Hump Day Headlines: Bing Changes and Google EAT

By Art Unlimited.

Some big changes in the industry are some of Bing's modifications within their listings for home services and for hotels and lodging options.

You can either watch the video or read the transcript below. Plan to join us live each Wednesday on Facebook.

The other big changes that have been happening are Bing's display and one of Google's latest algorithm updates, EAT.

Bing’s Service Updates

So one of my favorite things is, and we don't talk much about Bing, is their recent change for service providers. This has a direct impact on the home service industry, and so, when you look for a provider they're now showing you a cost option and based off of the option that (you select what price point you're willing to engage at) they show you the local providers within your area! So that was pretty interesting to me, to find out that they're kind of gating that information and segmenting the local providers based off of the right fit for you. So, they’re really trying to match your search query with what you're willing to pay.

This is a big thing because it's kind of showing the average user a graph of, "Here's the average you would pay to fix your porch," or whatever. And it's actually pulling that information from Porch, which is really interesting! So, it's kind of like Angie's List, it's kind of like Home Advisor, but it's a specific place that they're pulling that data from. So, if you're a contractor that works within that platform and you say, "Hey, this is how much my rates are," they're using that as the aggregate data.

I haven't heard anything yet about specific geolocation to see if it's impacting where you're specifically located and if that price point is relevant for you. Which also impacts the hotels too - there's a whole other category of comparing hotel prices. Huge for tourism; big thing if you're a Bing user.

Bing’s Schema and Display Modifications

Well, Bing actually just did roll out their schema modifications. In Google's schema, they have price points that you can match to the services you're offering, so I'm pretty confident that they're going to be pulling that data into this new option.

Bing's been making some display changes too! Bing has always been about making things beautiful, right? And not a lot of people appreciate that about Bing, because not only, what, eight percent are using Bing? But because of these changes, that number has actually gone up a bit lately! Google is slowly but surely losing a little market share, and I think maybe part of it is because people are thinking, "Well, that all that big data stuff is happening--maybe we should switch providers."

But Bing has also done a ton of new algorithm updates. Visual presentation updates, the way that things present differently between the search queries for specifically video is super cool. So, in one of Google's video displays, they show one video and the description. Bing is able to fit three to four different videos in that same space and include all the same information. Some really powerful stuff.

Google EAT—Dig in!

Now, we've talked about Bing. Now it's time to talk about Google, and Google has made an algorithm modification and they're calling it EAT. And EAT specifically stands for Experts, Authority, and Trustworthy. Within that, if you are in an industry that you need to absolutely be an expert or authority on a subject to be talking about it, they're cracking down. So, if you specifically are within anything to do with health or finance, these are the two things that Google is really analyzing specifically within this.

They're also using those algorithm updates to try to look at different categories in the future. So, whatever you're writing needs to be very authoritative and accurate, because this affects people's lives, and Google is saying "Hey, if it's not right, then we're going to de-rank it, because it's not helping consumers and it can affect them directly."

This is a really big change and I expect to see this rolling out throughout the different industries that Google represents. So, one key thing to be aware of is something that's helping to influence what your EAT score is and where you get ranked, is the quality raters that provide information to Google. It's a group of individuals that say "This is great content. This is accurate, and you should trust it." And so, it’s not all machines—there's still some human elements used to be able to put together that EAT quality score. So really be careful about what information you're sharing.

Those were some of our highlights we wanted to discuss today so that you can be successful online! Thanks so much for joining us!

Another great way to be successful online is to contact Art Unlimited—we’re ready to help you!