694 | Trusting AI in the SERPs? w/ Mark Williams-Cook & Jack Chambers-Ward

Host Erin Sparks and Guest Joe Martinez discuss this weeks trending topics: Google Changes the Meta Robots Nofollow Tag from a Directive to a Hint The Nofollow page tag was previously a directive to stop a web crawler from following links, but now it's just a hint, which means a Google crawler may or may not obey the Nofollow tag. Google Launches Two New Link Attribution Tags rel="sponsored" is for links created as part of advertising, sponsorships, etc. and rel="ugc" is for links in user generated content. Both will be treated as hints for links to exclude as ranking signals. Google Says Ranking Factors Don't Include Content Accuracy Google thinks machine learning isn't quite good enough yet at assessing content accuracy to make it a ranking factor, which is why it relies instead on various signals for topic relevance and authority.

16 Sep 201915min

Was There a Google Search Algorithm Update Around September 4th or 5th? Inquiring minds want to know, but it can be hard to tell. Anyone with a site that suddenly drops tends to sound the alarm, which may or may not indicate a change. The Latest Quality Raters Guidelines Update from Google The biggest changes were made in the YMYL (your money, your life) section, which was entirely re-written. If Google is talking about it, you should pay attention, but there is no need to panic.

11 Sep 20197min

If your business or client's business gets all of its customers from a localized area- how do you go about optimizing your website to cater to just your city and neighborhoods? What does your local reputation have to do with your ability to drive traffic to your pages and close deals? Google's monopolistic stranglehold on #LocalSearch can be frustrating, but there's still lots businesses can do.Our guest today is Mike Blumenthal, a.k.a. "Professor Maps," is a leading expert on all things related to Local Search, including reputation. He is ready to share his insight about reputation and its impact on businesses in the post-Amazon economy. Mike was the founding partner of GatherUp, which is a computer software that helps businesses provide better customer experience through customer reviews and feedback! Mike also co-founded LocalU, where he works on weekly podcasts and newsletters to help plan conferences and moderate the forums! Mike is actively publishing content across his own personal blog, industry websites, at conferences and on social media.

11 Sep 20191h

Don't miss this week's edition of the EDGE of the Web podcast when our special guest is Marie Haynes, Owner of Marie Haynes Consulting Inc., who will provide commentary and analysis on all the latest Google updates for #DigitalMarketing during the news roundup segment of episode 324. This week's topics: FTC YouTube Investigation Settled by Google Google resolves an FTC investigation against YouTube for allegedly violating children's privacy law. End of August Google Algorithm Update? There have been signs of an algorithm update on Google that has occurred towards the end of August. Links Helping With E-A-T? How to obtain expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness? Who truly knows?

6 Sep 201922min

Google is constantly coming out with small and core algorithm updates, forcing digital marketers to continuously work on providing top-notch content that develops expertise, authoritativeness, and trust! So what exactly is Google E-A-Ting? Find out everything you need to know from Marie Haynes, Owner of Marie Haynes Consulting Inc., who has been completely obsessed with understanding Google Algorithms! You won't find someone who knows more about Google's E-A-T standards and algorithm updates, so tune in to episode 324 of the EDGE of the Web podcast to get the inside scoop on what Google is E-A-Ting!

6 Sep 201940min

Don't miss this week's edition of the EDGE of the Web podcast when our special guest is Bill Slawski, Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital, will provide commentary and analysis on all the latest #DigitalMarketing #SEO headlines during the news roundup segment of episode 323. This week's topics: New Types of Structured Data Added to Google Search Console Google Search Console has added three more types of structured data; Product Markup, Sitelink Searchbox Markup, and Unparsable Types. Bulk Reviews for GMB Google is making it easier to do bulk reviews, replies, and flagging across many listings at the same time. Podcast Listening Continues Growing The usage of podcast mobile app has grown 60% since January 2018 and is expected to continue growing. Podcasts are turning into the top platform to advertise on.

21 Aug 201915min

Schema continues to grow in search results with featured snippets, knowledge panels, structured snippets and more. Location history will become part of the future for local search. What will do with it? Are you up-to-speed on Categorical Quality Scores in Ranking Search Results? Find out what you need to know from Bill Slawski, Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital, who has been doing SEO work for 20 years. You won't find someone who knows more about Google's inner workings, so tune in to episode 323 of the EDGE of the Web podcast to get the inside scoop on the latest SEO developments.

20 Aug 201947min

Our special guest this week on the EDGE of the Web podcast is Arlie Hartman, Chief Information Security Officer at BraunAbility. He'll be talking about cybersecurity with us, but will also provide opinion and analysis on some of the latest #DigitalMarketing headlines: Podcasts results expected as SERP results in Google We've already seen it popping up- SERP results with podcast episode info and a play button from Google search. This feature is going to be prime real estate! Amazon Echo keeps overwhelming stronghold on market share With over 76 million units sold- Amazon Echo continues to be the clear leader when it comes to at-home (or office) smart speakers. Over 106 Million people affected by the Capital One hack 30 GB of data was stolen from Capital One in a hack where the accused used a rented server to gain access, and siphon off data, including Social Security Numbers, and bank account numbers.

14 Aug 201916min