This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Width of Google’s Main Search Results Column Increased
Seemingly without conducting much testing, Google dropped a bomb (in a good way) on the SEO community Thursday when it increased the width of its main search results column. The column is now about 20% wider making room for longer page titles and meta descriptions amongst a host of other things. There is no official word from Google on this change, but as of right now it looks like it’s here to stay. Source: The SEM Post
Payday Loans Ads Now Banned by Google
Google recently announced that they will be banning AdWords ads for payday loans both in the search results as well as on other search partner websites. Google’s criteria for the ban include ads for loans that have a repayment date of 60 days or less and loans with an APR of 36% or greater. They stated that they hope “fewer people will be exposed to misleading or harmful products.” The ban will officially go into effect on July 13. Source: The SEM Post
Search Analytics Report Updated in Search Console
SEOs around the world are rejoicing as the much-maligned Search Analytics report has finally received an update to provide more accurate data as well as include clicks and impressions from other organic sources like the Knowledge Panel and Rich Snippets. While it wasn’t reported until this week, the Search Analytics is showing an annotation for the update on April 26th. Source: Search Engine Land
Keywords & Ads Can Now Be Copied and Pasted in Bing Ads
With a recent update, Bing Ads has added the functionality for advertisers to copy and paste keywords and ads directly into the Bing Ads interface. This change will make things easier for users who want to make quick tweaks to ads or keywords across campaigns without using the Bing Ads Editor. The copy and paste function works similar to Google’s, which can be accessed through the edit menu or a simple Control+C and Control+V. Source: The SEM Post
New Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Boost Now Live
In a shocking development, Google has followed through on a deadline promised for an algothrim update. In March, Google mentioned that they were planning on “boosting” the mobile-friendly algorithm in May and earlier this week they did just that. This update further demonstrates the increasing importance Google is placing on user experience for mobile visitors. Source: Search Engine Land
Additional Commentary
Adjusting Your PPC Account for Seasonality
With summer almost upon us, Rachael Law from Hanapin Marketing shares her tactics for looking for seasonal trends and preparing accordingly. To prepare yourself, the author recommends reviewing historical impression share by quarter through auction insights which is especially helpful if you have an old account. In addition, reviewing competitor data through SpyFu or SEMrush can give you insight on competitor’s seasonal trends. Lastly, Law recommends ensuring you have seasonal ad coverage for all current promotions. Analysis: Rachael Law, PPC Hero
How Nordstrom Bested Zappos on Google US
Juan Gonzalez of Sistrix examines how Nordstrom overtook Zappos in this look at head-to-head competition for real estate in the SERPs. Gonzalez goes on to explain that although Zappos has nearly 1.5 million more links than Nordstrom, it is unable to compete in the search results. This seems strange until Gonzalez reveals that Zappos has approximately ten times as many pages as Nordstrom in the index. After diving deeper into this issue, Gonzalez concludes that Zappos poor performance boils down to their poorly managed crawl budget. Analysis: Juan Gonzalez, Sistrix
