This Week’s Industry Update
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff
AdWords Editor Version 9.0 Unveiled On Cinco De Mayo
AdWords Editor Version 9.0 was released on Thursday, and focuses numerous key changes on helping improve usability, manage new ad features, and the management of multiple accounts. Google lays out these improvements much more eloquently than we ever could.
Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog
Soon-To-Be Implemented AdWords Changes Address Security Of Personal, Financial Information
On Syttende Mai, Google AdWords will be updating their security policies for accounts that ask for payment, financial, or personal information. The top three notable changes include:
1. Disclosing your intentions with the information will now be required before users submit their details.
2. In that same description, accounts will be required to provide information on how to opt out of future emails, phone calls, or other direct communication efforts.
3. All advertisers will have to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections to encrypt the information as it transfers from the user’s browser to your server.
Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog
Google Tests Domain Names At End Of AdWords Headlines
Although the tests have not been officially announced, it seems that Google is testing the viability of listing the domain name at the end of AdWords display headlines. It isn’t consistently showing up for all users, but a few SEO professionals have noticed the recent variation.
Source: Search Engine Land
TweetDeck Now Belongs To Twitter
For a cool $40-$50 million in cash and stocks, Twitter has acquired the popular TweetDeck application. This is particularly interesting because UberMedia had a done deal to buy the platform for $20-$30 million in February, but Twitter basically upped the ante to prevent UberMedia from controlling too much of the social network’s market share.
Source: Tech Crunch
News Of Osama Bin Laden’s Death Leads To New Tweet Record
Twitter contained the first report of President Obama’s impromptu press conference and later, it was the first place to break the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Twitter users then set a tweet-per-second record of 5,106 at 11 p.m. ET, and proceeded to average another record 3,000 tweets per second from 10:45 p.m. to 2:20 a.m. ET.
Clearly this news was a big deal in the United States and abroad, and like CNN during the Gulf War, Twitter was the main media beneficiary of the breaking coverage.
Source: Wired
Want To Make ZuckerBucks Watching Ads? Go To Facebook
Facebook is now offering Facebook Credits for users interested in watching ads on the site. One credit will be given out per ad (roughly 10 cents), and they can be used towards Facebook Deals.
Most of the ads will be shown in games made by companies such as CrowdStar, Digital Chocolate, and Zynga. This new targeted ad method is meant, in part, to compensate for Facebook’s low banner click-through rates.
Source: Mashable
Gmail Responds To User Spam Ads
Gmail is changing the way network PPC ads are served alongside users messages. In short, Gmail now realizes when you mark a message as spam, you might not be interested in an ad of a related subject. We may see some positive changes for mail.google.com as a PPC placement, although it may come after most Gmail users regard those ads as irrelevant noise.
Source: Gmail Help Section
Google Offers $100 To Advertisers So They’ll Get Back Together With AdWords
If you haven’t used AdWords in a while, Google is hoping to bring you back into the network with a cool $100 to spend in your account. Google is pitching the idea along with their bevy of new changes to the interface to try and convince advertisers they can increase leads and sales through Google AdWords.
Source: Search Engine Land
Notable Commentary
As Good As BBQ Sauce
Treat Your Quality Score Like It’s A Tamagotchi Pet
You can rework your landing pages and overall web site regularly to optimize for Google, but if your quality score drops to a low point, you’re AdWords success becomes non-existent.
Analysis By: Chris Thunder, Certified Knowledge
Do You Get Annoyed By Web Sites That Can Be As Unreadable As Huttese?
This post was written in 2006, but is still very applicable to many pet peeves we have about web sites that don’t make their content very readable.
Analysis By: Oliver Reichenstein, Information Architects
Defining Cute And Other Human Emotional Connections To Design
While more in the vein of product design, this article can be applied to other disciplines. It provides great analysis on using emotion as a point to reach something deeper when connecting with users or customers.
Analysis By: Kevin Suttle, UX Magazine
Social Fresh Unveils 29 Finalists For Best Corporate Blogs
Through both objective and subjective lenses, four judges will be whittling down the top 29 corporate blogs to a field of 10, and determining the best from there. Think of it as the American Idol for company blogs. Each one of the blogs listed on this post is worth at least one look to give you an idea of how good business blogs truly can be if they are made a priority.
Analysis By: Jason Keath, Social Fresh
Tablets Changing The Game In Terms Of Device Use
Nielsen just released a study comparing usage trends of tablet devices and traditional laptops and computers. The short story here is that tablet use results in decreased usage of laptops and computers, but there’s evidence that it doesn’t signal a final curtain call for lap and desktops.
Analysis By: Frank Reed, Marketing Pilgrim
SEOmoz Helps You Optimize A Google Places Page
As Google Places grow in search popularity because of user preference towards localized information, businesses need to increasingly pay attention to their Places page. SEOmoz has some useful advice that will help you optimize your ranking for Google Places.
Analysis By: Geoff Kenyon, SEOmoz
Link Building Without Worrying About Google Rankings
Eric Ward provides a very interesting and enlightened perspective on the best ways to link build, which center around the seemingly obvious formula of providing great, useful content.
Analysis By: Eric Ward, Search Engine Land
A Baker’s Dozen (Plus One) Mobile And Desktop Search Result Differences
Mobile SEO is definitely different than desktop or laptop SEO, and here are 14 of the most noticeable variations between search results in each.
Analysis By: Bryson Meunier, Search Engine Land
SEO Teachings, Courtesy Of Matt Cutts Screenshots
This is a pretty funny collection of screen grabs of Matt Cutts video lessons that also happen to teach you something about SEO best practices. Much of the information isn’t extremely new, but the amount of time it must’ve took to get these hilarious pictures makes it well worth a read.
Analysis By: Adam Melson, Seer Interactive
And The Top 25 Marketers Worth A Twitter Follow Are…
There are tons of marketers on Twitter, but how do you know which ones are worth the most attention? David Vogelpohl gives you a good list of the smartest marketers that deserve a follow from you.
Analysis By: David Vogelpohl, Marketing Pilgrim
