This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Large Expandable PLA’s Tested by Google
Google is currently testing a much larger Product Ad listing at the top of the search results page. This new test contains an arrow next to your standard 5 PLA units which will expand to show 16 total PLA units. This test will give your ads an opportunity to display even if you’re not in a top spot. Although, this test currently pushes organic results along with standard AdWords ads much further down the page. Source: The SEM Post
Penguin on Its Way?
It appears the Penguin update saga is finally drawing to a close. When asked on Twitter if we were weeks or months away from the update, Google’s Gary Illyes responded with “weeks” and noted that they are shooting for the update to happen sometime this quarter. Once Penguin is finally updated, webmasters will no longer need to worry about when the next update is coming because Penguin will be able to adapt to website changes in real time. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Product Listing Ads Now in Image Search Results for Google
Google is continuing to expand their PLA coverage with Product Listing Ads now appearing in the image search results. When these new listings appear on the page, they appear at the top, pushing all image search results below them. Additionally, the listings that will appear contain the store name and price, but no title for the product. These new PLA’s are currently active and should appear to all users. Source: The SEM Post
Google Testing App Download Capability from Search Results
Some Android users may begin to notice that Google is allowing them to download an app straight from the search results. Formerly, the only way to download an app was to follow a link in the search results that eventually opened up the Play Store. This test is likely a way for Google to see if there is an increase in app downloads when an extra step is taken out of the process. Source: Search Engine Land
Bing Updates Keyword Planner
Bing has recently released an updated version of their keyword planner, which now allows users to view competitor insights and benchmarking, customized keyword bidding, and more. You can also import your landing page URL into the planner and have suggested keywords generated for you based on the page’s content. Additionally, the tool can now look back up to 24 months for search data, rather than the initial 12 months. This new version is currently only available in the US. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Reveals How Much They Experiment with Their Search Results
We’ve all noticed some of the more obvious experiments that Google has conducted in the search results, but Google’s John Mueller recently revealed that searchers can be seeing anywhere from ten to thirty experiments at a time depending on the query, search history, search location, and other factors. While most of these experiments go unnoticed, they demonstrate just how much Google values tinkering with its formula. Source: The SEM Post
Additional Commentary
Top AdWords Trends for 2016
Frederick Vallaeys shares several trends that will keep your accounts healthy for 2016. Vallaeys notes that 2016 will be a great year for audience targeting, stressing the point to create several audience lists and attach them to several ad groups to collect data. Also, with YouTube TrueView becoming a true AdWords Campaign, uploading video content for a client is also beneficial. Finally, the author recommends providing users with an optimized mobile experience and utilizing a mobile-first strategy when building campaigns because 2016 is, one again, the year of mobile advertising. Source: Frederick Vallaeys, Search Engine Land
Why Local Rank Trackers Suck
In his typical unfiltered approach to talking about local SEO, Andrew Shotland explains why local rank trackers are not something to put a lot of faith in. Shotland contends that Google still hasn’t perfected finding the location of the searcher and rank trackers don’t take user behavior into consideration. These factors, along with the fact that local rankings aren’t clearly defined, contribute to the questionable reliability of local rank trackers. Source: Andrew Shotland, Local SEO Guide
