument FOR business acquisition [00:09:13]  The FTC reviews these acquisitions already [00:13:36]  Facebook's weakest argument. [00:14:47]  What are we upset about? [00:16:13]  Google and Antitrust [00:18:16]  Google: The Texas Lawsuit [00:21:00]  No sympathy for the News: It’s Google’s Platform [00:24:13]  Build a better platform [00:29:41]  Please to Government

[00:03:24] New Community Feedback Feature on Yelp for “Health and Safety Measures” Enough people want to know how safe they’ll be from the pandemic if they visit local businesses that Yelp has added a feedback feature for social masking and social distance compliance. [00:10:52]Google Doesn’t Want to Pay Australian News Company Australia wants an industry code requiring tech giants like Google to pay news publishers. Google’s “experiment” of disappearing Australian news from search is a chilling response. [00:19:21]Dedicated Results Pages for Hashtag Searches on YouTube Previous searches by hashtag inevitably included results not carrying the hashtag, but YouTube has an improved hashtag search now that limits results to videos actually carrying the hashtag.

Sam Tomlinson joins us to discuss the issues revolving around the antitrust cases of Big Tech (Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon). We cover the history of antitrust and how the archaic laws from 1872 cannot apply to the complex technological realm we are in. Sam had great input into the perspective of US and EU comparisons. Dive into this very topical discussion. [00:07:59] History of Antitrust Laws in America [00:11:00] The Differences In Big Tech As Opposed To Other Industries [00:17:52] The Competing Factors [00:18:44] What Are We Trying To Solve? Big Tech Being Mean To Big Tech? [00:22:36] The Network Effect And The Utility Concept

[00:04:43] The Why and How of Going Granular: Beyond Traditional Intent User search intent has increasingly taken center stage for shaping content and SEO, but are the traditional user intent categories up to the task of addressing micro-intentions? Probably not. [00:13:06] Subtopic Rankings Launched by Google in Mid-November What Google is aiming at is to diversify the content surfaced on broad queries based on possible subtopics that may be of interest, although it doesn’t seem to have changed the look of SERPs. [00:20:17] Do Google Ads Salespeople Link Ad Spends to Organic Rankings? Google spokespeople have been clear in that past that ad spends do not have a direct impact on SEO (buy more ads, get higher ranking), and yet some salespeople seem to suggest just that.

Welcome to 2021! Here’s what we covered this week: [00:03:44] Legal Action Against TikTok for Underage Data Violations While TikTok has managed to avoid being banned and continues to grow, a new legal challenge is coming in the UK for how it handles personal data for underage users. Will TikTok continue to squeak by? By Andrew Hutchinson [00:10:14] Does Google’s John Mueller Ever Take a Break? John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, was online engaging the webmaster community on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. But his holiday engagements have become a tradition. By Barry Schwartz [00:15:36] Is BERT Biased? When Training Data Bakes in Bias Like machine learning algorithms, a language model like BERT has to be trained using training data, and if the data is biased, then the way the model operates may be biased as well, with real consequences. By George Nguyen

Last Week of Digital Marketing News for 2020 (3:48) Request Indexing Tool is Now Back in Google Search Console Google’s Request Indexing Tool was first disabled on October 14, it’s finally back, albeit 69 days later and well past the holiday shopping season when people needed it. Better late than never? (6:33) After a Google Algorithm Update, Why do Some Portions of a Site Fluctuate? According to Google’s John Mueller, the algorithms don’t just look at the big picture of a site, but also look at smaller parts of websites. (12:18) Google’s SERPs Have an Impact on Consumer Perceptions of Brands For example, in the PAA (people also ask) section of results, what’s presented there can have a major influence on the initial impression a consumer gets of a brand, and it’s not always good.

We’re joined on the EDGE by Shay Rowbottom, social media influencer on LinkedIn for a second segment of our interview.  We talked about the need for authentic content and the concepts of social media narcissism.  There’s a perpetuation of false selves in social media and we need to develop the ability to source personal validation away from social media. The super-spreading of social hate is at an all-time high and it is difficult to challenge the tide.  Shay shares her positive thoughts on how we can stop the social shame and live life in a positive place given the toxic social media environment we see now.

This week's News Roundup: Another Google Search Console Feature Disabled: Issue Validation If you use Issue Validation to tell Google you’ve fixed an issue so they can verify it, the Coverage report is a no-go. New validation requests will not happen until the update is complete. Schema.org Will Now House the Google Structured Data Testing Tool When Google said they would ditch their Structured Data Testing Tool in favor of their newer Rich Results Test Tool, the backlash was so strong they had figure out a different approach. Is Google a Monopoly? Ten State Attorneys General Seem to Think SoBesides claiming Google has forced competitors out of the market, the suit also claims they made some kind of sketchy deal with Facebook to help maintain their dominance.