Digital Marketing News and Trends: 11/17/17

Every week we’re collecting a host of links, videos, and assorted analysis on the ever-changing world of digital marketing. We invite you to skim, share, analyze, argue, and refute – just so long as you don’t get embarrassed at the water cooler again. Here are the latest digital marketing news and trends for the week of November 17, 2017.

Google To Add Trust Indicators For Publishers

Following up on Google’s announcement last week of the addition of publisher-specific Knowledge Panels, the search giant announced Thursday plans to introduce eight new trust indicators. With direction from the Trust Project,  Google is set to introduce eight trust indicators in addition to clear labelling and the Fact Check tag in its ongoing effort to help users identify credible news sources. Here are the eight indicators to be implemented at a future date:

• Best Practices: Who funds the news outlet and their mission, plus an outlet’s commitments to ethics, diverse voices, accuracy, making corrections, and other standards.
• Author Expertise: Details about the journalist, including their expertise and other stories they have worked on.
• Type of Work: Labels to distinguish opinion, analysis, and advertiser (or sponsored) content from news reports.
• Citations and References: For investigative or in-depth stories, access to the sources behind the facts and assertions in a news story.
• Methods: For in-depth stories, information about why reporters chose to pursue a story and how they went about the process.
• Locally Sourced: Lets people know that the story has local roots, origin, or expertise.
• Diverse Voices: A newsroom’s efforts to bring in diverse perspectives.
• Actionable Feedback: A newsroom’s efforts to engage the public in setting coverage priorities, contributing to the reporting process, and ensuring accuracy.

Data Shows Engaging With Customer Reviews Improves Organic Ranking

In a post from Location3’s Josh Allen, we look at emerging data that shows engaging with customer reviews has a positive impact on organic ranking. This news comes on the heels of Local SEO Guide’s release of its 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors – an intensive annual survey and study of the local search landscape.

In that study, “Review Signals” is listed as a top-5 ranking factor. Allen points out that the inclusion of “Review Signals” in itself is not surprising, but that business responses to reviews are potentially more valuable than links or citations creates a multi-faceted opportunity for business owners. Not only are these responses getting more juice from Google, responses including keywords and geographic information can further tilt the scales in your favor.

For more details, including industry implications and the dos and don’ts of business reviews, Allen’s post can be read here.

SEMRush Study Reveals Its Top 17 Organic Search Ranking Factors

SEMRush followed up its June release of its top organic search ranking factors with a recent update. The most recent update lists five new updates, pushing the total number to 17. Here are the 17 factors listed in order of importance, according to the SEMRush study.

Source: SEMRush

Google Maps To Add Color-Coding

Google announced Wednesday that Google Maps is getting a makeover. Included in the new-look Maps will be experience-relevant maps as well as updated color coding and icons. The update is intended to help users more quickly identify points of interest. For a full overview of the updates, including new icons, the announcement can be read here.

Facebook Updates Events App

Facebook’s Events app recently received a major facelift, including a new name. The app, which allows users to create public and private events, is now known as “Local”. Local will broaden its focus from user-created events to include the discovery of bars, restaurants, and local businesses.

This latest development continues Facebook’s amped-up efforts to tackle the local search game, as described here by Location3’s Tom Lynch. Facebook hopes that Local will be the go-to app for planning a night out, whether users are in their home city or traveling elsewhere.