X SEO

Spending by small and medium-sized marketers comprised almost half of revenue.

This week I covered a bunch of topics including an interesting topic on do negative reviews on the web hurt your chances or ranking well in Google. Google’s John Mueller also told us to forget everything we’ve read about link juice. Bing launched its new Bing Webmaster Tools and added a new URL Inspection tool and a new Robots.txt tester tool. Bing also did some outreach to those who installed the new Bing WordPress URL submission plugin and had issues. Google Search Console added support for image license structured data and the Rich Results test tool support that markup also. Google said they plan on expanding the Rich Results test tool after the complaints from the SEO community. Google’s testing tools also support showing Web Story. Google Home smart displays, the Google Home Hub now shows how-to schema as tutorials. Google is sending notifications to those with job schema to add telecommute markup for remote jobs. Google is testing a new form of local Q&A boxes. Google local pack is also testing product carousels. Google My Business added a new attribute for black owned businesses. Google updated several of its Google Ads policies. Google Ads is testing sub-headlines that are hyperlinks. Google Top Stories is testing ‘for context’ links below the main story. Google is testing thick gray borders in search. And for some reason Google had a ‘wear a mask and save lives’ Doodle the other day but they removed it. Oh and if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

• Google: Negative Review Sites Don’t Hurt Your Sites Search Ranking
• Google: Forget Everything You Read About Link Juice
• Google: Links Are Not The Most Important SEO Factor
• New Bing Webmaster Tools Live With New URL Inspection Tool
• Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Robots.txt Tester
• Bing URL Submission WordPress Plugin Outreach By Microsoft
• US Congress Investigation Suggests Google Uses Clicks & User Data In Search
• Google Search Console & Rich Results Test Tool Supports Image License Structured Data
• Google: We’re Planning On Expanding The Rich Results Test Tool
• Google Testing Tools Now Shows Web Story
• Google Home Smart Displays How-To Tutorials, Like Recipes
• Google Sending Work From Home Telecommute Markup Notifications
• Google Tests New Interface For Local Q&A Box?
• Google Local Pack Carousel With Products
• Google My Business Adds Black-Owned Attribute For New Icon
• Google Updates Several Google Ads Policies
• Google Ads Tests Subtitle Or Headline Links
• Google Top Stories Tests “For Context” Section
• Google Tests Thick Gray Borders Between Search Results
• Google Drops The Wear A Mask. Save Lives. Doodle

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Americans are rapidly becoming less religious. Weekly church attendance is falling, congregations are getting smaller or even closing and the percentage of Americans identifying as “religiously unaffiliated” has spiked.

Despite all this, now might be the perfect time for church tech companies to thrive.

A combination of COVID-19-induced adoption, underrated demographic trends and pressure to innovate is setting the stage for new successes in the previously sleepy church tech space. Venture dollars are flowing in, and Silicon Valley is slowly showing serious interest in the sector. Hot new startups are finding creative growth hacks to penetrate a difficult market. Major challenges remain for companies in this space, but their odds seem better than ever.

Less religion, more spirituality

Yes, Americans are going to church less often, but that doesn’t mean they’re not staying spiritual. In fact, the percentage of Americans identifying as “spiritual but not religious” has grown faster than any other group in this Pew survey on religiosity. This fact is reflected in other data. For example, the percentage of Americans that pray daily or weekly has stayed fairly flat even as overall religiosity declined. This opens up two distinct opportunities, as well as two challenges.

Opportunities:

• What tools do the growing “spiritual but not religious” crowd need?
• Churches are realizing they need to innovate or die. What tools do they need to reach out to their members and gain new congregants?

Challenges:

• Two demographics: young, tech-savvy and more willing to try a new product, but less involved in church tradition versus older, not as tech-savvy and harder to reach.
• Very byzantine market: as documented in part one of this series, the market is dominated by small companies waging a turf war with one another. In addition, because churches are so local and hard to sell to, all of the companies to date have been smaller land-grabs rather than anything with scale or accumulating advantage.

Rapidly growing startups in the space are deftly navigating this landscape and taking advantage of these trends.

Brand is already affecting the performance we are held accountable for, so we can use the data we have as SEOs to benefit the whole company.

