This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
How Google is Helping Users Find Their Next Job
Back in June of 2017, Google introduced a new experience that connected millions of people to new job opportunities. Since Google launched the experience, it’s received significant feedback from job seekers and there have been new features added that both users and marketers should be aware of. Users can now see salary information, job application options and improved location settings directly in search. For marketers, this is a great opportunity to update salary and location information. Marketers and webmasters should also be sure to validate structured data to improve the chances of their site to be ranked for job search queries. Source: Google’s Blog and Google’s Webmaster Blog
Google Updates Home Service Ads Name & Categories
Recently announced at Pubcon from Google’s Nathan Johns, Home Service Ads will now be called Google Home Local Services Ads. The reason for the name change is believed to be because they will be expanding their services beyond the home. Experts are now noticing Local Service Ads for windshield repair, dentists and auto repair, all of which would not fit under the traditional home service category. Google has already rebranded their pages to now show the local services name rather than home services. Source: The SEM Post
Structured Data to Determine Future Search Features
According to Webmaster, Gary Illyes Google will be focusing on structured data when implementing new search features in the future. He goes on to say that we can expect to see more search features that are pulled from schema relating to jobs, recipes and products. The future features based on structured data may be added unexpectedly so it’s suggested that webmasters begin utilizing all applicable schema that a page allows to potentially improve rankings via search panels. Source: The SEM Post
New Features Launched in New AdWords Interface
Just in time for Black Friday and the Holiday season, Google has globally rolled out promotion extensions across all AdWords languages and currencies in the new AdWords interface. Google will also be rolling out Custom Intent audiences on the Display Network, which allows advertisers to “target people who want to buy the specific products you offer based on data from your campaigns, website and YouTube channel.” Ad Variations will also be coming to the new AdWords interface. Google has stated that this allows you to test ad variation across thousands of ads in a few clicks. You will then be shown the results of your test once they reach statistical significance. Source: Search Engine Land
Even More Information in Mobile Product Knowledge Panels
Google updates mobile knowledge panels pertaining to product related searches. The new update acts as a one-stop resource for product information featuring algorithmic pulled editorial reviews, review form Google’s Product Ratings program, videos and separate tabs for store sites. Depending on the item searched and how much information Google can pull, some queries may feature a “Details” tab or a carousel of shopping ads. This update comes at the perfect time to compete with Amazon during the crazy holiday shopping season. Source: Search Engine Land
Analysis
Tips to Efficiently Manage Your Facebook Campaigns
Aaron Childs of PPC Hero wants to help you better manage your Facebook campaigns and has tips to help you do just that. His first tip is to learn to use the Power Editor as he finds it to be a much less clunky version of the Ads Manager since he can edit, duplicate, and create campaigns all at once. His next tip is to use descriptive naming conventions. Don’t be ambiguous with your campaigns ads or ad sets. Make them obvious like naming a campaign for your top of funnel efforts “Top of Funnel”. The author also recommends testing Facebook algorithms, stating you should place some trust in automated bidding as he believes the algorithms are good at finding the most relevant users at the best cost for you. Source: Aaron Childs, PPC Hero
Hints From Google’s SERPs You Should Watch Out For
In last week’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand Fishkin aka The Wizard of Moz lets us in on subtle cues Google shows in the search results that can give additional insight on user search intent. Fishkin’s first piece of advice is understanding the searcher. Results in Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP), search suggest, related searches and site positions are great starting point to identify intent and ranking opportunity. The webmaster goes on to explain that matching queries in the related searches section and the SERP can identify user intent for the topic where non-matching queries are potential opportunities. His last piece of advice is to keep an eye out for images, videos and social media sites ranking on the first results page as those can indicate gaps where a business could be competing. Source: The Wizard of Moz