This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Virtual Offices and Service-Area Businesses Get Google My Business Guidelines
In an attempt to prevent further confusion and frustration Google recently outlined rules for virtual offices and service-area businesses. The new guidelines dictate that a business cannot claim a “virtual office” unless it is staffed during the indicated business hours. However, some businesses, like pizzerias, can utilize the “hybrid service-area business” option to highlight their storefront and delivery range. Source: SterlingSky
Outlined Ad Label Officially Replacing Solid Green Version
While several tests have been going on with the ad label on the Google SERPs, one has finally become official. Google has confirmed that the new ad label, a green outline with a white background, will now take the place of the solid green version. On this change, a Google spokesperson stated that they decided to roll this out so they can “make our results page easier to read for users.” Source: Search Engine Land
Google Confirms Image Search Update
Recently, webmasters and SEOs saw a major dip in image search traffic from non-US searches. These traffic anomalies have been very similar to those seen in 2013 for US image searches and Google confirmed this week that they updated the image search UI. Currently, it appears only France and Germany have been affected and no explanation was given for the 4-year wait between this roll-out and the previous US one. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google To Have Ad Platforms Undergo Measurement Audit
Following Facebook’s decision to have the Media Rating Council audit their metrics, Google has recently decided to hop on the bandwagon as well for their advertising platforms along with YouTube. This audit will allow transparency for advertisers asking for more insight into their metrics. The MRC audit is another step toward marketers getting industry-wide standards to grade their advertising campaigns. Source: Ad Week
Removing HTTP URLs in Search Console Will Remove All Versions of that Page
A recent Google Webmaster help thread revealed that if you remove the HTTP version of a site in Search Console it will also remove all the HTTPS, www and non-www URLs. So, unless you want to ax the entire page, the best way to repair bad URLs is to request removal or recrawling/reindexing. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Additional Commentary
Potential Red Flags in Your Account Structure
William Larcom shares important red flags that can affect your overall account structure. First is quality score, which can help you find red flag areas in your account based on copy or landing page. Second is overall keyword performance, specifically by analyzing click distribution by match type. If broad match keywords are doing most of the heavy lifting, it’s time for an account structure change. A final red flag the author mentions is an ad group that consumed a large percentage of budget. He notes how these ad groups can strip the opportunity from other keywords to have their fair chance to show. Source: William Larcom, PPC Hero
Is the Future of SEO Shifting to UX
Search engines keep getting better at providing the best search results, and machine learning is speeding up the process. With so many sites providing strong organic content, user experience has become a major factor to consider when attempting to reach potential visitors and keep them on your site. To stay competitive, SEOs need to stretch their skills beyond content and into UX. By providing customers a site that is visually appealing, easy to use and has the information they want, visitors are more likely to stick around and potentially convert. Source: David Freeman, Search Engine Land
