WebProNews

Tag: Search

  • Here’s What’s Changing With Bing Ads Now That It Includes AOL

    As you may know, Bing now powers AOL Search worldwide, including exclusively in the the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. In light of this, Microsoft announced some changes to Bing Ads including the Campaigns page, Reporting page, Google AdWords Import experience, and Keyword and Campaign Planners.

    The Campaigns page has new options for Campaign Creation and Ad Group creation to include ad distribution for AOL network.

    Changes to the Reports Page include:

    – a new value to the Network column for AOL Search

    – new values to the Top Vs. Other column for AOL Search-Top and AOL Search-Other

    – actual website URLs displayed as separate line items (not consolidated) for AOL owned and operated websites in the ‘Website URL’ column of the ‘Website URL (Publisher)’ report

    “If you have made changes to your network distribution prior to January 1st, 2016, your old values and new values in Change History will be updated to include the AOL network,” says Bing’s Prince Bajracharya. “However, please note that your ads have been served only on Bing and Yahoo properties before January 2016. This will also happen to the data in the Change History tab.”

    Network distribution options in Bing Ads Editor now include AOL network in all three options.

    When you use the Google AdWords Import tool, All Search Networks will now include AOL Search in addition to Bing and Yahoo and syndicated partners.

    With the Keyword Planner, the options for Network targeting have changed to include AOL network in all options. Campaign Planner now calculates AOL into traffic.

    For more on all of this, read Prince Bajracharya’s post on the Bing Ads blog.

  • Twitter Authority And Google Search

    Twitter Authority And Google Search

    Early last year, Google and Twitter formed a partnership giving Google full access to the Twitter firehose, meaning that it could once again provide real-time tweets in search results as it once had.

    Have you found this relationship to be a meaningful improvement to Google search thus far? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    The two companies shared a deal years ago that led to the creation of an actual real-time search feature in Google results. This provided scrolling results from Twitter and a variety of other sources for timely searches. In 2011, however, the companies failed to renew their deal, and the feature went away as a result. It was clear that while Twitter wasn’t the only source of real-time content, it was the most important (by far).

    As a result of the real-time search feature going away, Google’s search results suffered.

    It was interesting then that in 2015, the companies were once again reuniting as Twitter needed more traffic to grow its user base as a public company – something it continues to struggle with.

    Google’s new implementation of Twitter is significantly different than its previous real-time search feature. Now, Google shows tweets for people and organizations and/or topics as it deems necessary.

    Stone Temple Consulting has been keeping an eye on how much indexing of tweets Google really does, even since before the partnership went into effect.

    Back in the summer, they saw a 466% increase of indexation of tweets less than 7 days old between February and June. This was based on the over 900 accounts they track. While the increase was “massive,” the percentage of tweets was still pretty low at 3.4%. It showed that Google was continuing to index more and more tweets, but still a relatively small slice of the available Twitter pie.

    This week, Stone Temple is talking about its findings again as Google has made a small, but potentially significant change to its Twitter integration.

    Stone Temple’s Mark Traphagen on the takeaways of the firm’s findings.

    Screen Shot 2016-01-05 at 10.26.13 AM

    The aforementioned new tweak to Google’s Twitter feature, as spotted by Dan Barker and reported by Search Engine Roundtable, adds a “View on Twitter” link to the individual tweets in the search results. This is a clear call-to-action to view this content on Twitter, which is precisely what Twitter gets (and needs) out of this deal.

    If Google expands the presence of Twitter search results it could also lead to increased traffic and followers to individual Twitter accounts. For those it’s already indexing, this will almost certainly be the case.

    This of course feeds right into that concept described by Traphagen as the more visibility that Google gives to an account, the more that Twitter account itself is likely to benefit. The more that Twitter account benefits, the better shot it has at gaining additional visibility in Google.

    Do you think Google’s Twitter integration will ever have a significant impact on the little guy? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • What Google Says About SEO in 2016

    What Google Says About SEO in 2016

    SEO is an ever-changing industry as search engines (Google in particular) evolve to some extent every single day. Google makes algorithm changes on a daily basis, and every now and then it makes major changes that cause massive shake-ups in search results as well as SEO strategies.

    What do you expect to change the most about optimizing for Google in 2016? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Mobile has been a major focal point of Google for much longer, but in 2015 it was as big a focus as ever. Early in the year, Google announced two significant ranking factors – app indexing and mobile-friendliness – both aimed at improving the mobile experience for users and getting them the content they want/need in the best way possible.

    This will (unsurprisingly) continue to be a major focus on Google’s heading into 2016.

