Net Neutrality and Small Businesses, the Power of Posts, and More.

With Google and Facebook already devouring more and more traffic for themselves, the likely end of Net Neutrality this week pushes small business websites even further behind the 8-ball. The tech giants will all rush to cut deals with ISPs for “fast lane” delivery (what’s a few billion here or there?), while smaller companies will neither have the means nor the access to do so.

Who wants to leave the speedy comfort of Google or Facebook for a destination website that takes forever to load?

On a more positive note, as Mike Blumenthal and I discussed earlier this year, small retailers are competing favorably with big box stores and national chains when it comes to brick-and-mortar sales.

Joost de Valk is out with this highly readable primer on the major trends affecting SEO in the coming year.

I’m bearish on the entire idea of a separate “mobile first index”; the “desktop index” already seems like an artifact.

I 100% agree with Joost that more and more AMP-like features where Google controls the interface will find their way to the search results pages–like Posts (see below)!

This post (from an English Premier League team, no less!) does a good job explaining the difference between AMP and Posts. It suggests that at least for a strong brand like Manchester City–with a lot of branded searches–Posts are an incredibly worthy time investment.

Whitespark’s got some great actionable takeaways from the recently-completed Local U Advanced in Santa Monica.