Good morning, search marketers, how many spammy SEO pitches did you wade through to find this?
That didn't take long. We started seeing bogus pitches to "improve your Domain Authority" almost as soon as Moz announced the update of its metric. Just as building an SEO strategy around Google PageRank was misguided, so too is focusing on improving DA alone to boost your Google rankings. They aren't connected, as Moz's Russ Jones has reiterated.
"DA has no influence on your Google rankings. Your DA score can drop through the floor and your rankings in Google will not change as a result," said our own Barry Schwartz.
Just hit delete on link builders promising to improve your DA.
Restaurants in 43 states can now opt to accept reservations via a Duplex-powered Google Assistant on Pixel devices (and soon on iOS and other Android devices). Duplex is Google's AI phone-based system for local business bookings. It's starting out in the restaurant vertical, but if successful, we expect to see this come to other local sectors.
Lots more below, including a take on "why the future of SEM is full funnel" and an update on SMX Advanced, which is coming up in June. Hope to see you in Seattle!
Ginny Marvin,
Editor-in-Chief
Quick links to stories mentioned above:
+ SEOs beware: Link builders are back with bogus Domain Authority pitches
+ Duplex-powered Google Assistant restaurant booking expanding to more states and users