Some Google Ads agency partners learned this week that they will be losing their dedicated agency reps as of Wednesday (yes April Fool’s Day). Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that it has made changes. Why the change? The agency rep program undergoes a review every quarter. The company says the latest change is not related to support limitations during the coronavirus crisis. Google Ads has been notifying advertisers that “some support options may be delayed or unavailable” due to changing work schedules and routines of support specialists since earlier this month in the Google Ads interface. It also does not appear to be related to the recent overhaul of the Google Partners program eligibility requirements. Google also said the change is not related to whether an agency has premier partner status. Affects small and mid-sized agencies. “We recently made changes to Google representative support for our small and mid-sized agency partners,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Search Engine Land. “These changes are not related to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. They are part of a routine review where we evaluate our support level for all agency partners. Status as a premier partner does not impact their agency representative status.” Those that lose dedicated agency support are directed to the general Skillshop training, blog posts and Help portal. Google ended support via social platforms at the beginning of the year, instead directing advertisers to an online form. Why we care. Google Ads has had a reputation problem when it comes to support. Dedicated agency teams have often been an exception. Now many if not all small and mid-sized agencies will no longer this perk of the partner program. And the timing couldn’t be worse. Jeff Ferguson, CEO of Fang Marketing, learned this week that his agency, which has premier partner status, is losing its dedicated representatives. “It’s totally the wrong time to do something like this. Even if they had planned to do this eventually, they could have easily pushed it out until things get back to normal.” Ferguson is currently worried about his clients in healthcare and food delivery that can’t launch campaigns because they are being mistaken for other companies that are profiteering during the coronavirus outbreak. “It was hard enough to get this pushed through with a rep, but now, who knows…” (Google Ads also beefed up its ad policy around sensitive events this week — squarely aimed at those aiming to profiteer from coronavirus. ) The post Small and mid-sized Google Ads agency partners to lose dedicated ad rep support appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2w2ILIq
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Google updates its ads policy for inappropriate content to include public health emergency3/31/2020 Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Google Ads has updated its Inappropriate content policy. The updates take aim at keywords around sensitive events, price gouging and more. The update, released Tuesday and effective immediately, does not specifically mention coronavirus, but the change is clearly aimed at preventing advertisers from trying to capitalize on the outbreak. Google banned ads for face masks earlier this month. Why we care. Digital platforms have struggled to stay ahead of misinformation and fraudulent claims as well as price gauging by advertisers trying to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis. This policy update may appear subtle, but it gives Google a clearer path to take action against bad actors and prevent advertisers from advertising on coronavirus-related keywords during this pandemic. The update. The new language adds the mention of “public health emergency”: “Content that potentially capitalizes on or lacks reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, conflict, death, public health emergency, or other tragic event.” The examples have also been expanded to include price gouging, the sale of products or services in high demand during a sensitive event and the use of “keywords related to a sensitive event to attempt to gain additional traffic.” The old policy. The sensitive events section simply read, “Content that may be deemed as capitalizing on or lacking reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, conflict, death, or other tragic event,” according to a December snapshot. The post Google updates its ads policy for inappropriate content to include ‘public health emergency’ appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2Uzb36R Microsoft Audience Ads is the native ad platform within Microsoft Ads that allows PPC advertisers to expand their reach for whatever products or services they are trying to sell. You can find many articles out there saying how expensive native advertising can be. I am not saying all of these articles are true (it is the internet), because Microsoft Audience Ads are a perfect example of an affordable and effective native ad platform. In this post, I want to show you how to set up a Microsoft Audience Ad campaign assuming you already have access to the feature. I will also go over the unique targeting feature that no other native ad platform can offer which makes this channel a must-try for B2B advertisers. Building your first audience ads campaignAfter you are in your Microsoft Advertising account, the first thing you want to do is create a campaign. When creating the campaign, you have to pick a specific goal. This could be visits to your website, conversions on your website, calls to your business, and more. If you want to run Audience Ads, you can pick