Google Is Penalizing Spammy Markup, Microsoft Introduces Their New CEO, & More

Google Is Penalizing Spammy Markup, Microsoft Introduces Their New CEO, & More

This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Click’s Staff

Google Announces Flexible Conversion Tracking

This week Google announced it will give advertisers more flexibility for tracking conversions. You can now select either the “All Conversions” setting where all conversions that happen after an ad click are counted, or the “Unique Conversions” setting where only unique conversions that happen after an ad click are counted. Changes are set to roll out this month.

Source: Search Engine Land

Social Advertising Revenue Projected To Grow 31% In 2014

Marketing research firm eMarketer recently published revenue numbers for 2012-2013 and included projections for 2014-2015. 2014 projections are a drop from 2013, where revenue grew 42.9%. The data includes LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and social gaming.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Google Adds Search Funnels Attribution Modeling To AdWords

Google announced this week it is adding a tool to AdWords for Search Funnel Attribution Modeling. Advertisers can now look at attribution in Last Click, First Click, Linear, Time Decay, and Position Based models to compare keywords, ad groups, and campaigns that are contributing to the funnel.

Source: Search Engine Land

Big Change For Video In Google Search Results

Google is showing large embedded videos within search results that are playable within the SERPs. Currently this feature only appears to be available with songs and music videos, but expect it to expand to more searches soon.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Google Takes Action On Fake YouTube Views

Fake views on YouTube continue to climb, and Google has announced plans to monitor views. They intend to remove views if spam is detected. This is all part of Google’s efforts to retain advertisers before they jump ship to other social networking sites.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Testing Begins For Mobile Graph Search On Facebook

A mobile version of Graph Search is in the early testing stages, as recently confirmed by Facebook. Graph Search, the feature that connects people you know to the topics you are searching for, was released to English users in August 2013. There is no official date set for when the mobile version will be available.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Yahoo Is Making Plans To Return To The Search Market

Rumors are going around that Yahoo would like to get back into the search engine business. Two new projects, led by CEO Marissa Mayer, are codenamed Fast Break and Curveball. The belief is they would like to do organic and paid search in-house instead of outsourcing it to Microsoft.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Yahoo Improves Local Search Results

Yahoo now gives detailed information about businesses for local searches. The change is very similar to what Google has already been doing by including pictures, reviews, hours of operation and more. It is currently only available in the US.

Source: Search Engine Watch

New Manual Action Penalty From Google

A webmaster on the Google forums reported that they received a spammy structured markup notification. Google recently dropped 15% of rich snippets in the SERPs, setting a higher standard for what sites are able to display rich snippets in search results.

Source: Search Engine Land

It’s Over – Nate Celebrates!

The three-year antitrust case between the European Commission and Google has finally been settled. Google will improve the visibility of rival links, although specific details have not yet been released. Bloomberg has said that the new agreement also allows Google to control the look of the SERPs, including adding new services. The only requirement is that it gives three links to rival services next to their own search results.

Source: Search Engine Land

Microsoft Announces New CEO

Microsoft named 46-year-old  Satya Nadella as its new CEO, just their third leader in the company’s 38-year history.  Nadella studied graduate-level computer science at UW Milwaukee 25 years ago, working at Penta Technologies in Brookfield while completing his studies.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Stop Using German Link Schemes

After warning German SEOs about using paid link schemes earlier in the week, Google put its money where its mouth is on Thursday. Matt Cutts took to Twitter to announce that the search giant had penalized a German agency for engaging in the practice. The name of the agency wasn’t forthcoming, but it certainly serves as a warning to other agencies — German or otherwise — who are engaging in the behavior.

Source: Search Engine Land

 

Notable Commentary

More Interesting Than The Super Bowl

 

Go For The Deep Links, Too

Jon Ball of Search Engine Journal has posted a new article reminding us of the importance of deep links, hot to obtain them, and why they are important to your SEO strategy. Among those techniques are using Google Alerts to stay on top of fresh mentions and researching the broken links your competitors have and trying to reclaim them for your brand.

Analysis by: Jon Ball, Search Engine Journal

3 Easy Steps For Creating PPC Competitive Intelligence Reports

As we all know, PPC is an increasingly competitive space. Purna Virji of Search Engine Watch breaks down three easy steps to get your competitive reporting going.

Analysis by: Purna Virji, Search Engine Watch

Getting Ready For New Google Shopping Campaigns

Last October Google announced a new campaign type for Google Shopping. The new campaign type has been in beta, but should have a widespread rollout sometime this year. Rick Backus of Search Engine Land breaks down how to avoid getting burned by this new campaign type.

Analysis by: Rick Backus, Search Engine Land

The Super Bowl And Search

Search Engine Land looked at the top searches from the Super Bowl. Many of the familiar suspects made the list, including Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Bruno Mars. However, it was nice to see Kurt Russell crack the top 15, too. He needed some press.

Analysis by: Vanessa Fox, Search Engine Land

6 Usability Mistakes That Kill Conversions

As search marketers, driving traffic to our clients’ sites is always top of mind, but ultimately, the true gauge of success is if we can get visitors to do what we want once they get there. Lisa Barone of Search Engine Watch breaks down 6 usability mistakes that can leave visitors scratching their heads and your conversion rate plummeting.

Analysis by: Lisa Barone, Search Engine Watch

Improving Your Content’s ROI

Creating useful, interesting, well-written content takes a lot of time. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get more link building bang for your buck? Chris Dyson has a few tips on improving the ROI from each piece of content you write when it comes to link building.

Analysis by: Chris Dyson, Search Engine Watch

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