This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Restricting Keyword Planner for Non-Advertisers
Back in June, Google removed access to the Keyword Planner for non-advertisers, although they later backed away from it saying that it was a technical issue. Recently, experts noticing some changes when using the keyword planner with no active campaigns. They’re only provided with a range of search volumes and a message notifying this as well as saying “For a more detailed view, set up and run a campaign.” Source: The SEM Post
Google Updating My Business Insights
Since its inception, the backend features of Google My Business have drawn the ire of many SEOs. Both the organization and accuracy of the data have been criticized. Now, however, it appears Google has finally recognized these issues and is in the process of taking steps to overhaul GMB features like Insights and My Business List. Source: Mike Blumenthal
RLSA Expanding Into Search Partners for AdWords
Google recently announced that they will be giving advertisers the option to use Remarketing lists for search ads on search partners. Google’s statement on this was “This change means your audience-targeted bids, keywords, and ads will reach more of your potential customers without any additional work.” You can include search partners in the settings tab of your RLSA campaign. Source: Search Engine Land
Yelp & TripAdvisor Gang Up on Google
Last week, Google announced that it would begin providing its own restaurant reviews and “best of” lists to searchers. Unsurprisingly, review/recommendation websites Yelp and TripAdvisor are perturbed by this news. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman even took to twitter to call Google out for being “monopolist” and claiming the space that sites like Yelp would normally occupy. Source: Search Engine Land
Additional Commentary
Importance of Dedicated Landing Pages
Kate Wilcox at Hanapin Marketing shares her thoughts on the importance of having a dedicated landing page in paid search. Wilcox notes that our target audiences tend to be a little more focused and paid ads are already telling them what they’re looking for, so she finds it beneficial to have the same information they’re looking for on the page they land on. The author also notes that your landing page should follow your business goals, giving the example of if you want a user to fill out a form to get a free quote, your page should be in line with that goal. Analysis: Kate Wilcox, PPC Hero
The 4 Daily Habits of the Most Successful SEOs
In this study of SEO success, John E. Lincoln reveals four things every SEO should do every day to reach it. First, Lincoln says that successful SEOs must be news hounds so they can stay on top of trends. Second, Lincoln stresses that they must keep an eye on what is making well performing sites so successful and apply those strategies to their own work. Next, Lincoln argues that a successful SEO must be a man or woman of action – talking and strategizing alone won’t cut it. Finally, Lincoln says that SEOs that strive to be the best (read: work hard) more often than not end up being the best. Analysis: John E. Lincoln, Search Engine Land
