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Google Game Changers: 5 Recent Updates and How They Affect Marketers

Anne Leuman Google, Search Marketing, SEO

Since the inception and rise of digital marketing, marketers have been keeping a watchful eye on Google — the ruler of the kingdom of search.

From research project to technology giant, over the last two decades Google has cemented itself as the dominating force in internet search. And while there are other rising contenders in the space, as of June 2018, Google owned 72.21% of all desktop searches. And the domination continues if you look at mobile, with Google owning a whopping 90.20% of searches.

Of course, Google’s market (and marketing) domination isn’t because of their speed to market in the late 90s, but rather the company’s dedication and investment in evolving the platform. And some of the latest evolutionary tweaks and new features are hitting soon — or have just recently arrived.

Google Game Changers: 5 Recent Updates and How They Affect Marketers

How to Find the Stories in Your Data for Compelling Reporting

Joshua Nite Content Marketing World, Google, Online Marketing, Web Analytics

Our hyper-connected digital world is defined by an overabundance of data. Everything’s measurable, trackable, and quantifiable. Want to know how many people died on screen in your favorite movie? Or how much ice cream the average American eats per year? The data’s at your fingertips.

The ready availability of data is great for marketers. It helps us optimize performance, personalize content, and prove our value to the business.

But data in a vacuum isn’t informative or useful. It’s not about the facts and figures themselves; it’s about how we shape that data into compelling stories.

As an Analytics Advocate at Google, Adam Singer has years of experience finding and revealing the meaningful narrative in datasets. His presentation at Content Marketing World 2017 was all about how to create clean, informative, compelling data visualizations.

How to Find the Stories in Your Data for Compelling Reporting

Why HTTPS Matters for Content Marketers: Website Security, SEO, and Customer Trust

Joshua Nite Google, Search Engines

Full disclosure: As a content marketer, I’m still trying to round out my technological knowledge. The complex inner workings of the internet might as well be some combination of elves, gnomes, and unicorns. As long as it delivers my content (and a steady stream of memes and status updates), it doesn’t matter how the internet works, right?

But it’s time for all content marketers to get at least a little technical. There are new marching orders from our overlords at tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple, and they’re going to directly affect your content marketing strategy.

The issue is a web security protocol called HTTPS (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Secure). Other terms you might encounter are SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). Or you may just know it as the little green padlock in the top corner of your web browser:

Why HTTPS Matters for Content Marketers: Website Security, SEO, and Customer Trust

Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on SEO

Kevin Cotch Google, Search Engines

Artificial intelligence and machine learning sound like concepts from the future. In reality, it has been used by search engines for a decent amount of time now. Most people have probably heard of Google’s RankBrain by now, but if not, RankBrain is a machine learning artificial intelligence system. RankBrain came upon us quickly, and a Google representative claims that RankBrain is the third highest ranking factor it uses now.

Artificial intelligence will change, and has been, changing how search marketers should be optimizing websites. It should make us think differently on what to optimize on a website and what experience we are providing our users. In order to optimize our websites, we need to first understand how artificial intelligence is impacting SEO.

Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on SEO

SEO Storm or Light Shower? Google’s Panda 4.0 Update

Lee Odden Google, Online Marketing, SEO

Google Panda 4.0

The thunder clap of Google’s Matt Cutts’s Twitter post could be heard across the web this week with the announcement of the search engine’s latest update, Panda 4.0.

Of course the type of Panda I’m talking about isn’t a cute bear from China. It’s the name of an algorithm used by Google to filter out low quality content from search results.

The first Panda update in Feb, 2011 was fairly aggressive, affecting about 11% of queries on Google and millions of searchers. Panda also had an impact on more than a few website owners who fell from the search results like hail from the sky.

Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable reports that this most recent Panda update is expected to affect 7.5% of English search queries and with 12.5 billion searches per month on Google, that could be a pretty big storm for the SEO world.

SEO Storm or Light Shower? Google’s Panda 4.0 Update

What Google Hummingbird Really Means and What Marketers Can Do About It

Eliza Steely Google, Online Marketing, Other Events, Search Engines, SEO

Note from Lee: You know the phrase, kill two birds with one stone? That’s what we’re doing with this post format and the topic of Hummingbird. Our team at TopRank is known for liveblogging conferences, but this co-created blog format is something new. At the same time, we’re covering a topic (Google Hummingbird) and search + social media that I think warrants some clarity and practical advice. In this post, you’ll see insights our team members took from the SMBMSP event followed by “TopRank Tips” from Eliza and myself.