    In a recent webmaster hangout on Google+, Google webmaster trends analyst John Mueller spoke a little about what to expect for SEO in the coming year (via Barry Schwartz).

    The relevant portion of the video begins at about 26 minutes in, but you’re probably only going to get more by watching the entire video.

    Mueller answers a question about general SEO tips for 2016 (as transcribed by Schwartz):

    Oh man… I don’t have any magical SEO tips for next year. I can’t tell you about that high ranking meta tag that we’ve been working on [sarcasm].

    But in general, I think, next year you’ll probably hear a lot about from us about AMP, mobile friendly, we’ve been doing over the years. It is still a very big topic and we still see a lot of sites not doing that properly. Those are probably the bigger changes, but other things will definitely happen as well. More information about JavaScript in sites so that we can really figure out how to handle these better in search and make a better recommendation on what you should do or shouldn’t do.

    But past that, of course, high quality content is something I’d focus on. I see lots and lots of SEO blogs talk about user experience, which I think is a great thing to focus on as well. Because that essentially kind of focuses on what we are trying to look at as well. We want to rank content that is useful for them and if your content is really useful for them, then we want to rank it.

    We’ve covered mobile-friendliness a great deal throughout the year, so if this is something you’re still struggling with as Mueller implies, I’d encourage you to read back through the content found here.

    AMP of course refers to Accelerated Mobile Pages, which is a new open source project and basically Google’s answer to Facebook’s Instant Articles, which is being supported by a number of other internet players including Yahoo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, WordPress.com, ChartBeat, Parse.ly, and Adobe Analytics.

    You can read more about this here, but Google recently said it will begin sending search traffic to AMP pages beginning in late February. So that’s one major change you can expect in 2016 (and early 2016 at that).

    Another big SEO change coming in early 2016 is Google’s next Penguin update which is supposed to update in real time moving forward.

    Regarding the javascript stuff Mueller mentioned, Google recently changed some recommendations related to that, which you can read more about here.

    What would you like to see Google change or do for webmasters and SEOs in 2016? Share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Yahoo Updates Mobile Web Search

    Yahoo Updates Mobile Web Search

    Yahoo announced some updates to Yahoo Search on the mobile web with new Twitter integration, new image search, a results refresh, and AMP compatibility.

    “Before 2015 comes to a close, we’d like to share some of the many improvements we’ve made in recent weeks to Yahoo Search on mobile web in the U.S.,” says director of product Alok Agarwal. “Through constant iteration and experimentation, our aim is that collectively, these small but mighty changes will connect you more immediately with the answers you’re looking for, and help you discover interesting and related information.”

    With the Twitter integration, Yahoo will show users top tweets related to celebrity searches in the results pages. It looks pretty similar to Google’s recent integration:

    On the new image search, Agarwal says, “We’re bringing you a new way to discover pictures of your favorite celebrities. Find photos of the celebrity first, then explore additional photo sets based on trending content that other users have engaged with– be it photos of Angelina Jolie’s wedding dress, tattoos, red carpet look and more.”

    With the results revamp, the latest news stories are highlighted and the algorithm has been tweaked to surface the most recent and popular stories at the top of the news results stream.

    Finally, with AMP compatibility, Yahoo joins Google’s open source efforts to make mobile web pages load faster and satisfy users more quickly.

    More on AMP here.

    Images via Yahoo

  • Apple Maps Is More Important To Your Business Than Ever

    If you run a small business and aren’t taking Apple Maps seriously as a place where people will find your business, you may want to rethink that.

    Do you pay attention to your business listing in Apple Maps? Have you seen any indication that it’s an important tool for people to find your business? Let us know in the comments.

    When Apple first ditched Google Maps on iOS to offer Apple Maps, things went so horribly that CEO Tim Cook actually had to write a public letter of apology to users. This began:

    At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

    Not a great start.

    Eventually, Google Maps found its way back onto iOS devices and those who still preferred Google would continue using that. It’s not really all that often that we hear much about Apple Maps, but guess what. More iOS users use Apple Maps than use Google Maps, so the joke isn’t on Apple after all.

    A report that hit BetaBoston.com earlier this month says:

    Apple says its mapping service is now used more than three times as often as its next leading competitor on iPhones and iPads, with more than 5 billion map-related requests each week. Research firm comScore says Apple has a modest lead over Google on iPhones in the US, though comScore measures how many people use a service in a given month rather than how often.

    Google still dominates among all US smartphones, though, in part because Apple Maps isn’t available on Google’s Android system, which is more prevalent than iPhones. In October, Google Maps had more than twice as many smartphone users as Apple Maps. Much like Apple, Google benefits as the default on Android.

    So people are using Google Maps more, but it’s a different story when it comes to iPhone. Here’s what the operating system market share looks like in the U.S. (courtesy of Nielsen):

    The main takeaway here is that you really shouldn’t be ignoring Apple Maps.

    Apple gets its business listings from a lot of different places, so if you have a business, you’ll probably want to make sure you’re listed appropriately as to not miss out on searches that take pace in Apple’s app.

    Local search expert Mike Blumenthal has put together an updated list of data providers Apple is using for business listings. The information comes from Apple’s Map acknowledgements and information from an Apple email.

    “With the release of iOS 9 and its increasing foray into local search, it is important to stay on top of who is actually providing business listing data to Apple,” Blumenthal noted in a blog post.

    Sources include Acxiom, Booking.com, DAC Group, Factual, GasBuddy/OpenStore, TripAdvisor, Localeze, Yelp, Yext, and many others. Head on over to Blumenthal’s write-up for the full list.

    Above all else, this is an important reminder that your local search listings extend well beyond Google. Take the time to make sure your business is represented everywhere possible.

    Have you spent the appropriate amount of time going through Apple Maps’ data sources and checking the representation of your business? Let us know in the comments.

  • Google Starts Indexing HTTPS Versions of URLs by Default

    Google Starts Indexing HTTPS Versions of URLs by Default

    Google announced the latest step in its “HTTPS everywhere” initiative in that it will now serve HTTPS versions of URLs by default in its search results.

    Google will start crawling HTTPS equivalents of HTTP pages, even when the HTTPS version isn’t linked to from any page. When both versions are available and have the same content, Google will choose the HTTPS URL in most cases.

    That is if it doesn’t contain insecure dependencies, isn’t blocked from crawling by robots.txt, doesn’t redirect users to or through an insecure HTTP page, doesn’t have a rel=”canonial” link to the HTTP page, doesn’t contain a noindex robots meta tag, and doesn’t have on-host outlinks to HTTP URLs.

    Google says it will also choose to index the HTTPS URL if the sitemap lists the HTTPS URL or doesn’t list the HTTP version and/or the server has a valid TSL certificate.

    Last year, Google started giving sites with HTTPS URLs a boost in rankings. This takes things a significant step forward.

    “Browsing the web should be a private experience between the user and the website, and must not be subject to eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, or data modification,” says Google’s Zineb Ait Bahajji. “This is why we’ve been strongly promoting HTTPS everywhere.”

    The company notes that while its systems prefer the HTTPS version of a URL by default, webmasters should also make things clearer for other search engines by redirecting their HTTP site to the HTTPS version and implementing the HSTS header on their server.

    Image via Google

  • Pinterest Tightens Focus Of Advertising Efforts

    Pinterest is reportedly tightening the focus of its ad efforts to cater to retailers and consumer goods companies. As Pinterest caters most to fashion, decorating, food, and similar verticals (or at least that’s how most people use it), the company will specifically focus on advertisers that fall into these areas.

    This is according to The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed a recent letter the company sent to ad buyers.

    None of this is to say that other businesses can’t advertise on the site. They’ll still be able to do so with the sever-serve Promoted Pins offering. The change comes where Pinterest offers its “hands-on” support and consultation.

    Other types of businesses will also be able to advertise via third-party marketing platform software partners.

    The Journal shares this statement from the company:

    Tim Kendall, Pinterest’s head of monetization, acknowledged that Pinterest is limiting its service to two ad categories for now, but said it is still targeting a big chunk of ad dollars. “We’re a small team. We think this is the best approach to create the best ad business long term,” he said.

    Last week, Pinterest highlighted search trends across several different countries.

    Trends here in the U.S. included: Harry Potter, Lob hair, Iceland, Men’s fashion, Pallet projects, Bathroom storage, Small tattoos, Scandinavian interiors, Vegan recipes, and Alice in Wonderland.

    While trends varied from country to country, they still largely encompassed the verticals discussed.

    If you are looking to advertise on Pinterest, the company recently put out a new guide and some educational videos.

    Image via Pinterest

  • Google My Business Now Lets You Close, Reopen Business Locations

    Google My Business Now Lets You Close, Reopen Business Locations

    Google announced on its Advertiser Community site that Google My Business will now let you mark a location closed in the list view to keep users up to date. You can also now reopen a location if need be.

    Google’s Elizabeth P. writes (via Search Engine Roundtable), “Multiple locations cannot be closed or reopened via spreadsheet, but you can close multiple locations and reopen multiple locations in Google My Business.”

    To mark one location as closed, click the location in list view, and click “Mark permanently closed” in the box at the top right of the page. Click “Mark permanently closed” again in the dialog box that appears. The location will then appear as closed in your account and to users on Google.

    You’ll need to verify that the location is closed when Google shows you this:

    Just click yes to confirm or no if the location is still open.

    To reopen a business, click Reopen from the red bar in the box at the top right of the page when you’re in list view. From there, the process is basically the same.

    Images via Google

  • Pinterest Highlights Search Trends By Country

    Pinterest Highlights Search Trends By Country

    Most of the big Internet companies are sharing their year-end lists for 2015, but Pinterest is sharing things that people are frequently searching for around the world at the present time.

    Pinterest has more and more been positioning itself as a search offering rather than a social media channel though it certainly features elements of both. As it bolsters its technology and staff to cater to the search and shopping experiences, it’s interesting to get a peak at what people are actually looking for on the service.

    Here are the trends for six countries as presented on Pinterest’s blog:

    In the United States

    Harry Potter, Lob hair, Iceland, Men’s fashion, Pallet projects, Bathroom storage, Small tattoos, Scandinavian interiors, Vegan recipes, and Alice in Wonderland (this being the book’s 150 anniversary!)

    In Japan
    Eggs benedict, New Year’s cards, Detox water, Glamping, Botanical, Marsala, Cheese fondue, Christmas decorations, Lifehacks and Wedding welcome boards

    In France
    Scandinavian living rooms, Small bathrooms, Firno clay, Easy recipes, Sewing patterns, Short bobs, Street art, Bohemian weddings, Woodwork and Small tattoos

    In Brazil
    Natural makeup, DIY decor, Tapioca, Braids, Street style, Men’s bracelets, Men’s haircuts, Small kitchens, Summer drinks and Delicate tattoos

    In the United Kingdom
    Pork pie, Broken-glass nails, Alternative Christmas trees, Dr Who crafts, Toad in the hole, James Bond, Meat-free Mondays, Alexa Chung haircut, Men’s undercuts and Lancashire hotpot

    In Germany
    Crafting with kids, Sewing patterns, Sloths, Thermomix recipes, Filofax, Sun rooms and winter gardens, Baking bread, Racing bikes, Vegan recipes and Watercolor tattoos

    Pinterest also notes that the term “ideas” is used a great deal all over the world in searches.

    Image via Pinterest

  • Search on Google Drive Just Got A Lot Better

    Search on Google Drive Just Got A Lot Better

    Google announced some new search features for Google Drive on Wednesday, significantly improving users’ ability to find things more quickly.

    “As part of an ongoing effort to make Google Drive the easiest place to find your files, today we’re rolling out a new search experience to get you better results — even faster,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

    You can now narrow your search to a file type from the search box on Android, iOS, and the web. You can also open advanced search instantly from the search box. You can access recent files or search from the home screen using 3D Touch on iOS. From the iOS search bar, you can also now search Drive without opening the Drive app.

    “Several behind-the-scenes improvements give your search queries even better results than they did before,” says product manager Steen Andersson.

    You can search for shared files by file owner using name or email address, and you can use advanced search options like date a file was modified, words it contains, or who it was shared with.

    This will all be rolling out in the coming weeks.

    Images via Google

  • Pinterest Acquires The Hunt And Pext

    Pinterest Acquires The Hunt And Pext

    Pinterest announced that it has made two new acquisitions with The Hunt an Pext. These would be the company’s 8th and 9th acquisitions after Punchfork, Livestar, Hackermeter, Visual Graph, Icebergs, Kosei and Hike Labs.

    The Hunt has built a community-powered product search platform. Pext is an app from OMG Labs that turns text messages into memes. It points users to images that are relevant to their messages.

    “Discovery on Pinterest is about finding things you love, serendipitously,” a spokesperson for Pinterest tells WebProNews. “Today we’re strengthening our ability to connect Pinners to Pins and products through the acquisitions of The Hunt and Pext, which include some of the best minds in mobile shopping, advertising and image indexing technologies. The talents and experiences from these companies will help us tackle significant areas in commerce and ads engineering.”

    The Hunt co-founder and CEO Tim Weingarten said, “Everyday people are discovering, saving and buying products they love on Pinterest. We can’t wait to use what we learned building The Hunt to help make shopping on Pinterest even better.”

    Pext co-founder Harsh Goel said, “We started Pext because we strongly believe in image discovery. I am excited to continue this journey with the world class team at Pinterest, and help Pinners discover creative ideas.”

