Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Say So Long To Organic Facebook Content

In a leaked internal document, Facebook has acknowledged to its partners that the days of free organic posts being included in the News Feed are all but over. For some time now companies and organizations have seen marked declines in the visibility of their organic posts, and Facebook is admitting that trend will only continue. The News Feed free lunch for marketers is now officially over.

Source: AdAge

Google Tests Embedded Images In SERPs

Earlier this month an alert Google user captured a screenshot of images embedded in Google’s results pages for a search on “flower beauty facebook”. It was most likely yet another limited test, but one that could have far reaching implications should the feature ever become widespread.

Source: Search Engine Journal

70% Of Consumers Look For Known Retailers In Search

A new survey from Search Engine Land and SurveyMonkey shows that consumers still have a tendency to gravitate toward known brands when searching for products online. It’s not entirely surprising, but according to survey data, nearly 70 percent of US consumers said they seek out a known retailer when sifting through the SERPs. “Free shipping” and “Discount or sale offers” finished 2 and 3 in terms of importance for consumers searching for buys on the web.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Testing Ads In Knowledge Graph

Just as the headline implies, Google is testing showing ads in the Knowledge Graph. Spaniard Gianluca Fiorelli tweeted out screen shots from a search on the term “Camaro.” Local ads for dealerships selling the car appeared in the Knowledge Graph format.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Webmaster Tools Improves Structured Data Markup Errors Report

Analyst Mariya Moeva announced on the Google Webmaster Tools blog that GWT will now show items with errors in the Structured Data dashboard. The change should help webmasters better identify and troubleshoot issues they’re having with structured data markup.

Source: Search Engine Land

Bing Updates Satori

The Microsoft Bing Index and Knowledge Team announced some sweeping updates to Satori, Bing’s incarnation of the Knowledge Graph. New features include audio from famous speeches and national anthems, links to online courses offered at some colleges, scientific topic information, historic event summaries, place-to-people relationships and more.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Adds “Now” Content, Features To iOS Maps Apps

Back in October, Google rolled out Google Now-style cards to its PC Maps. Now they’ve brought the feature to the iOS Maps app. By updating Google Maps for iOS and signing in, users can now access flight, hotel and restaurant reservations, then get directions right from within the Maps app.

Source: Search Engine Land

Majority Find Mobile Search Harder Than PC Version

In the post-PC era, a big question in the search industry is how PC search behavior will translate to mobile. While smartphone users are certainly using search engines on their phones (a recent Google study found 74% of smartphone owners used search engines on their phones) it isn’t necessarily a seamless process. Another recent survey from Search Engine Land found that users typically find the search experience more difficult on their smartphones than on PCs.

Source: Search Engine Land

What Are We Doing With Our Phones In Retail Stores?

A recent study by Marketing Land and SurveyMonkey asked shoppers what they were doing with their smartphones in the aisles of retail stores. Among the most interesting responses, 31% reported comparison shopping, 30% said they were looking for coupons, 27% percent searched for product reviews, and 34% said they don’t use their phones while shopping. The survey also provides insights into people’s experiences with e-commerce on their phones.

Source: Marketing Land

Google Adds Earned Actions In AdWords Reporting For YouTube Advertisers

Google AdWords has added new columns to video advertising reporting. New columns include: Earned Views, Earned View Rate, Earned Subscribers, Earned Playlist Additions and Earned Shares. In order to use these new features, you need to ensure your AdWords account is linked with your YouTube channel. New columns are currently live in Google AdWords, with additional columns going live over the next few weeks.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Google+ Social Ad Called +Post To Appear Across Display Network

Google+ has figured out a new way to monetize its social platform and drive more traffic back to it from across the web. The concept of the promoted posts feature called “+Post” is that ads will show up across the Google Display Network instead of within Google+. It is reported that charges will only be made to advertisers when a user hovers over the ad for two seconds which will cause it to expand on the screen. +Post ads are currently in beta for a limited set of AdWords advertisers.