In the digital marketing world, change is inevitable. At some point in life we are all forced to adapt, change paths, learn new skills or face something we definitely weren’t expecting.

What Google Hummingbird Really Means and What Marketers Can Do About It

What You Need to Know about Enhanced Adwords Campaigns

Eliza Steely AdWords, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing, Search Engine Strategies

If there’s one thing I’ve heard non-stop lately it’s that digital marketing is becoming more customized and tailored to the wants and needs of consumers. Those creepy Eye See You Mannequins, facial monitoring at gas stations, and those social ads that somehow know that I was shopping for a watch yesterday are all proof that brands are able to cater their advertisements to appeal to something we’re actually going to be motivated to buy.

This has created a unique opportunity for marketers: enhanced Google AdWords campaigns which were launched on July 22nd of this year.

In their SES Chicago session, Michael Griffin and Lisa Raehsler reviewed what those campaigns are and how to design, segment, and optimize one. Here are some of the key takeaways from their session:

What You Need to Know about Enhanced Adwords Campaigns

Google Analytics Guide: 4 Easy Tips For Getting Started With Analytics & Website Goal Setting

Evan Prokop Google, Online Marketing

So, you’ve taken the important step of setting up a Google Analytics on your company’s website. Implementing Google Analytics is an essential part of gaining insight for improving the customer experience, and improving profitability for your organization. As they say, what gets measured gets managed.

However, when you log in, you are met with a sea of data covering nearly every conceivable web metric, a lot of them which you’ve never even heard of. You may be able to find the information you want, but it most likely involves a lot more time and frustration than it needs to.

Google Analytics Guide: 4 Easy Tips For Getting Started With Analytics & Website Goal Setting

Google Bringing You Down? Tips for Avoiding Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues – #SESNY

Ashley Zeckman Google, Search Engine Strategies, Search Engines

Understanding the way that search engines like Google and Bing crawl your sites for duplicate content is not always easy to follow. What exactly are the rules, and what are the ramifications for not following the rules?

This presentation by a group of industry experts focused on gaining an understanding of how search engines read your content, as well as what steps you can take to avoid penalization for your content.

Peter van der Graff: Redirecting Duplicate Content

We always assume that Google knows best, but is that necessarily true? According to Peter finding a formula that works 100% of the time is no easy task. He opened up with a great example “If you have a 301 redirect and you tell Google to go left, they’ll probably go right.” You could end up implementing a 301 redirect and when you request the location a cached version of the site may still appear instead of the redirect you intended.

Google Bringing You Down? Tips for Avoiding Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues – #SESNY

Stuck In A Marketing Rut? 4 Signs That It’s Time To Add Engagement To Your Online Marketing Strategy

Ashley Zeckman B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing, Blogging Strategy, Content Marketing, Google, Online Marketing, Social Media

When you ask an online marketer what frustrates them the most about reaching customers and prospects online you’re likely to hear the following:

Finding a way to connect with their audience
Moving prospects through the buying cycle
Growing their network and lists

Marketers often talk about their prospects being overloaded with too much information which can lead to an indecisive audience, causing marketers to miss projections and sales goals. Lets face the facts, consumers are engaging online. Recent studies show that over 53% of active social networkers follow a brand. If there are that many people actively interacting and engaging with brands online what changes can be made to reach and engage target audiences?

Sign #1 – The Sounds of Silence – No One is Commenting On Our Blog

Stuck In A Marketing Rut? 4 Signs That It’s Time To Add Engagement To Your Online Marketing Strategy

Online Marketing News: Tips for Going Viral, Socially Optimized via Mobile, Facebook Timelines for Business, LinkedIn Company Follow

Ashley Zeckman B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing, Blogging Strategy, Content Marketing, Google, Online Marketing, Search Engines

What does it take to go viral?

This recent video from Salesforce.com covers what it takes for your content to spread as well as the formula for success. The video also includes a checklist marketers can use to increase their likelihood of going viral.

This Week in Online Marketing News

“Getting Socially Optimized with Mobile Marketing” As mobile marketing continues to expand marketers are still searching for the best way to reach their audience through the development of applications for smart phones, ads, and mobile optimized websites. This article provides some insight into the benefits and challenges of a mobile marketing strategy. Via BtoB Magazine.

Online Marketing News: Tips for Going Viral, Socially Optimized via Mobile, Facebook Timelines for Business, LinkedIn Company Follow