Good morning search marketers, here's to high rankings.
And here's to featured snippets, too. Yesterday, we learned that if you are successful enough to have landed a featured snippet in search, you may only be sharing that spot with one other URL. In fact, the RankRanger report found that there is usually one dominant URL of the two, which means you could be getting that coveted placement up to 75 percent of the time. It's prime real estate on the screen, but as voice search picks up, these spots become even more of a prize.
But now for the bad news. Google Search Console is going to start sending alerts when a significant drop in search traffic occurs or if there is a major ranking change. It's not the kind of alert SEOs want to get, but since it gives us an early heads up to get optimizing, it's an improvement to GSC.
On the location side, everybody's favorite map app Waze has partnered with WPP to create new ad types to connect retailers with car-bound navigators.
And lastly, here's another reminder that the voice revolution is upon us: 77 percent of SMBs in a recent survey said voice advertising is valuable. But a fraction of that are actually budgeting for voice ads.
There's more below, including a Pro Tip on GMB issues and a Google reminder that The Crocodile Hunter was legend.
Henry Powderly,
VP, Content
