FIVE ARTICLES THAT HAVE US BUZZING THIS WEEK Welcome to The Hive’s Friday Five, where we will share up to five articles each week that have Swarmers buzzing for the week, and a few of our thoughts on each of them! Opting Out of Google Featured Snippets Led to 12% Traffic Loss [SEO Experiment] On January 22nd, Google released an update to their featured snippet SERP feature. In the past for certain search queries, a featured snippet would appear on the 1st page in addition to 10 organic listings. Therefore a site’s URL could be listed in the featured snippet as well as one of the 10 organic listings (aka – double-dipping). This release has de-duplicated those results, therefore leading some to wonder if you could lose more traffic by winning the featured snippet, or the other way around. This experiment tests that hypothesis, and – well, you see the headline! Video creation is fast, easy and free with YouTube Video Builder If you’re trying to create more video content right now, you’re not alone. Thanks to YouTube Video Builder, you don’t need to learn fancy software to get your videos updated and uploaded to your audience. Although it has a few limitations, we hope that this feature will empower brands that haven’t taken the plunge into video to give it a shot. Free Fridays by General Assembly: Our Favorite Online Workshops, Now Open to Everyone Looking to brush up on some of your digital marketing or coding knowledge? General Assembly has introduced Free Fridays for some of their popular intro courses. These are great online-only workshops (for now) that provide actionable advice on topics such as data, marketing, business, career development, coding, and UX design. A new Optimize feature to keep your website updated through COVID-19 Google Optimize is providing a way to help you update your website for COVID related messaging. Quickly add a banner to your website to let customers know if your hours or services have changed, and you can even tailor your message by location. COVID-19 Consumer Impact Tracker Little to no part of our lives are untouched by COVID-19. We’ve coined new phrases, donned new accessories, and have had to go into survival mode with relatively little notice. This tracker keeps an eye on consumer searches impacted by the virus – some obvious, like “DIY haircuts,” and others not-so-obvious, like “oregano oil.” Filter by category to find out what’s surging in your industry.