any of the campaign goals except for Dynamic Search Ads. Clicking on the goal will bring up another pop up where you can choose to use Audience Ads for that campaign. You will then choose your campaign name and set the budget. Now it’s time for the main set up for your Audience Ads campaign and that is your ad group settings. Initially, you will see a variety of targeting options to reach a specific group of users as much as possible. Here is the first view of the targeting options you have. Location targetingSince I am based in the United States, Microsoft will default all of my new campaigns to target both the United States and Canada. Of course, we can always update these. Microsoft Ads will let you drill down to the zip code level if you want to target that specifically geographically. Age targetingWe can show our Audience Ads to people in certain age ranges. The default option here is every option will be selected. You can unselect the options you like to better hone in on the right audience for you. This may also help you design your ad creative. If you are only trying to target users who are 50-64 of age, you may want to try putting people ages 50-64 in your ad creative to make a better connection. Gender targetingWe can also show Audience Ads just to specific genders. Just like age targeting, all options will be selected. And also like I mentioned in the age targeting section, the options you select may determine who you may want to show in your ad creative. Audience targetingAudience targeting includes your remarketing audiences, customer match audiences, similar audiences, product audiences if you have an e-commerce site, and all of the Microsoft in-market audience options. With remarketing, you can use Audience Ads to stay on top of mind for anyone who has already been to your website. With in-market audiences, you can reach users who may not be familiar with your brand, but they are actively researching whatever products or services your company offers. Most likely you can find an audience targeting option that will work for you. LinkedIn profile targetingHere is where the targeting options for Microsoft Audience Ads gets really fun. LinkedIn profile targeting is really what separates these ads from almost any form of advertising out there. Yes, LinkedIn profile targeting is also available on the Microsoft Search Network. But you can only layer in LinkedIn audiences as “bid only” audiences for your Search campaigns. With Audience Ads, we can use LinkedIn profile data as a “targeting only” option. This allows us to be very specific and show Audience Ads to users at specific companies, if they work in certain industries, or if they have a certain job function. Let’s take a look at some of the options. Company targetingWhile this appears we can target users at specific companies, the targeting may not be that specific. Microsoft states this option means you can “target your ads to be more (or less) likely to appear for people who most recently worked at specific companies (according to their LinkedIn profiles).” Not everyone keeps their LinkedIn profiles up to date so it’s not going to be 100%, but it is still a good option to try. Industry targetingIf targeting specific companies is too specific, you can target users by what industry they say they work in according to their LinkedIn profile. If you are familiar with LinkedIn Advertising, you will notice the industry targeting options are very familiar because that is also a targeting option on LinkedIn. All of the main Industry categories drill down into more specific options. Look around to see if you can find a few that fit the audience you are trying to get in front of. Job function targetingJob function targeting is probably the broadest of the LinkedIn profile targeting. This option allows us to target users based on the “kind of job” someone may have. I typically like to use these as additional layers. Even though I may want to target the Healthcare Industry, my product may only be applicable to the Marketing team in the Healthcare field. This is where job function targeting can be really valuable. Creating audience adsThe first step in creating your Audience Ad is to add an image. Advertisers can upload whatever image they want from their browser. Microsoft will save any previous image you have used before so you will eventually be able to choose from previously selected images after you have run Audience Ads for a while. After you have selected your image, Microsoft will show you what the image would look like at each ad size. And if you don’t like how your selected image looks for a specific ratio, you can either crop the image to place it exactly where you want it, or you can replace an image completely for a specific size ratio. After you are satisfied with the images you have chosen, you can then add the text copy to your ads as well as the Business Name and URL information. These remaining components of your Audience Ad include:
