This Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff
Google+ Gets Fresh Features
It’s been far too long since we shared news on Google+! This week the third coast of social networks announced enhancements to Google+ Hangouts and Photos, including location sharing and SMS integration. It’s now possible to schedule a Hangout On Air using your Android device, plus webcam lighting issues should disappear automatically. Google has also added machine-driven image identification, allowing them to pinpoint 1,000+ objects in your photos and make them easily findable via search.
Source: Google Official Blog
More Pages Does Not Equal Better Rankings
Just having more pages on your site will not lead to higher search engine rankings. That’s according to one of Matt Cutts’ latest videos. However, there are two potential benefits to having a larger site, assuming you’re doing things right. You’ll have the opportunity to rank for more keywords, plus larger sites theoretically can attract more inbound links and therefore will have a higher PageRank.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Twitter’s Answer To Banner Ads
This week Twitter introduced their version of banner ads. Timelines now include pictures and vine videos “front and center” in tweets, including paid ones promoted by brands. This is a potentially huge deal for an advertiser because it gives brands the opportunity to include images and videos in promoted tweets. The images in promoted tweets will display on mobile and desktop, but will not be standard banner sizes.
Source: Digiday
Google Changes AdWords Campaign ‘Limited By Budget’ Estimator
Google has recently rolled out a new campaign daily budget estimator for campaigns that are “limited by budget”. The updated provides estimated weekly clicks, impressions and cost per week for each proposed budget setting. It will no longer display a historical picture of missed click and impression opportunities. Campaigns with low daily budgets will not necessarily show total cost estimates for now.
Source: Search Engine Land
Facebook May Start Tracking Your Cursor As You Browse The Site
Earlier the week Facebook analytics chief Ken Rudin told Wall Street Journal about several new measures the company is testing to help improve user-tracking. One of those measures is tracking the location of your cursor on the screen. Data gathered could be used to create more engaging news feed layouts and ads. This tracking is hardly uncommon but until now Facebook had not tracked this behavioral measurement.
Source: The Verge
Algorithm Judges Quality Of Wikipedia Entries
Two professors at University College Dublin have developed an algorithm that judges the veracity of Wikipedia entries by determining the authoritativeness of the editors and the longevity of their edits. The two, Xiangjiu Qin and Padraig Cunningham, analyzed 9,000 entries to test their algorithm and found that edit longevity was a good indicator of quality in and of itself, with editor authoritativeness only adding to the overall accuracy of the measure.
Source: Mashable
Social Media Without User Profiles
A new social media platform, Whisper, attempts to combat cyber bullying by allowing users to post anonymously. While anyone whose read a comment section before might be skeptical of this approach Whisper swears it works. Users anonymously share “whispers,” which are often deep secrets, on stylized cards formatted on pictures. There are no profiles so no one can track your activity individually. Whisper says it’s a direct response to social networks like Facebook that allow users to create a self-image for their friends that may not be entirely accurate.
Source: Mashable
Google Unveils Android 4.4
Google released Android 4.4 KitKat, it’s latest update to the mobile Android OS. Google said KitKat developers attempted to lower specs so users with older phones could upgrade. The update also combines Hangouts and text messaging into one app and includes updated search functionality including improved voice recognition.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google Ups Search Locations
According to a recent study by researchers at USC, Google has dramatically increased the number of sites and ISPs it uses to serve search requests. The study discovered that Google increased the number of locations serving search requests from less than 200 in October 2012 to more than 1,400 by July 2013. The number of ISPs they are using increased from just over 100 to more than 850.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google Can Now Index Content Within Android Apps
Google now has the ability to index content within Android apps. The feature, called app indexing allows webmasters to connect pages from their web sites with specific content within their Android app. Basically, Android Smartphone users who have an app installed will be able to open it directly from relevant mobile search results.
Source: Search Engine Land
Notable Commentary
Why You Should Be Focusing on Qualified Traffic
In a recent article from PPC Hero, Jeff Sexton discusses the importance of driving qualified traffic, and how to do it right on Facebook. He discusses how your strategy could vary depending on the type of traffic you are looking for and if you are using CPC or CPM. He also compares it to how print marketing used to be and how it can work for you today by going digital.
Analysis: Jeff Sexton, PPC Hero
Are You Making These 10 Common Google AdWords Mistakes?
In this article from Kissmetrics, Leon Krishnayana discusses the top ten AdWords mistakes advertisers frequently make. Some interesting ones include, not trusting numbers more than your creativity and not bidding on your brand. He also describes how these things hurt you and ways to avoid doing them.
Analysis: Leon Krishnayana,Kissmetrics
Is Bing A Better Buy Than Google AdWords For Small Business?
Earlier this week, Greg Sterling from Search Engine Land discussed how Bing can be a better buy than Google for small businesses. He utilizes recent data released by Pricing Engine to help show how Bing has much lower CPCs than Google. He also talks about how Bing can be “more efficient” when comparing CPC to CTR.
Analysis: Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land
Negative SEO Results In Google Slap
In an article that seems more of an appeal than a case study, Andrew Pincock at Search Engine Journal lays out the predicament of wedding dress label Maggie Sottero as victim of negative SEO. As of today it appears that the website for this well recognized offline brand is still not appearing for a simple brand search, despite making significant efforts to clean up its link profile. To be continued…
Analysis by: Andrew Pincock, Search Engine Journal
Can That Hummingbird Kill Local SEO?
Luckily, the answer is ‘no’. Andrew Shotland succinctly outlines Google’s Hummingbird update and how it may (or may not) affect local SEO. He also provides great suggestions for creating quality local content through FAQs and unique data.
Analysis by: Andrew Shotland, Search Engine Land
SEO Tips For Bloggers
So, you’re a blogger but you cringe when somebody starts talking SEO? Too bad. Elisa Gabbert outlines some seriously painless ways that bloggers can utilize simple on-page SEO tactics to grow their audience.
Analysis by: Elisa Gabbert, Business2Community
14 Shocking Headlines Rewritten To Get More Clicks
If the internet had been around when the 20th century’s biggest stories hit newspapers’ front pages, here’s what the headlines might have looked like.
Analysis by: Randall Munroe, XKCD
