Good morning, Search Marketer, let's revisit what we're naming things for a second. We already know this search community remembers "mobilegeddon". Now, we've got "cookiegeddon" surfacing in marketing circles to describe the coming death of 3rd-party cookies. Maybe it's the coming end of this patently difficult 2020 that has me feeling reflective, but isn't this end-of-the-world framing a bit much? Let's take the high road. When these changes roll out, it's an opportunity to rise above your competition by being the first to adapt. Let's try to use terminology that reflects that mindset, even if it's not as catchy. Ok, TED talk over. George Nguyen,
Editor | | | | | Knowledge panels | | | | | The expansion of People Also Ask in the search results | | We've become so accustomed to the People Also Ask section in the main column of search results that it has its own acronym — PAA. What's relatively new, though, is that PAAs are showing up more commonly in brand knowledge panels, appearing in about 9% of them now compared to 1% in September. These PAAs are different from the ones in the main column; they focus primarily on factual questions about your brand. It is important to know the differences between these PAA sections. You need to consider them for your own brand SERP and understand the potential consequences if you don't optimize for them. Read more here. | | | | | | | The bright 2021 outlook for digital marketing agencies Sponsored by CallRail | | While 2021 still holds economic uncertainty, digital marketing leaders indicate that their agencies have been remarkably resilient, according to CallRail's fall survey of 167 global marketing leaders who use its services. The findings show that most agencies will finish 2020 with higher annual revenues than in 2019. Overall, agency leaders reported satisfaction across many different business areas, such as their talent and expertise, customer service and positioning. When asked about their ability to attain key growth metrics — like generating new client leads and closing new business — the majority of agencies also exhibited strong confidence that they can. While CallRail's 2021 Outlook Report takes a much deeper dive into agency business practices, this article highlights some of the most interesting aspects of the research. Read More » | | | | | | Schema | | | | | Google to move the Structured Data Testing Tool to schema.org | | A lot of SEOs were annoyed when Google announced that it would deprecate the Structured Data Testing Tool after the release of its Rich Results Test tool out of beta. After all, structured data isn't just about the rich result: clearer machine understanding, email marketing enrichments and building up our entities in the Knowledge Graph are also priorities for the diligent marketer. "We've heard your feedback," Google said, announcing that it will instead migrate the Structured Data Testing to a new domain serving the schema.org community by April 2021. Read more here. | | | | | | | Introducing SMX Report: Analytics for Search Marketing | | Unlock actionable tactics to measure search marketing success at SMX Report, online February 23, 2021. Secure your spot for just $99! Register now » | | | | | | Social | | | | | LinkedIn starts roll-out of ads in Stories | | Last week, LinkedIn announced it had started beta testing of ads in LinkedIn Stories for selected advertisers and for all members globally. The ads include both single image ads and full-screen video, and there are plans to launch more broadly in 2021. Why we care. This clearly responds to the success of the Stories format across Facebook and Instagram, but leaves open the question whether LinkedIn's audience will be receptive. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, President of social analytics platform Socialbakers, said in an email to us: "B2C brands have been successfully leveraging ads on Snapchat and Instagram Stories for some time as a tried and tested format that yields good results. But LinkedIn's user demographics differ significantly from Snapchat or Instagram. LinkedIn targets a different demographic to Snapchat and Instagram. With a user base that's more B2B focused and a demographic that skews much older than Snapchat or Instagram, it remains to be seen how well ads in Stories will perform versus the more traditional Feed ads." | | | | | | Events | | | | | Is conference season coming back? | | This week, the United States began the historic rollout of the first approved vaccine for COVID-19, giving the country and the rest of the world some long-overdue optimism that this grim pandemic will soon come to an end. On a simply human level, the relief in a future where family gatherings and social congregation are possible without fear of catching this deadly disease is cause for celebration. For marketers and professionals, it means one day soon we will be able to gather at offices, off-sites, sales trips, conferences and trade shows. Several times this year we have surveyed marketers on their comfort level for attending live events absent an effective COVID-19 vaccine and each time they have told us that they would largely skip out on travel and in-person professional gatherings. But, with what is sure to be a long-term vaccine rollout having begun, we thought it was time to gauge whether those opinions have changed. Please click here to take our short survey. It should take no longer than 5 minutes to fill out. | | | | | | | Learn about the benefits of using an SEO tool and compare leading vendors | | SEO remains the stalwart mainstay of digital marketing, driving as many as 22% of all website visits. But its practice has become more complex—today, SEO includes everything from content marketing to user experience. Using SEO software tools can increase efficiency and productivity while reducing the time and errors involved in managing organic search campaigns. This guide from MarTech Today explains the benefits of using an SEO tool and profiles 21 leading vendors. Download now » | | | | | | Search Shorts | | | | | Core updates, holidays, user interface tests and new names. | | | | Expandable text snippets. Yesterday we informed you about the dynamically expanding images under the Google search result snippets. Now, Google is testing expandable text snippets, here is what that looks like. Google renames surfaces across Google & shopping actions. Google said it is "changing the names of surfaces across Google and Shopping Actions. This will help to keep the names descriptive, relevant, and consistent as Merchant Center continues to grow and evolve." Core update is the whole site. Here is a confusing tweet from Danny Sullivan of Google who said "a core update is core to all the content in our index. It goes out to the entire index, page by page." Just to be clear, if you are hit by a core update, your whole site will feel it, not just individual pages. Holiday decorations. Google's holiday decorations are now live, just search for Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah on Google search to see them. | | | | |
