This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Separate Mobile Index Still in the Works
When speaking recently at Search Marketing Summit in Sydney, Australia, Google’s Gary Illyes assured those in attendance that they’re still working on a separate index for mobile. Illyes said that the things they consider in the desktop index like links and on page content can have a different and sometimes detrimental effect in a mobile context. There is currently no exact timeframe for when this will come into effect, but many SEOs are glad to know that it is still in the works. Source: The SEM Post
Research Identifies Top Expensive PPC Keywords in the US
Through SEMrush, research was done to identify the most expensive keywords on the AdWords platform. “best mesothelioma lawyer” tops the list with a whopping $935.71 cost-per-click. The majority of the most expensive keywords are populated by the legal sector with several vehicle accident keywords appearing towards the top of the list. Keywords related to water damage also appeared to be just as expensive, with cost-per-clicks ranging anywhere from $260 to $380. Source: Search Engine Watch
Google Doesn’t Plan on Stopping Title Tag Rewrites
Much to the dismay of SEOs around the world, Google has a tendency to decide what the title of a web page should be when displayed in its search results. And according to Gary Illyes, they don’t plan on stopping this practice any time soon. However, Illyes made a great case for why they will continue to rewrite titles. He explained that they’ve “seen so many sites whose title really suck” and that “a lot of sites have no title: a lot sites have a title saying ‘Top Page’.” Obviously, in these cases it’s probably best for everyone involved if Google writes the title tag. Source: The SEM Post
Google Measures Over 1 Billion Store Visits from PPC Ads
In an attempt to close the gap between online to offline attribution, back in 2014 Google introduced store visits tracking. Since then, according to Google, they have measured more than 1 billion store visits due to online advertising. In a specific case study, Nissan UK noted that 6 percent of all of their ad clicks eventually led to the user visiting the dealership. Source: Search Engine Land
Page Speed to be Focus of Next Mobile-Friendly Update
Much to the surprise of no one, Gary Illyes recently revealed that page speed will be the focal point of Google’s next mobile-friendly update. This is an obvious next step when considering the greater context of Google’s recent efforts like AMP and “mobilegeddon.” Source: Search Engine Watch
Additional Commentary
Strangest Search Terms From PPC Accounts
Jacob Baadsgaard shares some of the strangest search terms he has seen from managing over 2,000 AdWords accounts. Baadsgaard found the search term “whack your boss”, which had an oddly high search volume, due to a phrase match keyword for “boss”. The author also saw considerable volume for the 16 word search term “How do I remove the terrible smell from carpet that has been flooded using household ingredients” for a client that sells carpet cleaner. He also found that, on a tech support client’s account, a single woman typed her AOL e-mail into the search results 127 times in hopes that Google would log her in to her e-mail account. Analysis: Jacob Baadsgaard, Search Engine Land
Title Tag Length Guidelines: 2016 Edition
With all the hullabaloo surrounding Google’s widening of its main search results column, Moz’s Dr. Peter J. Meyers takes the time to find out what these changes really mean for SEOs. After examining the data from a pool of 10,000 titles, Meyers concludes that due to the differences in character pixel width and truncated titles for branded searches, a 60 character limit is the safest rule of thumb for writing title tags. Analysis: Dr. Peter J. Meyers, Moz Blog
