🔍 Hindsight is 2020: Our SEO and algorithm recaps

Plus, how bias may potentially make its way into language processing and search Jan 04, 2021 Good morning, Search Marketer, let me be the first to welcome you to digital marketing in 2021. You’ve probably prepared to hit the ground running but there’s nothing wrong with dusting yourself off and starting anew. Vaccines, economic stimulus, and hopefully, eventually some form of social gatherings — there’s a lot to look forward to *knock on wood*. I’m not a big new year’s resolution guy, but I promised myself and my dogs that I would spend less time stressing and more time in the moment. You can [email me]( (use the subject line: 2021 FTW) or DM me ([@geochingu]() your resolutions and I’ll check in every now and then to keep you accountable — I promise. Whatever your aspirations are for 2021, the Third Door Media team and I sincerely wish you the best. Happy new year. George Nguyen,Editor SEO SEO year in review 2020: COVID forces platforms to adapt their local and e-commerce offerings, and more Even a pandemic couldn’t slow down developments in the search industry — it did, however, drastically influence the features that platforms rushed to launch and sideline other concerns for SEOs. For instance, Google’s new link attributes were hardly a topic of discussion, despite being such a lightning rod when they were announced last year. And the Android search choice screen in the EU? COVID disrupted the smartphone supply chain, making it uncertain whether it actually shifted in search market share. Bing and Google both revamped their coronavirus-related search results pages, giving us a preview of what the SERP might one day look like. The game changed for local SEOs who had to deal with GMB malfunctions, some nonsense about keyword stuffing business descriptions, as well as helping their clients navigate a slew of new COVID-related features and tools. And, we couldn’t omit the calls for gender equality and diversity that rang throughout the industry — they may be easy to forget as we return to work, but the “new normal” is what you make of it, so make it more equitable in 2021. [Read the entire recap here.]( The technology that's saving retail businesses from going under [Sponsored by Lightspeed]( The pandemic is changing the game for retail, and fast. Not only is the competition fiercer than ever before, but the coronavirus has been the cause of a dramatic decrease in in-store traffic. While the situation has forced some companies to shut down, many have realized that if they want to break through and maximize profits, they will need to adapt to more flexible business models with the adoption of new technologies. In order to remain competitive, online and offline experiences must “wow” the consumer. Having a great product is not sufficient to satisfy today’s buyer profile. The secret sauce for these struggling businesses lies in the ability to combine in-store and online shopping to create an omnichannel retail strategy to provide the best possible experience all around, without having to choose one or the other. In today’s modern economy, the inter-connected customer shouldn’t have to choose either. [Read more »]( Learn about the benefits of using an SEO tool and compare leading vendors SEO remains the stalwart mainstay of digital marketing, driving as many as 22% of all website visits. But its practice has become more complex—today, SEO includes everything from content marketing to user experience. Using SEO software tools can increase efficiency and productivity while reducing the time and errors involved in managing organic search campaigns. This guide from MarTech Today explains the benefits of using an SEO tool and compares 21 leading vendors. [Read More »]( AI Biased language models can result from internet training data Early last month, researcher Timnit Gebru’s departure from Google made headlines due to her status as one of the leading figures in ethical AI. She’s also one of the few Black people working in AI, and by extension, one of the few on Google’s AI team. Her research paper about the risks associated with training language models using large datasets from the internet may have been the catalyst for her departure, and for most people, it totally flew under the radar. “Language models trained from existing internet text absolutely produce biased models,” Rangan Majumder, vice president of search and AI at Microsoft, told Search Engine Land. That’s because the internet isn’t an equitable space — “‘programmers English’ is called ‘programmers English’ for a reason,” said Dawn Anderson, managing director at Bertey. If models trained on biased text from the internet are rolled into search algorithms, they may perceivably reinforce biases, and “so begins a perpetual cycle of reinforcement bias, potentially,” she added. [Read more here.]( Unlock proven tactics to measure search marketing success Join us online, February 23, 2021 at SMX Report: a deep dive into everything you need to know about analytics for search marketing. Book now for just $99! [Register now »]( Algorithms Google algorithm updates 2020 in review: Core updates, passage indexing and page experience There was some speculation that core updates would be on hold during the pandemic — we now know that was wishful thinking. In 2020, we experienced the January, May and December core updates, each one deserving of the “core update” label. December was perhaps the most impactful of the bunch — the timing with which it rolled out, between the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping holiday and the end-of-the-year holidays, suggested that it was not here to play around. BERT expanded from 10% to almost 100% of all English-language queries and we also braced for passage indexing, which was supposed to roll out in 2020 but didn’t. And, this year, we still have the Page Experience update to look forward to in May, and mobile-first indexing is supposed to begin in March after being postponed due to the pandemic. [Read the entire recap here.]( Search Shorts Passages, interfaces, Christmas & New Years. Passage indexing passages. There is a bit to catch you up on with Google’s passage indexing. No, it is [not live yet]( but when they do go live, don’t expect the snippets to [look any different]( from the normal snippets said Danny Sullivan of Google. Also, using [the nosnippet tag won’t impact passage indexing]( from ranking your content in any way. Oh, and that page experience update is [unrelated]( to passage indexing as well. Christmas Google search algorithm update — doubtful. There has been [some speculation that there was a Christmas weekend Google search ranking update](. That is doubtful, but some of the tracking tools and chatter may suggest some fluctuations and traffic changes. Speaking of Christmas, John Mueller, as per his tradition, was working [helping webmasters on Christmas day](. Search result tests. Over the past week, Google and Bing have been testing some new search features. Bing tested [related content overlays]( for image results. Google is showing [TikTok and Instagram short videos]( in the search results. Google is also showing [practice problem quizzes]( in the search results for some queries. And, the Google Doodle on New Year’s Eve [was a cuckoo clock]( with added confetti. What We're Reading We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader. [Apple Wins a patent that supports the rumor they’re developing their own Search Engine that could replace Google]( – Patently Apple [Google My Business (GMB) Testing “Services” Labels in Map/Local Results]( – Local University [The Link Building Webslog]( – Moz [Timnit Gebru’s Exit From Google Exposes a Crisis in AI]( – WIRED [YouTube & Videos Visibility in Google News & SERPs for 2020]( – NewzDash [Search Engine Land] [( [Want to advertise?]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. [Unsubscribe.]( [We respect your privacy.]( This email was sent by: Search Engine Land - a Third Door Media, Inc. publication with headquarters at 88 Schoolhouse Road, PO Box 3103, Edgartown, MA 02539 [Manage my preferences.]( © 2006-2020 Third Door Media. All Rights Reserved.