Technology News and Industry Knowledge

Google has made a change to the rich result reports for product structured data on December 28, 2021. This rich results report is viewable in Google Search Console and the change may result in the number of product entities and issues being different from previous days. What changed. Google said the search company “changed the way that it evaluates and reports errors in Product structured data.” Google did not specify any more details than that. The impact of the change. As a result of that change, Google said “you may see changes in the number of Product entities and issues reported for your property, as well as a change in severity of some issues from errors to warnings.” Google will annotated the report so that if you see a decrease or increase in these numbers, it might be related to the change Google made on its reporting end and nothing you changed on your end. Again, it might just be a reporting change and the Google search results have not changed. Why we care. If you n...

The ability to save product filters has been spotted in Google Merchant Center. We’ve reached out to Google for more details about this feature but have not received a response at the time of publication. A screenshot of product filters in Google Merchant Center. Image: Kirk Williams. Tip of the hat to Kirk Williams of ZATO Marketing for bringing this to our attention. Why we care This nifty, albeit minor, update can save marketers some time that might otherwise be spent fumbling through data to find what they’re looking for. Being able to save product filters enables marketers to more quickly analyze different product categories, such as clearance items, for example. More Google Merchant Center news Google Merchant Center shows relative visibility, page overlap rate, higher position rate metrics Google Merchant Center now automatically displays badge eligibility for products Google introduces new ‘Deals’ features for the Shopping tab and Merchant Center The post Google...

Advertisers aren’t just competing against other brands for their audience’s attention. “Nowadays, the digital environment is so busy, we’re also competing against our best friend’s new babies and puppies and really great pictures of food,” Rebecca Debono, creative director at Jump 450 Media and formerly director of creative strategy at 3Q Digital, said at SMX Create. With so many platforms, technologies and distractions available, it can be incredibly difficult to make ads that actually engage consumers. At SMX Create , Debono and Julia Thiel, VP executive creative director at 3Q Digital, shared their considerations for creating visually stunning ads to help brands cut through the noise and address customers’ motivators as well as barriers that may be clogging your sales funnel. Design for the part of the funnel you’re targeting Using different ads to address each part of the sales funnel ensures that you’ve got a pipeline that speaks to all potential audiences, regardless of whethe...

Google is testing a new announcement bar or tab at the top of the Google Search Console interface. The bar does not yet seem to function properly but has three levels of announcements depending on the urgency of the information. Types of announcements. Google Search Console shows these three types of announcements bars: Informational announcement Minor issue announcement Major issue announcement What it looks like. Here is a screen shot of what it currently looks like, although, clicking on them currently does not do anything: Why we care. It seems Google will be able to use this to communicate issues with Google Search directly to site owners. Again, this is not fully functioning right now but I suspect it is rolling out soon. The post Google Search Console testing announcement bar appeared first on Search Engine Land . Via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc

From an SEO perspective, 2021 can be summed up as stressful — not just because of several algorithmic updates throughout the year but also possibly because of the timing of some of those updates. With the COVID vaccine rollout, some businesses began returning to normal, but then the Delta and Omicron variant threw everything for a loop — was it just too much to handle for some? It may have been a bit too much to handle for Google as well: The search engine launched Page Experience update late, never hit its deadline for the mobile-first indexing this year and seemed to rush out two late. big algorithmic updates towards the end of the year. RELATED: SEO 2021 in review: Endless updates, title rewrites, GMB becomes GBP and more Google’s June, July and November core updates rocked the SEO industry June 2021 core update. Google took a while to release its first core update of the year, the June 2021 core update , which began rolling out on June 2, 2021. That update finished rolling ou...

The ability to exclude undesirable ad placements for Smart Shopping campaigns has been spotted in the Google Ads interface. Placement exclusions can be applied to the Google Display Network and YouTube, according to the screenshot (below). The “Exclude placements” menu in Google Ads. Image: Davey Stokkers and Fabio Antichi. We’ve reached out to Google for more details about this feature but have not received a response at the time of publication. Tip of the hat to Davey Stokkers and Fabio Antichi for first spotting this feature, and Gianpaolo Lorusso for bringing it to our attention. Why we care More and more consumers are seeking to purchase from brands that align with their ethics and values. Being able to control what your ads appear alongside can help you prevent unwanted brand associations, which can, in turn, affect your conversion rates. Additionally, Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will be bundled into Performance Max campaigns sometime in 2022. It’s not clear wh...

Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business , has a new feature in the products section that lets you mark a product as “special.” After you mark a product as special, that product will be moved to the top of the products you listed in your Google business profile listing. What it looks like. Here is the setting in the Google Business Profile products section that says “Mark as Special.” It says “products marked Special are shown at the top of the page.” Why we care. Clearly, some local SEOs and businesses wanted a method to promote products to the top of the page. This gives them a way to feature one or more products higher up in their Google local search listings and Google Maps listings. I personally do not see this feature but others like @shemiadhikarath do. We have asked Google for a comment about the rollout of this feature and are waiting to hear back. The post Google now lets you place products at the top of your local and maps listing appeared first on Sear...

In 2021, SEOs faced a flurry of Google updates (including the highly anticipated yet possibly-overhyped Page Experience update), new search results page features like continuous scrolling and countless other updates that could potentially affect visibility for their brands — all while operating amid the second year of the COVID pandemic. From core updates and title change fiascos to improved shopping options and new ways of tracking data, this year was full of surprises. Here’s our look back at the most impactful SEO news, tactics and tools of 2021. RELATED:   PPC 2021 in review: Privacy and automation force advertisers to adapt Google algorithm updates Core updates. Google released three major core updates — one in June, one in July and one in November. The first caused a lot of search volatility, with tools like MozCast reaching a temperature of 107.3°F on June 3. The July update continued this spike until it all died down around July 12. On November 17, Google announced a ...

Google Ads are not serving to all Gmail users, specific to Gmail users on desktop browsers. Google confirmed the issue in the Google Ads status dashboard over here . What is the issue. Google said the issue is around Google Ads not being served, and thus the ads not being displayed, to users who use the desktop version of Gmail, Google’s email service. When did it start. The issue started yesterday, December 23rd, at around 2pm ET or 7:01 PM UTC. When will it be resolved. Google has not given us an estimated time for the issue to be resolved but the company promised to provide an update by Dec 25, 2021, 2:00 AM UTC “detailing when we expect to resolve the problem,” the company said. Why we care. If you are running Google Ads for Gmail users, then you may see a dip in the number of ads being served. This is a known issue that Google is working to resolve. The post Google Ads not serving fully on Gmail appeared first on Search Engine Land . Via Search Engine Land http...

In 2021, PPC professionals navigated changes in keyword match types and automated bidding, scratched their heads at the prospect of a future without third-party cookies and navigated their role in an increasingly automated industry. Prompted by the vision that platforms, like Google, have for their services as well as increased concern over user privacy, these changes underscored adaptability as one of the traits that define successful marketers. Below, we’ve summarized the most impactful changes, announcements and developments that shaped PPC this past year and, in all likelihood, will continue to influence the years ahead as well. Farewell, broad match modified keywords In Q1 2021, Google announced a significant change to how it treats phrase match keywords by expanding it to include broad match modifier traffic (BMM). Image: Google. “Broad match now looks at additional signals in your account to deliver more relevant searches,” Google also announced. These signals include ...