The Week in Search is a weekly column produced by the Studio team to keep marketing professionals and ecommerce merchants up to date on changes in the search industry, and provide valuable context on what it all means. If you have questions or think we missed something, email us directly.

Google Launches Publisher Center to Help Content Publishers Manage Their Content Ownership, Syndication & More

What were previously Google News Producer and Google News Publisher Center has now become part of one and the same publication tool. Officially now “Publisher Center”, the new Google interface contains a more manageable version of the publishing features users have already learned to rely on. 

With the merger, users can now seamlessly submit content, manage their publication’s identity, organize and switch between multiple publications and add project collaborators in one place.

Studio Takeaway: An online business might publish news content to announce a new store opening, the beginning of a partnership, a unique patent and so much more. Depending on the nature of the business, Google considers these types of publications critical to establishing and maintaining authority online. 

That’s why this merger benefits everyone: It gives business owners a leg up in the discovery, classification process and indexing of their websites, and it keeps Google on the leading edge of accessibility.

Google’s Top Trending Searches of 2019

Google has released an easy one-page overview of the biggest search trends of 2019. This year’s top search trends range from pop culture to world news and everything in between.

Studio Takeaway: Even if you’re not personally invested in the Rugby World Cup or Aquaman, knowing which searches are trending could be important to your business. If you can find a relevant correlation between your business and the latest trends, you may be able to capitalize on trends using complementary social media marketing, related landing pages or creative discounts.

Using Google Trends on a regular basis can help you create marketing strategies and better understand and mitigate traffic gains and losses. Looking at this data regularly in conjunction with other keyword data that’s available to you will help you to better inform your campaigns.

Google Algorithm Update Chatter from SEOs and Bill Lambert

We’ve heard a good amount of chatter in the SEO world that Google may have recently released a ranking algorithm update.

Studio Takeaway: As Google AI continues to evolve, it’s doing so at an exceedingly accelerated pace and updates for ranking algorithms will be an inevitable cornerstone of that evolution.

Our best advice is for site owners to evolve alongside the demands of the modern user, and to abandon those outdated marketing practices once and for all. Moving forward, consider your online authority and trust the two main pillars for online success. Focusing on building these authentically and continually over time will provide the best insurance for unexpected updates.

Google BERT Search Algo Update Still Rolling Out Internationally, Now Powering Mobile News Stories

In October 2019 Google launched BERT, a natural language processing AI that’s designed to look for context clues rather than simply returning search results based on keyword sequences. Part of this update included a feature that pulls related news articles, quotes or opinion pieces to easy-to-access carousels, all based on a user’s original search query. To date, BERT has launched for 70 languages internationally and it’s still going.

Here are all the relevant articles about BERT’s roll out:

Studio Takeaway: All of these results are powered in part by Google’s Knowledge Graph, a technology that maps places, people and things to draw connections between them. The ultimate goal is to help users quickly and easily find information so they can develop a clearer and more well-rounded view of their original search query.

Google’s Knowledge Graph can be a powerful tool for business owners who know how to leverage it. To meet Google’s demands in 2020, it’ll be increasingly important for site owners to focus on establishing logical and relevant connections online. This is particularly true for YMYL (Your Money Your Life) sites, which Google has a history of judging more critically.

Other Interesting Links

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