    According to Pinterest, Weingarten and some of The Hunt’s core product team will bring mobile shopping and discovery product experience to the Pinterest engineering and product teams. Goel will bring image indexing and advertising tech experience to its monetization team.

    Pinterest would not disclose the terms of either deal.

  • Did Google Take Content From A Site And Link To Itself Instead?

    Did Google Take Content From A Site And Link To Itself Instead?

    As time has progressed over the years, Google has been showing more and more content on search results pages, resulting in people having to click over to third-party websites for fewer and fewer things.

    Do you think Google is improving the web by showing more content in its search results? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Google has been criticized for “scraping” content from websites for years, but it’s clear that the practice is showing no signs of slowing down.

    A recent study from Stone Temple Consulting looked at over 855,000 queries to see how many returned a rich answer box (of which there are several varieties). Based on the new findings, the growth in this type of result has been about 9% since February.

    “From an apples to apples perspective, the numbers grew from 22% in February to 31% now, so the growth was substantial,” a spokesperson for Stone Temple told WebProNews in October.

    Around this time last year, Google began showing song lyrics as one type of rich answer result. We assumed this would be a devastating blow to websites dedicated to this vertical.

    Google’s lyric results typically show some or all of the lyrics to a song, and include a link to Google Play where you can see the full lyrics, subscribe to Google’s service or simply buy the song. In effect, nearly every lyric search is an ad for a product you can buy from Google Play in addition to being an ad for Google Play in general.

    Now, Google has been busted appearing to have “scraped” lyrics to a song directly from one of the lyrics sites these results are replacing while still linking to its own Google Play store rather than the site it got them from. And on a likely high volume search at that.

    Adele’s song Hello is currently one of the most popular songs. When a user searches for “adele hello lyrics” they’re presented with this:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 9.40.06 AM

    At first glance, it looks just like any other result of this nature, but as others (Yvo Schaap, Barry Schwartz) have pointed out, there are some giveaways that indicate Google got this content from one of the big lyrics sites, Metrolyrics. Those giveaways are the inclusion of the numbers that appear at the end of some of the lines and the “byGuiTheGreat” part.

    The numbers refer to comments on Metrolyrics. While the numbers have increased since Google apparently grabbed the content, you can see that they’re placed at the same locations in the lyrics on Metrolyrics’ site:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 9.48.33 AM

    And guess who’s been leaving comments on this song on Metrolyrics:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 9.50.42 AM

    That’s right. GuiTheGreat.

    If Google is indeed getting this content from Metrolyrics, imagine how many page views that site is missing out on for this particular search by Google linking to Google Play instead of Metrolyrics. And what if this is happening for other searches? What if it expands to more categories beyond lyrics?

    In January, SearchMetrics released lists of the top winners and losers of 2014 in terms of search visibility. The “falling stars” list was littered with lyrics sites.

    eLyrics.net saw a 92% drop. LyricsMode and Sing365 each fell 60%. LyricsFreak dropped 59%. MetroLyrics dropped 12%. Last.fm, which links to MetroLyrics for song lyrics saw a decline of 18%.

    Keep in mind, this was only a month after Google began showing the lyrics in the first place, and nearly a year has passed since then – a year which based on Stone Temple’s findings has seen Google increase the amount of rich answers it shows in search results.

    In February, eLyrics.net confirmed its drop in search visibility to WebProNews, calling it “unfortunately true”. Interestingly, it attributed the drop in traffic not as much to Google showing lyrics on search results pages, but to both Panda and Penguin. It said it had not seen drop-off from other search engines, but only Google.

    Asked if the site would be able to survive without search traffic, eLyrics said, “I doubt that, but we are pushing hard to stay online.”

    They also said they had already decreased their number of staff.

    Is Google hurting the web with rich answers? What do you make of the alleged Metrolyrics scraping? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Lead image via Google

  • Yahoo To Discuss Selling Web Business This Week [Report]

    Yahoo To Discuss Selling Web Business This Week [Report]

    The Wall Street Journal reported late on Tuesday that Yahoo has meetings on Wednesday through Friday to discuss the possibility of selling its internet businesses and getting more out of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding.

    According to this report, Yahoo’s board of directors are expected to talk about whether or not to spin off the Alibaba stake, find a buyer for Yahoo’s web properties (possibly a private equity firm), or both.

    The New York Times also reported the news citing people briefed on the plans.

    Yahoo shareholders haven’t been incredibly thrilled with the Marissa Mayer-led company after three years. Activist shareholder Starboard called on Yahoo last month to put a stop to its plan to spin off the Alibaba stake, which is otherwise expected to happen next month. Starboard wants Yahoo to sell its core web businesses (search and advertising) instead.