If you have all of your ad pieces in place, you can then preview what your ad may look like on the Microsoft Audience Network. If you do not like how a specific layout looks, you can immediately update any image or ad copy before saving any ad and pushing it live to any user. Here is what the ad preview looks like. If everything looks good, we can move on to the final step. Setting budgets and bidsAfter your ad is saved, Microsoft will have you enter in your desired bid for your Audience Ads. Once you have your bid entered, Microsoft will take that number alongside the daily budget you entered to give you estimates on monthly clicks, monthly impressions, potential CTR, CPC averages, and monthly spend. You can always adjust your budget and bid if you are looking to hit certain reach goals every month. Then before you save you can make bid adjustments on any of the targeting options you have added to your ad group and set your ad schedule. Once you click save you will be ready to go. I have tested Microsoft Audience Ads for a variety of industries. I have one client right now, who is in a very niche industry, where all of their conversions in Microsoft Ads are coming from Audience Ads. This is because we can be very specific on our audience targeting in ways we cannot target via the Search Network. Audience Ads are worth testing if you need to get in front of very specific users, if you want to expand your brand awareness efforts, or if you want to stay in front of users in your sales funnel. Hopefully, this post gave you some ideas of how you would want to use Microsoft Audience Ads for your accounts. The post Setting up a Microsoft Audience ads campaign appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2JsBd51 “The question should be, ‘How do I get proper COVID messaging to my communities or my customers, wherever they may be?’” says Adam Dorfman, director of product management at Reputation.com, highlighting the need for effective communication between businesses and customers during the coronavirus outbreak. Social distancing and other safety measures have severely impacted day-to-day operations for local businesses, and these changes can be jarring for customers caught unaware. During our local search edition of Live with Search Engine Land Friday, Dorfman and other members of the local search community shared communication strategies and tips agencies and business owners can use to keep customers informed. Use your site to inform customers. “It should be front and center, because everybody wants to know, are you at the very least keeping your own employees protected — all that sort of information,” Dorfman said, recommending that local businesses make their COVID-19-related announcements and information prominent and easily accessible on their sites. Google recommends displaying a banner or popup informing visitors of your business’ status, delays, pick-up or delivery options, etc., so that your customers can proceed with appropriate expectations. Business owners can also add pertinent updates to their FAQ pages, as well as markup their FAQ sections, product availability, event status and special announcements with structured data to keep users informed right from the search results page. Be creative with email. Consumers received an initial wave of coronavirus-related emails from businesses explaining how they were responding to the then-epidemic. Resist messaging your customers again with bland, or worse, irrelevant response updates. “People are looking for things to kill time,” said Krystal Taing, listings management product specialist for RIO SEO. She recommends marketers get creative “to break up the dry email that doesn’t really make sense right now.” Taing cited a local restaurant promoting a DIY pizza kit, which included a pack of toilet paper, as an example. “Anything you can do to humanize [your communications] — if you can make it funny, that’s great as well,” Taing said. Update your Google My Business profile. “You can update the name, the description and Posts are going to be really helpful,” said Taing, pointing to a few ways local businesses can use Google My Business to relay information. Google has even created a special COVID-19 Post category that enables businesses to include changes to how they are operating, special hours and temporary closures, requests for support and safety and hygiene-related updates. Be aware of Google’s local review embargo. Google has temporarily disabled new local reviews as well as the ability to reply to reviews, with no announcements on what will happen to reviews left during this period. “Right away I told clients to stop asking for reviews on Google,” said local business consultant Tom Waddington, adding that, for some customers, reviews are the only means of communication with a business. “[The review] is not going to get posted; they don’t realize it; the business has no idea that the customer has a complaint . . . I didn’t want my clients asking for reviews on Google because they could be potentially missing out on a customer that they need to respond to immediately.” Finding alternative ways to engage with customers can enable you to better serve them during this period; however, not asking for reviews may be a risky decision with unintended consequences. “Review signals are certainly prominent in rankings for Google Maps and local search results,” said Dorfman, “so, while you may not want to heavily push Google review requesting right now, to shut it off entirely might have long-term effects.” If competitors are still asking for reviews and the review ban lifts, competitors’ review counts may outpace yours, which could affect your organic visibility. The right strategy will vary from business to business, Dorfman said. Seek deeper engagement via social media. “If you want to talk about clever COVID messaging . . . Instagram is where I see the best of the best,” said Dorfman, referencing his own local gym’s social media campaign in which members take videos of themselves performing an exercise at home and tagging others to do the same. