Good morning search marketers, did you get hit or helped by 2019 algo updates?
We've rounded up the big, publicly announced Google search algorithm updates of 2019 all in one place. There were 3 announced core updates, several smaller updates and, of course, BERT. There often aren't discernable patterns that emerge with these updates, but the year's success stories of Cars.com's and Overstock's recoveries from their previous algorithmic downgrades served as reminders that investments in strategic technical and content improvements can pay off.
Did your team upgrade or replace any of the marketing tools you're using this year? Switching tools can be a painful process, but with the constant evolution of capabilities, we were curious to know whether organizations are embracing marketing technology changes. Turns out, yes. Our survey of nearly 400 marketers found that 84% have upgraded a marketing technology application in the past year. The motivations vary, but a key finding was that many of these transitions are to move away from homegrown solutions to SaaS offerings. Another was that companies are hiring teams to manage their new marketing tech. More on the survey findings here.
In more news, Bing rolled out enhancements to its flight search offering, which may ruffle OTA feathers. Yandex said it doubled the size of its index with the Vega update. And GSC's Coverage report is now more accurate on indexed pages.
Read on for your Pro Tip from Eric Enge on how you should be thinking about a voice search.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief
