What to Tweet: 21 Easy Ideas for Your Business or Brand via @KristiKellogg

At this point, you probably need no convincing that Twitter is an effective marketing tool for business. You can use Twitter to gain exposure, drive site traffic, assist in conversions and improve overall brand reputation. If you’re ready to up your investment in Twitter, but don’t know where to start or what to tweet, we’re here to help. Read on for 21 things to tweet from a business or brand account.

1. Promote Your Blog Posts and Content

Whenever you publish a new blog post, case study, white paper or any other piece of content, push it out to Twitter! And not just on the first day – make sure you schedule out follow-up tweets, especially if it’s a piece of evergreen content that’s performing well. For example, let’s say REI publishes a blog post on supplies you need to bring when backpacking – that’s the kind of article that will be perpetually relevant. REI could schedule out weekly tweets promoting that single blog post (with slightly different messaging each time) throughout an entire year.

2. Promote Your Sales and Specials

Whether you’re having a sale in a store or a special online, let your Twitter followers know! For an in-store sale, include the details of where and when, and highlight some of the best deals. For an online sale, include your promo code and let customers know how long it’s good for. In either case, include a lively picture or GIF to attract more attention. (Looking for a source for license-free photos? Check out 41 Places to Find Free Images Online That You Will Actually Want to Use.)

3. Share Helpful Tips or On-Brand Messages

Tweets don’t only have to link back to a specific blog post. Use Twitter to share one-off tips and tricks that your audience will find useful. If, for example, you sell skincare products, you could tweet general skincare tips. A yoga studio, on the other hand, could tweet out positive mantras. What can your business share that would benefit your audience?

4. Respond to Complaints, Comments and Questions

Customers expect responses from brands and businesses on Twitter. According to research, 72% of Twitter users expect a brand to respond within an hour when they tweet a complaint. To maintain your brand’s reputation, it’s essential to respond politely and promptly to complaints. Never argue with the user, but thank them for sharing their experience and do everything to address their concerns (and move the conversation off Twitter to email or a phone call when it’s above and beyond the scope of 280 characters!) Make sure to actively monitor your Twitter for complaints (and questions) so that concerns are addressed quickly and don’t escalate.

6. Give Answers to FAQ

Your FAQ is a great place to find content for Twitter. What questions come up again and again? Repurpose those questions and answers into bite-size Twitter content. This is an easy way to anticipate and address needs before your audience even brings it up!

7. Conduct Polls

Polls are a quick and easy way to garner engagement on Twitter. You can:

• Ask for general feedback.
• Discover product preferences.
• Learn more about your customers.

And it certainly doesn’t have to be all serious – you can ask lighthearted questions solely to boost engagement.

8. Highlight Reviews & Recommendations

It comes as no surprise that 97% of shoppers say reviews influence buying decisions. In addition to review sites and your actual website, post positive reviews to Twitter. If you get a glowing review on Yelp, Google, or anywhere else, don’t hesitate to hit copy and paste. Share the quote directly to Twitter with a link to the actual review page.

9. Ask for Reviews & Recommendations

You can use Twitter not only to highlight reviews but also ask for them. Sometimes your customers need that extra push to make a review. A restaurant could tweet something as simple: Reviews are so important for our business! If you love our restaurant, would you mind leaving us a review on Yelp? It’d mean so much to us! Take 60 seconds and leave us a review! 🍔 Include a link leading them directly to where they can lead a review. This kind of request is something you could work into your Twitter calendar once a week.

10. Share Articles & Content that Are Relevant to Your Readers

Your Twitter account shouldn’t be a bullhorn announcing only your own accomplishments. There should be a healthy mix of content that is relevant to your audience – and sometimes that means tweeting things that have nothing to do with your company itself. For example, let’s say you’re a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO and a major algorithm update takes place. Sharing a news story on the subject would be relevant to your clients, and it would also show that your agency is on top of the latest news. Or maybe you’re a local business, and you have a neighboring store who is holding a charity event – chances are that the people who frequent your business would also be familiar with your neighbors so it would make total sense to help promote it.

11. Announce Job Openings

Looking for new talent? Take to Twitter to announce your need. Anyone following you is already interested in your brand, and who knows who’s out there that would jump on the opportunity to work with you! Always tweet out job openings with a link to where people can apply.

12. Highlight Standout Employees

Speaking of employees, use Twitter to highlight your standout staff. Share noteworthy accomplishments, whether it’s earning employee of the month, completing a major project, celebrating a major work anniversary or generally going above and beyond. Not only will this boost staff morale, but it will also attract potential customers, employees, and customers. Who wouldn’t want to work with a company not only has exemplary workers but takes the time to acknowledge and thank them?

13. Link to Any Press Coverage, Mentions or Recognition of Your Business

Whenever your business earns press coverage, an award or recognition of any kind, make sure to tweet it out. Press mentions are one of my favorite things to tweet. They’re Twitter gold, and belongs on all your social media channels, as well as a page dedicated to press mentions on your website. Set up Google Alerts for your business’ name so you’re always on top of any news that comes out.

14. Recognize Holidays and Events

Holidays are excellent fodder for Twitter content. Show the human side of your brand with thoughtful well wishes for the holidays, expressions of gratitude on Thanksgiving, national pride on the Fourth of July, etc. Not sure what to post, exactly? It can be as simple as a kind tweet with a relevant picture, or as elaborate as a three-minute video of your office singing a Christmas carol. Get creative!

15. Retweet Any Positive or Useful Tweets Mentioning Your Brand

Make use of other people’s tweets! Whenever someone mentions your business or employees, respond to the tweet and take the extra step to retweet it. Note: when people mention you, they might not necessarily use your Twitter handle. For that reason, it’s key to set up a column in your TweetDeck that monitors any mention of your brand’s name, the CEO and executives’ names, or any other important terminology associated with your business.

16. Find Ways to Be Transparent & Go Behind the Scenes of Your Business

Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to buy from transparent companies and more willing to give transparent companies second chances after a bad experience. One way to be transparent is to go behind the scenes of your business. You can:

• Share goals and objectives.
• Share videos or pictures of day-to-day operations.
• Admit to mistakes you’ve made and how they’ve shaped (or will shape) your future actions.

17. Get in On Trending Conversations

Take advantage of trending hashtags when appropriate. For example, if #FridayFeeling is trending, a store could offer a 10% TGIF discount with and use #FridayFeeling in its hashtags. Or, if you’re a B2B, maybe it’s just a funny TGIF picture, video, or meme celebrating the end of the week.

18. Have a Sense of Humor and a Heart

Just because you’re a business, your tweets don’t need to all be business-driven. People love to see the human side of brands, so don’t hesitate to occasionally share a funny meme or joke, or a heartwarming video. When you post things like this, try to keep it relevant to your brand. For example, a shoe company could post a video of a charity giving out shoes to poor in third world countries – while it has nothing to do with their actual business, it’s still on brand.

19. Hold Contests

Use Twitter as a platform for a social media contest. This will increase your engagement, boost your following, and lead to conversions. You can also use your contest to capture emails and leads. Software like Studies and Rafflecopter make it simple to run a contest.

20. Strategically Interact with Influencers

Is building relationships with social media influencers one of your goals? It doesn’t happen by magic. Influencers are far more likely to partner with a brand they’ve formed a relationship with. Make a list of influencers that your brand would benefit from working with, and begin regularly interacting with them: thoughtfully comment on their comment and retweet it when appropriate. Then, when you’re ready to ask for something from them (whether you’re offering to pay or not), your request is much more likely to get attention – your business won’t be a stranger, but someone the influencer has begun to form a relationship with.

21. Participate in Twitter Chats

Twitter chats are a great way to earn more engagement and followers. A Twitter chat is much like any other online chat, in which online users gather at a specified time to discuss certain topics or issues. The great thing about Twitter chat is it brings users together from all over the world to a platform where they can interact in real time rather than communicate in a delayed manner through traditional social media postings. To join a Twitter chat, you just need to know the hashtag being used (every Twitter chat has its own hashtag). The best way to follow Twitter chats is with a site like TweetChat or TweetDeck. There are Twitter chats on virtually every topic you can think of. SEMrush, for example, hosts a Twitter chat (#SEMrushChat) every Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET that focuses on digital marketing topics. Find Twitter chats that are relevant to your business or industry, and make a point to join in when you can.

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Image Credits Featured Image: Paulo Bobita

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/what-to-tweet-21-easy-ideas-for-your-business-or-brand-via-kristikellogg/

Litigation Update: Roundup Settlement Talks

Settlement talks in the Roundup litigation have not yet yielded a resolution, prompting the judges in lawsuits pending in California and Missouri to forge ahead. In St. Louis last week, before opening statements were set to begin, jurors were told that the case involving four plaintiffs had been postponed indefinitely as Bayer AG and the plaintiffs engaged in mediation overseen by Ken Feinberg in an attempt to reach a global settlement of thousands of cases.  With a settlement still not reached, it is reported that jurors in the St. Louis case have been told the trials could resume as early as next Monday. Similarly, in the absence of a settlement, jury selection continues in the California case. Mr. Feinberg was appointed to mediate the settlement by US District Judge Vince Chhabria who is overseeing about 2700 cases in the multidistrict litigation in San Francisco federal court. He recently stated that the number of cases had grown to between 75,000 and 85,000 which Bayer observed was a speculative estimate that may include plaintiffs with unserved cases. In October, Bayer had estimated the number of cases at 42,700. Bayer purchased Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup, in June 2018 just before the first mass tort trial involving the popular weedkiller was about to start. Several adverse verdicts and the emergence of damaging internal Monsanto documents showing the company had engaged in deceptive practices have led to reports that Bayer investors are pushing for an end to the litigation. Judge Chhabria has scheduled the second bellwether trial in the multidistrict litigation for February 24. Recent rulings by the judge in the pending California case, Superior Court Barry P. Goode, will allow Monsanto to mention a recent EPA report that had been previously excluded by another trial judge presiding over a case that resulted in a $2 billion verdict last year.  That EPA report stated that glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient was likely not a carcinogen. Click on this link for information on Verus’ Mass Tort Services. To contact us, fill out this form or email us at info@verusllc.com and we will reply immediately. |CONTACT US| |REQUEST PROPOSAL|

Manager of Research Services

609-466-0427 As the Manager of Research Services at Verus, Kim uses both historical documents and current analysis to conduct ongoing research into the products and exposure sites for each of the Trusts administered by Verus. MORE

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/litigation-update-roundup-settlement-talks/

WordPress 5.4 Will Add Lazy-Loading to All Images via @martinibuster

WordPress announced that WordPress 5.4 may feature image lazy-loading by default. This feature will enable the “loading” HTML attribute on all IMG elements. WordPress publishers will no longer need to use JavaScript or third party plugins for lazy-loading their images.

Lazy-loading

The lazy-loading HTML attribute tells a browser to either wait before downloading an image or to download it right away. There is no JavaScript need to accomplish this. There are three kinds of lazy-loading attributes but only two that really matter:

1. Lazy
2. Eager

Lazy, which will be enabled in WordPress 5.4 by default, means to wait until the users browser viewport is within a certain distance before downloading the image. This behavior will speed up a users experience on WordPress sites. The “eager” attribute tells the browser to immediately download the image.

WordPress 5.4 Release Date

WordPress 5.4 is currently set to release on March 31, 2020. That date is subject to change depending on how ready the release is. But WordPress has been very good about meeting their deadlines. According to the WordPress announcement:

“The implementation seeks to enable lazy-loading images by default, providing the loading attribute with value lazy on the following img tags: Images in post content Images in post excerpts Images in comments Images in text widget content Individual images rendered via wp_get_attachment_image() Avatar images rendered via get_avatar() Note that loading=”lazy” will only be added if the respective tag does not yet include a loading attribute. In other words, to prevent an image from being lazy-loaded, it is recommended to specify loading=”eager”.”

According to the WordPress comments, the lazy-loading attributes will be implemented in a manner that makes it easy to remove them. This is important in case future browsers begin lazy-loading all images by default, without the need for a loading attribute. Google has indicated via Web.dev that there are plans to automatically enable lazy-loading to all images when a browser in the Lite mode (formerly known as Data Saver mode).

Test Drive WordPress Lazy-Loading

The WordPress team has officially released a WordPress lazy-loading plugin designed for testing purposes. Publishers who want to test it and give feedback are welcome to download the plugin and give it a try. Read the official WordPress announcement here: Lazy-Loading Images in WordPress Core

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/wordpress-5-4-will-add-lazy-loading-to-all-images-via-martinibuster/

Google Search Patent Update – January 29, 2020 via @theGypsy

In this new weekly series, we’ll be looking at some recently granted Google Search Patents. When it comes to search and SEO, there’s no easy way to know what’s in the black box that is Google. Patent filings can at least give us a glimpse. It’s always worth noting that just because a patent was filed and granted, it doesn’t mean that Google’s using it. And if it is in use, we don’t know the thresholds or scoring values within the greater context. All we’re after with this exercise is to get into the mindset. A sense of how things work in information retrieval. Also, this won’t be a deep-dive adventure. Just some highlights. I do though, encourage you to follow up on any of interest and read them fully.

Latest Google Patents of Interest

Well, the last few weeks have been a bit quiet. Which is kinda sad for guys like Bill Slawski and myself. But there were a “few” of interest the last few weeks, so let’s have a look.

Computerized systems and methods for enriching a knowledge base for search queries

• Filed: Feb. 29 2016
• Granted: January 14, 2020

Abstract

“Systems and methods are disclosed for enriching a knowledge base for search queries. According to certain embodiments, images are assigned annotations that identify entities contained in the images. An object entity is selected among the entities based on the annotations and at least one attribute entity is determined using annotated images containing the object entity. A relationship between the object entity and the at least one attribute entity is inferred and stored in the knowledge base. In some embodiments, confidence may be calculated for the entities. The confidence scores may be aggregated across a plurality of images to identify an object entity.”

Notable

“In accordance with some embodiments, object recognition technology is used to annotate images stored in databases or harvested from Internet web pages. The annotations may identify who and/or what is contained in the images.” “(…) can learn which annotations are good indicators for facts by aggregating annotations over object entities and facts that are already known to be true. Grouping annotated images by object entity helps identify the top annotations for the object entity. Top annotations can be selected as attributes for the object entities and relationships can be inferred between the object entities and the attributes.” “(…) also provide improved systems and methods for calculating confidence scores for annotations assigned to images. Confidence scores may reflect likelihood that an entity identified by an annotation is actually contained in an image. Confidence scores may be calculated on a per-image basis and aggregated over groups of annotated images in order to improve image recognition and annotation techniques.”

Determining search queries for obtaining information during a user experience of an event

• Filed: March 15, 2017
• Granted: January 28, 2020

Abstract

“A computing system is described that determines a plurality of search queries for subsequent search during an event, and schedules, for each of the plurality of search queries, a respective time during the event to search the corresponding search query. Responsive to determining that a user of a computing device is experiencing the event at the respective time during the event at which a particular search query from the plurality of search queries is scheduled to be searched, the computing system searches the particular search query and automatically sends, to the computing device for subsequent display during the event, an indication of information returned from the search of the particular search query.”

Notable

“While experiencing an event (e.g., watching and/or listening to a presentation of content), a user may wish to obtain secondary information related to the event and may therefore interact with a computing device to manually search for such information while experiencing the event.” “(…) while a user of a computing device is experiencing an event, dynamically obtain, and cause the computing device to present current information that is relevant to the event. The term “event” as used herein refers to any live performance, broadcast, playback, or other type of presentation of live or pre-recorded content (e.g., meeting presentations, assemblies, conferences, musical or theatrical performances, movies, television shows, songs, concerts, sports events, or any other types of live or pre-recorded content that users may experience).” “(…) a user may wish to obtain secondary information about the event, at precise timestamps, or in response to particular “subevents” occurring, during the event. For example, while watching a sports event, a user may be interested in obtaining biographical information of a lesser-known player that just made an important play, or may be interested in seeing a replay of the important play. Or, while watching a movie, a user may be interested in seeing vacation deals or other information about an exotic geographical location that is the backdrop of a particular scene. Or while watching a movie or TV presentation, the user may wish to obtain biographical and other acting information about the actors, as they appear on the screen.” “The system may pre-determine and store (e.g., in cache or other memory) one or more search queries for subsequent search when a user of a computing device is experiencing the event.”

Semantic model for tagging of word lattices

• Filed: August 21, 2017
• Granted: January 7, 2020

Abstract

“Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for tagging during speech recognition. A word lattice that indicates probabilities for sequences of words in an utterance is obtained. A conditional probability transducer that indicates a frequency that sequences of both the words and semantic tags for the words appear is obtained. The word lattice and the conditional probability transducer are composed to construct a word lattice that indicates probabilities for sequences of both the words in the utterance and the semantic tags for the words. The word lattice that indicates probabilities for sequences of both the words in the utterance and the semantic tags for the words is used to generate a transcription that includes the words in the utterance and the semantic tags for the words.”

Notable

“(…) obtaining, from an automated speech recognizer, an utterance-weighted word lattice that indicates probabilities for sequences of words in an utterance; obtaining a conditional probability transducer that indicates a frequency that sequences of both the words and semantic tags for the words appear;” “(…) mechanisms for tagging words during speech recognition. In general, a semantic tagger may insert tags into a word lattice, such as a word lattice produced by a real-time large vocabulary speech recognition system. For example, the phrase “San Francisco” may appear in a path of a word lattice and tagged with metadata of “<cities>” before “San” and metadata of “</cities>” after “Francisco.”” “The tagging may be performed by distilling a pre-existing very large named entity disambiguation (NED) model into a lightweight tagger. This may be accomplished by constructing a joint distribution of tagged n-grams from a supervised training corpus and then deriving a conditional distribution for a given lattice.”

Speech recognition with attention-based recurrent neural networks

• Filed: May 3, 2018
• Granted: January 21, 2020

Abstract

“Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for speech recognition. One method includes obtaining an input acoustic sequence, the input acoustic sequence representing an utterance, and the input acoustic sequence comprising a respective acoustic feature representation at each of a first number of time steps; processing the input acoustic sequence using a first neural network to convert the input acoustic sequence into an alternative representation for the input acoustic sequence; processing the alternative representation for the input acoustic sequence using an attention-based Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to generate, for each position in an output sequence order, a set of substring scores that includes a respective substring score for each substring in a set of substrings; and generating a sequence of substrings that represent a transcription of the utterance.”

Notable

“Some speech recognition systems include a pronunciation system, an acoustic modeling system and a language model. The acoustic modeling system generates a phoneme representation of the acoustic sequence, the pronunciation system generates a grapheme representation of the acoustic sequence from the phoneme representation, and the language model generates the transcription of the utterance that is represented by the acoustic sequence from the grapheme representation.” (…) “processing the input acoustic sequence using a first neural network to convert the input acoustic sequence into an alternative representation for the input acoustic sequence; processing the alternative representation for the input acoustic sequence using an attention-based Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to generate, for each position in an output sequence order, a set of substring scores that includes a respective substring score for each substring in a set of substrings; and generating a sequence of sub strings that represent a transcription of the utterance.”

Stay Tuned & Get Geeky

And there we have it for the first of many updates to come. If you’ve never spent some quality time with a search patent – isn’t it time you did? Be sure to come back each week for all the latest awards and get your geek on. Over the coming months, I will also be writing in more detail when there’s an especially interesting Google patent that I think you should know about. See you next week. More Resources:

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Image Credits Featured Image: Created by author, January 2020 In-Post Images: USPTO

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-search-patent-update-january-29-2020-via-thegypsy/

8 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Facebook Business Page via @KristiKellogg

You’d be hard-pressed to find a business that didn’t see the value in having a page on Facebook (more than 60 million businesses already have Facebook pages).

A Facebook book page allows you to tell your brand story, create relationships with customers and accomplish business goals – it’s a win all around. Here, we’ll look at eight ways you can drive engagement with your Facebook business page, all without spending a dime.

1. Post Native Videos Directly to Facebook

Rather than post your content to YouTube, try posting it to Facebook. When you post natively from Facebook, the video will automatically start playing as your followers scroll through their feed – it will catch their eye and before they even have time to think about it, they’re watching. The key here is to keep the video short. Facebook videos that get the most engagement are 30 seconds to two minutes, with the ideal length falling at 60 to 90 seconds. With that in mind, keep your videos to 2 minutes or less.

2. Optimize Your Videos & Create Video Playlists

Whenever you post a video, also make sure to include a keyword-rich title and description, and add tags to your video – this will increase the video’s chance of showing up in relevant feeds throughout Facebook. Then, as you start to amass a collection of SEO-rich, native Facebook videos, pop them into playlists. That way, more related videos will continue to be shown to the user after they’re done watching the first one. Another way to get more engagement and video views is to feature a video. When you choose a video to be featured, it will top billing on your Facebook page.

3. Go Live

Take your videos up a notch by going live. Whenever you go live, your video will shoot to the top of your followers’ Facebook news feeds. On top of that, people who have interacted with your page frequently or recently will get a notification letting them know you’re live! The boost in the news feed plus those notifications are a recipe for engagement! After your live broadcast is over, the video will appear on your Facebook page. You can then continue to promote it, embed it on your site, or share it on other social networks.

4. Look to Facebook Insights for Data You Can Use

Social media strategies are never one-size-fits-all. Check your Facebook Insights at once a month and take note of the content that your audience was most engaged with. Note not only the subject, but the format. Use that information to guide your ongoing Facebook strategy. It’s a clear signal into what your unique audience wants – work to create more content along similar lines.

5. Post Exclusive Content

Another way to make your followers pay attention to your Facebook feed is to offer content that is exclusive to Facebook. For example, you can post special discounts on Facebook or release data from an upcoming case study or white paper before it’s published on your website. Make your Facebook posts count by sharing exclusive content users won’t find anywhere else. Publicize flash sales, special discounts, contests, etc.

6. Interact & Engage Meaningfully

Interacting is par for the course, no matter what social media network you’re using. Whenever you get comments or messages, respond! Provide insight and guidance when people ask questions, and thank them when they offer your brand praise. If you’re a dedicated social media manager, try to do this throughout the day in real-time (as much as your schedule allows). If you’re a business owner juggling many hats, set aside a certain amount of time to dedicate to social media – for a small business, a solid hour or even half-hour a day can make a huge difference in managing social interactions.

7. Make the Most of User-Generated Content

Whenever your business is mentioned or tagged anywhere, it’s fodder for Facebook content. Got a great Yelp review? Quote it and link to it on Facebook. Did someone post an awesome picture of your business on Instagram? Send the poster a DM on Instagram, thank them and ask for permission to share it with photo credit on all your social channels. Nine times out of 10 they’ll say yes, and they’ll love that you thanked them and are interacting with them (if they’re not already following you, this will most likely seal the deal). Wherever, whenever a user tags, mentions, reviews or writes about your brand in a positive way, get the most mileage you can out of that content. You can also encourage more user-generated content by hosting contests that require video or photo submissions related to your brand.

8. Use Cinemagraphs

A cinemagraph is an animated photo. It’s technically a video file that plays in a continuous loop. Practically, it looks like a still image with a minor piece of movement. For example, a photo of a woman at the beach with waves actually moving in the background, though the foreground is still. Cinemagraphs are huge eye-catchers and will stand out in the Facebook news feed. Stock photo sites like Shutterstock have a large library of cinemagraphs you can use in your own Facebook posts to the next level!

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Image Credits Featured Image: Paulo Bobita

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/8-ways-to-increase-engagement-on-your-facebook-business-page-via-kristikellogg/

Google Makes it Possible to Temporarily Remove Sites From Search Results via @MattGSouthern

Google is updating the Removals report in Search Console with the ability to temporarily remove sites from search results. The new version of the Removals report also includes data on outdated content, SafeSearch filtering requests, and information on pages that has been reported via other Google tools.

Temporarily remove pages from Google Search

Site owners can now temporarily remove specific pieces of content from Google’s search results. This is useful if you need to remove pages from Google Search quickly, though keep in mind the pages can still be found by other search engines. This tool is not something to use if you wish to remove pages for only a few days or weeks, as a successful removal request will last for roughly six months. It’s designed to give site owners enough time to find a permanent solution. Using the temporary removals tool, site owners can also perform a clear cache URL request. This will clear the cached page and wipe out the description snippet from Google Search until the page is crawled again.

Outdated Content

Requests made through the public Remove Outdated Content tool can now be tracked in Search Console’s new outdated content section. This tool is not limited to just site owners, it can be used by anyone to update SERPs that show information which is no longer included on a page.

SafeSearch Filtering

If pages on your site have been reported as adult content, you can now view a history of these reports in the SafeSearch Filtering section. URLs reported to Google through the SafeSearch Suggestion tool are reviewed and tagged as adult content if reviewers believe they should be filtered from SafeSearch results.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-makes-it-possible-to-temporarily-remove-sites-from-search-results-via-mattgsouthern/

Use of Content Marketing Campaigns Expected to Grow in 2020 via @MattGSouthern

Marketers say their use of content-driven campaigns will increase in 2020, and continue to grow over the next two years. According to a new report from eMarketer, 80% of marketing professionals worldwide say the use of content marketing campaigns will grow. Only 2% of marketers say the use of content marketing will decline, and 19% say it will stabilize. Moving beyond editorial-style content and social media, more marketers are turning to non-traditional forms of content creation. For example, 90% of marketers say they plan to use audio/podcasts in their campaigns in 2020. A similar percentage plans to use emerging technology like augmented reality. Jillian Ryan, principal analyst at eMarketer, speaks to these survey results:

“Content, when produced strategically and with regularity, can be the backbone of a marketing and advertising plan. It should be created for a specific audience and shared in the most relevant channel to reach the intended audience. Brands are starting to realize that content-led strategies can inform and provide fuel for most of their other marketing and advertising initiatives.”

Content Marketing Resources

If you’re one of those marketers planning to expand your use of content-driven campaigns this year, make sure to check out our most-read and most-shared resources from 2019. Learn where to invest your time and resources this year with Julia McCoy’s guide to the top 5 trends to know in SEO & content marketing. Of course, if you’re outputting more content you want to see a return on that effort. Julia McCoy provides further guidance with 5 creative ways to boost your content marketing ROI. Lastly, see what’s ahead for content marketing this year with this article on 5 big content trends for 2020.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/use-of-content-marketing-campaigns-expected-to-grow-in-2020-via-mattgsouthern/

DuckDuckGo Adds Quick Answers to Search Results via @MattGSouthern

DuckDuckGo has been spotted serving quick answers in search results, which are largely similar to Google’s featured snippets. Ross Hudgens shared a screenshot on Twitter which shows a quick answer being served  on the right-hand side of desktop search results (also works on mobile).

DuckDuckGo recently added quick answers. This is a better experience for users, and kudos to them for putting the website URL at the top unlike Google.

They have one ad, prioritize credit to the publisher, and their product is getting better. We're rooting for you DDG! pic.twitter.com/vcLVukjrjr — Ross Hudgens (@RossHudgens) January 25, 2020

Results may vary for each user. For example, I can replicate this quick answer, but it shows up immediately below the search bar. I did some further testing to learn more about this addition to DuckDuckGo’s search results and here’s what I found. Quick answers come from WikiHow only DuckDuckGo’s quick answers now show up fairly regularly for “how to” searches, but the information all comes from a single source. WikiHow must have some kind of arrangement with DuckDuckGo to serve these snippets exclusively. Information in Google’s quick answers, on the other hand, can be pulled from any website. DuckDuckGo’s quick answers show up more often than Google’s Based on the few dozen “how to” searches I conducted, I discovered that DuckDuckGo serves quick answers more often than Google. Here’s what happens when you take the same “how to tie a tie” query, as shown above, and search for it in Google. Of course, this could vary for each user as well, but I found Google would more often serve instructional YouTube videos than step-by-step quick answers. Related: DuckDuckGo vs. Google: An In-Depth Search Engine Comparison DuckDuckGo’s quick answers are fully expandable When a quick answer is served in DuckDuckGo’s search results it can be expanded to reveal the content in full. Here’s an example of a lengthy step-by-step quick answer: Google receives a lot of criticism for serving a generous portion of content in featured snippets, but it doesn’t serve entire articles. Google searchers still have to visit a publisher’s site to read an article in full. All in all, this is a useful addition to DuckDuckGo’s search results and shows it’s committed to continually improving its product. Related: DuckDuckGo SEO: What You Should Know

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/duckduckgo-adds-quick-answers-to-search-results-via-mattgsouthern/

Google’s John Mueller on Ranking Important Pages via @martinibuster

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about important of links from the main page.  John’s answered the question and shared how to signal which pages on a website are important.

