This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
YouTube Now a Source for Featured Snippets
As Featured Snippets play a bigger role in Google’s search results, webmasters continue to look for ways to use them to their advantage. Although it seems like a highly unlikely source for a featured snippet that is filled with text, YouTube may be a new secret weapon for webmasters trying to gain more real estate in the SERPs. Google pulls text not from the video’s description, but from its transcription – so videos that only include text and music would not be eligible for a featured snippet. Source: The SEM Post
Bing Ads Academy Launched to Provide In-Person and Online Training
Bing Ads has recently announced that it will be launching an educational tool for agencies and channel partners called Bing Ads Academy. The content is designed for “Sellers and Do-ers”, offering training in online and in-person classrooms. Client trainers for Bing Ads academy mainly comprises of well-known people in the paid search industry. Source: Search Engine Land
Moz Uses Google Forums for SEO Help
While browsing the Google Webmaster Help forums, one can typically expect to see representatives of big brands show up to ask for help. However, the last thing forum visitors would expect to see is a major SEO brand seeking assistance. As it turns out, Moz (arguably the biggest SEO brand of them all) recently stopped by the forums looking for help in figuring out why some of their user generated content was outranking its officially published content. There is no word yet on exactly why this issue popped up for Moz. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Shopping Receives Updates in Preparation for the Holidays
Several new features have been released for product ads in Bing. Advertisers will now be able to create product ads for used & refurbished products as well as pull impression share reporting metrics to see how often your product ads are displaying compared to competitors. Additionally, shopping campaigns are now out of beta in both the UK and Australia. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Maps on iOS Now Allowing Users to Add Businesses
A recent update to the iOS version of Google Maps now allows users to “add a missing business”. Reaction to this newly added feature has been mixed. On one hand, this feature could be a huge help in getting all businesses a listing on Google Maps. On the other hand, this unrestricted ability to add businesses could turn out to be another tool for spammers and/or create duplicates of businesses that already have a listing. Source: Search Engine Land
New Store Hour Extensions Tested in AdWords
A new AdWords extension is being tested by Google, allowing for an expandable extension showing store hours for a business. This new extension appears right next to the address and when clicked, displays store hours for each day of the week. With the many ad extensions Google has been testing over the years, this one may prove to be especially useful for local businesses wanting to make sure users see their store hours. Source: The SEM Post
Additional Commentary
Four Benefits of Aligning SEO and UX When Building Your Website
In her analysis piece for Search Engine Watch, guest author Laurel Marcus argues that “SEO is about understanding what consumers are looking for and recognizing how a brand can provide value in that moment”. Her definition of SEO sounds similar to how many would define user experience (or UX) because, according to her, SEO and UX go hand in hand. Marcus backs up her claims about the importance of the relationship between SEO and UX by explaining that it helps create a usable and searchable site, UX decisions backed by real life user data, fewer post-launch errors leading to a smoother experience, and creative-plus problem solving. Source: Laurel Marcus, Search Engine Watch
How to Prepare for the Holidays on Paid Search
Richard Stokes offers a few tips on how paid search advertisers can prepare themselves for the 2015 holidays. Stoke’s first tip is to reserve enough budget for Q4. He also recommends looking ad competitor ad copy to optimize your own copy and to expect the unexpected in a constantly shifting marketplace. Also on the competitor side of things, Stokes recommends staying on top of competitor’s strategies as the season progresses. Source: Richard Stokes, Search Engine Watch
