Industry Update for August 12, 2016

Industry Update for August 12, 2016


This Week’s Industry News

Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team

Top Stories

Google Restricting Keyword Planner for Non-Advertisers

Back in June, Google removed access to the Keyword Planner for non-advertisers, although they later backed away from it saying that it was a technical issue. Recently, experts noticing some changes when using the keyword planner with no active campaigns. They’re only provided with a range of search volumes and a message notifying this as well as saying “For a more detailed view, set up and run a campaign.” Source: The SEM Post

Google Updating My Business Insights

Since its inception, the backend features of Google My Business have drawn the ire of many SEOs. Both the organization and accuracy of the data have been criticized. Now, however, it appears Google has finally recognized these issues and is in the process of taking steps to overhaul GMB features like Insights and My Business List. Source: Mike Blumenthal

RLSA Expanding Into Search Partners for AdWords

Google recently announced that they will be giving advertisers the option to use Remarketing lists for search ads on search partners. Google’s statement on this was “This change means your audience-targeted bids, keywords, and ads will reach more of your potential customers without any additional work.” You can include search partners in the settings tab of your RLSA campaign. Source: Search Engine Land

Yelp & TripAdvisor Gang Up on Google

Last week, Google announced that it would begin providing its own restaurant reviews and “best of” lists to searchers. Unsurprisingly, review/recommendation websites Yelp and TripAdvisor are perturbed by this news. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman even took to twitter to call Google out for being “monopolist” and claiming the space that sites like Yelp would normally occupy. Source: Search Engine Land

Additional Commentary

Importance of Dedicated Landing Pages

Kate Wilcox at Hanapin Marketing shares her thoughts on the importance of having a dedicated landing page in paid search. Wilcox notes that our target audiences tend to be a little more focused and paid ads are already telling them what they’re looking for, so she finds it beneficial to have the same information they’re looking for on the page they land on. The author also notes that your landing page should follow your business goals, giving the example of if you want a user to fill out a form to get a free quote, your page should be in line with that goal. Analysis: Kate Wilcox, PPC Hero

The 4 Daily Habits of the Most Successful SEOs

In this study of SEO success, John E. Lincoln reveals four things every SEO should do every day to reach it. First, Lincoln says that successful SEOs must be news hounds so they can stay on top of trends. Second, Lincoln stresses that they must keep an eye on what is making well performing sites so successful and apply those strategies to their own work. Next, Lincoln argues that a successful SEO must be a man or woman of action – talking and strategizing alone won’t cut it. Finally, Lincoln says that SEOs that strive to be the best (read: work hard) more often than not end up being the best. Analysis: John E. Lincoln, Search Engine Land