Good morning, search marketers, happy Monday!
If Google News is one of your trusty traffic sources, take note that it has a whole new look on desktop that may impact referrals from the aggregator. Reflecting the mobile layout, the new Google News desktop design ditches the cluster of stories on a topic in favor of a single featured story shown in its own card with the publication's logo and featured image. With the focus on a single story, publishers that get featured will win big. The story shown in the card will get all of the clicks, whereas before, clicks could be distributed among the cluster of stories.
Some local SEOs have experienced problems after implementing the new shortnames feature in Google My Business: vanishing reviews and listings. Google is aware and told us it's working on fixing the problem of disappearing reviews and a technical issue that caused some business listings to not be "shown as visible." Google said that the missing listings bug was not tied to the shortname feature. When the issues are resolved, shortnames should prove to be a useful marketing and branding tool for local businesses and a convenient way for consumers to quickly search for specific businesses.
Smart speakers are battling the perception of being "surveillance" devices. It's a battle of their own making. First, Amazon acknowledged it keeps copies of "Alexa"-triggered requests. Last week, Google acknowledged third-party subcontractors can access Google Home recordings. The companies say the recordings are used to improve the technology. Some consumers say they are now hesitating to buy smart speakers for privacy reasons. The viability of smart speakers is at risk unless the tech giants "do more to boost privacy and consumer confidence," around these devices, reports Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling.
Read on for a Pro Tip from BrainLabs' Dan Gilbert on evaluating DSAs and much more.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief
