This Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff
Android Wear Is The Newest Operating System For Smartwatches
Google has announced Android Wear, a new operating system for watches and other wearable devices. The first smartwatches with the operating system will be released by Motorola and LG. Features include Google Now, Android connection capabilities, and an advanced fitness component.
Source: The Verge
Google Takes Action Of Large Guest Blog Network
Matt Cutts tweeted Wednesday that they had taken action on a large guest blog network. By Thursday, it was revealed that the network was MyBlogGuest.com. Cutts wants this action to serve as a reminder about the spam risks that can come with guest blogging.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google+ Updates User Interface
The recent user interface update will make Google+ look more Like Facebook by displaying bold titles and extra large images. Additionally, it will include a snippet of text from the post and a link to the source’s Google+ page. The old display featured a small thumbnail image and a headline, but not text snippets.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Cutts Has Advice For When Your Product Goes Out Of Stock
In a recent video Matt Cutts gives advice to webmasters of e-commerce websites of all sizes on how to deal with an out of stock product. Small sites with tens of pages of products should link to similar products. Medium sized pages with thousands of pages should 404 the page, unless a known restocking date is available.
Source: Search Engine Land
Mobile To Drive 50 Percent of Paid Search Clicks By End Of 2015
Last year mobile paid search saw major growth, encompassing 19% of Google’s ad revenue. A recent study from Marin Software recently released projects that percentage to increase even more within the next three years. That would bring the total percentage of Google’s ad revenue from mobile to almost 50%!
Source: Search Engine Land
Bing Ads Starts Allowing Keyword Variations
Bing has announced that they will no longer be using the “keyword normalization” process when adding new keywords in the editor. This process takes out extra characters in keywords such as accents and hyphens, which would then create duplicate keywords. Although this change will not be applied to search query data, the decrease in restraints is a much need change for advertisers.
Source: Search Engine Land
Bing Ads Now Shows Zero-Click Search Queries
Bing is again making changes to further emulate Google; they have announced the update of their Search Query Report. Their now called Search Term Report will include data on zero click queries which were previously excluded from the report. The update could provide advertisers with 20-40 times more search term data than in the past, and could really help advertisers improve click-through rate and quality scores.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google Testing Shopping Boxes with 3D View
A new test has been spotted on Google. This test is of new larger sponsored shopping results with 3D view of the product. The results also include a list of merchants and their prices for the product as well as product details and reviews.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google Revisits “Not Provided” Policy
It was released in a statement recently that Google will be announcing new updates in April. Although they didn’t provide details, Google’s head of search Amit Singhal acknowledged at a recent Search Marketing Expo, that Google’s has been inconsistent with its practices of passing search query data. A decision is not clear at this point if not provided query results would return to analytics or if a different change will be implemented. All of the uncertainty has got paid search advertisers on edge, worrying if they will soon lose query data as well.
Source: Marketing Land
Notable Commentary
Sure To Bust Your Bracket
It May Be Time To Rethink How You Know The Web
A very in-depth article on Time Magazine’s site claims that everything we think we know about the web is wrong. Tony Haile argues that click throughs are a dated means of measurement. Additionally, he addresses some of the biggest myths. Some examples include whether we read what we’ve clicked on and the more we share the more we read.
Analysis by: Tony Haile, Time
Making The Most Of Your Old Content
Casie Gillette of Search Engine Land has some advice on how you can repurpose successful old content into fresh new content so they aren’t posted and forgotten about. Her tips include auditing existing content, making internal presentations public, redirecting old microsites, and more.
Analysis by: Casie Gillette, Search Engine Land
Over 50 Resources To Help You With Google Analytics
Kiss Metrics has put together a list of the best resources for understanding everything Google Analytics has to offer. There are tips for beginners, data segmentation, small businesses, conversion rate optimization, reporting, goal tracking, advanced guides, and much more.
Analysis by: Ted Parry, Kiss Metrics
Are Some Search Engines More Generous For Local Businesses?
Myles Anderson of Search Engine Land answers three questions as they pertain to the generousity of search engines for local businesses. Google shows more page 1 results for local businesses. He also found that generic terms deliver the most local results compared to other search terms and long-tail keywords trigger the least amount of local results.
Analysis by: Myles Anderson, Search Engine Land
EU Antitrust Case With Google May Be A Done Deal
According to EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia, the antitrust settlement proposal by Google is a done deal and he believes all of the complaints have been addressed. The proposal primarily focuses on Google giving up screen real estate to rivals. The opponents of Google are still pushing for another market test before the deal closes.
Analysis by: Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land
Sometimes Broader is Better in Lead Gen
In a recent article from Marketing Land, Thomas Koletas the idea that focusing in on a small target market can limit your traffic too much; leading to lost opportunities. He goes into detail on the how’s and describes why better targeting does not always mean narrower.
Analysis: Thomas Koletas, Marketing Land
How Psychological Framing Can Make You a Better Marketer
Cristie Rivera from Search Engine Journal talks about the idea of framing: the psychological effect that has to do with how individuals react differently to choices depending on how they are offered. She describes how positive framing can be applied to marketing and managing, especially when dealing with ad copy.
Analysis: Cristie Rivera, Search Engine Journal