    Unsurprisingly, Yahoo isn’t offering up any official comment on the reports.

    According to Kara Swisher, who has a long history of reporting on insider Yahoo information (previously for the Journal in fact), Yahoo’s board is behind Mayer and doesn’t want to sell the core Web business.

    Swisher also says her sources indicate the company has already selected a CEO for Abaco Holdings, which is the what the Alibaba stake’s spinoff is called.

    After the Journal’s report, Yahoo shares jumped 7% in extended trading.

    Yahoo Mail and Yahoo News combined for 210 million visitors in the U.S. in October according to comScore.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Google Provides ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Update

    Google Provides ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Update

    Google shared some new numbers related to the “right to be forgotten,” ruling, which has led to individuals requesting URL removals from search results. For all the background on that, peruse our coverage here.

    The stats appear on Google’s Transparency Report, where Google now claims to have evaluated for removal 1,234,092 URLs. The total number of requests it has seen dating back to May, 2014 is 348,085.

    Here’s the latest look at the sites that are most impacted:

    Screen Shot 2015-11-25 at 11.47.39 AM

    This list, Google says, highlights the domains where it has removed the most URLs from search results. Of the total URLs requested for removal, these sites account for 9%.

    Check out the full Transparency Report here.

    Images via Google

  • The Next Big Phase of Google Search Is Coming Early Next Year

    The Next Big Phase of Google Search Is Coming Early Next Year

    Last month, Google announced Accelerated Mobile Pages, a new open source project, which is basically its answer to Facebook’s Instant Articles. Like Instant Articles, the purpose of the project is to enable web pages to load more quickly on mobile devices.

    Google announced on Tuesday that it will begin sending traffic to AMP pages in Google search beginning early next year. They didn’t give a specific date, but said they intend to share “more concrete specifics on timing very soon.” Stay tuned for that. It remains to be seen whether or not these pages will get a ranking boost by default, but given Google’s emphasis on the mobile experience, it seems very likely that AMPs will benefit.

    Are you planning to implement Accelerated Mobile Pages? Let us know in the comments.

    “We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and to load instantaneously,” Google explained when the project was announced. “We also want the same code to work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant—no matter what type of phone, tablet or mobile device you’re using.”

    The program utilizes a new open framework called AMP HTML, which is built on existing web technologies, and is aimed at letting websites build light-weight pages.

    As far as ranking goes, Danny Sullivan said in a tweet last month that AMP pages won’t rank better because they’re AMP, but noted that Google already rewards speedy pages, so they can still benefit.

    Google has already made mobile-friendliness a ranking signal, and the whole point of AMPs is to make for a better mobile experience. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which AMPs aren’t benefiting in rankings.

    “Thousands of publishers have expressed interest in AMP since the preview launched with the likes of the BBC, Sankei, New York Times, News Corp, Washington Post and more,” write David Besbris (Vice President of Engineering, Google Search) and Richard Gingras (Head of News, Google) in a blog post. “Since then, many others have committed their support to the project, including R7.com and NZN Group in Brazil; CBS Interactive, AOL, Thrillist, Slate, International Business Times/Newsweek, Al Jazeera America and The Next Web in the US; El Universal and Milenio in Mexico; The Globe and Mail and Postmedia in Canada, as well as many more across the globe. The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a partnership of 70+ media companies collectively representing 1,600 local newspapers and television stations, has also voiced their support.”

    The two also announced that Outbrain, AOL, OpenX, DoubleCLick, and AdSense are working within the project’s framework to improve the ad experience for users, publishers, and advertisers. More information on this will come in the near future, they say.

    “Ensuring that traffic to AMP articles is counted just like current web articles is also a major focus of the project,” they write. “comScore, Adobe Analytics, Parse.ly and Chartbeat have all stated that they intend to provide analytics for AMP pages within their tools. They have since been joined by many others: Nielsen, ClickTale and Google Analytics. This development is significant for the AMP Project because publishers developing for AMP will not skip a beat in terms of analytics and measurement — analytics for AMP are real time and will work within your existing provider.”

    According to Google, there are over 4,500 developers expressing interest in AMP with over 250 contributions of new code, samples, and documentation having been made. Discussions are also underway related to analytics and template features.

    With Google Search the mobile experience has been they key narrative throughout 2015, and it looks like that will continue throughout next year, largely driven by AMP.

    Has this development been on your radar thus far? What do you think of the project? Discuss.

