437 | News from the EDGE | Week of 7.26.2021

The Economic Slowdown Hits Yelp Hard The coronavirus pandemic's economic impact has forced Yelp to lay off 1,000 of its workers and furlough another 1,100. Yelp is all about local business reviews, which has declined sharply with shut-downs and social distancing. During a Recession, SEO More Important than Ever Although the novel coronavirus outbreak has brought the overall economy to a screeching halt, a survey reveals SEO can and should be maintained as a high priority moving forward through the recession. New Google Blog Series on SEO Value with Case Studies A surprising number of businesses still look at SEO with skepticism, questioning its value as an investment among competing priorities for scarce resources. Google's aim is to convince them SEO is worth it.

14 Huhti 202023min

Nearly 17 million have filed for unemployment in the past three weeks. The economy has come to an abrupt hard stop. What should digital marketing professionals focus on during an unprecedented crisis like the one we're now experiencing? This week's featured guest Jon Henshaw, Founder of Coywolf, has been in the SEO space for a long time now! He joins the show to share his knowledge of what digital marketers should be doing to help their clients during this time. A few questions we get answered by Jon: Should I continue advertising during a crisis? Statistics with social media during COVID19 eCommerce sites statistics What tactics should I be focusing on during this time? During an economic downturn, you will find you have less competition Consumer behavior trends during a crisis?

13 Huhti 20201h 3min

Finally, New Smart Speaker Integrations for Google Podcasts Compared to other podcast platforms out there, Google has been behind the curve on podcast integrations, but is finally catching up with queues, auto-downloads, and more. 2020 Ad Spend Projections on the Decline as Pandemic Rises Projections for worldwide ad spending has been reduced by 3% thanks to the new coronavirus and COVID-19 global pandemic, which leaves room for an overall increase on this year, but it's too soon to tell. In COVID-19 Crisis, Google My Business Stops Reviews Since many businesses are supposed to be closed, Google decided to remove the ability for users to post reviews, along with the ability for businesses to respond to reviews.

25 Maalis 202021min

Too many companies have SEM strategies entirely focused on keywords or what's "most likely to convert" according to Google, as opposed to what makes the most sense to the real customers on the other side of the marketing equation. Especially in a time of crisis, it makes even more sense to use smart automation and data analytics in your SEM work. This week's special guest Aaron Levy, Group Director of SEM at Tinuiti, will share his insights for making it happen. If you haven't had the opportunity to know Aaron then this is the perfect time to. He's an internationally recognized speaker, Search Engine Land/Search Engine Journal author and a 7-time member of PPC Hero's Most Influential list. In addition to his roles at Tinuiti, Aaron's also an adjunct at Drexel & University of Vermont as well as a student mentor at Villanova, working to grow the next generation of marketers. He knows his stuff and we were excited to be able to get him on episode 348 of EDGE of the Web!

25 Maalis 20201h 3min

Need Support for Google Ads or Google My Business? Be Prepared to Wait You'd think much of digital marketing wouldn't really be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but you'd be wrong. Google has said users seeking support will experience delays. How Much Will Digital Marketing Suffer from the COVID-19 Pandemic? There's enough anxiety about the pandemic pushing the economy into recession that many businesses are putting the brakes on all kinds of spending, including digital marketing. What are Marketers Doing to Deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic? The pandemic is changing consumer behaviors in real-time, and marketers must look at how they can pivot strategies quickly to adapt to the rapidly-evolving situation.

18 Maalis 202019min

A lot of companies are responding to the health concerns happening worldwide by sending employees home to work remotely. The digital marketing industry is lucky that a lot of work can be done via computer, video conference, etc. Some individuals have experienced working remotely in the past and others, this is their first time. It can be quite challenging to work at home with distractions causing workers to not be as productive as they are in office. This week's featured guest is JD Prater: Quora Evangelist at Quora, is very knowledgeable in this space since he's been working remotely for the past 5 years! He shares his tips and tricks on how to stay motivated and work hard from home. We also deep dive into his experience from Quora about paid ads. You won't want to miss episode 347 filled with helpful information for remote work and paid ads!

17 Maalis 20201h 1min

Update Your Local Listings if Affected by COVID-19 For companies with a Google My Business listing, Google is asking everyone to make sure their open hours and other information is accurate if COVID-19/coronavirus is impacting operations. One of Trump's Retweets Gets a "Manipulated Media" Label Twitter's new policy to label some content as "manipulated media" (significantly and deceptively altered or fabricated) has been applied to a video President Trump retweeted. Marketing Conferences Cancelled or Postponed The latest search marketing conference to be postponed is Pubcon Florida 2020. More event cancellations and postponements are expected as COVID-19 concerns are on the rise.

13 Maalis 202015min

This week's featured guest is Britney Muller, Senior SEO Scientist at Moz, here to EDGEucate you on the specifics within SEO that you need to focus on throughout 2020. Britney continuously researches SEO concepts, creates educational content, helps educate people about SEO (internally and at conferences around the world), and communicates SEO trends and desires to the product teams at Moz. She is an SEO scientist people… she knows what she's talking about! Britney wrote a great blog, SEO for 2020 - Whiteboard Friday, to help you determine what SEO factors to focus on as we take on the year 2020 head first! Some key points discussed during the show: Foundational SEO: titles, metas, alts, and basic SEO 101 Linking internally between website landing pages Schema markup: FAQs, bread crumbs, and business info Research about your industry, competitors, and rankings What to STOP doing with SEO in 2020

10 Maalis 20201h