This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
“Personal” Tab Added to Google Search Results
To further enhance personalized search, Google has added a new “Personal” tab to search results. While not prominently displayed, this new tab can be found in the search carousel on both mobile and desktop. The new tab displays results that Google has discovered a personal connection between you and your query (based on collected user data). This feature is only visible to the person it is targeted at, but you’ll have to be logged in to Google to see it. Source: Search Engine Journal
New Maximize Conversions Feature Coming to AdWords
Google recently announced a new bidding feature released to all AdWords accounts known as maximize conversions. With this feature, Google will set the right bids automatically for each auction to try to maximize conversions. You can set this under your campaign’s settings page, and then by clicking “Change bid strategy” and select Maximize Conversions. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Publicly Denounces Spammy Practices in Article Campaigns
Even though Google recently updated their Quality Rater Guidelines they continue to see an increase of spammy links in contributor posts. While Google encourages contributor articles that are relevant, informative and unique, black-hat tactics such as keyword stuffing and publishing duplicate content on multiple sites is on the rise. When Google detects these tactics, it is perceived as drop in site quality which can affect search rankings. Source: Google Webmaster Blog
Google Adding New Shopping Feed Specification Requirements
Starting June 26th, Google will start enforcing new requirements for their Shopping Feed specifications. This includes new requirements for Minimum Order Value, Shipping-related attributes, and Handling time. Once enforcement begins in the 26th, all product data that doesn’t meet the requirements in the Feed specifications will get disapproved. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Adds Another Feature to Search Results
Bing is continuing to implement new features on their search results pages. The newest addition has been the “People Also Ask” drop down box. This feature behaves much like the Google version and is displayed in the search results as collapsed questions. While a nice addition, it seems Bing is still working out some bugs regarding grammar and syntax mistakes in the questions. Source: TheSEMPost
Additional Commentary
Improving Results Through Competitor Insight Tools
PPC Hero Michael Knight finds that competitor insights are key in how we improve performance and push our conversion rates. He stresses his use of auction insights and how he reviews the overlap of the same competitor across several campaigns while also drilling down to specific competitors on keywords. The author also finds SpyFu’s Kombat tool to be very handy at showing the overlap of multiple domains in a specific keyword “universe”. Knight also prefers to use SEMRush as it offers deeper reporting and search capabilities compared to SpyFu, which can help shape display strategies or how to shape your benefit statements. Source: Michael Knight, PPC Hero
Strong Site Architecture Could Prevent Lost eCommerce Sales
Consumer behavior has evolved with the growth of ecommerce; they expect answers quickly and with minimal clicks. Search Engine Land columnist Trond Lyngbø discussed optimizing ecommerce sites to capture previously lost sales. The key is creating a site structure that has top-level categories with linked sub-categories to help consumers reach product “destinations” instead of extensive product lists that are often abandoned out of frustration. This also helps ease future growing pains by establishing best practices and brand continuity for the site. Source: Trond Lyngbø, Search Engine Land
