On this end-of year special we asked our guests (Aleyda Solis, Purna Virji, Larry Kim and Barry Schwartz) to think about what their number 1 digital marketing news story of 2018 was!

Here's what we discussed...

2:00 What were the top digital marketing stories in 2018?

2:30 Story 1 – Google's Mobile First Index roll-out

8:40 Story 2 - The Cambridge Analytica story and resultant changes to Facebook's News Feed

17:30 Story 3 - Microsoft launches a new audience network, ‘Audience Ads’

31:09 Story 4 - The "Zero results" SERP

41:30 General discussion about what story is the top story of the year

48:00 Is the Cambridge Analytica story or is the new audience network story having the biggest impact?

49:00 What common subject brings all the stories together?

50:00 What is the biggest impact that mobile-first indexing is having on marketers?

50:30 What kind of actionable takeaway can marketers apply from the zero-listing search result?

51:10 What can marketers learn from the Cambridge Analytics story?

51:45 What’s one lesson that marketers can learn from Purna’s “new audience network” story

About this episode's guests

Larry Kim, the CEO of MobileMonkey, Inc. – a Facebook Messenger Marketing Platform for marketers at companies of all sizes, helping users create powerful chatbots without coding.

Aleyda Solis, an International SEO Consultant and founder of Orainti -a highly specialized, boutique SEO consultancy-, blogger (Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal), speaker (with more than 100 conferences in 20 countries in English and Spanish).

Purna Virji, named by Adweek on their 2018 Young Influentials List, Purna specializes in digital marketing, AI, and the future of search. In 2016, she was named by PPC Hero as the #1 Most Influential Expert in the world.

Barry Schwartz, Editor of Search Engine Roundtable, News Editor at Search Engine Land and Speaker at Search Engine Strategies & WebmasterWorld Pub Conferences.