This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Search Console Beta Now Available for All Users
The Search Console Beta is officially live for all users via direct search at https://search.google.com/search-console. The new Search Console can only be reached through direct search as there’s no link from the old site to help control traffic. Most users received the notification through their email that all verified sites are available in the new beta. The new Search Console appears to be working fine except the Remove URLs tool. It was reported by Google that the report may not fully function for a period of time as they’re working on improvements. Source: SERoundtable
Google Giving Users More Control to Mute Remarketing Ads
Google recently announced additional ways for users to control which ads they are seeing. Users can now go to a new section in the Ads Setting section of “My Account” called Your Reminder Ads. In this section users can see what companies are remarketing to them in addition to having the option to mute ads from those companies. With this change, advertisers need to be aware that the tool will allow users to mute advertisers completely rather than just a single ad they found to be annoying. This will only impact Google ads and not ads from other remarketing services. Source: Search Engine Land
New Topic Research Feature in Search Results
Google adds new feature in the search results that aids in user’s research process. The new Research feature appears to be similar to the Top Stories search feature. It appears the articles chosen are informational and most likely hold authority in search already for informational queries. It isn’t clear if the new feature is just a test as it’s not available for everyone and the results that populate in the feature are sometimes outdated. Source: The SEM Post
Google Ending Third-Party Merchant Center Integrations
Back in 2016 Google enabled integrations with Merchant Center and three other e-commerce platforms including BigCommerce, Magento and PrestaShop that allowed merchants using these platforms to directly upload their product catalogs to Google Merchant Center. Starting on March 20, 2018 Google will be ending the support for those direct uploads. Google has stated that they are ending these partnerships “in order to better focus on solutions that will make Shopping ads onboarding a more seamless experience.” Source: Search Engine Land
Country Specific Data in Chrome User Experience Report
Users can now compare metrics regionally where previously, data was presented on a global aggregate basis in the Chrome User Experience Report. Datasets are organized by country code where users can gain deeper insight on page speed from around the world. An interesting feature is that the report has the ability to detect 3G and 4G connection types across a few countries. It isn’t 100% clear on how the new Page Speed Update will be using the metrics but will most likely benefit webmasters and users with international sites. Source: Google Developers Blog
Analysis
Connecting Your Paid Search & Shopping Campaigns
Jacob Brown looks at the relationship between Paid Search and Shopping campaigns in AdWords and how you can connect them in your campaign efforts. Brown recommends adding converting Shopping queries as keywords in Search as well as including top converting Search keywords in your shopping feed to help with product names and descriptions. In addition to this, you can use successful ad copy tests as a guideline to help adjust your product descriptions in the feed as it is a good tactic to maintain consistency across both Search and Shopping ads. Source: Jacob Brown, PPC Hero
Take Advantage of GMB’s Q&A Feature
Local SEO expert, Joy Hawkins explains the importance of monitoring your GMB Q&A section. Hawkins points out that business owners aren’t notified in their GMB dashboard when Google users as a question about the business. She states that by installing the Google Maps app, business owners can enable notifications. The biggest point Hawkins drives home is that customers and local guides are notified and prompted to respond to questions about businesses they’ve reviewed or visited. Customers may answer with incorrect information about your business or even worse, business owners can miss the opportunity to respond to negative comments. Another missed opportunity that business owners don’t utilize is removing questions or comments that violate Googles Guidelines. The Q&A section in the GMB dashboard is a great opportunity for small business owners to take a step ahead of the competition as many large corporations ignore this feature all together. Source: Search Engine Land