Site Architecture

Site Architecture, also known as Information Architecture, is a strategy for organizing web pages in a way that is intuitive for users and makes it easy for site visitors to find information. There are two approaches to site architecture.

Flat Site Structure

A common approach is to create a navigational structure that makes it easy for search engines and users to find all or almost all published pages. This approach becomes difficult for users when a site is large. It also creates what’s called a Flat Site structure. A flat site structure is the situation where every web page in a website is within one to two clicks from the home page. What happens is that every page has the same amount of importance and is easily reached by search engines. The downside for a search engine and the publisher is that every page contains a virtual site map of the entire site. For search engines, this means that groups of related pages are difficult to understand as belonging to a particular topic. That makes it harder for search engines to understand what a page is about and difficult to rank individual web pages. A flat navigational structure results in an unusable navigational structure. This means that site visitors will have a difficult time finding their content.

Taxonomical Site Structure

The second approach is a taxonomical site structure. Taxonomy in the context of site architecture means a system for classifying information. A taxonomical site structure divides the site according to topic categories and then keeps sub-dividing these topic categories into ever more specific categories. This results in a site structure that can easily be understood by search engines and easily navigated by site visitors. The first approach is motivated by the idea of shifting as much PageRank/Link Equity from the home page to the inner pages to help the inner pages rank better. But that’s not how search engines rank pages anymore. Search engines TEND to rank web pages that have links from other sites. This isn’t true across for all keywords. Competitive keywords tend to need links to prove they are authoritative and relevant for a particular topic. This is true regardless if a site is built with a flat or taxonomical site structure. The key difference between the two approaches is that a taxonomical site structure makes more sense to both users and search engines while a flat site structure makes it easier for a search engine to reach all web pages in a site but at the expense of a meaningful site structure. This is the background behind the question that was asked.

Is it Important for Pages to Be Close to the Home Page?

The question that John Mueller was asked was about the importance of how far a web page is from the home page. This is the question:

“Is it important that all pages of a site are accessible… from the main page. For example some news from 2015… is accessible in ten plus steps. Is that okay?”

This is John Mueller’s answer:

“That’s perfectly fine. Usually… what happens here (or where this comes from) is that on a lot of websites the home page is the most important part of the website. So we re-crawl that fairly often and from there we try to find new and updated pages or other important pages.”

Many sites have more links to their home page than they do to any specific web page. Google crawls the web from link to link. So for most websites Google will begin crawling a website from the home page. Mueller continues:

“So what will happen is, we’ll see the home page is really important, things linked from the home page are generally pretty important as well. And then… as it moves away from the home page we’ll think probably this is less critical.” That pages linked directly from the home page are important is fairly well known but it’s worth repeating. In a well organized website the major category pages and any other important pages are going to be linked from the home page.”

Important Content Signals

Mueller then explained:

“So that’s something where you might see things like this where it’s like someone will say, well some amount of steps is… the minimum steps from the home page. From our point of view that’s less about SEO and more about, well we have to discover all of these pages somehow. So if news articles from 2015 are behind some archive where you have to kind of like find the archive, find the year and then look at the month and look at maybe a category and then find the news article, usually that’s perfectly fine. On the other hand, if there’s something that you really really care about, you think is really important and you hide it away like that, then probably we’ll think it’s not as important. So if you think it’s important then make sure it’s really easily findable within your website.”

That’s a great explanation of how to signal to Google that any particular page is important to the site by giving it a link straight from the home page. That link could be to a popular category, to a trending topic or a page that describes a service your business provides. Clearly not every web page in a website is as important as every other web page. But that’s the signal that a flat site structure sends. In my experience, dividing a site according to topics then making deeper pages accessible from those topic pages is the best way to structure a web site, both for Google and for users. John’s advice to link important pages from the home page is good advice.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/googles-john-mueller-on-ranking-important-pages-via-martinibuster/

Litigation Update: Latest Talc Developments

In a January 13 decision, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Ana C. Viscomi ruled that Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky must take the stand in the punitive damages phase of the trial, which began on January 14 and will determine whether J&J acted “maliciously or in wanton and willful disregard of the plaintiff’s rights”. The jury in the first phase of the trial held in September found that J&J’s baby powder had caused the mesothelioma suffered by the four plaintiffs and awarded them $37.3 in compensatory damages.  J&J had sought to quash the subpoena seeking Gorsky’s testimony, arguing that the CEO did not have any specific knowledge that could be considered relevant. The judge, however, disagreed, stating that Gorsky’s earlier statements indicated he had personal knowledge that would be relevant in the punitive damages phase of the trial. On January 15, J&J appealed Judge Viscomi’s ruling to the New Jersey Appellate Division seeking a reversal of her decision requiring Gorsky’s testimony. The Appellate Division rejected J&J’s argument, stating that the company “had failed to demonstrate the need for immediate review of the interlocutory order”.  The company indicated after the Appellate Division’s decision that it would seek review of Judge Viscomi’s ruling by the state Supreme Court. The requirement for Mr. Gorsky to appear at trial is a significant development for the CEO who had previously declined to testify at a Congressional hearing in December to address the safety of his company’s baby powder. Click on this link for information on Verus’ Mass Tort Services. To contact us, fill out this form or email us at info@verusllc.com and we will reply immediately. |CONTACT US| |REQUEST PROPOSAL|

Manager of Research Services

609-466-0427 As the Manager of Research Services at Verus, Kim uses both historical documents and current analysis to conduct ongoing research into the products and exposure sites for each of the Trusts administered by Verus. MORE

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/litigation-update-latest-talc-developments/

Google to experiment with more desktop search changes after favicon/black ad label rollout

By Barry Schwartz Google announced today on Twitter that it will begin testing more variations and changes to the desktop search results based on early feedback from users around the favicon and black ad label rollout on desktop. Positive results. Google told Search Engine Land with the mobile rollout that happened several months ago, that “design has been well received by users on mobile screens, as it helps people more quickly see where information is coming from and they can see a prominent bolded ad label at the top.” With the desktop rollout from a week or so ago, Google said that “early tests for desktop were positive, we are always incorporating feedback from our users.” More changes to come. Google said “we are experimenting with a change to the current desktop favicons, and will continue to iterate on the design over time.” Google said “Our experimenting will begin today. Over the coming weeks, while we test, some might not see favicons while some might see them in different placements as we look to bring a modern look to desktop.” In fact, we saw some tests of this earlier today. Google’s statement. Here is the statement Google sent us: “We’re dedicated to improving the desktop experience for Search, and as part of our efforts we rolled out a new design last week, mirroring the design that we’ve had for many months on mobile. The design has been well received by users on mobile screens, as it helps people more quickly see where information is coming from and they can see a prominent bolded ad label at the top. Web publishers have also told us they like having their brand iconography on the search results page. While early tests for desktop were positive, we are always incorporating feedback from our users. We are experimenting with a change to the current desktop favicons, and will continue to iterate on the design over time.” Google’s post on Twitter. Google also just posted this on Twitter:

Our experimenting will begin today. Over the coming weeks, while we test, some might not see favicons while some might see them in different placements as we look to bring a modern look to desktop….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 24, 2020

Before. Here is a screen shot of what the desktop search results looked like before this change: After. Here is what this looks like now, with the favicons: Why we care. When this rolled out on mobile, the SEO and SEM community were not too happy with the change. But now that it rolled out on desktop, it appears a wider audience is less happy with the change. Many publications have covered their dissatisfaction with the new design and it seems Google has heard this feedback. It is not just SEOs and SEMs complaining but a wider set of searchers and Google users. This change does impact your click-through-rate on your Google Ads and organic/free listings. So as Google continues to experiment and change the way the snippets are displayed, your traffic may be impacted in some way.