Source: Search Engine Watch

It’s True! Bing Ads Allows Use Of Exclamation Mark In Ad Titles

Bing has made a change to its Editorial Guidelines. They are now allowing exclamation points to be used in ad headlines and text. Exclaim away!

Source: Search Engine Land

‘Instagram Direct’ Launches

Instagram has launched a new personalized messaging capability which allows users to share content with specific users (or groups of users). This feature is a step towards the company becoming a more well rounded social network that groups of friends can use, stopping the need for outside apps for direct communication. When a message is sent “direct”, only a designated set of users will be able to view and comment privately. This could be used as a focused marketing channel if the capability is released to brand and sponsored posts.

Source: Marketing Land

YouTube Expected To Channel $5.6 Billion In Revenue This Year

Earlier this year YouTube crossed the billion user mark and now it’s ready to pass the five billion dollar mark according to estimates from eMarketer. This figure does not include money YouTube passes on to advertising partners and content creators; Google generally takes a 45% cut of advertising sold into its content partners. So while this structure of keeping 45% should solidify the upward momentum of its net revenue, it could significantly alter the service’s gross revenue if content partners are able to talk advertisers into paying more.

Source: Adage.com

Anglo Rank In Google’s Crosshairs

Tweets from Matt Cutts indicate that Google’s webspam team is actively working to bring down the paid link service Anglo Rank. While the company claims that its network hasn’t been widely impacted by Google penalties, Anglo Rank doesn’t own the sites that it works with and therefore may not have visibility into their Webmaster Tools manual penalties statuses. There seems to be a bit of bravado in the company’s responses to Cutts’ threats, which may not be an entirely wise approach.

Source: Search Engine Watch

The Official Mobile Webmaster Checklist

One of our favorite Googlers, Maile Oyhe, has released an official checklist and corresponding informational videos for making a mobile website the best that it can be. This is a comprehensive list of do’s and don’ts that will help webmasters reach mobile nirvana.

Source: Marketing Land

Guest Blogging: Not So Cool Anymore

Not so long ago guest blogging was heralded as a saving grace for link builders everywhere. If you had any doubt that guest blogging has since turned into a spam factory, this recent video from Matt Cutts is a clear sign that those salad days are over. Those who are planning to guest blog should make sure to follow his advice to make it a high quality, manual endeavor.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

Notable Commentary

That’s Not Afraid Of Friday The 13th

Trends In The Google Algorithm

Are Google results pages more turbulent these days? Are big brand domains really taking over the SERPs? Are the days of exact and partial match domains totally over? Ben Morel digs into a year’s worth of MozCast data in an effort to answer to these questions.

Analysis by: Ben Morel, Moz

Blog Post Ideas That Save The Day

A lot of creative types get into content marketing because they enjoy writing and learning about new things. But what’s a creative type to do when she’s not feeling…creative? This article from Simon Heseltine provides ways to look at your topic from 10 different perspectives so you can keep hitting those never-ending deadlines.

Analysis by: Simon Heseltine, Search Engine Watch

Responsive Design vs. SEO: Smackdown

Responsive design is all the rage in these days of exploding screen size diversity, and Google has been among its top proponents. However, responsive design can present challenges for SEO. Amanda DiSilvestro outlines the two sides of the argument and offers some basic advice for business owners interested in both SEO and responsive design.

Analysis by: Amanda DiSilvestro, HigherVisibility

The Actual Impact Of PPC On Sales

In a recent article from Search Engine Watch, Melissa Mackey analyzes a case study done on the actual impact of PPC on sales. She talks about the impacts PPC makes on traffic, sales, and conversion rates for an e-commerce site. As you could have guessed, PPC was found to be an important aspect in all the aforementioned parts of an e-commerce site.

Analysis by: Melissa Mackey, Search Engine Watch

Six Mobile & Remarketing PPC Resolutions For 2014

Amanda Sides from Search-Mojo describes six ways to use remarketing and mobile strategies for PPC. She provides solutions for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users in each of the two categories. Her list will give you an idea of where to start improving your campaigns in 2014.

Analysis by: Amanda Sides, Search-Mojo