This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google’s Advanced Verification Test Cleans House in San Diego Local Pack
Late last week, Google went live with its new local pack results fueled by advanced verification. This revamped SERP actually contains two separate local packs. The first local pack appears to
contain exclusively paid listings that are accompanied by a “Google guaranteed” badge and the second local pack is a slimmed down version – advanced verification cut the results for San Diego plumbers from 60+ to 7 – of the traditional, organic format. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Makes Changes to Price Extension Format
Google has recently implemented a new version of Price extensions which originally debuted in July. These extensions have typically showed up in a list format, but now Google is trying out a new swipeable card format. Google announced via Twitter on Monday that this would become the new standard format for Price extensions. In addition to this, Google also announced that this extension would be rolling out for several other languages. Source: Search Engine Land
Filter AMP Data by Rich vs. Normal in Search Console
When AMP data first became available in Search Console, the only way the data was reported was if the content was presented in a rich format (i.e. news carousel) in the search results. Now, Google has given publishers the ability to evaluate performance of AMP content in Search Console regardless of where it appears in the search results. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Ads Testing App Install Ads
A new test recently spotted in the Bing side are app install ads which are currently showing only in the US. These search ads send users directly to an app download page on the App Store or Google Play store. The newly tested ads are available through the web interface and in the API, but not yet in the Bing Ads Editor. Source: Search Engine Land
New Markup On the Menu for Local Restaurants
With the introduction of new markup properties, local restaurants will now be able to feed their information into AMP-powered restaurant list rich cards. For example, this markup would give restaurant an increased chance of showing up in a carousel list for a search like “best dinner in Milwaukee.” Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Additional Commentary
Working With Clients In Different Time Zones
PPC expert Bryan Gaynor shares his advice on how he handles clients across multiple time zones, noting how different daylight savings times and remembering the different “end of day” times can impact the smoothness of running an account. To address this, Gaynor recommends working with your furthest away client first as it gives you time to reach out to them if necessary. When onboarding a client, Gaynor also likes to be upfront by telling them what his hours will look like in their time zone. The author notes that this helped with setting time expectations for deliverables. Source: Bryan Gaynor, PPC Hero
The Battle for Traffic: Organic SEO vs. Social Media Marketing
There has been much ado about what sort of impact social media has on organic search, and in this post for Moz, Alexandra Tachalova dives deep into a pool of data to reveal once and for all how these two channels interplay. Tachalova starts by compiling the organic and social referral traffic of five SEO blogs and five SMM blogs. She then measures the engagement on twitter and Facebook for each website and combines that with the traffic data to conclude that the engagement and sharing that takes place on social media leads (indirectly) to better performance in organic search. Source: Alexandra Tachalova, Moz blog
