The Skinny

Google announced that Expanded Text Ads will be available to all advertisers later this year.

Why is Google Doing This?

Remember when we explained the new Google Search Result Page layout? (Get a refresher, here.) So with this new layout and the removal of the right side bar ads, there is more room for longer text in advertisements.

While the layout has a lot to do with this new release, guess what’s also the catalyst for this change? If you said, Mobile, then you’d be right! Google’s Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy explains that this update is for, “[…] the on-the-go mobile consumer that wants to know exactly what you offer before tapping into your website.”

So What’s Happening Exactly?

The single headline field becomes two headlines fields separated by a dash. Both headlines can be up to 30 characters. The description of the offer is now expanded to 80 characters and you can customize the URL used in the ad up to two paths (www.whereoware.com/about/careers , /about (path1), /careers (path2).

Still confused? Check out this handy chart from Search Engine Land:

How Does This Impact Marketers?

Start optimizing your text ads now for this new roll-out of expended capabilities. Then when it comes available to all: test, test, test. See if having the two headlines + longer description helps or hurts your paid ad conversions. As with the old text ads, don’t just set them up and forget about them. Check your analytics to see how they’re performing and make any necessary changes as needed.

This week, we welcome a guest post from our Search Manager, Zoe Zhang. Zoe is a PPC + SEO whiz and keeps us up-to-date with the latest + greatest in Search Marketing.

So What’s Changed in Search Marketing?

When performing Google searches recently, have you noticed the page looks a little cleaner + less cluttered? Google debuted a new ad layout at the end of February, eliminating the right side panel text advertisements – this space is now reserved for Google Product Listing Ads.

You will now see that four ads have been added to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) + up to three at the bottom of the SERP, for a total maximum ad count of just seven ads (compared to 11 previously).

Continue reading PPC Tip – Goodbye Sidebar: New Google Ad Layout →

Organic search drives 51% of all visitors to business-to-business and business-to-consumer websites, a study by BrightEdge found. If your goal is to get your website in front of fresh eyes, you need to get comfortable with search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is a combination of art and science, but for every marketer with 1,000 other things to do, SEO is a worthwhile priority. To help you get started, we’ve laid out a simple list of 5 things busy marketers can do today to improve SEO efforts.

SEO Recap

Quick recap for all you SEO newcomers – before you sign up for a service or buy a product, what do you do? You Google it, or use another search engine like Yahoo to look at product reviews, compare prices, or check out the firm’s reputation.

After inputting keywords into the search engine, you likely click the first, second, or third search result, oftentimes skipping over the paid results. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll click one of the results on the first page, instead of navigating to page two to see more options. The best, most reputable results are on page one, right?

THAT, right there, is why you need SEO. SEO is a collection of best practices to shape your web pages and copy into orderly and descriptive preferences set by popular search engines (namely, Google) to help boost your webpage to the top of search results.

You can perform SEO on web pages, blog posts, or any online content you want people to find. Follow our 5 SEO basics to get started.

SEO basics 1: Create Unique Page Titles

A webpage title is a brief page description that tells search engines what your page is all about.

For example, let’s say we Google “Omaha Steaks.” We used a name brand, as opposed to just searching “steak,” so it’s no surprise that Omaha Steaks is the first search result.

If I click the listing to land on their homepage, I can see the first part of their page title in the browser tab: “Buy Steaks, Gourmet Food…”. If I hover my mouse over the title, the rest of it shows up: “Buy Steaks, Gourmet Food Gifts, Wine, and Lobster Tails Online {Omaha Steaks}.”

Navigating back to the search results, you’ll see these same descriptive keywords in the page title, shown in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Continue reading SEO Tip – 5 SEO Basics to Do Today →

Now’s the time to think about your paid search strategy for the upcoming holiday season. What did or didn’t work last year? Do you have the budget? Follow these 7 Steps to optimize your PPC plan for the holidays to increase ROI this year.

