Google dominates search engine marketing news this week (and let’s be honest – most others as well) with the addition of an attribute allowing businesses with televisions for local sports to tell customers, the addition of an AMP rocket to some listings and changes to Google local knowledge panels. Facebook also announced that they are now allowing users to promote Marketplace listings. Check out all the latest news in This Week in Search.
Google Testing AMP Label In Search Ads
Google started running accelerated mobile landing pages (AMP) last September for all advertisers using Google Search Ads. Now, Google is showing a rocket icon in some listings to show that the page is a participant in the program.
Google: Click Depth Matters More For SEO Than URL Structure
Google’s John Mueller says that Google considers the required number of clicks to get to a particular page from a home page as more important than a site’s URL structure.
Google: Splitting Or Merging A Website Can Cause Months Of Unstable Search Rankings
John Mueller from Google says that webmasters who are thinking about splitting their sites into two or more entities will experience months of unreliable search results. He did not, however, say whether those who waited long enough would see positive or negative results. Logically, that would be a case-by-case answer.
A Google Algorithm Update On Friday, June 8th?
Many ecommerce sites complained that their traffic went down on June 8, 2018, with category pages seeming to get hit the hardest. Some people are suggesting that it is an attempt by Google to get people to buy more ads while others are suggesting that category pages should be no-indexed.
Let’s remember however – when one site loses a position another gains (SERP layout changes notwithstanding) so it would be a poor play to get folks to buy ads.
Google Makes Some Clarifications Related to Mobile-First Indexing
Google is trying to alleviate some confusion that has arisen over its new mobile-first indexing. Basically, any website with mobile and desktop versions will have its mobile crawled before its desktop version. Google is aware that they have a Google cache link bug that may be returning 404 errors or blank pages, and they are working to correct that problem. See this informative article for even more information.
Google Sitemaps URL Order Does Not Matter
After Google’s John Mueller originally said that the most awesome files should be at the start of a Google sitemap, he went on to say a few minutes later that order did not matter because all files should be awesome.
Google Gives Lessons On College Search
After working with experts in the education field, Google has updated many university knowledge panels to show users more detailed information including student life, admissions and costs.
Google Local Panel With In Store Savings & See What’s In Store
If you look at Google’s local knowledge panel today you can find a section for store savings and a separate section to see what’s available in the store.
Google Local Adds Good For Watching Sports Attribute
In order to celebrate the World Cup, Google has added an attribute to Google My Business allowing businesses to indicate that they have televisions for watching sports. Follow the advice in this article to update your Google My Business accounts.
New Google Search Console Adds Filter for Web Light Search Appearance
While it is still in beta, Google has announced that it has added a filter in the Google Search Console showing webmasters how often they are converting web pages into a version designed for slow connections. These pages lack some of the functionality of a regular web page, but they contain a button allowing users to view the original version when desired.
Google Reboots Advertising Tools to Give Users More Control Over Their Data
Users can now go into Google Ad Setting to modify what ads they see based on the data that Google has collected. The company is also expanding their “Why this ad?” feature to allow users to better understand why Google is showing them a particular ad when they are signed into their Google account.
An Introduction to Entities and SEO
By now many of you will have heard of entities as they relate to SEO. They’re an incredibly important piece of the SEO pie and I can’t recommend enough following news and stories around them closely. For those who haven’t yet dived into this area I wrote an intro guide on the OnCrawl blog to help you cut your teeth.
SEO Tips: Producing Great Content as an Affiliate
In my latest article, I make the argument that content is not king, instead delivering content satisfying the user’s intent is king. You can be successful as an affiliate marketer through delivering content that matches the need of more users using the user’s preferred format.