The post Why SEOs should care about brand appeared first on Marketing Land.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

It’s officially now o’clock startup fans. All good things come to an end, and today’s the last day you can score an early bird pass to Disrupt 2020. Don’t miss your chance to save up to $300 and get busy building your business at our global Disrupt event. Buy your pass before the deal — and the savings — expires at exactly 11:59 p.m. (PT) tonight.

Disrupt 2020 takes place September 14-18. It’s packed with non-stop programming and gives you five full days to explore — expand your knowledge, your network, your opportunities and your business.

We’ve added a new event this year: The Pitch Deck Teardown. Expert VCs and entrepreneurs will assess pitch decks submitted by registered Disrupt attendees, note red flags and offer constructive advice on how to improve this essential startup tool. We’ll hold multiple sessions over the course of Disrupt, so if you’re a registered Disrupt attendee, submit your pitch deck for consideration.

That’s just one of many exciting ways attending Disrupt can help your early-stage startup survive and thrive. Exploring the hundreds of early-stage startups exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley is a great place to start. Connect with founders around the world, increase your brand recognition, discover people and technologies that can augment your business.

“The top three benefits of going to Disrupt were introducing my product to people who would not have seen it otherwise; networking with investors, mentors, advisors and potential customers and, finally, talking to other entrepreneurs and founders and learning what it took to get their companies off the ground.” — Felicia Jackson, inventor and founder of CPRWrap.

Remember, you have five days to experience Disrupt, so don’t miss the impressive lineup of speakers who span the startup universe. You’ll hear the latest thinking from top tech, investment and business icons, leaders, movers, shakers and makers. We’ve also announced the agenda here and we’re adding more to the roster every week.

Okay, let’s review. What time is it? It’s NOW o’clock — time to register for Disrupt 2020, save up to $300 and do whatever it takes to drive your business forward. Buy your pass before the early bird deal expires at 11:59 p.m. (PT) tonight!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2020? ContTime is running out to save up to $300 on Disrupt 2020 passes. Get yours now!act our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Going through a breakup is tough. Going through a breakup when you live with your partner is harder. And going through a breakup when you live with your partner and there’s a global pandemic going on, well, that’s about as hard as it gets. Luckily, for those who have found themselves in the latter scenario,…

It’s been a few weeks since the news broke about the Trump administration considering a TikTok ban. With growing tensions between the U.S. and China, loyal TikTok users and brands are wondering when and if this could happen, and more importantly, what a world without TikTok would look like. Late last year, when its data…

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

We had the full team this week: Myself, Danny, and Natasha on the mics, with Chris running skipper as always.

Sadly this week we had to kick off with a correction as I am 1. Dumb, and, 2. See point one. But after we got past SPAC nuances (shoutout David Ethridge), we had a full show of good stuff, including:

• Y Combinator Demo Day is going virtual, as before, and its coming iteration will also be live. The Equity crew all agree that this is the right thing to do, and probably more fun to boot. And now the founders can sweat a live event, too! What fun.
• Speaking of live events going digital, Disrupt is coming up. And it is going to be great. Read more here.
• A group of Stanford business school students are putting together and investment vehicle to invest money into themselves, which is a good idea and something that is highly risible. Luckily, Danny and Natasha had good things to say about the effort.
• Ro raised $200 million, and any jokes that were inappropriate are Danny’s fault. The company’s $200 million valuation makes the news that its competitor Hims could go public via a SPAC all the more exciting.
• I covered a neat round: $20 million for Instrumental, a super neat startup that has me hype.
• Facebook is still hunting up ways to get a better look into growing startups — this time via investments in venture capital funds.
• And, finally, there were some hearings this week, you might have heard. We’re working on something neat that you are going to love on just that topic, so stay tuned.

And that’s Equity for this week. We are back Monday morning early, so make sure you are keeping tabs on our socials. Hugs, talk soon!

The publisher is looking to own readers’ shopping journeys on its pages, with better data, deeper relationships and a smoother customer experience.

The publisher is looking to own readers’ shopping journeys on its pages, with better data, deeper relationships and a smoother customer experience.