This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Removing Converted Clicks in September
Google has recently announced that the “converted clicks” metric will officially be retiring on September 21st of this year to be replaced with “conversions”. Google’s stated that this change is to “simplify conversion measurement” since using converted clicks can limit measuring your results. If you are already using the “conversions” column for your reporting, then no additional action is required. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Confirms Once Again that PageRank is not Impacted by Redirects
Back in 2013, Google announced for the first time that 301 redirects don’t lose value. Since then, many SEOs have remained skeptical even after repeated confirmations from Google that there is no need to worry about losing PageRank when using redirects. Earlier this week, Google’s Gary Illyes, seemingly unprovoked, took to twitter to once again attempt to clear up any confusion around the issue. Source: Search Engine Land
Expanded Text Ads & Device Bid Adjustments Officially Live in AdWords
Google’s new AdWords ad format, Expanded Text Ads, has officially gone live and will eventually become the only ad format on October 26th, 2016. In addition, the new device bid adjustments are rolling out which will allow users to set different bids for tablets and desktops, rather than just mobile. Google suggests being smart with your bidding strategy when it comes to these adjustments by keeping location, time of day, and audience in mind. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Maps Gets Significant Updates
In an effort to make Maps more user friendly, Google has tweaked the aesthetic of the maps along with a few other key elements. For example, areas of interest are now more emphasized with an orange highlight. Additionally, business photos and street view images have been reorganized into a carousel layout to make it easier for users to toggle between normal photos and 360-degree photos. Source: Search Engine Land
Additional Commentary
Top AdWords Annoyances
Todd Saunders at Search Engine Land admits that AdWords isn’t perfect and shares with us several things that irk him on this platform. Things like the name difference between call and callout extensions, even though functionally they’re much different, tend to draw Saunders ire. He also notes that, if you don’t want to show on mobile apps, you need to know the totally random tactic of blocking adsenseformobileapps.com as a placement. In addition, the author detests the fact that AdWords doesn’t offer the conversion transparency that Analytics does, especially when breaking data down by conversion type. Analysis: Todd Saunders, Search Engine Land
Ranking #0: SEO for Answers
In this look at Featured Snippets, Dr. Peter J. Meyers explains how important it is to take advantage of this feature that is often times viewed as a fad or novelty. Meyers emphasizes the fact that featured snippets carry so much weight because they occupy the very top spot in the search results – or as he calls it, the “#0 position”. Next, he highlights the increasing prevalence of featured snippets and their relatively high CTR as reasons for their worth. Finally, Meyers rounds out the article by detailing how to actually go about obtaining a featured snippet for your site. Analysis: Dr. Peter J. Meyers, Moz Blog
