This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Tests Call-to-Action Option for the Local Knowledge Panel
Google recently started testing another update to the local knowledge panel. Local business owners will now have the option to create a custom call-to-action to further entice customers to visit their business. The call-to-action option in the knowledge panel appears to be a transition from the more limiting Google Posts. Source: Blumenthals.com
Google Testing Automated Ad Variations
A recent, somewhat shocking, test has been launched in AdWords which is being called “Ads Added by AdWords.” This feature is an automated process where Google creates variations of your ads for you. These ads will appear in your account with the label “Added by AdWords” and Google claims this feature can “increase your ad campaign performance by 5 to 15%.” This is considered a pilot program and users can opt out of it if they choose to. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
The Mobile Friendly Test Gets the Automation Treatment
Google and the rest of the web know how important it is to be mobile friendly and the Mobile Friendly Testing tool has made it easy to manually check that your mobile site is behaving correctly. This week Google released the Mobile Friendly Test API. It still tests and provides all the same data, but it can be set to automatically check pages so you can find and resolve issues faster than before. Source: Google Webmaster Blog
AdWords Testing 4 Ads at Bottom of SERP
Another significant change recently appeared at the bottom of the Google Search Results page. Google has been testing 4 ads at the bottom of the SERP, bringing the total paid ads on the page to 8. In addition, Google is also testing showing the same at twice, with the same ad appearing in the top set of 4 as well as the bottom set of 4. Experts believe that, if this change rolls out further, the bidding environment may get more aggressive for that double ad exposure. Source: The SEM Post
Preview Your Structured Data Before It Goes Live
Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool is a great resource to check that your schema mark-up is set correctly, but you couldn’t see how it would look as a search result. This week Google pushed an update that allows you to preview product and recipe schema before it goes live. Source: TheSEMPost
Additional Commentary
Taking Your PPC Account Beyond Google and Bing
PPC Hero William Larcom understands that, given a client’s budget, there’s always room to expand in PPC. If you’re already on Google and Bing, the next obvious step on the Search Network is Yahoo Gemini, though Larcom does note a clunky optimization process for this platform. The process then gets hazy: where should you expand to next? If you’re looking for more Search opportunities, the author recommends Ad.net and 7Search. If those don’t work for you, then look to Social media platforms like Facebook where it can be beneficial to utilize a funnel based approach using multiple touch points with your audiences. Source: William Larcom, PPC Hero
Google Search Console: Trust but Verify
Google Search Console is one of the must-have tools in any SEOs arsenal, but the validity and accuracy of results can be brought into question. Moz blogger Russ Jones challenges users to take the information provided by Search Console and compare it to similar data from other tools like Ahrefs and Majestic. Source: Russ Jones, Moz Blog
