Keeping up with the never-ending stream of digital marketing headlines can feel overwhelming, but that’s why we include a bonus news roundup segment with each episode of the EDGE. The latest features host Erin Sparks and Creative Studio Producer Jacob Mann along with special guest Lily Ray, SEO Director at Path Interactive. Here’s the news roundup from Episode 351 of the award-winning EDGE of the Web podcast:
Google Waives Ad Serving Fees for News Publishers
According to Susan Wenograd on Search Engine Journal, Google Waives Ad Serving Fees for News Publishers. Google has announced their latest way to help during the COVID-19 crises, and this time they’re focusing on journalism. For the next 5 months, Google Ads will waive the ad serving fees associated with their Google Ad Manager product. The platform most commonly known and associated with Google’s legacy AdSense advertising product, where publishers earn money for displaying ads on their website.
- Erin Sparks: Journalists interested in this benefit need to submit an application by April 29. Google is also contributing $1 million to support reporters.
- Lily Ray: This is really great. Google’s had to hit the pause button on a lot of initiatives they had planned for 2020, just like the rest of us. Google is being very benevolent in how they’re responding to the crisis and supporting businesses and getting good information out to people.
- Erin Sparks: And we also heard about Google handing out ad credits to small and medium-sized advertisers. It’s good to see them giving back in some way.
How COVID-19 may change the SERP forever
From Mordy Oberstein on Search Engine Land we learn that How COVID-19 may change the SERP forever. The new sticky side menu functionality at the left side of the page could solve some of the biggest problems Google faces going forward. What started out as a simple alert panel has evolved into the most prolific set of direct information the Google SERP has ever seen. Google’s on-the-SERP coverage of COVID-19 isn’t only an easy-to-access beast of a data source, it’s also a peek at what could be coming to the SERP…permanently.
- Erin Sparks: Lily, you’ve certainly been focused on how the pandemic is impacting search and user behavior.
- Lily Ray: Mordy definitely presents some really compelling ideas for how that panel could be used in the future, but so far there’s no indication from Google that it’s going to become a permanent feature. People have been requesting something along these lines for a while, especially those who don’t always like Google trying to assume they know a user’s intent. Some want the ability to toggle through their search results to narrow down into what they’re looking for. It will be interesting to see how people engage with it and what Google does with it over time. Most websites are set up in a way to allow for navigation of the site, and this applies that concept to search results.
- Erin Sparks: There does seem to be a trend at Google for more interactive results such as the knowledge panels and Google My Business. With this development, the SERP itself starts to feel like a website or webpage.
- Lily Ray: Right. And for coronavirus searches, Google doesn’t want to show every publisher on the web. They want a smaller subset of sites from which they’re going to pull information because in a situation like this there’s so much potential for misinformation if they just draw as widely as normal.
Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update Possibly Around April 16th
On SEO Round Table,Barry Schwartz reports on Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update Possibly Around April 16th. Last Thursday, April 16th there may have been a Google search ranking update. There was 100% chatter and some of the rank checking tools notices blips in changes on that day. Google has not confirmed any update but there may have been a small one.
- Erin Sparks: We’re certainly aware of one that happened about three weeks ago that had huge impacts on the medical community.
- Lily Ray: Looking at what’s happening with the algorithms day-to-day has been really challenging lately because of so many moving pieces. It’s safe to say that in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Google is making adjustments to its algorithms probably every single day. They haven’t said specifically what they’re doing, but it’s safe to assuming they’re doing things to prevent misinformation about the virus, making sure articles aren’t ranking that shouldn’t be, and so on. And with such massive shifts in search behavior, it’s hard to say what’s algorithmically driven and what’s driven by big changes in search demands. When millions of people are suddenly searching on something new, that demand can be reflected in rankings.
- Erin Sparks: It doesn’t really matter what tools you’re using for monitoring, everything is haywire right now around volatility, so we need to pause and understand that it’s all changing on a daily basis. None of us has ever had to deal with this kind of scenario. There’s just too much noise to say anything with confidence about what’s happening with the algorithms.
Connect with Lily Ray and Path Interactive
Twitter: @lilyraynyc (https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-ray-44755615/
Instagram: @lilyraynyc (https://www.instagram.com/lilyraynyc/)
Website: http://lilyray.nyc
Path Interactive: https://www.pathinteractive.com
PI Twitter: @PathInteractive (https://twitter.com/PathInteractive)
PI Facebook: @pathinteractive (https://www.facebook.com/pathinteractive/)
PI LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/path-interactive/
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