First Thing Monday – June 6 2017

Seeing as there was a long weekend we thought we should make this “First Thing Tuesday” to avoid the glut in your inbox.

Another busy week in search news with Google flexing its muscles again warning about link building strategies, testing removing the featured snippet from search results and releasing more updates to make paid search advertising easier. That was just some of the Google activity and there was plenty more happening in this space.

Check out the stories below for more information direct from the source and links to some of the other interesting articles that caught our eye last week.

Google warns against misuse of links in syndication & large-scale article campaigns.

Reminiscent of previous announcements that preceded clamp downs Google has sent a clear warning to those syndicating content with the express purpose of building links that they may be penalised… Read More 

Google found testing dropping web listings that appear as featured snippets.

Usually, a site that’s selected as a featured snippet appears both at the top of Google’s search results in a special box and again as one of the 10 web search listings further below. However, it’s been spotted that Google is dropping that web listing if a site is already featured… Read More

Google will automatically convert display ads to AMP

Last week Google announced they were launching in beta two new ways to harness the speed of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to improve advertising performance. The first being the ability to use fast loading AMP pages as landing pages for search Ads. Secondly, they are speeding up Ads served across the Display network using the same technology that powers AMP… Read More

Google expands Search targeting to include “in-market” searchers

We’ve been able to do it on YouTube and the Display Network and soon we will be able to do it with Search ads. Announced at Google Marketing Next, in-market audience targeting lets AdWords advertisers show ads to people who, based on their recent search history, are likely to want what they’re trying to sell. Read more… 

Mobile Has Changed Search Intent and How People Get Things Done: New Consumer Behavior Data

Google shares new research which quantifies how people use digital to make decisions and take action in their daily lives. Some interesting, if not surprising, findings show people’s reliance on search and smartphones.

For example, 96% of people use a smartphone to get things done and people are at least twice as likely to use search than other online or offline sources such as store visits or social media. Not only is search the most used resource, it’s the resource 87% of people turn to first. Read more…

What we’ve been reading this week

• Inside Amazon’s first New York City bookstore
• Why marketers must value attention as currency
• The great digital-age swindle… and the man fighting back
• ‘No real separation of church and state’: Marketers are sceptical of Google’s new attribution tool

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