Ranking Boost For Secure Sites, Yahoo Integrates Audience Verification, Accurate Shipping Rates In Google Shopping, & More

Ranking Boost For Secure Sites, Yahoo Integrates Audience Verification, Accurate Shipping Rates In Google Shopping, & More


This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Top Stories

 

Secure Sites May Receive Small Ranking Boost

Sites that use HTTPS will soon receive a small ranking advantage in search results in an effort to make the internet more secure. It won’t trump other signals such as high-quality content, but it may carry greater weight as time goes on. The main idea behind Google’s decision is to encourage more webmasters to embrace HTTPS if they haven’t already done so.

Source: Marketing Land

Newer, More Accurate Shipping Rates for Google Shopping

After many consumer complaints of inaccurate shipping rates listed on Google’s Shopping platform, they have introduced a new shipping configuration tool for merchants. Merchant Center users will be able to set shipping labels in product feeds and be able to group products with similar rates. The tool also offers multiple shipping methods, location customizations and exclusions as well as a shared library to save them in.

Source: Search Engine Land

Yahoo Launches Integration of ComScore vCE

Earlier this week Yahoo announced that it will be integrating comScore’s vCE a audience verification service. With digital advertising becoming so much more important that TV or print, more advertisers are looking to reach a larger audience with more accurate demographic metrics. By integrating an audience verification service into their ad buying platform Yahoo hopes to attract more big brand customers and make a comeback in the display ad business.

Source: Marketing Land

What to Expect From Bing’s New Look

Bing’s Ads new interface has started rolling out to all users this week and it was stated by a Bing Ads UI team member that many of the ideas implemented came from customer suggestions. Some significant changes to expect include a smaller header to allow for more data to be displayed and changes in menu locations. Other changes yet to be implemented include a shared library feature and chat support.

Source: Search Engine Land

Additional stories worth reading

Author Stats Removed From Webmaster Tools

Google Testing Description Snippets On Mobile

Tech Support Scam Ads Still Confusing Consumers

Facebook Outage Causes Traffic Drops On Other Sites

News Publisher Released By Google

Smartphone Usage May Break 75 Percent Soon

Google’s Analytics Update Allows Deleting Properties

 

Notable Commentary

 

For PPC Marketers, Low CTR  = Low Profits

A few years ago a strategy to save money among PPC advertisers was to use low click through rates. Larry Kim from Search Engine Land has recently posted an article explaining why this strategy may end up costing advertisers more. He touches on how quality score is more important than ever as well as why cost per click is so important to successful paid search campaigns.
Analysis by: Larry Kim, Search Engine Land

Calculating the ROI of Your Search Campaign

One of those most difficult aspects of SEO, is actually demonstrating to clients that they’re getting a bang for their buck. For that very reason, many businesses prefer PPC because calculation ROI seems more straight forward. Neil Patel of Search Engine Journal explains how calculating the ROI of your SEO campaign is possible too and walks you through the steps with a nifty infographic.

Analysis by: Neil Patel, Search Engine Journal

Beating Panda With Good Content

The very mention of the word Panda sends shivers down any SEO practioner’ spine unless it’s quickly followed by the word “Express.” Getting SEO results naturally and without being penalized can be tough. Mindy Weinstein is trying to make it easier with helpful tips on how to write engaging content that draws engagement in and of itself.

Analysis by: Mindy Weinstein, Search Engine Journal