This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Mobile Certifications Available for Google Partners
This week Google launched a mobile certification program for Google Partners. The four module certification guides partners through the best practices for creating, managing and optimizing mobile websites. The Mobile Sites certification is the closest thing to an SEO badge available from Google Partners. Source: TheSEMPost
Google Tests URLs Above Ad Title on Mobile
A test has recently popped up in the mobile Google Search Results where the URL appears above the rest of the ad. One thing to note is that there is a significant amount of white space between the headline and the URL, making the URL look somewhat separated from the rest of the ad. Though testing currently appears to be limited, advertisers may want to consider putting more thought into how their URL is showing should this change go live. Source: The SEM Post
Google: Fighting the Good Fight Against Fake Local Listings
Google My Business has been an ideal resource for businesses trying to engage their customers online, but fake listings are created by nefarious webmasters to defraud or extort legitimate business owners. Since the peak of fake listings in 2005, Google has re-evaluated the algorithms and verification to prevent new fake listings. The efforts have paid off with a 70% reduction of fake listings since 2005 and 85% of new fake listings are disabled before they show up on Google Maps. Source: Google Research Blog
Google Estimates 4 Billion Store Visits Due to Ads
Amidst a continued effort by Google to tie clicks on paid ads and store traffic together, Google has announced that they have now tracked over four billion store visits that came from an ad. This is a significant increase over the one billion they have captured less than a year ago. As Google’s measurement process continues to become more advanced, Google has stated that they will be rolling out store visits data to thousands of advertisers. Source: Search Engine Land
The Logic Behind Search Console’s Unlabeled Disavow Links
Google doesn’t label what links are disavowed or nofollowed, but this information has been requested before and Google has not yet been inclined to provide the available link data. During a webmaster hangout, Google provided their reasoning “it is mostly in regards to kind of making, [and] encouraging people not to focus too much on followed links versus no-followed links. And instead, try to kind of look at the links that are coming to your web site, and use that information as kind of a guide to see which parts of your web sites people are linking to.” This explanation, although vague, reveals that Google has no plans to provide disavow info anytime soon. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Additional Commentary
Tips to Increase Conversions for Lead Gen Clients
PPC Hero Diane Chelius wants to help you push for more leads for you lead gen clients and has some helpful tips to get you started. Her first helpful tip revolves around Geo-targeting. With this, you can pull a “Users Location” report to find which areas most of your users are coming from and, of course, bid up on them. Chelius also recommends testing Ad Customizers with the Geo-targeting data. This will allow you to make your ads more granular based on location or even the device users are searching on. Source: Diane Chelius, PPC Hero
Social Media & the Evolution of Consumer Engagement
In the age of social media, we have become accustomed to personalized, interactive content. Anna Talerico at the SEMrush blog combed through all the data regarding consumer-website interaction and revealed the science behind customer retention. It all comes down to the fact that customers want to feel heard, so responding to feedback (negative or positive) is a major component for return business and using a blend of relevant, quality content with interactive element should keep customers engaged with your site. Source: Anna Talerico, SEMrush
