🔍 Is Google the "new home page for local businesses"?

Plus, giant generational shifts to digital, the Page Experience update and more

Jun 17, 2020 Good morning Josb, does it matter if it's not exactly new news?  Sure, the concepts in the Page Experience update may not be new for many SEOs, but it may help you reprioritize experience initiatives across teams.  "I think this gives you good ammunition to go to your web team or your performance team and say, 'Hey, you know, Google . . . [is] going to release this in six months and so we need to focus on it'," Aja Frost said on last Friday's Live with Search Engine Land dedicated to Google's Page Experience update. She added, "It can be hard to convince those teams that what you want to focus on is what they want to focus on, so any kind of official update or messaging does help push your cause." Read more and watch it all here. The number of local marketers buying ads on Google increased by 10% this year with 80% of respondents to a Moz survey of 1,300 local marketing agencies, SMBs and multi-location enterprises saying they buy ads on the platform. Nearly that many (78%) also view Google as the new homepage for local businesses.  The COVID-19 crisis has rocked the local business economy, forcing many to adopt new business models such as takeout, curbside pickup, etc. This may have lasting impact on the local landscape as many of these trends stick — 51% of businesses said they will continue to invest in the new methods they've launched. Also on the local front, Yelp is out with new features for businesses and restaurants starting to reopen. Restaurants can let users know if they've resumed dine-in or have outdoor seating, for example. Yelp is also going to start surveying users about the health and safety measures businesses are taking to find out whether they're fulfilling their own promises to consumers. Keep reading for a look at generational shifts to digital and more.  Ginny Marvin, Editor-in-Chief   Indicators   Gen Z and Millennials are shifting to digital more dramatically than older generations Advertisers need to understand not only how younger demographics are shifting media habits, but how those habits are expected to evolve as the world moves beyond COVID-19. Snap Inc.and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released a new report that demonstrates how Gen Z and Millennial consumers are shifting behaviors as a result of COVID-19. Here are a few key findings:  69% of younger consumers have purchased a new product for the first time during COVID-19, compared to 43% for older generations. 32% of young consumers report they have increased their online spending, (net increase of 6%), compared to 23% (1% net increase) for older generations 64% have increased their time on social media (vs. 40% for older generations)  73% have increased their time on video streaming (vs. 61% for older generations) 61% have increased their time gaming (vs. 33% for older generations). Learn more »   The Complete Guide to SEO On-Page Content Optimization Digital marketers know that optimization is crucial in a site's ability to rank for high-value keywords, but many still fail to fully optimize their on-page content. In this guide from Linkgraph, you'll find everything you need to know about SEO on-page optimization, including keyword research, writing optimized landing page copy, and optimizing your site's HTML tags. Get your copy »   Search Shorts   Bounce rate is not used for Google ranking. Bounce rate and ranking. For the billionth time, Google has said it does not use Google Analytics data nor bounce rate date for rankings. Merchant center rendering. Did you know that when it comes to Google Merchant Center crawling and indexing, it will first try the HTML page only and not render it unless it needs to? This is not how it works with normal crawling, Google generally renders everything said Google's Martin Splitt.  Magento. Google announced on the Webmaster channel "Use Magento? Googlers will be presenting at @MeetMagentoUK on Wednesday, June 17. We'll cover creating memorable moments on mobile and how Web Vitals can help you quantify the experience of your site and identify opportunities to improve."   Free search marketing training next week! Join 8,000+ fellow search marketers next Tuesday and Wednesday, June 23 – 24, for SMX Next… a free virtual event that will equip you with actionable SEO and SEM tactics that can help drive more traffic, leads, and sales. Register for free »   What we're reading   We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader Does Merging Google My Business Listings Help Ranking? – Sterling Sky Inc Entity IDs as 64-bit in AdWords API, Google Ads API beta, Google Ads scripts, and Content API  for Shopping – Google Ads Developer Blog Google resumes its senseless attack on the URL bar, hides full addresses on Chrome 85 – Android Police Google: Missing Churchill photo mystery explained – BBC News How The Trevor Project is using AI to help prevent suicide – Google Blog How to Adapt Your SEO Strategy to Changing Trends – Botify Ranking Search Results based on Information Gain Scores – Go Fish Digital Source: Google to launch 'prince,' a new standard Nest-branded smart speaker – 9to5Google The Google Nofollow Change Will Be About Fixing Mistakes – Search Engine Roundtable Yelp adds new features for reopening businesses – TechCrunch   https://searchengineland.com/ Want to advertise? 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