Good morning Search Marketer, take a second to pat yourself on the back. These are trying times and you're doing a great job. Now, let's keep up the good work!
No, it's not just you — Google did make a change to Search Console reports. The AMP, Mobile Usability, Speed and all rich result reports have been updated to cover a smaller number of pages. Consequently, you may see fewer items and pages tracked in those reports. Google said the change was made to provide a better Search Console experience and that this does not affect search results.
"You're saying you're an informational site, but you're doing something totally different, and Google started profiling sites . . . and if your identity and what you're actually doing don't match up, these sites started getting slammed — it's been the one consistent thing I've seen throughout most of these Google core updates," said Mordy Oberstein, CMO for Rank Ranger, during his chat with our own Barry Schwartz. You can watch their full discussion here to learn more about entities, whether it's worth it to try to get a featured snippet and for jokes that only SEOs would laugh at.
Content marketing opportunities may seem more difficult to come by while the world struggles with a global pandemic, but there are still plenty of ways to serve and engage audiences — especially when they might be relying on your offerings now more than ever. "Different software that is about efficiency, or like 'do-it-yourself' has gotten much trendier now — probably, the sad reality is that people are downsizing and they have to try to make it work," said Fractl's Amanda Milligan during our content marketing discussion on Live with Search Engine Land last Friday. "So, what I'm encouraging people to do is to take that time to assess: What are the emotions being associated here and the smaller struggles happening? Any kind of pain point you can alleviate is much appreciated, and that could be a design tool that's free and you can give to your whole team right now," she said. That's just one of the many takeaways from the discussion — watch the full session and read more of the content marketing takeaways right here.
For years, it's been our pleasure to provide the search community with conferences that inform, engage and help you further your careers. However, safety is now our top priority, which means that we've decided not to hold SMX Advanced this June in Seattle. This unfortunate development does not mean that we're going to stop serving this community: we invite you to join us online during the week of June 22 for SMX Next, a virtual training experience in which you'll be able to advance your skills and knowledge right from home. We'll keep you updated as more details become available.
We've got SEO, PageRank and Doodle games in today's Search Shorts, and don't forget to check out what we're reading.
George Nguyen,
Associate Editor
