Bing Is Exploring Encrypted Search, Google Trends Now Tracking Entities, & More.

Bing Jumping On The Encrypted Search Bandwagon?

Following Google’s move in September to encrypt all search data, Microsoft is reportedly investigating ways to do the same. This move that’s largely in response to the NSA’s spy programs would result in webmasters receiving even less keyword data than they’re currently getting. Online marketers, prepare for the probability of an entirely (not provided) world.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Google Trends Now Tracks Entities

If you type “Rice” into Google’s search box, you might be searching for the starchy grain or you might be searching for the university. Previously it was impossible to parse out search volume data for these two different user intents in Google Trends. But this week Google announced a new feature that allows users to select between different predictions of intent for ambiguous searches. The tool is also now including data on variations of different search terms for the same topic, i.e., it will incorporate volume information for searches on “Gwen Paltro” into the overall data for “Gwyneth Paltrow (Actress)”.

Source: Google Inside Search Blog

Don’t Go Crazy With Country Code Top Level Domains

Esteemed Google engineer John Mueller recently responded to a webmaster question about the use of multiple country code top level domains (ccTLDs). In sum, he declared that webmasters should not go overboard by creating what he deemed “doorway pages” featuring similar content on multiple country and/or city-targeted domains, such as www.berlin.website.de and www.beijing.website.cn. This kind of tactic could be viewed as spam, and in the end won’t garner any advantage in the SERPs.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

Google Webmaster Tools Reveals Smartphone Crawl Errors

Google Webmaster Tools recently added a “Smartphone” tab to its Crawl Errors section, highlighting instances where the smartphone Googlebot has identified issues such as server errors, soft 404s and faulty redirects. It’s a tool that webmasters should pay attention to, as sites with these types of errors are being penalized in smartphone search results.

Source: Google Webmaster Central Blog

Out With The Memes, In With The News

Recognizing that people actually enjoy high quality content, Facebook recently announced changes to its news feed algorithm that should promote shared news posts over stale memes. Grumpy Cat could not be reached for comment, but he’s probably not happy about this.

Source: ReadWrite

Twitter Launching Retargeting Program Globally

Back in June, Twitter said that it was launching an experimental retargeting program. Now the company says it’s available globally. For now, the idea is for businesses to target paid ads on Twitter at users who have also visited their websites. Facebook has already had success with retargeting through its FBX program, but Twitter might be particularly compelling for advertising because it could bring retargeting to mobile.

Source: TechCrunch

Another Creepy Google Idea

Too busy writing ad and website copy to update your own social network status?  Used up all your creative juice making that content creative?  Google is working on software that will learn how you use and react to social networking sites so that it can post on your behalf.  This software is still in the planning and testing stages, but it may not be long before all you have to do is approve a post on your own behalf.

Source: BBC

Google AdWords Feature Alert: Undo From Change History

Google has recently implemented an undo feature in AdWords Change History. This new button will reverse any changes you made to the account and show a status of “undone”. Then a new line item appears in the history with the date of the undone action and gives you the option to redo it if desired.

Source: Clix Marketing

Google Introduces Pay By Viewable Impression CPM Bidding

Google rolled out a major change to AdWords this week by introducing CPM bidding by viewable impressions. This change means that advertisers will be charged based on impressions that can actually be viewed in screen by users instead of ads that were “served”. All display network campaigns will now have this option. Google’s Active View technology will also include metrics for reporting. This is a big deal for advertisers because according to a recent report by comScore, 31% of online ads go unseen by users.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Google’s Yellow Ads Label Now Showing On Desktop Searches

If you haven’t already noticed, Google has been testing new ad labels in their search results pages. Gone are the pale yellow backgrounds; now beside every ad is a bright yellow label with the word “ad” in white letters. They are testing this new ad labeling method because of all the controversy over ads blending in too much with organic results. These could likely cause CTRs to increase due to the color, making paid results stand out more than non-paid results. These labels are still being tested, however it seems Google is testing them on a wider scale than normal.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Paid Search Spend Surges 27%, Mobile Grabs 40% Of Thanksgiving, Black Friday Spend

Reports on the spend numbers for Thanksgiving and Black Friday reveal lackluster sales among brick and mortar companies while ecommerce shines like a star. Paid search saw big increases in click volume and sales, with smartphone and tablet activity using up a significant spend share of 40%. Paid search spend for desktops on the other hand fell 24.1%. It’s clear that many marketers have multi-device strategies in place and are luring in customers this season.

Source: Search Engine Land

SEO Has Changed Forever…Until Next Year

‘Tis the season for year-end reviews of what’s changed in the world of search engine optimization! Jim Yu of Search Engine Land offers up the first of what will undoubtedly prove to be many recaps of SEO in 2013, as well as some general guidelines for staying ahead of the curve in 2014.

Analysis by: Jim Yu, Search Engine Land

New PPC Report: Bing Ads Vs. Google AdWords In 6 U.S. Verticals

Ginny Marvin analyzes the recent study put out by AdGooroo that analyzed advertisers’ participation and performance metrics on the Yahoo! Bing networks compared to Google networks. Not surprisingly for most of us, AdWords out performed Bing Ads in most categories.  She discusses the why’s and how’s of some of the metrics listed.

Analysis by: Ginny Marvin, Search Engine Land

The Top 10 Google AdWords Updates Of 2013

Couldn’t keep up with all the updates from Google this year? Well, Larry Kim from Word Stream has your back. In a recent article he describes the top 10 AdWords features introduced in 2013 and how to implement them if you have not already done so.

Analysis by: Larry Kim, Word Stream

Paid Search Ads Paired With Facebook Ads Yield 30% More Return

A recently released study from Kenshoo found that when a person is exposed to Facebook ads and paid search ads together, it can result in a 30% greater return on ad spend. Jessica Lee from Search Engine Watch gives the highlights along with some helpful analysis.

Analysis by: Jessica Lee, Search Engine Watch

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