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About The Author

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-to-experiment-with-more-desktop-search-changes-after-favicon-black-ad-label-rollout/

Google Responds to Criticism Regarding Desktop Search Changes via @MattGSouthern

Google has issued an official statement in response to widespread criticism of its recent changes to desktop search results. Last week, Google updated the look of paid and organic search results on desktop. The most noticeable changes include favicons next to desktop search results, and a plain black “Ad” label next to paid results. For reference, here is the new look of desktop search results: And here is the old version: Google claims the new “Ad” label is more prominent, though many would argue (and have argued) it makes paid results virtually indistinguishable from organic results.

Google’s Response

Google is listening to the feedback and says, starting today, it will begin experimenting with new placements for favicons.

Last week we updated the look of Search on desktop to mirror what’s been on mobile for months. We’ve heard your feedback about the update. We always want to make Search better, so we’re going to experiment with new placements for favicons….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 24, 2020

During the experiment, which is said to last several weeks, some users will not see favicons at all and others will see favicons in different placements. Google’s full statement on the matter is as follows:

“We’re dedicated to improving the desktop experience for Search, and as part of our efforts we rolled out a new design last week, mirroring the design that we’ve had for many months on mobile. The design has been well received by users on mobile screens, as it helps people more quickly see where information is coming from and they can see a prominent bolded ad label at the top. Web publishers have also told us they like having their brand iconography on the search results page. While early tests for desktop were positive, we are always incorporating feedback from our users. We are experimenting with a change to the current desktop favicons, and will continue to iterate on the design over time.”

Note that there’s no mention of any changes to the “more prominent” black Ad label. Presumably, the new label will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-responds-to-criticism-regarding-desktop-search-changes-via-mattgsouthern/

Google’s New Dataset Search Engine Comes Out of Beta via @MattGSouthern

Google’s ‘Dataset Search,’ first launched in September 2018, is officially out of beta with nearly 25 million datasets indexed. Dataset Search can be used for anything from scientific research to learning more about your favorite hobby.

“Across the web, there are millions of datasets about nearly any subject that interests you. If you’re looking to buy a puppy, you could find datasets compiling complaints of puppy buyers or studies on puppy cognition. Or if you like skiing, you could find data on revenue of ski resorts or injury rates and participation numbers.”

Google has added new features to Dataset Search based on feedback gathered from users since the beta launch. Now, results can be filtered based on the types of dataset you need (tables, images, text, etc.), or whether the data set is available for free. In addition, Dataset Search is now available on mobile and Google says the quality of dataset descriptions has been “significantly improved.”

Getting Content Indexed in Dataset Search

The process publishers have to go through to have their datasets included in Dataset Search remains the same. Anybody who publishes data can make their datasets discoverable by using the appropriate schema.org structured data. See: How to Rank in Google Dataset Search People using Dataset Search thus far range from academic researchers, to students, to business analysts. The most commonly searched for datasets include “education,” “weather,” “cancer,” “crime,” “soccer,” and “dogs”. The largest topics that are covered in datasets include geosciences, biology, and agriculture. The most popular dataset format is tables, with more than 6 million of them included in Dataset Search. Although its officially out of beta, Google is committed to improving Dataset Search going forward just as it’s always improving its main search engine.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/googles-new-dataset-search-engine-comes-out-of-beta-via-mattgsouthern/

Google’s John Mueller: One Violation Will Not Result in a Manual Action via @MattGSouthern

Google’s John Mueller clarifies that one violation of the webmaster guidelines will not get a site banned from search results. This was stated by Mueller in a Reddit thread where an SEO was concerned about a competitor allegedly manipulating search rankings with invisible, keyword stuffed text. The SEO wants to know why they’re being outranked by their “cheating” competitor. In response, Mueller says the hidden text alone would not be enough for one site to outrank another. To that end, it’s not enough to get a site banned either.

“A site is not going to outrank your site just because of hidden text. We use many, many signals for ranking. Inversely, just having hidden text on a page won’t get the site banned from Google.”

Despite being a longstanding violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines, hidden text by itself will not result in a manual action. In fact, Google factors these kinds of things into its algorithm because many sites have accidental hidden text.

“Lots of sites get things wrong, lots of sites have text accidentally hidden (or even purposely hidden until you interact with the UI) — sites aren’t perfect and so our algorithms work to deal with these imperfections in a reasonable way.”

Related: Google’s John Mueller: How Google Decides on Manual Actions Why does the “cheating” competitor have better rankings? Ultimately, when it comes to search rankings, Google tries to serve the page best matches a user’s query – imperfections and all.

“Sometimes that means the top ranking site – the one our algorithms currently think is a good match for a user’s query – is one that does a lot of things technically incorrect.”

So, hidden text by itself will not help or harm a site. According to what Mueller says, you should not be concerned if you spot a higher ranking competitor with hidden text on their site. If they’re outranking you, chances are their page provides a better solution for the user’s query. Related: Google’s John Mueller on Penalty Recovery

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/googles-john-mueller-one-violation-will-not-result-in-a-manual-action-via-mattgsouthern/

Google: Webpages with Featured Snippets Won’t Appear Twice on Page 1 via @MattGSouthern

Google’s Danny Sullivan has confirmed that webpages in a featured snippet position will no longer be repeated in regular Page 1 organic listings. This is a brand new change rolling out as of today. The change will affect 100% of all search listings worldwide.

If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Today, 100% globally.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Previously, it was not uncommon to see to see webpages in a featured snippet position appear twice on Page 1 of search results. Going forward, that will no longer be the case. Now, a webpage only gets one opportunity to appear on Page 1. As Sullivan states, featured snippets count as one of the 10 webpage listings shown on the first page of search results. This tweet from Shelly Fagin pretty much sums it up:

So I guess we need to stop referring to a Featured Snippet as Position Zero now huh. #seo #featuredsnippets #googleupdate

— Shelly Fagin (@shellyfagin) January 22, 2020

Let’s look at an example. This Search Engine Journal post, Top 8 Skills Every Great SEO Professional Needs to Succeed, used to have a feature snippet and rank in Position 1. Now the SERP (search engine results page) looks like this: The organic listing for that Search Engine Journal post now appears at the top of Page 2 (or, position 11). According to Pete Meyers of Moz, webpages in a featured snippet position have had their regular organic results pushed back to the top of Page 2. Although Danny Sullivan later tweeted that appearing at the top of, or even on Page 2, is not guaranteed. Given that this update just rolled out today, it’s unclear how tools such as Search Console will handle the change. Google’s John Mueller may provide further details tomorrow (January 23).

What If You Lose Your Featured Snippet?

