This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Enhanced Campaigns Spread To Display Network

It’s not just for search campaigns, display campaigns are becoming enhanced too! Mostly bidding will change from the Display Network hierarchy of bids to bidding by target.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Google Releases Search Quality Rating Guidelines

Google released their search quality rating guidelines to the public for the first time last Friday. The guidelines have been leaked three times before-in 2001, 2008 and 2012- but after the latest leak Google considered simply releasing them to the public themselves. The 43 page document was most recently updated Nov. 5, 2012.

Source: Search Engine Land

‘Blind’ Third Party Study Concludes Yellow Pages Are Better Than Google For Local Search

A study commissioned by Yellow Pages has given the site a gold medal for relevant search results, which is higher than Google (in case you were wondering). Obviously a company-sponsored study extolling the virtues of that company leads us to cry foul.

But the study itself was conducted by “blind” search, so no participant knew the site they were searching on, and it was also never intended to be a marketing/PR-baiting project. Yellow Pages said the original purpose was to help improve internal structure, but when they discovered the “blind” user reaction, they decided it was worth sharing with the public.

Source: Search Engine Land

Yahoo! Employees Defend Work-From-Home Banishment

This Quora post on Yahoo!’s new work-from-home policy is incredibly revealing. It comprises of a handful of current and former Yahoo! employees defending CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to kill the option. Among their reasons include general employee laziness, and inefficiency in communication and productivity.

Source: Quora

Patent Confirms Google Can Read Hidden Link, Text On A Page

Google has long warned against using hidden text and links to try and game their algorithm, while also encouraging people using hidden text to get a page to show up the way it was intended, improving the user experience.

Recently, Google was granted a patent for identifying hidden parts of a page, including white text on white background, text behind an image, miniscule fonts, and more. This is more of a confirmation of assumptions than breaking news, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Source: SEO By The Sea

Google Plus Looks Very Different, And So Does Facebook’s News Feed

We won’t make you read about a bunch of changes that are better absorbed visually on these websites, but both Google Plus and Facebook received a makeover this week. It’s safe to say both are moving towards each other, design-wise.

Source: Mashable (Google Plus)

Source: Marketing Land (Facebook)

Don’t Like Facebook Ads? There’s A Fee For That

Facebook’s quest to squeeze every drop of revenue from its fairly revenue neutral platform may get a hard clench sometime soon. According to a recent patent filing, Facebook  may soon allow users to eliminate ads from their profiles for a fee. In the patent language, Facebook claims this will improve the user experience while improving ad targeting by eliminating people expressly uninterested in purchasing something.

Source: Mashable

Notable Commentary

That’s Panda Repellant

‘How Search Works:’ An Infographic From Google

Google has all kinds of resources to help people better understand how their search engine runs, but none of them come in an easily consumable and shareable format. Enter the “How Search Works” infographic.

Google recently posted an interactive infographic that explains most of the things that make it function. And big surprise: it’s pretty cool.

Analysis By: Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land

INFOGRAPHIC: The State Of AdWords

Dr. Pete at SEOmoz has a brief, but interesting infographic detailing how Google’s AdWords network currently occupies its search results pages. Using 10,000 Google Page One’s to build the data set, he concludes that 85.2% of all queries display ads, and the site averages 5.9 ads shown per-query.

Analysis By: Pete Meyers, SEOmoz

Here Are Three Commonplace Blunders Made By Experienced PPC Pros, And Here Is Their Remedy

Most of what Melissa Mackey covers in this article on three regular mistakes rampant within the PPC world is foundation level in nature. However, it’s still a very interesting take on how to fix any problems before they start and subsequently cost money.

Analysis By: Melissa Mackey, Search Engine Watch

Increase Content Value With 27 Strategies

The definition of “great content” is incredibly ambiguous, but the techniques utilized to create it are universal. Ken Lyons has a list 27 spots long exploring some of the best practices for solid copywriting. Some of it is obvious, yet a good reminder, and some of it is very creative.

Analysis By: Ken Lyons, Search Engine Watch

Interflora Regains Rankings After Penalty

Interflora was penalized two weeks ago for violating Google’s guidelines on advertorials but already they’re back for most of their rankings. The 100 or so advertorials weren’t only bad links in the mix, according to Link Detox, 70% of the site’s links were toxic or suspicious.  That makes Interflora’s quick recovery all the more amazing, but it illustrates the advantage larger brands have over smaller ones-Google just can’t keep the big guys out of the SERPs for too long.

Analysis by: Christoph C. Cemper, Search Engine Land

Creating Display Image Ads With No Creative Resources

PPC Hero offers up a video presentation on using the Google AdWords Display builder to create image ads and developing a strategy for them.

Analysis by: Amanda, PPC Hero

FindTheBest Flush With Cash And Growing In Popularity

FindTheBest, a hard to categorize “structured data engine” launched two years ago, just raised $11 million and has 22 million monthly users. The company sees itself as a “comparison engine” that helps people make better decisions about topics ranging from which college to attend to which car to buy using reliable structured data.

Analysis by: Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land

10 Great Posts On Call-To-Action Best Practices

Calls-to-action are a universal influence among PPC, SEO, and UX professionals. The way these statements are structured can determine the success or failure of any campaign, page change, or keyword strategy. Unbounce has a great list of 10 articles worth your time if you are in the midst of (or headed towards) improving your CTAs.

Analysis By: Stefanie Grieser, Unbounce