This Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks
Google Confirms MetaFilter Hit By An Algorithm Filter
Over a year and a half later, Google’s Matt Cutts has confirmed that MetaFilter.com was hit by an undisclosed Google algorithm filter. Cutts made the announcement at SMX advanced but did not disclose which filter it was. Search Engine Land reports that it was from the November 17, 2012 update.
Source: Search Engine Land
“Right To Be Forgotten” Removals Will Be Disclosed
Although URLs will be removed from search results under the European “right to be forgotten” ruling, Google will likely alert searchers that content was removed. Search results that are flagged with a removed content notice are expected to begin showing up in search results in the very near future.
Source: The Guardian
Cutts Explains Most Common SEO Mistake
In the latest YouTube Webmasters video series, Google’s Matt Cutts explains the most common SEO mistake. It isn’t bad link building and it isn’t guest blogging. According to Cutts, the biggest mistake is not having a website at all. Being invisible on the web makes it impossible to ever be found on the web.
Source: Google Webmasters on YouTube
Yummly And DuckDuckGo Partner Up
It was announced that Yummly, a recipe discovery platform, will power all recipe related search results on DuckDuckGo. Yummly claims their search technology can analyze data to return results that are “smart, personal and useful.” DuckDuckGo and Yummly’s partnership is intended to provide an instant answers experience when it comes to recipes.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google Introduces “Google My Business”
Google has rolled out a single dashboard called “Google My Business” that will allow business owners to manage all Google related connections in one place. Users will notice a simpler user experience as many Google features are now pulled together in one area. It gives site managers the option to post content, handle customer service, and dive into page analytics.
Source: Marketing Land
Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 Is Coming Soon
Matt Cutts announced at SMX Advanced that a third version of the Payday Loan algorithm is launching any day now. This algorithm is unrelated to Panda and Penguin algorithms and instead targets very spammy queries. Version 2.0, which launched less than a month ago, targeted spammy websites.
Source: Search Engine Land
New Features For Google Now
AndroidPolice.com is reporting two new features for Google Now. The first feature already appears to be live and is a public transportation alarm. The alarm would notify a user when they have reached their desired stop when using public transportation. The second feature, expected to arrive with a Google Play service update, will notify users when they are within a close proximity of each other as well as present highly targeted Wallet offers.
Source: Marketing Land
Right To Be Forgotten Will Not Be Coming To United States
With recent removal requests being honored in the European Union, many have wondered if a similar action is coming to the United States. Google has said that there are no plans to bring the Right To Be Forgotten form to America unless U.S. laws legally require them to. Google also reminded that honored Right To Be Forgotten requests will only be removed from European countries and they will still appear in US results for the time being.
Source: Search Engine Land
Lack of “World Cup” Ads Explained
If you have not already noticed when searching Google for World Cup content, there is an apparent lack of ads showing. This is because the terms like “World Cup”, “FIFA”, and “COPA 2014” have all been trademarked by FIFA. Google’s current policy allows advertisers to bid on these terms but not include them in ad copy. It is also becoming very common for Google to stop showing ads completely for third-party trademarked terms. This puts a strain on any advertisers hoping to cash in during the world cup because they have to find creative work-arounds in keyword coverage.
Source: Search Engine Land
How A Fraud Ring Was Able to Impersonate PPC Advertisers
It was recently found that this past May saw a larger and more costly way for fraud to happen in PPC. Instead of costing advertisers money by racking up clicks, fraudulent advertisers have been using known advertisers URLs as their ad’s display URLs. Essentially they are misleading the customer by looking like other reputable companies. It was reported that anywhere from 5-100 percent of traffic for over 300 companies have been affected, most of which unknowingly. Search engines including Google and Bing have been working with outside vendors such as The Search Monitor to find and stop the culprits.
Source: Search Engine Land
Facebook Gives Users More Control Over Ad Serving
Earlier this week, Facebook released a new policy that will allow users more understanding and control over the ads and messages being served to them. New options to hide the ad will be included in all PPC messages served along with an explanation to why they were targeted. Users will also be able to hide all ads from that particular advertiser and remove any interest targeting associated with it. This feature will be rolling out in the US within the next few weeks.
Facebook Soon To Include Non-Facebook Activity in Ad Targeting
Facebook is soon launching new advertiser targeting options that leverage data from actions taken in other mobile apps including web browsing. Although current interest targeting is extensive in Facebook, it lacks a behavior element in relation to actions taken outside of Facebook. These new targeting options will be appealing for really niche markets because it will offer a more accurate way for advertisers to create consumer psychographics.
Source: Marketing Land
WordStream Releases Landing Page Grader Tool
Any PPC advertiser will tell you that performance of great ad campaigns can damaged by bad landing pages. PPC management platform WordStream has recently released a tool that will take advantage of this by offering a free tool that grades landing pages. The tool has been designed to use ad spend and competitive comparisons to generate a benchmark grade on various aspects of the page. The report is free for all advertisers but will likely be followed up by a sales representative from WordStream.
Source: Search Engine Land
Mobile Nearly 20 Percent of Q1 Ad Revenues
In the recently released IAB report, it was found that ad revenues reached over $11 billion in Q1 2014. This was a 19 percent increase over 2013, with mobile accounting for almost 20 percent of total revenue.
Source: Marketing Land
Search Apps Taking More Revenue From Mobile Search
Due to the trend of increasing activity through mobile search apps, there is a decline in mobile browser search. This trend will impact mobile paid search revenue since advertisers tend to not show ads in mobile apps. Although Google will still be top-dog in mobile ad revenue, they will be losing a significant amount of market share unless they think of a way to compensate.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Notable Commentary
Quality Score De-mystified By Former Googler
If you are still unclear about how Google calculates and leverages quality score, Frederick Vallaeys recent article on Search Engine Journal will be sure help you out. In it he explains how Google calculates quality score, how it uses it for ad rank as well as how it relates to the way Google makes money.
Analysis: Frederick Vallaeys, Search Engine Journal
How Net-Neutrality May Negatively Impact Content and Advertising
Rebecca Murtagh from Search Engine Watch has recently released an article discussing how net neutrality may impact web content and advertising. She explains what net neutrality is how internet and cable providers could find ways to use it to their advantage, effectively hurting the bottom line for advertisers.
Analysis: Rebecca Murtagh, Search Engine Watch
Using SpyFu’s New Backlink Builder
As Google slowly takes the axe to more and more link building strategies of the past, SEOs are always looking for new strategies to identify and engage link targets. Dave Davies of Search Engine Watsch suggests using SpyFu’s New Backlink Builder and offers 5 steps for getting the most out of it.
Analysis: Dave Davies, Search Engine Watch
SEO And Content Marketing
Willie Pena at iMedia Connection explains the inextricable relationship between content marketing and SEO and how both should complement on another in an effort to not only improve your site’s visibility in search engines, but also the level of engagement with your human audience.
Analysis: Willie Pena, iMedia Connection