    Image via Google/AMPProject.org

  • Google Updates Search Quality Rater Guidelines

    Google Updates Search Quality Rater Guidelines

    Google announced that it has updated its guidelines for search quality raters. The reason behind this (much like the reason for many of the company’s announcements) is the increasing use of mobile devices.

    The company says it recently completed a “major” revision of the guidelines with mobile in mind.

    “Developing algorithmic changes to search involves a process of experimentation,” says Google search growth and analysis senior product manager Mimi Underwood. “Part of that experimentation is having evaluators—people who assess the quality of Google’s search results—give us feedback on our experiments. Ratings from evaluators do not determine individual site rankings, but are used help us understand our experiments. The evaluators base their ratings on guidelines we give them; the guidelines reflect what Google thinks search users want.”

    “In 2013, we published our human rating guidelines to provide transparency on how Google works and to help webmasters understand what Google looks for in web pages,” Underwood adds. “Since that time, a lot has changed: notably, more people have smartphones than ever before and more searches are done on mobile devices today than on computers. We often make changes to the guidelines as our understanding of what users wants evolves, but we haven’t shared an update publicly since then.”

    You can see the update here.

    Google says it won’t update the public document with every little change, but will try to do so for the big ones.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches Update To iPhone App

    Google Launches Update To iPhone App

    Google announced a new update for the Google app on iPhone and iPad. There’s a new look and feel for voice search and redesigned Google Now cards.

    The cards are now organized by sections to make for an easier to read experience.

    “Timely info—like upcoming flights, appointments, and traffic updates—will show up first, while less urgent cards—like suggestions for videos and articles—will be lower down your feed,” Google explains in a Google+ update.

    “Rich, easy to navigate Search results for NBA and soccer,” Google says, “bring you game info, team news and league standings all in one place, including up-to-the minute box scores. Try it out by searching for your favorite team.”

    The update is now available in the App Store. This is version 10.0.

    Bing also announced a new iPhone app with emphasis on its use of app indexing.

    Images via Google

  • Check Out Bing’s New iPhone App

    Check Out Bing’s New iPhone App

    Microsoft unveiled a new Bing app for iPhone, which it says will let users find and do things faster. According to the company, it goes so far as to “re-think search”.

    Take a look:

    “Mobile search is different from search on a PC. With mobile, we want instant answers and the ability to take immediate action,” says Richard Qian, CVP Bing UX Engineering. “We want to book it, buy it, watch it now. We want to touch more and type less. We want to search once in a single app. The new Bing app for iPhone helps you search and take action from one place so you can focus on the things that you want to find and do, rather than where and how to accomplish them. Here are a few examples.”

    Microsoft is touting the app’s use of app deep linking to help people find movies to watch and songs to listen to. Searching a movie might bring you app results from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and/or Vudu, for example. For a song, you might be presented with Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, and/or Amazon results.

    “Ready for a night out? The Bing app helps you find the perfect restaurant,” says Qian. “Narrow down choices based on the things that are most important to you with our touch-optimized interface. Get reviews, menus, directions, make a reservation and get a ride right there from the apps you trust. And the night doesn’t need to stop there. We’ll help you find movies in nearby cinemas, and of course, you can book tickets right from the app.”

    Google is also doing more with apps on mobile search. The company announced today that it is utilizing its app indexing in a new way to actually display content from apps right in search results.

    Images via Microsoft

  • Google Starts ‘Streaming’ App Content In Search Results

    Google Starts ‘Streaming’ App Content In Search Results

    Google’s mobile search results are evolving rapidly these days. The latest step sees the search engine going from providing direct answers in search results (which often prevent users from having to click through to websites) to also showing actual in-app content right from the results page.

    Are you a fan of the direction Google continues to take its search results in? Let us know in the comments.

    “When Google got started, Search meant sitting at your desktop and finding the best information on websites,” says Google’s Jennifer Lin. “Today, you’re more likely to be searching on your mobile device, and the best answers may be buried in an app … perhaps one that you don’t even have installed yet. Finding information in apps is still too hard.”

    In fact, more people are now searching from their mobile devices than from desktop these days, and Google has even updated its search quality rater guidelines to reflect that. Google also updated its Google Shopping results this week to cater to the mobile experience.

    But the big thing is that Google is giving mobile users access to some “app-first” content right in search results. Google is utilizing app indexing to show content from apps in search results to users who don’t even have to download the apps first.

    Earlier this year, in addition to mobile-friendliness of websites, Google added app indexing as a ranking signal in mobile search results. At first it was just for Android, but was recently expanded to iOS. The new feature is clearly taking this a massive step further.

