Matt Southern

Lead News Writer at Search Engine Journal

STAFF

Matt Southern

Lead News Writer at Search Engine Journal

About
I am awesome at
Favorite Tools

About

Matt Southern has been the lead news writer at Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a degree in communications, Matt has an uncanny ability to make the most complex subject matter easy to understand. When he’s not ferociously following and covering the search industry, he’s busy writing SEO-friendly copy that converts.

I am awesome at

SEO, International SEO, Mobile SEO, Technical SEO, Local Search, Content Marketing, Blogging, Matt Southern

Favorite Tools

SEMRush, Ahrefs, Yoast, Google Analytics, UberSuggest, Google Keywords Planner, Canva, Google docs, Trello

Local Search·News

2020 Local Voice Search Ranking Factors [STUDY]

As 58% of voice search users employ it to run local business queries, a new study looks at factors that go into ranking the results.

Matt Southern
8/31/2020
2.0K Reads
4 min read

News·SEO

Google Shows “Licensable” Badges in Image Search Results

Google is now displaying a “Licensable” badge in image search results on photos that can be purchased for legal use on other websites.

Matt Southern
8/31/2020
1.6K Reads
3 min read

News·Instagram

Instagram Carousels Are the Most Engaging Post Type [STUDY]

A recent study finds posts on Instagram are likely to be more successful if they contain a carousel, versus a single photo or video.

Matt Southern
8/30/2020
11K Reads
3 min read

News·Tools

Official AMP for WordPress Plugin Updated to Version 2.0

Version 2.0 of the Official AMP for WordPress plugin is now available and comes with a number of useful features for site owners.

Matt Southern
8/27/2020
6.5K Reads
4 min read

News·SEO

Google SEO 101: Site Migrations

Google’s Martin Splitt, and Glenn Gabe of G-Squared Interactive, get together to discuss the most common questions SEOs ask about site migrations.

Matt Southern
8/27/2020
3.8K Reads
4 min read

News·TikTok

TikTok Shares Total Number of US Users For the First Time

For the first time since the app has been available in the US, TikTok reveals its total number of active daily and monthly users.

Matt Southern
8/26/2020
1.8K Reads
3 min read

News·Tools

Google Has a More Efficient Way to Report Urgent Bugs

Google is piloting a new system for site owners to report bugs and security issues in a timely manner.

Matt Southern
8/26/2020
1.2K Reads
2 min read

News·Facebook

Facebook Shops & Instagram Checkout Expand to All US Businesses

Facebook is rolling out a dedicated shopping tab, and expanding Shops and Instagram Checkout to all US businesses.

Matt Southern
8/26/2020
2.7K Reads
3 min read

News·SEO

Google: Most Sites Don’t Need to Worry About Crawl Budget

Google’s Search Relations team says most sites don’t need to worry about crawl budget in the latest episode of the Search Off the Record podcast.

Matt Southern
8/25/2020
2.0K Reads
4 min read

News·SEO

Google Lets Retailers Customize Product Info in Search Results

Retailers have new ways to control how their products appear in Google search results through the use of robots meta tags and an HTML attribute.

Matt Southern
8/23/2020
5.4K Reads
3 min read

Careers & Education·News

Google Launches Career Certificates For High-Demand Fields

Google is launching new certificates that offer a way for people to fast-track their career toward digital jobs in high-demand fields.

Matt Southern
8/21/2020
71K Reads
4 min read

News·LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Most In-Demand Jobs For August 2020

LinkedIn data reveals the skills companies are looking for most, and the jobs companies are hiring for in August 2020.

Matt Southern
8/20/2020
3.9K Reads
3 min read

International Search

Add Me to Search: How to Create Your Virtual Google Card

In a limited launch, Google is testing virtual business cards in search results that show up when a person’s name is searched for.

Matt Southern
8/20/2020
154K Reads
4 min read

News·Instagram

Instagram is Adding Suggested Posts to the Main Feed

Instagram’s main feed will now show posts from people you don’t follow, after you’re caught up with content from the people you do follow.

Matt Southern
8/19/2020
22K Reads
4 min read

News·SEO

Google Makes it Easier to Find Jobs, Recipes, and Products

An update to activity cards in Google Search will allow users to pick up where they left off with searches for jobs, recipes, and products.

Matt Southern
8/18/2020
3.0K Reads
3 min read

News·SEO

Bing to Share Future Updates Via New Twitter Handle

Bing’s engineering team has a new home on the web for sharing official news and answering questions from site owners.

Matt Southern
8/17/2020
2.7K Reads
3 min read

News·Web Development

Google Chrome to Highlight Fast Pages on Mobile

An update to Google Chrome will highlight certain pages with a “fast page” label. That’s determined based on whether they provide a good user experience.