This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Bing Updates Local Pack with Live Traffic Conditions
Bing continues the slow and steady roll-out of new features on search, maps and the local pack. The newest feature released is the ability to turn live traffic conditions on and off in the local pack. This could help searchers avoid construction or other major traffic issues when choosing a business. The new functionality appears to be working internationally as well. Source: TheSemPost
Google No Longer Scanning User’s Gmail for AdWords Targeting Purposes
Google has recently announced that they are going to stop scanning the inboxes of their Gmail users to target them with personalized ads. This doesn’t mean that you can no longer show ads in Gmail inboxes, but how your ads are chosen to appear will be affected due to the changes in inbox scanning. Google has stated on this topic that “This decision brings Gmail ads in line with how we personalize ads for other Google products.” Source: The SEM Post
Google Posts Expire in a Week
Recently, Google Posts availability was given to the majority of Google My Business accounts so business owners could post messages directly to the local panel. While marketers and business owners were excited to use this new feature, everyone was surprised when around seven-days later they received an email notifying them that the post would expire soon. Once expired, the post will disappear from the local panel completely. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Dynamic Search Ads in Ad Groups Spotted in AdWords
A new feature to be launched by Google AdWords appears to be the ability to create dynamic search ads in standard campaigns. This feature comes in the form of a check box that says “Enable Dynamic Search Ads for this campaign”. Experts have also noted that this new feature can only be seen in the new AdWords interface. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
The Mobile First Index Will Begin with Sites That are Mobile Ready
The last time anyone was updated regarding Google’s Mobile First Index, we were told the whole project was pushed back until 2018. During a Google office-hours hangout it was revealed that Google will start the Mobile First Index by indexing sites that are mobile ready first. It hasn’t been determined if sites will be informed of the mobile-first switch, so rank tracking could become a challenge. Source: Search Engine Journal
Analysis
Identifying Seasonality in PPC Accounts
PPC Hero Jacob Fairclough walks us through different ways you can sift through data to find seasonal trends for your client accounts. While a simple line graph broken out by month can sometimes do the trick if you’re looking for steep inclines or declines, Fairclough often finds heat maps a more popular option as they show the weight of a value versus others. In the authors example he uses the x axis for year and the y axis for month, while mapping the values for average search interest to identify any seasonal trends. Source: Jacob Fairclough, PPC Hero
UX Flaws that Could be Affecting Your Conversion Rate
Your site is ranking well on the search results pages, but the conversions are just not there so what is the next step? Pratik Dholakiya at Search Engine Watch identified four under-the-radar UX problems that could be holding up conversions: a lack of visual hierarchy, unclear value proposition, a subpar checkout process and obsolete website themes. Last year the average cart abandonment rate was almost 77%, proving how essential having an easy to use checkout process is. Source: Search Engine Watch