    Users will be able to “stream” some apps from search if they’re on good WiFi. There will be “stream” buttons next to some results from apps that let the users take advantage of this functionality. In other words, you don’t have to go the app at all or even have it downloaded, which is kind of incredible if you really think about it.

    Google says it’s using a new cloud-based technology it’s experimenting with to accomplish this.

    “We started indexing the content of apps two years ago, so that when people search on Google, they can find the best results whether they’re in an app or on the web,” says Lin. “We now have over 100 billion deep links into apps in our index — including some popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb or Pinterest — and 40% of searches people do on Android surface app content.”

    As a matter of fact, Facebook only recently climbed aboard the Google app indexing train even as it has its own separate initiative in creating a web for apps with App Links. It partnered with Bing on that over the summer, by the way.

    “But up until now, Google has only been able to show information from apps that have matching web content,” Lin adds. “Because we recognize that there’s a lot of great content that lives only in apps, starting today, we’ll be able to show some ‘app-first’ content in Search as well. For example, if you need a hotel for your spur-of-the-moment trip to Chicago, search results will now include results from the HotelTonight app. Or if you’re thinking about visiting Arches National Park, you will now find details about the 18-mile scenic drive from the Chimani app.”

    Initial partners for the feature include HotelTonight, Chimani, Daily Horoscope, and New York Subway. The company says it will be expanding.

    It’s going to be interesting to see how far Google pushes this initiative – in particular the app streaming aspect. It may be very limited right now, but could this eventually be opened up to a wide variety of apps?

    The feature will also no doubt have an effect on the likelihood users will click competing results.

    Either way, Google is clearly placing more and more focus on mobile apps making it all the more evident that businesses who don’t have one should at least consider the possibility. Watching this video is a good place to start.

    2015 has been a very interesting year in the evolution of mobile search, and I expect that will continue into next year. SEO has always been in a constant state of change, but perhaps never quite this much.

    What do you make of Google’s streaming of app content in search results? Good idea? Share your thoughts.

    Images via Google

  • Facebook Tests New Search Feature

    Facebook Tests New Search Feature

    Facebook has been making improvements to how people can search throughout the social network for several years, and now they’re testing a way to search individual profiles.

    A few people have reported seeing it including Huffington Post business editor Alexander Kaufman:

    Mashable confirmed the test with Facebook, which in a statement:

    “We’re piloting a way to search for people’s posts from within their Profiles. You can only search for posts that you can already see on their Timelines.”

    According to the report, the feature is only available in a small pilot around the United States for iPhone and desktop. Facebook will evaluate feedback before launching it to everybody.

    Facebook announced some significant search enhancements last month when it gave users the ability to search over both their friends’ posts and public posts. As you type in the search box, you get timely, personalized suggestions.

    Facebook said at the time that it gets 1.5 billion searches per day and that it has over 2 trillion posts in its index.

    The addition of profile-specific search will make it easier to find things you know you’ve seen in the past, but may not remember exactly when you saw it.

    Image via Facebook

  • Yahoo Product Ads Launch For Holiday Shopping Season

    Yahoo Product Ads Launch For Holiday Shopping Season

    Yahoo just announced new Product Ads, which it describes as ” new, comprehensive product offering that allows retailers to reach consumers with high performance search and display ads across mobile, tablet and desktop devices.”

    “A recent study from Yahoo and Ipsos revealed that 44% of consumers use a search engine as their primary or secondary step when researching holiday gifts, and 53% spend more time online in search of the best deal,” a spokesperson tells us. “Yahoo Product Ads are available just in time for the holiday shopping season, and will help brands deliver more relevant ads to shoppers, in order to influence and re-engage them at every stage of the purchase funnel. Top brands like Kohl’s, Wayfair and Overstock are already piloting components of the new offering.”

    The ads are powered by the company’s existing targeting abilities, reach and dynamic ad formats. The goal is to provide advertisers an easy way to showcase their products while people are shopping to convert them to customers.

    The ads utilize Yahoo’s proprietary data and insights and will show across Yahoo’s properties and the other properties it reaches, including Yahoo Search.

    Marketers can create image rich, dynamic search and display ads from a single feed.

    “With support from ChannelAdvisor’s Managed Services team, one retailer with product ads on Yahoo Search since July has seen as high as a 14-to-1 return on ad spend. The retailer is greatly benefiting from the additional revenue these ad campaigns are providing,” said Andrew Belsky, Director of US Digital Marketing Services at ChannelAdvisor. “We’re excited to partner with Yahoo to help brands and retailers get their product offerings in front of a more comprehensive audience.”

    Advertisers are advised to get in touch with their account reps to take advantage of the new ads.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, Yahoo