This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Search Console Going Over 90(00)?
At a recent digital marketing conference, The SEM Post’s Jennifer Slegg got the chance to chat with Gary Illyes about Google Search Console. Illyes informed Slegg that they’ve been “working for quite some time” to make Search Analytics a more powerful and accurate tool. After being pressed for more specific information, Illyes revealed that part of this improvement plan is to finally offer data older than 90 days in Search Analytics – a feature SEOs have been asking about for some time. Source: The SEM Post
AdWords Ads Confirmed for Local Pack
At a recent workshop event, Google has confirmed that paid ads will soon start to appear in the Local Pack. At the event, Google showed images of your typical local 3-pack, but this time with an AdWords ad at the top followed by two organic listings. The presenter at the event, Google’s Global Product Lead for Local Ads Ali Turhan, also discussed the possibility of having the ad at the top along with three organic listings. Source: Search Engine Land
Don’t Hate. Validate.
Months after launching its Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative, Google has finally given AMP users the ability to double check their work with a validator tool. This tool can be accessed via validator.ampproject.org or in the form of a Chrome extension. To use the validator, users can simply paste the URL of the AMP page or the pages source code. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
AdWords Testing Click to Text Ads
A new test was spotted in the Google search results recently. Advertisers have noticed a new extension that resembles a call extension, but instead lets users click to text rather than click to call. One clicked, your text messaging app will open with a prefilled message. In the case noted by the author, the prefilled message was for Zipwhip and the message read “I’m interested to learn more about Zipwhip”. Google currently has no additional details to share on this new extension. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Expanding Security Alerts in Analytics
More than a year ago, Google began warning its users when proceeding to a potentially dangerous or compromised website. On Tuesday of this week, Google announced that they would begin showing alerts in Analytics when they believe a site has been hacked for spamming purposes. Source: Official Google Webmaster Blog
Additional Commentary
Will RLSA change the future for PPC?
Larry Kim explores the impact of remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) and if it may shape the future of PPC. Kim first notes how expensive some verticals, like Lawyers and Attorney, can have crazy high CPC’s. When advertisers want to get more for less, can RLSA save the day? Kim’s answer: RLSA is great, but it won’t be your hero. You can advertise to users who are more likely to click and convert, but the problem is that they don’t create new volume. It will just get you conversions that you would have gotten anyway. Analysis: Larry Kim, Search Engine Watch
How to Improve your CTR Using Google Search Console
In this follow-up to his “comprehensive guide on how to use Google Search Console,” Search Engine Watch editor Christopher Ratcliff explains how to use the data in the Search Analytics report to prioritize and fix the pages on your site that need the most improvement in click through rate. Ratcliff’s approach to raising the click through rate for these pages was simple – write better meta descriptions and title tags. A few of the steps he took to optimize these pages for click through rate include making sure keywords were present in both the meta and title, use schema to markup reviews, and remove duplicates. Analysis: Christopher Ratcliff, Search Engine Watch
