This Week’s Industry New’s
Compiled By Rocket Click’s Staff
Phone Numbers And More Coming To Knowledge Graph
A clickable phone number may begin showing up for users searching for local restaurants and businesses. The phone number would appear within the knowledge graph at the top of the page. It will then open Google Hangouts so that you can dial via your computer.
Source: Search Engine Land
Microsoft Putting Resources Into Bing Catapult
A new data center project at Microsoft is receiving attention for its plan to bring faster and more relevant results to Bing users. Analysts believe that quality of results is far more important than speed if they want to overtake Google.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Bing Ads Express Put To Rest
Bing announced earlier this week that they will be putting to rest Bing Ads Express as of the end of this month. As it turns out, their automated paid search system did not reach the potential Bing thought it would have in tests. Anyone currently using the system will have to manage their accounts through Bing Ads.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Twitter Now Using Bing Translation
Twitter users can now use Bing translation to translate tweets found on Twitter. The rollout is intended to coincide with the FIFA World Cup because it is expected to be the most discussed multilingual sporting event ever. Users can view translations on their timeline by clicking a link next to the globe icon.
Source: Marketing Land
Yahoo Gemini Integrates Tumbler Ads
After acquiring Tumblr last year, Yahoo has added the ability to run Tumblr sponsored posts alongside its native ads across the content network. Case study data has reported that using Yahoo and Tumblr ads together increased brand awareness by 40% and tagline recognition by 100%.
Source: Marketing Land
Universal Search Appears In 85% Of Google Searches
In a recent study by SearchMetrics it was revealed that Universal Search appears in an overwhelming majority of search results. Universal Search is the blending of search results with Google Images, Google Maps, and so on. The study also revealed that videos appear in 65% of searches and maps appear in only 1% of Google searches.
Source: Search Engine Land
Bing Finally Integrates Auto-Tagging
After what seems like forever, Bing has finally added an auto-tagging feature to their Bing Ads interface. Users will no longer have to manually tag destination URLs in order to get data for them in Analytics. With the check of a box in the Accounts and Billing tab advertisers will be able to either replace all existing tags, or add tags to any destination URLs that don’t currently have them. Bing Ads API will also support this feature.
Source: Search Engine Land
More Antitrust Complaints In Europe For Google
Once again, Google is at the center of antitrust complaints in Europe. This time however, the complaints are based on Android devices as well as third-party app stores. The complaint was filed by Aptoide, a company that offers a service similar to Google Play. They believe Google is blocking third-party app stores that are competition to Android’s app store.
Source: Marketing Land
Yelp Now Allowing Customers To Interact Directly With Businesses
Yelp users will now be able contact businesses directly to ask questions, make reservations, or voice concerns. The feature is designed to be an alternative to calling the business. Before users send a message, they will also receive a notice of how quickly the business typically responds to messages and business owners can reply directly via email.
Source: Marketing Land
Study Reveals Impact of Facebook Ad Spend on PPC Conversions
Kenshoo has released a new study that contains data and a formula for determining the ideal Facebook ad spend required to advance paid search performance. After finding a coorelation between increases in Facebook ad spend and increases in paid search conversions, it was also found that Facebook has an “upper limit” where benefits drop off. Results show that hitting the mid-level spend amount will have the most return.
Source: Marketing Land
ESPN Wins Prime Real Estate On Google
In a new deal between Google and ESPN, ESPN will be the provider of scores, news, and video highlights at the top of Google’s search results page for all World Cup searches. According to Marketing Land, no money was exchanged during the deal and the companies will not be splitting ad revenue as a result of the searches.
Source: Marketing Land
Google Reveals Portion of New AdWords Policy Center
Over the next few months Google will be refreshing their new AdWords Policy Center now available to advertisers. Google says the policies listed will be shortened for easier understanding as well as more transparent. They will also be tightening restrictions on “Dangerous Content” that include dangerous products and services. Google is encouraging advertisers to review the policy center before its full roll out in September.
Source: Search Engine Land
Notable Commentary
Does Google’s New Study Mean What It Says?
In a recent article by Ginny Marvin, the transparency of Google’s new study on brand awareness has come into question. She discusses how Google may be misleading readers by not revealing all of the aspects behind the data.
Analysis: Ginny Marvin, Search Engine Land
Market Research Pre-PPC
Howard Jacobson takes you through how to do market research on Facebook to find the ideal customer for your product. He goes through a step by step process to use before launching a new product through PPC channels.
Analysis: Howard Jacobson, Search Engine Watch
Link Building For Not So Exciting Industries
With some products and clients, there’s a wealth of high-quality link targets out there to target. Others, not so much. Matthew Barby of Search Engine Land offers some helpful tips for getting creative when link building for b2b clients and those with products that don’t necessarily scream excitement.
Analysis: Matthew Barby, Search Engine Land
Tips For Improving Organic Click-Through Rate
Rankings and traffic are obviously essential, but there’s more to revenue growth in organic search than these metrics alone. Bumping your site up from 2 to 1 and getting the extra traffic and dollars that come with it can be extremely difficult and time consuming. Don’t stop trying, but improving Click-through rate on the organic listings you already have is one way you can grow traffic and revenue without as much time and effort. Chris Silver Smith offers a few pointers on doing just that.
Analysis: Chris Silversmith, Search Engine Land