This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Along with Recent Significant Changes, Google Updates Its Logo and Branding
Not long after announcing its new parent company, Google has revealed a new logo. The most notable change in the logo is the font. The iconic serif font has been replaced by a more streamlined sans-serif typeface. In addition to the logo, Google has also introduced a new spin on their ‘G’ icon which incorporates all 4 of Google’s famous primary colors. Source: The SEM Post
Home Service AdWord Ads Expanded by Google
With the recent beta testing beginning for Google’s home service ads, Google has recently added new service categories to the beta test. Testing is still limited to the San Francisco area, but now users can search for house cleaners and handymen in their area. Google also added an “Other” category, which is believed to be a way for Google to gather ideas for new categories to implement in the future. Source: The SEM Post
Some Google SERPs Displaying Both a Featured Snippet and Knowledge Graph
In certain search results, Google has begun displaying both a large featured snippet (with an image and a table) and a knowledge graph. It is not yet clear if this will be a new standard for certain popular searches, but if it is, it will be furthering the trend of high competition for “above-the-fold” page one real estate. Source: The SEM Post
YouTube TrueView Campaigns Joining AdWords Family
New in AdWords, you can now view and manage video campaigns in the AdWords interface alongside search, display, and shopping campaigns. Several new features have been updated for video campaigns, like bulk editing in the UI, to make video campaigns more consistent with other AdWords campaigns. Also, ad groups will be replacing targeting groups for video campaigns to make them more similar to other types of campaigns. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Search Rankings Are Not Affected by Structured Markup
According to Google’s John Mueller, using structured data markup does not have an impact on a given website’s ranking in the search results. He does, however, note that having structured data will undoubtedly enhance Google’s understanding of a website and make it more likely that that site will be the source of a featured snippet. Source: The SEM Post
Google No Longer Showing Flash Based Ads
As of September 1st, Google AdWords has stopped showing any flash based AdWords ads in the Chrome browser. Google states that HTML5 is becoming the main language for creating display ads as browsers continue to change the way flash is supported. Google has been trying to make this change for a while and as a result Flash Google ads have now become extinct in favor of HTML5. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Lays Down the Law on Mobile App Interstitials
It has been well known for some time that Google does not like app interstitials. They see the interstitials as a hindrance on the mobile user experience and have encouraged websites to do away with the interruption. On September 1st, Google announced that, after November 1st of this year, it will no longer consider sites that use full screen app interstitials to be mobile friendly. Source: Search Engine Watch
Additional Commentary
Eight Reasons for Brand Keyword Bidding
Nate Hollander covers eight reasons to bid on your brand keywords, starting with deterring competitor bidding and pushing traffic to pages that aren’t the homepage. This is followed by controlling sitelinks and measuring brand awareness over time. Other reasons he gives for bidding on brand terms are to push negative stories to the bottom of the page if applicable and to highlight any unique selling points. Hollander’s final two reasons are to highlight good reviews and to accommodate with brand ads if your brand isn’t at the top position organically. Analysis: Nate Hollander, PPC Hero
Pros & Cons of Responsive Landing Pages for SEM
Responsive Web Design is considered by many experts to be the best option for user experience when it comes to mobile browsing. While author Abraham Nord could be counted as a proponent of RWD, he offers up a list of cons to go with the pros of the design in this article featured on Search Engine Land. And, after listing both the pros and the cons, he concludes by admitting that “while responsive landing pages often make the most sense . . . I don’t advocate that they must be used for all landing pages in all situations.” Analysis: Abraham Nord, Search Engine Land
