SEJ Wrap-Up: A Big Week Of Google Ranking Factors: Watch Time, Google Local, & Moz

This is the wrap-up of the most popular posts and announcements on SEJ over the past week. Newsletter subscribers are the first to receive this and other updates. 

Google Patents ‘Watch Time’ As A Search Ranking Factor

A patent granted to Google this week may be an indication of how the search giant intends to rank video content in the future. The patent outlines Google’s proposed methods of ranking content by ‘watch time’.

While this sounds like its aimed at video content, ‘watch time’ may also refer to how long someone stays on a page they have found in the search results, regardless of the content it contains.

To read about this possible new ranking factor that ended up being this week’s top story, see the full article here.

Google Local Pack Down to 3 Listings

Local searches conducted in Google will now return a more limited local pack. Google’s local pack of 7 listings has been reduced to three, while addresses and phone numbers have been removed altogether.

If searchers wish to receive more information about a business they will now have to click through to the website or Google Maps listing. Also removed are links to Google My Business pages, making Google+ even less relevant than it has become of late.

For more information about the recent changes to Google’s local search results listings, read the full story here.

Source:http://www.searchenginejournal.com/sej-wrap-big-week-google-ranking-factors-watch-time-google-local-moz/138915/