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the follower counts are growing because of this . . . they don’t have a business to run necessarily day-to-day, so they have all of this time and resources to put into social media,” Dorfman said. “I saw a local school on Facebook the other day that was having teachers do Facebook Live storytime for the kids,” said Niki Mosier, senior account manager at Two Octobers. Encouraging direct engagement between your staff and your audience via social media can help you humanize your business, continue to serve your customers and keep you relevant while social distancing is in effect. Incorporate offline messaging. “I was walking around downtown and just about every business that’s closed has some kind of notice from the owner on its door with their phone number on it saying ‘if you need something, call me,’ and to me, that’s a really good way to deal with it,” said Mary Bowling, co-founder of Ignitor Digital, emphasizing the value of a back-to-basics approach. Putting up a storefront notice with contact info can show customers you’re still within reach. However, if you typically receive high call volume, keeping customers on hold for a long time can backfire, Taing pointed out. Consider directing customers to your website (perhaps by including it on your storefront notice), where you can publish complete details and address their concerns without keeping them on hold. More about marketing in the time of the coronavirus
The post Communication tips for local businesses during COVID-19 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2w3dAN7 Google has released a new best practices guide for health websites. The guide is aimed at helping health organizations to make COVID-19 information more accessible on Google Search. Google also created a new technical support group for eligible health organizations. Best practices. The best practices guide covers:
Technical support group. Google also is inviting these health organizations to partake in a new technical support group. This effort is aimed at helping organizations get answers to questions around getting their health information on COVID-19 to show up in Google Search results. To apply, fill out this form. To qualify you will need to register using either an email under official health ministries domains (e.g. [email protected]) or have access to the website Search Console account. Local help. Google My Business also posted a new page with tools and resources for businesses dealing with local issues around this outbreak. Why we care. Getting accurate, helpful and useful information out to the public during this time is important. Google Search is a big part of distributing that information. Google is offering more guidance and support to those in the health space than it typically offers during these unprecedented times. More about marketing in the time of the coronavirus
The post Google creates best practices guides & support for health organizations around COVID-19 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3bGyHnM “Search is more important than ever,” said Rik van der Kooi, Microsoft Advertising’s corporate vice president. He noted that in the last downturn of 2008, “search outperformed all other formats. Given stay-at-home and online media consumption, consumers are doing more online research, search and shopping.” The key for marketers, said van der Kooi during the company’s live-streamed Microsoft Elevate event Tuesday, is knowing how to adapt as consumer behavior continues to shift rapidly. “Share of voice opportunity”While global advertising will be tens of billions dollars lower than initial predictions this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, brands should aim to keep their campaigns going “provided they can hit CPA and ROI thresholds,” advised van der Kooi, Microsoft Advertising’s corporate vice president. Self-interested coming from Microsoft? Sure, but there is plenty of historical data and case studies that show firms that keep marketing flowing in downturns emerge stronger when the market turns. “There is a share of voice opportunity in this type of market. There are clients that you have that would otherwise never be able to be in the mainline or in position one at the top,” he said. “But there are opportunities right now at lower CPAs than before, as some advertisers are either dropping out or lowering bids.” Lasting online behavior shiftsWe could also see lasting disruption to the 90/10 ratio of brick-and-mortar versus online retail revenue. “It’s going to shift. We need to think of it as permanent to some level. Think about how to maximize exposure to consumers in this environment,” said van der Kooi. Re-rise of the desktopIf you’ve noticed desktop impression and/or click share has been increasing over the past month — and a bump in your Microsoft Advertising campaigns — you’re not alone. Microsoft has seen a big shift in PC search share since more employees began working from home. “We’re seeing that that’s the device of choice when people have the choice,” said van der Kooi. That’s also where Bing, built into the more than 1 billion Windows 10 devices, is strongest. Longer customer journeysCustomer journeys will be different and will be longer during this time. “As you think about attribution modeling, as you think about ‘Where do I want to show up,’ ensuring that your advertising campaigns and remarketing opportunities are really maximized as consumers do more research and visit more sites,” said van der Kooi. He also suggested being more flexible with your ROI and CPA thresholds, in order to “ensure that you can still close the deals” during these longer cycles. Vertical insightsMicrosoft also highlighted shifts and insights seen across several key verticals. Travel: Microsoft Advertising created an audience segment of people who have canceled their travel plans. Using “cancelable” in ad copy is performing