This Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff
Changes To Google Webmaster Tools
John Mueller announced two new changes to Webmaster Tools. First, Google will no longer round the search query data within the Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries report. Another new feature allows you to see where your mobile pages appeared and where Skip Redirects were applied. Additionally, Webmaster Tools now shows which keywords are sending traffic to which pages, revealing a bit of the data that’s been lost from Google Analytics due to (no provided). It’s like a bunch of Christmas presents from Google got lost in the mail, but hey, better late than never!
Sources: Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable
Facebook Expands Wi-fi Program
Facebook’s wi-fi program allows business owners to offer free wi-fi to customers if they check-in to the location via Facebook. Facebook has now teamed with NETGEAR to offer a lower priced Facebook wi-fi option in the $150 range. Beyond the obvious upside for Facebook, small- and medium-sized businesses will benefit from additional shares and thumbs up.
Source: Marketing Land
Twitter Co-Founder Launches Social Search App
Biz Stone and a former colleague have launched Jelly, a social search app that uses your social networks to drive results. Users submit questions within the app that can be answered by anyone in your existing social networks. Jelly claims that the algorithms of today’s complex search engines are “no match” for the “experience, inventiveness, and creativity of the human mind.”
Source: Search Engine Land
Pinterest Looks To Improve Visual Search Capabilities
Pinterest has acquired VisualGraph in an effort to make much-needed upgrades to its visual search capabilities. The goal is to have a deeper understanding of the content in an image without the assistance of text or tags. This will allow Pinterest to understand what is being pinned and suggest other relevant pins. Previously, Pinterest relied on signals such as alt text, text in the image link, and image metadata to identify visual content.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google Teaming With Car Manufacturers
In an effort to bring Android mobile operating systems to automobiles, Google has teamed with Audi, GM, Honda, and Hyundai to form the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA). Google Director of Android Engineering Patrick Brady explains that in a multi-screen world, switching between devices should be easy and seamless. Present-day cars obviously fall short of that goal; the challenge will be to find a safe way to do it that won’t cause distractions.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Rap Genius, Google Kiss And Make Up
Last week we mentioned that Rap Genius was banned by Google. They patched up the issue with Google, saying “we deserved to get smacked.” To get back on Google’s good side, Rap Genius collected a list of 178,000 pages with links then wrote an automated scraper to determine whether each page contained spammy links. If it did, they contacted the webmaster and requested the link be removed. Google was satisfied and Rap Genius now shows up again in search results. If only every Google penalty were so easy (and quick) to remove!
Source: Washington Post
Mobile Advertising Projected To Increase 64% In 2014
In 2013 mobile advertising spend more than doubled to $3 billion, and it’s only expected to grow more in 2014. Analysts have predicted mobile and social advertising to increase 64% and 47% respectively. It just might be time to start showing ads in these areas if you aren’t already!
Source: Mashable
Yahoo Aims To Simplify Ad Buys With “Yahoo Advertising”
During CEO Marissa Mayer’s keynote at CES in Las Vegas earlier this week, she announced that Yahoo Advertising will be an umbrella for all of the company’s ad formats. The Yahoo Advertising umbrella will have three tiers of ad buying to give small- and medium-sized business access to its products. Those products include Yahoo Ad Manager, Yahoo Stream Ads, Yahoo Image Ads, and Tumblr Sponsored Posts.
Source: Marketing Land
Yahoo Ad Network Charged With Distributing Malware
In more Yahoo news, it has been reported that two Netherland internet security firms have revealed that Yahoo’s servers were inadvertently distributing malware. The malware attack has not affected users in North America, Asia, or Latin America, nor has it affected Mac or mobile users. Yahoo stated that they have removed the ad designed to spread malware and will continue to monitor and block any ads being used for this activity.
Source: Marketing Land
Google’s Share Of Social Logins Hits Highest Level Since 2010
According to the latest report from Janrain, Google continues to be an increasingly popular choice when it comes to social logins. Although 38% represents Google’s best single quarter since 2010, Facebook still remains the most popular option with 45% of all social logins.
Source: Marketing Land
Google Usage By State
A recent Chitika survey identified search engine preferences around the US on a state-by-state basis. Not suprisingly, Google reigned supreme in every state. However, not all states embrace the search engine equally. Google’s top three states, in terms of percentage of the population claiming to use the serach engine are: Utah (73%), California and New York. Mississippi has the lowest percentage of Google users at 53%. West Virginia comes in second at 54%.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Send An Email To Anyone On Gmail
Gmail has unveiled plans to allow users to send an email to anyone, even if they don’t have that person’s email address. The hook? Both people need to have both a Gmail and a Google+ account.
Source: New York Times
Notable Commentary
That’s Cooler Than The Polar Vortex
From Keyword To Concept
In the past, SEO revolved around individual keywords and optimizing a page to singularly target that one keyword. No longer. Now, SEO is much more about building pages that address a concept and ideas. That’s not to say keywords aren’t still important, but now pages need to address an overarching topic and all the keywords related to it. Cyrus Shepard offers up a guide to better keyword research in this new era.
Analysis by: Cyrus Shepard, Moz
The 7-Step Process For Taking Over Existing AdWords Accounts
Andrew Lolk from Search Engine Journal knows that taking over an existing AdWords account can be a bit tricky. In this recent article he talks about his trials and tribulations with doing exactly that. He uses his knowledge and experience to explain the tricks of the trade.
Analysis by: Andrew Lolk, Search Engine Journal
Marketing Metrics To Embrace & Ignore
Today’s marketers have access to tons of data; the hard part is differentiating between helpful and irrelevant metrics. Justin Gray from Marketing Land says that revenue is far and away the most important number to measure, but there are other metrics worth paying attention to as well.
Analysis by: Justin Gray, Marketing Land
The 10 Questions You Should Ask Yourself When Creating a Landing Page
Creating a landing page that converts can be the most difficult yet important task of a PPC campaign. Rocco Baldassarre from Search Engine Journal helps by listing 10 questions an advertiser should ask themselves while creating a landing page for PPC.
Analysis by: Rocco Baldassarre, Search Engine Journal