In the past, if you lost a featured snippet, you’d still be on Page 1. But now what will happen if you lose a featured snippet? Do you return to Page 1 automatically, as an organic result beneath the new featured snippet? Sullivan tweeted the following when asked about this scenario:

I would expect so. To be a featured snippet, you had to rank in the top results. Then we elevated. And now we deduplicate. If you don’t get featured, deduplication ends.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

While Sullivan’s statement doesn’t seem 100 percent definitive, that would make sense – so hopefully that’s what Google will be doing. But that’s one you should definitely watch out for.

What About SERPs with 2 Featured Snippets?

What will happen in cases where a SERP returns two featured snippets for a query? Search Engine Journal’s Executive Editor Danny Goodwin asked Sullivan just that on Twitter. Here’s what Sullivan said:

Deduplicate both. The whole page two stuff, by the way, people shouldn’t get hung up on. It’s about deduplicating on the first page. It’s not always guaranteed the URL will somehow come back up on the second page.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

What’s important to note here is that just because you get a featured snippet, you won’t necessarily appear at the top of Page 2. As Sullivan noted: “It’s not always guaranteed the URL will somehow come back up on the second page.” Sullivan also added that deduplication can happen beyond Page 2:

Nothing I’ve shared says you can’t have duplication happen beyond the first page of results. Deduplication is only about what happens on the first page. As things evolve, the whole “it’s showing up on page two” might not happen. So I wouldn’t say that’s how it works.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Early Reaction from the SEO Community

We asked Search Engine Journal contributors for their opinion, here are some of the responses so far: Alan Bleiweiss, Alan Bleiweiss Consulting Consensus for some of us is we need to test and evaluate deep data because serious loss of organic traffic on key phrases could require blocking the Featured Snippet from Google use at the code level. There are so many scenarios, possibilities, ramifications that it’s way too early to make any rash decisions. Yet ignoring this is a very serious risk at this point. Data. I need data. Across different industries, different intent types, different phrase types (short vs long tail). Organic drop small, not at all, or big? Impact on traffic? Impact on CONVERTING traffic? What happens with short-term data vs. long term trend reality? Brodie Clark, Brodie Clark Consulting: Initial reaction is definitely frustration. Especially for those clients where you’ve spent countless hours trying to get the Featured Snippet. But I totally get why the change has been made. There’s always a silver lining to these things though. I wrote a case study (published next week on Moz) about a site that gets 1m+ organic visits p/mo but doesn’t rank for any Featured Snippets. Result was that they’ve been filtered out algorithmically. This change means that they are only going upward, which is great for them. Looking forward to digging into this more. Dave Davies, Beanstalk Internet Marketing My initial thought is: featured snippets are now for informational queries and branding but may need to be pulled back on for terms that may have conversion possibilities. As Alan Bleiweiss accurately asserts though … need data. There’s also that part where I’d likely rather be position 0 than organic 7, so I suspect it will heavily depend on what Page 1 position was/is held outside it. Roger Montti, Owner of MartiniBuster.com & SEJ News Writer This is unknown territory. So the best thing to do is monitor traffic to specific pages that rank for Featured Snippet and see how that performs. Adding a nosnippets meta tag might backfire because position one in organic isn’t guaranteed. So my advice to clients is: don’t jump before looking first.

More Resources

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-webpages-with-featured-snippets-wont-appear-twice-on-page-1-via-mattgsouthern/

Get ready for an even stronger Google in 2020

By Adam Dorfman Welcome to a new decade. Search behavior continues to shape the way businesses operate in the digital world. And Google continues to influence search behavior. As I talked with my colleagues and researched trends for 2020, it became clear that for all the controversy surrounding Google’s growth – for all the buzz surrounding threats to Google, including the rise of Amazon – Google just keeps finding ways to become more dominant. Here’s what I see happening in the coming year:

1. Google asserts its dominance

The two most popular sites in the world are Google and YouTube, with 108 billion users between them. Google is leveraging these them to become even more influential, as hard as that might be to imagine. For example, Google continues to dominate online advertising with a 36.2 percent market share and strong growth, and the company is carpet-bombing the market with more tools that make it easier for advertisers to keep using Google products, such as the YouTube Masthead format for TV. The advertising push capitalizes on the fact that roughly half of Google searches stay on Google properties. In other words, roughly half of people searching for things on Google are finding what they need within knowledge panels, Google My Business (GMB) listings, YouTube, Google Maps, and other Google properties. Google is capitalizing on these zero-click searches by doing an even better job monetizing the value of the Google universe, a trend that will continue in 2020. The challenge for businesses is to figure out how to leverage the value of their presence in Google’s world, such as capitalizing on Google Ads products and investing more into their GMB listings.

2. Google, YouTube and Facebook become review amplifiers

As noted above, Google and YouTube are the two most popular sites in the world. The third most popular site is Facebook. Consider them to be like a powerful Roman troika ruling the online world. All three destinations are becoming “review amplifiers” because customer reviews left there get more attention. In Google’s case, customer reviews also influence a business’s search visibility. Meanwhile, sites like Yelp are becoming less influential. It’s not that they don’t matter; they just don’t carry the same clout they used to hold on the marketplace. One important gut check for businesses: how much care and feeding are you putting into your presence on Facebook, Google, and YouTube? Are you respecting them as customer review sites by devoting adequate time to ask for reviews there and respond to them? How well do you manage customer Q&As on your GMB? Meanwhile, all of the customer feedback occurring on these sites creates more data in the wild or unstructured customer feedback. Businesses that can properly monitor and respond to those reviews will improve their online customer experience, capture valuable input to improve their operations and improve their search rankings. They’re going to need better analytics tools to properly manage this customer feedback loop from data in the wild.

3. Google goes premium with GMB

Remember when Google alarmed businesses by apparently testing the waters for premium GMB services? Well, bank on this test becoming a reality. No, Google is not going to start charging for businesses to be listed – doing so would discourage too many businesses from claiming their listings. Instead, we’ll see Google develop premium GMB services, such as customer support and products to integrate your GMB more effectively with your YouTube presence. Here again, I refer back to the ecosystem that Google has built across Google and YouTube. Google is only beginning to monetize that ecosystem.

4. Local businesses game the Google system

Unfortunately, Google’s popularity means more bad hats emerging to game the system. Here is a dirty secret about local businesses: it’s easy for them to spam Google listings through tactics such as creating fake listings, keyword stuffing legitimate GMB listings, and paying for fake reviews – both positive ones for themselves and negative ones for their competitors. Google will continue to try to stop them in 2020, but Google will fail. There are just too many bad players flying under the radar for Google to stop them. In addition, these businesses really don’t have anything to lose by spamming Google. The most egregious offenders are typically indie mom-and-pop operations with zero visibility. What’s the worst that can happen to them if Google cracks down on them? Getting black-listed by Google matters little if you don’t get much traffic in the first place. Reputable businesses really have no option here but to continue to publish accurate, credible location information and compelling content while spammers eventually trip themselves up by committing sloppy errors such as publishing confusing location information. Customers will vote with their search behavior.

What’s next for Google?

Of course, 2020 is an election year, which means Google will be part of a broader political and social conversation – which also means Google will be a target for criticism as the “tech has become too big” narrative intensifies on Capitol Hill. Google will need to tread carefully. But Google will march forward inexorably. Why? Because consumers and businesses are voting with their behavior and their dollars.

