This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google Confirms Live Mobile First Testing
During this week’s Google Webmaster hangout, John Mueller confirmed that they have begun testing the Mobile First Index in the live search results. He did not say how many searchers are seeing these results but explained the live testing was to evaluate impact on searchers and current rankings while creating new classifiers for debugging purposes. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Tests Ad Tag Similar to Google’s
Bing has started to test a new version of the ad tag that appears alongside a paid search ad. This new version appears with a small box around the words “Ad” similar to how these tags look on the Google search results page. Experts have stated that this version of the ads tag is much more noticeable, but still not quite as noticeable as Google’s since Bing’s ads tag is grey while Google’s ad tag is green. Source: The SEM Post
When to use Sitemaps to Annotate Hreflang
Google provides plenty of information regarding the best way to markup hreflang for sites that serve multiple languages. The quality guidelines fail to provide specifics for determining the best time to switch from on page mark-up to annotating the sitemap, especially for large international sites. While there is no limit for the number of hreflang annotations on a page, but moving them to the sitemap can make it easier to manage especially when additional languages and countries are added. Bonus: Moving the annotation can help to reduce page size which could potentially boost page speed. Source: TheSEMPost
AdWords Starting to Restrict Rehab Ads
Google has begun to crack down on paid ads for drug addiction rehabilitation after noticing a lot of abuse in this industry. Google themselves stated “We found a number of misleading experiences among rehabilitation treatment centers that led to our decision.” Experts have not been able to see these specific ads come up to see what was abusive about them, though that may mean Google already got a head start on blocking these types of ads. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Transitioning from First Click Free for Subscription Sites
Most of the high-quality content on the web comes from professional publishers, generating revenue to continue to create this content is achieved through ads and subscription services. Google implemented first click free to allow non-subscription searchers an opportunity to see what is behind the pay wall and decide if it’s worth subscribing to. Google recently announced a switch to a Flexible Sampling model that provides two sampling options; metering which provides a quota of free articles to consume and lead-in which provides a portion of an article without it being shown in full. The sooner subscription sites switch to the new structured data requirements the better, otherwise Google may view the paywall as a form of cloaking for spammy sites. Source: Google Webmaster Blog
Analysis
How to Make Your Ads Resonate With People Over 50
Looking for a better way for your ads to cater to searchers over the age of 50? Stephen Kenwright has several tips to help you do just that. Storytelling can be impactful for this demographic, so the author recommends emphasizing your heritage and values in your copy. In addition, searchers over 50 will likely want to speak to a human being when purchasing, so make sure you have call extensions present. This older demographic is much happier to trust their own judgement. They’re not browsing blogs or forums for supporting evidence, they’ll likely put more trust in specific well-known brands. So, the author suggests over-emphasizing your brand story and worrying less about the social proof.
Source: Stephen Kenwright, PPC Hero/Hero Conf
Tracking Multiple Checkout Types in Google Analytics
The Enhanced Ecommerce feature in Google Analytics provides valuable details regarding how many people fell off at each stage of checkout, but the enhanced features can still struggle to accurately measure multiple check out options. These options can vary by product, user or industry, for example a product that will be shipped vs. a non-tangible product. Donovan Ayon at Lunametrics had four tips to help organize the data in analytics. First, keep checkout process order consistent, if some checkouts can skip a step communicate the reason for a dip in checkout behavior at that step. Enable checkout options to gather data on specific options selected during checkout and finally, utilize custom dimensions to dig into user experience for future web development and marketing.
Source: Donovan Ayon, Lunametrics
