Our weekly digest of what’s happening/trending in the digital world provided by Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and Search Engine Roundtable.

From Search Engine Land

What makes people click on search ads?
There’s a reason search ads resonate with users — even when they know they’re ads. Read more

Google search tests new interface for movie, TV show streaming options
Do you work at a movie and TV streaming service? If so, take notice of this new feature Google is testing. Read more

Google emphasizes ‘Message this business’ in new local search test
Take notice, Google is testing a more prominent look for the messaging feature in the local search results. Read more

‘Hey Alexa, how do I get my product visible in Amazon search in 2019?’
Implementing a hybrid approach to your Amazon marketing strategy for both paid and organic optimizations will ensure visibility across results pages. Read more

Google Shopping is largest growth opportunity for most online retailers in 2019
Brands need to invest resources into feed management and utilize format variations to ensure they appear in as many relevant queries as possible. Read more

Google featured snippets can now jump to section of content it is sourcing
Sometimes it is a good idea to keep it simple with your web pages. Read more

Mueller: Focus your SEO on Google’s status quo
Google shopping competitors now 32 percent of results in UK, Germany, France. Read more

PPC 2018 in Review: These changes will have the biggest impact on advertisers in 2019
Significant shifts toward more automation affected nearly every aspect of the paid search landscape in 2018, and there were other important developments that will have a lasting impact in the new year. Read more

From Marketing Land

20 expert predictions: Here’s what successful marketers will do in 2019
From automation, email, data, analytics, voice, augmented reality and content management – as well as PPC for large and small business. Read more

Paid social requires sharpening your blade in 2019
Advertisers need to remember constant reevaluation of their methods is crucial in today’s environment. Read more

Digital marketing in 2019: Here’s where we’re headed this year
Brands that embrace emerging technologies and advertising formats – like connected TV, visual and voice search and AR advertising – will thrive in the new year. Read more

AI, automation and analytics: 3 critical strategies for CMOs in 2019, and beyond
In the next 24 months CMOs should focus on the three ‘A’s of accountability to make impactful changes. Read more

Hacking and phishing will increase in 2019: What digital marketers need to know
Mobile malware, coordinated digital assaults and caller ID spoofing are some of the many reasons to make security a priority in the new year. Read more

3 ways marketing AI will advance in 2019
Advanced targeting and transparency will grow exponentially this year as we nurture AI to help it mature. Read more

From Search Engine Roundtable

Google: We Don’t Look at Max-Age Value Of JavaScript Or CSS Files For Search
Google’s John Mueller confirmed that Google won’t be looking at the max-age value of your JavaScript or CSS files when crawling and indexing those details. Read more

Both Google & Bing Support ETag/If-None-Match
Google’s John Mueller said Google does support ETag/If-None-Match after this Search Engine Land article shows that Bing supports it. Read more

Google: Hard To Understand URL Structures Can Lead To Indexing Issues
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that sometimes hard to understand and really complex URL structures can lead to pages being removed from the Google search index. Read more

Google Moving Google Posts Back Up?
A few months ago, Google stopped showing Google Posts in the top location, somewhat above the fold, in the local panel for a business. Read more

Google AMP Featured Snippets Anchor & Highlight Content
9to5Google found a new Google feature that works on mobile for some featured snippets that lead to AMP pages. Read more

Unicode Works Within Google Local Listings
Andy Simpson spotted a local panel that was using unicode to make the business name stand out from the rest. Read more

Google Tests Larger Messaging Buttons In Local Panels
Joy Hawkins who follows the local SEO beat really closely spotted a new interface treatment that really calls out the messaging functionality within the Google local panels. Read more

January 2019 Google Webmaster Report
In our first monthly recap for 2019 we covered a couple smaller unconfirmed Google updates. Read more

Bing: We Ignore Default Robots Directives If There Is A Bingbot Section
Frédéric Dubut from Bing’s search team said on Twitter that if you create a specific robots.txt directive for Bingbot, their crawler, then Bing will only look at that specific section. Read more