Each week the Croud SEO team collate the latest news from relevant sources around the web so you don’t have to. Read through the top SEO news stories for this week below and follow us on Twitter or sign up to our newsletter.
Local Consumer Review Survey 2019
11/12/2019
Bright Local released its Local Consumer Review Survey 2019 which found that users are searching more for local businesses than last year, with younger users searching more often. The survey also found that reviews are driving immediate conversions, with the most common next step being to view the businesses website, and that there is an increased awareness of fake reviews, whilst 18-34-year-old users more likely to leave more review than last year, 55+-year-olds are less likely.
Smarter organization of top stories in search
11/12/2019
Google released a post outlining how it is releasing more news content to the ‘top stories’ in the SERPs, meaning there will be increased competition to rank in these slots over the traditional web results.
Google now shows carousels of reviews on local business profiles
11/12/2019
Google no appears to be showing carousels of reviews on local business profiles, promoting the viewing of more reviews by the user rather than having to click “see all review”.
BERT is rolling out to Google search in over 70 languages
09/12/2019
Google announced on Monday it was rolling out BERT across over 70 languages. It should be noted that 10% of all searches are impacted by BERT according to Google, so it’s worth bearing in mind for any non-English markets you’re working in that may be affected.
Updates to Incognito mode and your Timeline in Maps
09/12/2019
Google announced it would be expanding incognito for Maps within iOS, as well as location history deletion options in Timeline for Android. This gives users greater control over their privacy settings and the effects on Google’s location data collections should be minimal.
How to level up from a Google My Business apprentice to a GMB master
06/12/2019
SEL looks at how to make the most of Google My Business pages by updating it frequently. This includes basic location information (latest holiday hours etc.), attributes (languages spoken, caters for children etc.) ratings and reviews (respond to them!), Q&A (providing quality answers to questions), visual content (new products, services) and offers (announce special events and sales).
Google search quality guidelines update emphasizes users of diverse backgrounds
05/12/2019
Google has updated its quality guidelines to emphasise users of diverse backgrounds, highlighting that content can cater to different perspectives and points of view. This continues Google focus on treating users as being people who may be different from the evaluators themselves.
Package tracking early access program
05/12/2019
Google has announced that it will enable packages tracking on the Google SERPs for even more carriers, potentially making Google an extension of those carrier companies own sites and also presents another zero-click situation.
The local algorithm: relevance, proximity, and prominence
06/12/2019
Moz’s latest Whiteboard Friday runs through the three factors that drive Google’s local algorithm and local rankings; relevance, proximity and prominence.
