AdWords Releases Review Extensions, Google Updates Its Algorithm, Local Search Carousel Is Popular, & More

Google AdWords Releases The Beta Version Of Review Extensions

In a recent blog post, Google announced it is rolling out review extensions for beta testing. The feature displays a brief quote review and a link to a reputable third party that must adhere (as always) to Google’s advertising guidelines.

Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog

Google Introduces AdWords Dynamic Retargeting

Online retailers utilizing Google Merchant Feeds will now be able to serve up retargeting ads that dynamically populate with recently viewed items, related products or top performing products. AdWords offers a number of ad templates for advertisers to use, and site visitors are sorted into different groups depending on their interactions. Google plans to extend this capability into other verticals later this year.

Source: Search Engine Land

Let The New Algorithm Roll Down Like The Waters

Google’s sultan of spam Matt Cutts revealed that an algorithm update is in progress now through mid-July. The revelation came about as SEOs pointed out a car insurance site that leaped to the top of Google’s UK search engine after acquiring thousands of links in a scant couple of weeks. Cutts said the updated algorithm will be ridding the SERPs of sites just like that.

Source: David Naylor

Linking AdWords and Google Analytics Accounts Easier

Google is making it easier for AdWords and Analytics accounts to be linked together with a new, simpler linking process that’s been trimmed down to just three clicks.  Now, from the Admin section of their Analytics account, users can click on AdWords Linking in the Accounts column and then on “New Link” to follow the linking wizard.  The tool can also be accessed from AdWords by clicking Google Analytics from the Tools and Analysis menu.

Source: Search Engine Land

Ahhh…It’s Good To Rank First

According to a recent Chitika study, 33% of all organic search traffic funnels through the first result. The numbers correspondingly decline from there, at 17.6%, 11.4%, 8.1%, and so on down the page. The results are very similar to Chitika’s 2010 study on the same click-through habits.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Google’s Local Search Carousel Is Popular

According to a recent study utilizing heat maps and click locations, 48% of searchers that were shown Google’s local carousel clicked on the results displayed. Only 14.5% of searchers opted for the map display, with the prominence of review volume playing a big role in where the person chose to click.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Organic Search Generates High Value Customers

According to a recent study by Custora, the highest value consumers are generated via organic search at a rate 54 percent higher than the average lifetime value of a customer. PPC comes in second and email third.  Custora makes the claim based on CLV, a calculation of the entire profit a company can expect to earn from a customer over the lifetime of their relationship. For this particular study, CLV was calculated based on the amount customers spent within two years of their first purchase.

Source: Search Engine Watch

People Love Local Search Reviews

A recent BrightLocal consumer survey revealed expected, but crucial, information about user trust in local reviews. Specifically, the study found that 85% of users read local reviews overall, and 60% read restaurant reviews before heading on down for a bite. Perhaps most interesting, the study claims that word-of-mouth recommendations are on the decline over the past year, from 75% to 72%.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Study Uncovers Multifaceted Reasons Why People “Like” Brand Pages

A recent study from Syncapse revealed that most Facebook users that like a brand’s page have various reasons for doing so. The majority (49%) said they simply want to support the brand, 42% said it was for coupon/discount reasons, 41% said they’re interested in news about that brand, and 35% said it was to participate in contests.

Source: Marketing Land

Bing Offers Ad-Free Search For Schools

Bing is offering schools the chance to use an ad-free version of their search engine. Also, they will be offering enhanced privacy settings for the schools.

Source: Bing Blogs

Big Brands’ Mobile SEO Futures Not So Bright

In a recent assessment by Pure Oxygen Labs, only 6 of the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 are compliant with Google’s best practices for mobile SEO. 94 sites lacked functioning redirects, responsive design, and/or proper mobile configurations. Hopefully these companies are scrambling to rectify the situation before Google updates its mobile algorithm, rumored to be happening later this year.

Source: Search Engine Land

Out With Google Reader, In With Some Facebook Flipboard-Like Thingy

According to a semi-unpretentious Wall Street Journal article (they do exist!), Facebook is in the process of creating a mobile-friendly news aggregator app. Essentially, it’s Facebook Flipboard, complete with all of Facebook’s hyper-personal data driving stories most likely to end up in your feed. All in all, not a bad move.

Source: Marketing Land

Facebook Privacy Folly #249

According to TechCrunch, a hacker is annoying Facebook by compiling and publicizing a database of millions of phone numbers correlated with user information. All of this information is, of course, “public” via Facebook’s privacy settings. The hacker said Facebook shouldn’t make its default sharing setting “public.” Facebook replied, “Here’s a cease and desist letter from our army of lawyers.”

Source: TechCrunch

The FTC Thinks Ads Are Not Explicit Enough In Search Results

“You’re probably wondering why we called you all here,” said the Federal Trade Commission representative to 24 search engines on Tuesday. Probably. Thanks in part to an SEO Book study, the FTC politely asked all search engines, including LeBron James (Google), Dwyane Wade (Bing), and Chris Bosh (Yahoo), to make ads more easily distinguishable in their results. No search engine was singled out, but you can probably figure out who has been guilty of past deceptions.

Source: New York Times

New iOS App Records Like A Time Machine

A time machine! Of sound! TechCrunch reports on the new “Heard” iOS app that creates a constant buffer of up to five minutes of sound recording. It self-erases after five minutes unless you click a “save now” button to save the audio in the buffer to disk, delighting paranoids, executives and experimental sound artists everywhere.

Source: TechCrunch

Quick Hit Analysis Of Google’s Most Recent Algorithm Update

As always, Pete Meyers has a stellar early breakdown of how Google’s search results have changed across multiple verticals in the wake of a (confirmed) June 25 algorithm update. His conclusions are preliminary, but interesting and useful nonetheless.

Analysis By: Pete Meyers, Moz

Need A Semantic SEO Brush-Up? Here Are Five Points To Help

If you’re not familiar with semantic SEO (or whatever buzzword you want to prescribe to it), Matt Brown has you covered in a Moz blog post.

Analysis By: Matt Brown, Moz

Spellong Errars are offen Forgivrn when “Sent from My iPhone”

J.K. Trotter reports in the Atlantic Wire on a 2012 Stanford study that suggests that while grammar and spelling errors in normal emails make the sender seem much less credible, this is not the case when the recipient knows the email comes from a smartphone. So “sent from my iPhone, please forgive me” appears to work as designed.

Commentary by: J. K. Trotter

Forecasting Big Data, Social Data, And Ad Spend In The 2016 Election

We have absolutely no idea what is going to happen in 2016, or with the 2016 presidential election. We do know, however, that big data and online ad spend will be cornerstones of a successful campaign.

Analysis By: Gurbaksh Chahal, All Things Digital

New And Underutilized Google Tools

Sure, we all know (and mostly love) Hangouts, AdWords and the Keyword Tool. But Google has more wrenches in its proverbial toolbox that can make the lives of online marketers easier and more informed. Moz’s Mike Tekula curates a helpful list of the tools and their uses.

Analysis By: Mike Tekula, Moz

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