This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Starts Asking Users to Improve Local Listings
Recent reports reveal that users are beginning to see changes to the local pack on Google search result pages. This new feature asks for user input on local listings to help improve accuracy. Although not available for all local listings, users are able to suggest updates for the business name, hours, phone number and category. Source: TheSEMPost
Google Testing Black Ads Label
Google’s newest test of the AdWords Ad label comes in the form of a black label, rather than the usual green or yellow. This follows up on a test where Google had been testing a green outlined ad label just recently. Based on these tests, we may continue to see a rainbow of color for the ads on the Google Search Results page. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Web Searchers Are Leery of Alternate Domain Extensions
The addition of alternative URL domain extensions like .biz or .shop provide more affordable and relevant URL options for businesses, but a recent study determined that most site visitors are wary of these new domain extensions. Users are so accustomed to the classic domain extensions like .com and .org that often the first instinct when seeing an unknown extension is that the site may be untrustworthy. If you are willing to take the risk on one of the new top level domain options, prepare to be patient while visitors learn to trust them moving forward. Source: SEMrush Blog
Automated Imports for AdWords Campaigns in Bing
Bing’s newest update revolves around its most successful feature—the ability to import campaigns directly from Google. With the addition of automated imports, advertisers will no longer need to remember to update their ad copy. You will now be able to schedule imports to have your AdWords campaigns import on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Source: Search Engine Land
Photos 3.0 Launches for Google My Business
The launch of Google’s My Business Photo 3.0 this week is a big upgrade from the previous versions. This new update provides businesses the opportunity to tag photos with more relevant options and has a simpler interface that makes changing profile and cover photos easier. The new interface also provides businesses with a more streamlined process to see user generated photos and content out there. Source: Blumenthal’s
Additional Commentary
Identifying and Avoiding Click Fraud
PPC Hero Bryan Gaynor covers the eternal struggle of click and bot fraud and how you can identify and combat this fraudulent activity. Gaynor’s identifiers for bot traffic include abnormally high CTRs, irrelevant referral sources, and underperforming site metrics including extremely high bounce rates. To combat this, the author recommends looking to technology like ClickCease and Areyouahuman for aid as they can filter out a large amount of the non-human traffic. Source: Bryan Gaynor, PPC Hero
The Key to Creating Hyperlocal Content for National Brands
National brands have traditionally struggled in their techniques to effectively reach local customers through branch-level marketing. Trying to create local content that is relevant and relatable from afar is a serious challenge for search engine marketers. The surprisingly simple solution is to work with locals from the area you want to target. Local writers and influences have a finger on the pulse of their city and can easily determine what will be important when marketing to their peers. If you can’t find locals to work with there is a viable plan B. By researching local data in relation to national trends you are bound to end up with surprisingly more targeting insight than you might expect. Source: Megan Hannay, Moz Blog
