This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google is Shutting Down Some Google+ Pages
Google is sending emails to users that some of their Google+ pages for their business will be shut down within 30 days of being notified. The emails say that those pages have not been used in a while and Google wants to simplify their Google My Business listing by removing any additional pages from the system. The removal won’t affect a GMB listings and a copy of your old content can be downloaded before it is deleted. If you create a post or comment on someone else’s post within the 30 days, the Google+ page will be kept active. Source: SEO Round Table
AdWords Will Deactivate Accounts With No Spend in 15 Months
Announced via Twitter, Google said that they will automatically deactivate accounts that have not spent any money in the past 15 months. If your account is on the verge of being automatically cancelled, Google will send an e-mail notification stating this. You can re-activate your account, but if you re-activate it and the account remains inactive by not serving ads for three months, your account will be automatically canceled again. According to Google, this will somehow “speed up your AdWords experience.” Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google My Business Multiple Dashboard Listings
Google My Business is rolling out multiple dashboards. Users will no longer need to switch between card and list view within their dashboard and all users, no matter if they are large or small businesses, will have the same interface. The new structure allows you to click into a listing and edit it within the same window. Adding more listings will no longer impact the page loading speed. Posts and Insights are now displaying on the side navigation panel of the main page but there is an option to go “Back to GMB Classic” on the left-side menu if users want. Source: Search Engine Land
Pinterest Shopping Ads Now Available
Initially launched last year with a limited number of beta partners, Pinterest has now moved it’s Shopping Ads out of testing, now allowing the program to be available for hundreds of advertisers. According to Pinterest, they were able to consistently drive larger basket sizes, new customer acquisition, and faster conversions for its beta partners. To qualify for the program, businesses are required to fill out a Pinterest Propel Program sign-up form. Source: Marketing Land
Search Console Alerts and Upgrades
Google Search Console plans on alerting site owners and including an annotation in the Performance Report for when their site has changed from desktop indexing to mobile first. This will help address any issues that appear after the switch. Search Console has also made visual upgrades to the reports including annotation cards with charts that you can learn more about the issues that were detected on that date, a difference column to show how data changed over time, pre-populated values in the filters and improvements to the date picker and comparison view. Source: Search Engine Journal
Analysis
Advanced Features in AdWords to Enhance Your PPC
Clark Boyd covers helpful advanced features in AdWords that can help you gain a vital competitive advantage. The first feature Boyd covers is demographic targeting. Although it may not be as robust as Facebook’s demographic targeting options, Google still has options to target by age, gender, parental status, or household income. Another feature is Custom Intent audiences, allowing for greater control over target audiences through auto-generated audience data based on activity across all of your Google marketing channels. The author does also point out smart bidding as an additional advanced feature to look into, specifically noting the new “Maximize Conversions” option. This option will seek to gain an optimal number of conversions against a set budget. Source: Clark Boyd, Search Engine Watch
Ways to Promote Local Businesses for Facebook Search
Facebook has become a powerful search engine designed to display results for queries like “near me” terms and finding local businesses. To be displaying for Facebook searches you will need to make sure that you assign your page with the most accurate category for your business, completely fill in the About section using targeted keywords and include a link to your site. Social signals such as likes, check-ins, comments and share are an important ranking factor for Facebook. The brands that display in the results are those with the largest number of followers and engagement. Create events on your page and make Facebook Live videos to gain the largest audience. Source: Search Engine Journal
