This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Style Guides Released
Recently, Google’s Developer Relations Group released a handful of the guides Google uses internally to create high-quality content. The various style guides cover JavaScript, HTML/CC, Java Style and a Developer Guide for content creators. While the guides don’t reveal anything that isn’t already known, they reinforce the idea that pages that rank well in search have a combination of high-quality content, code and UX. Source: Search Engine Land
New AdWords Interface Officially Rolled Out to All Users
Following a roll-out period of several months starting back in August, Google has officially made the new AdWords interface available to all advertisers. According to Google, the overhaul enhances load speed of account data up to 20%. While there are many new features available in the new interface, there are some functionalities that have yet to be included so users are still free to toggle back to the old version of the interface. Source: Search Engine Land
API V 4.0 Released for Google My Business
Google announced the release of an updated API for My Business listings. The new API supports new features like multiple value attributions like credit cards accepted, Photos updated to Media to eventually support videos, better notification personalization with notifications for review updates and most notably, the ability for 3rd party platforms to post on Google Posts as well as receive related analytics data. Source: Blumenthal’s
Google Announces Change to Daily Budgets
Google has recently announced a change to daily budgets that allows them to overspend by 2 times and needless to say many advertisers are not happy. Google’s tweet regarding this said “To help you hit your advertising goals, your campaigns can now spend up to twice your average daily budget.” This can happen, according to Google, on days with “lots of high quality traffic.” This change took place on October 4th and is not optional. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Opinion Rewards Coming to iOS
Google Opinion Rewards is a program that pays users a small monetary reward for taking small surveys from companies. Originally only available for Android, the Opinion Rewards app has had over 10 million app downloads to date. Google announced the release of an iOS compatible app for iPhone users. Already available in the US App Store, once downloaded the app will notify you when a survey is available. Surveys are a max of 10 questions and help companies learn more about customer’s likes and dislikes. Source: Search Engine Journal
Analysis
Why PPCers Should Be In a Client Facing Role
PPC Hero Bryan Gaynor found that going from a good PPCer to a great one required one thing: spending time working directly with his clients. This provided him many important insights like a clear understanding of goals since sometimes information can get lost in translation when transferred from client to account manager to analyst. Being in a client facing role also gave him a better understanding of his clients industry and business. Because PPC is not a 1-step solution, understanding an industry helped him think about every strategic step he was taking and caused him to be more proactive in his work. Source: Bryan Gaynor, PPC Hero
Local Search Marketing Tactics You Can’t Overlook
Local businesses need to have a strong presence in local search otherwise they may as well not exist. Marketing Manager and guest columnist Jessie Moore gave insights into SEO fundamentals to help local businesses. Make sure the business is included in all the major business directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc.) and make sure to claim the Google My Business listing, while doing so ensure you have NAP consistency across these directories. Reviews are a great way to boost a business and provide trust signals to potential customers. Create locations pages on your website for the different locations and service areas and finally, don’t neglect schema markup. Source: Jessie Moore, Search Engine Watch