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

Adam Dorfman is a technology and digital marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience. His expertise spans all aspects of product development as well as scaling product and engineering teams. He has been in the SEO and Local SEO space since 1999. In 2006, Adam co-founded SIM Partners and helped create a business that made it possible for companies to automate the process of attracting and growing customer relationships across multiple locations. Adam is currently director of product at Reputation where he and his teams are integrating location-based marketing with reputation management and customer experience. Adam contributes regularly to publications such as Search Engine Land, participates in Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors survey, and regularly speaks at search marketing events such as Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West and State of Search as well as industry-specific events such as HIMSS. Follow him on Twitter @phixed.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/get-ready-for-an-even-stronger-google-in-2020/

Jehovah’s Witnesses not negligent in $35M child abuse case, court rules

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Trials & Litigation

By Amanda Robert

January 13, 2020, 1:40 pm CST

The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a $35 million judgment against Jehovah’s Witnesses for failing to report that one of its members had been sexually abusing children for years. In its 7-0 decision, the court held that even though Montana law requires clergy and other officials to report child sexual abuse to authorities, Jehovah’s Witnesses fell under an exemption in this case “because their church doctrine, canon, or practice required that clergy keep reports of child abuse confidential.” NPR and the Associated Press have coverage. Holly McGowan, one of two plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told elders in the Thompson Falls Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1998 that her stepfather, Maximo Reyes, had inappropriately touched and fondled her, the court’s opinion states. The elders told McGowan that without a confession from Reyes or another witness, they could not take action against him. According to the court’s opinion, McGowan was later raped by her stepfather numerous times. In 2004, one of McGowan’s male relatives told an elder that Reyes had also sexually abused him. McGowan served as his second witness, but instead of reporting Reyes to authorities, the elder convened a committee that banished him from the congregation for one year, the court’s opinion states. Reyes had started sexually abusing another female relative, Alexis Nunez, on a weekly basis two years earlier when the girl was 5. According to the court’s opinion, the abuse continued after Reyes rejoined the congregation. McGowan and Nunez sued the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2016 for damages stemming from their failure to report Reyes to authorities. The district court ruled in favor of Nunez, awarding her $4 million in actual damages and $31 million in punitive damages. In its reversal, the Montana Supreme Court wrote that Montana’s mandatory child abuse reporting statute states that “a member of the clergy or a priest is not required to make a report under this section if the communication is required to be confidential by canon law, church doctrine, or established church practice.” According to the court’s opinion, it was demonstrated in this case that “Jehovah’s Witnesses have an established process for receiving and investigating reports of child abuse within their congregations; that they consider this process confidential; and that the process necessarily involves multiple elders and congregation members, including the accused, elders who provide spiritual guidance, and local elders who conduct the investigation.” According to the U.S. Children’s Bureau, about 18 states require those who suspect child abuse to report it to authorities, NPR reports. While some states require clergy to report abuse, exceptions are granted for privileged communications, including confessions. While the ABA Journal does not typically name survivors of sexual abuse, the law office representing the two plaintiffs in this case told NPR they granted their permission.

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/jehovahs-witnesses-not-negligent-in-35m-child-abuse-case-court-rules/

California Court of Appeal Aligns with Ninth Circuit on ADA Website Accessibility Standards

When plaintiffs sue companies alleging that their websites do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), courts start by answering two threshold legal questions. Does the ADA apply to websites? And if it does, which websites does it apply to? At least seven federal circuit courts have answered these questions and have reached three different conclusions. Until recently, California courts had provided little guidance. But on September 3, 2019, the Second Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal decided Thurston v. Midvale Corporation (Case No. B291631). Thurston clarifies that commercial websites with a “nexus” to a physical location are subject to the ADA. In Thurston, the plaintiff sued under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act with her claim being predicated on an alleged ADA violation: that defendant-restaurant’s website was not accessible to her because it was incompatible with the screen reader technology that she and other visually impaired people use to navigate the internet. Specifically, she alleged that she could not view the menu or make an online reservation. While the defendant provided a telephone number and email address for inquiries on its website, it only responded to inquiries during business hours. The trial court granted summary judgment for the plaintiff, holding that defendant’s website failed to comply with the ADA, and ordering that defendant modify its website to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 – a set of commonly used, privately developed standards. On appeal, the court began by addressing the threshold question of whether and to what extent the ADA applies to websites. It noted that federal circuit courts have answered this question in three different ways: (1) the Third Circuit has held that the ADA does not apply to websites because it applies only to physical spaces; (2) the Ninth, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuits have held that the ADA applies to websites that have a connection or “nexus” to a physical place of public accommodation; and (3) the First, Second, and Seventh Circuits have held that websites are places of public accommodation under the ADA. Notably, under the “nexus” approach, some courts have based their conclusion on the fact that plaintiffs’ access to the underlying physical location is curtailed because the website is not accessible. For this reason, many ADA plaintiffs have alleged that they could not access a “store finder” website feature because it was incompatible with their screen reader. The court expressly rejected the Third Circuit’s conclusion that the ADA does not apply to websites. Instead, and following the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, 913 F.3d 898, 905–906 (9th Cir. 2019), the Court held that “including websites connected to a physical place of public accommodation is not only consistent with the plain language of Title III, but it is also consistent with Congress’s mandate that the ADA keep pace with changing technology to effectuate the intent of the statute.” The plaintiff won in Thurston because the court held that the website had a “nexus” to a physical restaurant. Yet the plaintiff asked the court to also declare that commercial websites must comply with the ADA even if there is no nexus to a physical location. The court ultimately left this “wholly hypothetical” question unanswered. But it noted repeatedly that the ADA must be “construed liberally to carry out its purpose” and observed that the internet is now essential to everyday life and is a key part of the consumer experience – comments that are not encouraging for businesses. The court also broadly interpreted the “nexus” requirement. The defendant argued that there was not a sufficient “nexus” between its website and its restaurant, because it provided only one service (food) and provided this service only in its physical location. In rejecting this argument, the court found that consumers could “speed up” their physical experience at the restaurant by viewing the menu beforehand. It further stated that it might also find a sufficient “nexus” where “the website connects customers to the services of the .” The court also addressed a novel due process challenge raised by the defendant. Specifically, the defendant argued that that the trial court erred by holding that complying with the ADA was the same as complying with the private WCAG 2.0 guidelines. The court ultimately disagreed with this argument, finding instead that the trial court’s order – that the defendant’s website must be modified to comply with WCAG 2.0 – was remedial, and that the defendant had violated the ADA and not WCAG 2.0. As a result, we expect that WCAG 2.0 will continue to function as the generally accepted standard for ADA website accessibility, in the context of both settlement and injunctive relief in California state courts. The court’s decision in Thurston is not the grand slam that the ADA plaintiffs’ bar had hoped for. Where a website is tied to a physical location (e.g., a California restaurant or store), California ADA plaintiffs will have an easier time litigating in California state court. But these plaintiffs could already pursue those claims in California federal courts – using a direct ADA claim as the hook for jurisdiction while seeking statutory damages on an Unruh Act claim. Still, the decision is unfortunate news for businesses with physical locations in California, which may want to investigate the feasibility of complying with WCAG 2.0. And looking ahead, the Fourth Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal will likely decide a similar case this year in Martinez v. San Diego County Credit Union (Case No. D075360).

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/california-court-of-appeal-aligns-with-ninth-circuit-on-ada-website-accessibility-standards/