1. Lookback to Last Year

When looking back to last year’s paid search plan, what combination of keywords, bids, and timing were the holy-grail?

Note the keywords, ad copy, or promotions that targeted the most relevant traffic and the time of day or day of the week traffic times peaked. Use this combination of keywords and timing to bundle the perfect paid search plan and adjust your budgets for bidding accordingly.

2. Start Early

Once you review last year’s strategy, it’s time to kick it into high gear for this season — and we mean now.

Continue reading PPC Tip – 7 Steps to Optimize PPC for the Holidays →

Today, we’re taking a break from Mobilegeddon to share another Google mobile enhancement you might have missed. Google is rolling out an update to its search algorithm to change the URL structure of websites for mobile search results.

Who cares about URLs?

Google wants to make it easier for mobile users to find the best websites for their searching needs. Google also realizes that users aren’t reading and comparing every search result’s title, URL, and description to pick the best one.

Instead, they quickly scan results and then select the option that seems best. Well-structured, descriptive URLs assist this quick-scanner in their decision.

For example, if you’re browsing for a new video game, you’ll be more likely to visit the site www.videogamedepot.com then you would www.toydepot.com. The first URL offers context that the video game seeker will find exactly what they’re looking for, instead of taking the chance that Toy Depot carries video games.

Google Updates URLs to be Mobile-friendly

Google is updating the algorithm that displays URLs for mobile search snippet results to deliver more context clues than a poorly structured URL. Instead of displaying the full URL, mobile searchers will see the site’s name and breadcrumbs showing where the information is found within the site. Google defines a breadcrumb as a set of links that help a user understand and navigate your site’s hierarchy, like this:

Webmaster Tools › Help articles ›  Creating Google-friendly sites

Do a quick search on your mobile device, and you’ll notice a change:

Google will be showing both the breadcrumb URL structure and the name of your website, instead of the domain name and full URL. For example, if your URL is www.company.com/spring/blue-shirts.com, Google would split the URL into something like, company > spring > blue-shirts. Alternatively, they may use the breadcrumb structure of the page.

Don’t like how your URLs look? Well Google is supporting schema.org structured data to allow you to specify the website name to be used in the place of the domain name and the URL structure of the breadcrumbs.

Here’s some info on the update, including your site name in search, and the breadcrumb mark up.

Takeaways

Now is the time to look at your site’s URL structure. Site names and descriptive, user-friendly URLs (instead of arbitrary numbers and letters) are imperative to help mobile users find what they’re seeking and have a better experience with your brand. This change further cements the importance of thinking through your mobile users’ experience. It’s important to make searching for and interacting with your site as easy as possible from small smartphone screens.

This week, we welcome a guest post from our Online Marketing Manager and PPC/SEO specialist, Brian Ko. Certified in both Google AdWords and Silverpop, Brian works with clients to develop strategies leveraging search engine marketing and email marketing automation.

Congratulations – you invested in a brand new website equipped with the latest features and gadgets to provide customers a fantastic user experience. What’s the plan for driving visitors to your new site?

A great website is useless without traffic, and more importantly, qualified traffic that converts visitors into customers. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) come into play. As a SEO/PPC specialist, I have three favorite recommendations for incorporating SEO and PPC into your marketing strategy to drive quality traffic to your website.

The Case for SEO + PPC:

At its most basic, SEO drives organic traffic to your website. Organic traffic consists of visitors who land on your website by searching for keywords relevant to your business in a search engine like Google. SEO uses a combination of website optimization, content strategy, and a variety of other methods to make sure your business is at the top of search listings.

Why is being at the top important? According a study by online ad network Chitika, Google results on the first page get 92% of traffic for the average search, and organic listings with the first rank have a click-through rate of 33%. Staying atop of the herd pays off, when it comes to organic search.

Continue reading SEO tip: PPC + SEO drives better quality leads to your website →