well as consumers want assurances they’ll be able to get refunds if their travel plans are upended by travel restrictions. Microsoft Advertising also said emphasizing safety and social responsibility are important for travel advertisers now. Retail: Not surprising, work from home-related queries for things like hardware, services, tools, technology and furniture are rising. Searches for online and delivery grocery terms are way up as are e-learning queries as parents look for ways to keep their kids’ education on track from home. Other high-interest areas include DIY, fitness and sports equipment. Financial services: With the markets on a rollercoaster and interest rates low, refinance queries are up and Millennials are searching for brokerages. Credit card searches are rising, but Microsoft says consumers are looking for cash instead of points rewards. Automotive: “Pushing on sales and 0% APR is not where it’s at,” said van der Kooi. Instead, consumers are responding to messages of unity and reassurance. Think about setting up a landing page with video capabilities and interactive formats available to complete transactions. The company also published a blog post on Monday with additional vertical insights. More about marketing in the time of the coronavirus
The post Desktop search is rising amid the work-from-home surge appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3ay9onF In the “How to Manage and Optimize B2B Accounts” session at SMX West, attendees asked questions about the effectiveness of specific channels for a B2B audience, new market strategies and what types of assets to focus on by channel. In this article, I’ll answer these questions to provide some guidance for those wanting to build a better B2B strategy. How has Quora compared to other PPC channels in terms of performance? Where does it fit in your paid media marketing mix? While the volume is lower than other major PPC channels, Quora audiences tend to be highly engaged in “real” conversations, often for highly niche topics with many related to B2B markets. For instance, you’ll find several discussions around software comparisons for various markets. Personally, I’ve had the most success with Quora for generating top-of-funnel visitors to later retarget cross-platform with lower-funnel assets. When promoting blog content, I’ve found Quora visitors tend to show a higher average session duration and pages/session than other channels. However, there are several options for reaching people further along in the buying process, through features like retargeting and customer list targeting. If you haven’t tested Quora Ads yet, I’d recommend:
We are creating a new market with a new engineering service that no competing company offers in the same way. What recommendations do you have for audience and keyword targeting given few folks know about our new service? This can be a tough situation. First of all, think through the persona of the person you’re selling to. Are there factors such as job title, industry, etc. where you can narrow down your target audience? Next, develop a story around the problem you’re solving. People may not be aware of your service, but if you can present a problem in a way they can identify with, chances are they’ll also be interested in hearing about the solution you have to offer. Try social channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook to target the audience personas you’ve set up with the messaging about the product. They may not be searching yet, but you can get in front of them in other ways. You may even come up with different targeting “buckets” to test, possibly broken out by industry or job role, and then measure responses based on each audience. You could also test display ads targeting specific placements that people in your target market are reading. For instance, you might be able to identify engineering publications that allow ads via the Google Display Network. In addition, trying a custom intent audience built with URLs for these publications may help widen reach. On the search front, there may not be much activity, but be sure to have campaigns in place preemptively for any related terms before you start promoting yourself on social media. In addition, make sure you have brand campaigns in place to capitalize on anyone who searches for your brand after hearing about it. Is content a good tactic for all channels? Or is this channel-specific? Promoting a piece of content such as a buyer’s guide can work well particularly in a social media context, where people are likely to be less receptive to an immediate “sales” message but may be open to reading a resource they find valuable. Display ads can also be effective for promoting content pieces. Search is often a different context, where people are indicating direct intent and are actively looking for a solution. However, for expensive B2B products with a long buying cycle, offering people a content resource from an upper/middle-funnel search query can still be relevant. More so than thinking about the effectiveness by channel, I’d focus on the user’s buying stage. For ads where either the audience targeting or keywords indicate higher funnel intent, a content resource is often a softer sell than immediately pushing a demo/trial. For retargeting lower in the funnel or high buying intent keywords, people may be more ready to buy, and you’re better often pushing a sales-focused CTA. Can you give any examples of B2B brands advertising effectively in a more “fun” and personal format vs. the typical sterile ads? Zoom capitalized on everyone’s annoyance with conference calls to produce this video about a Video Conference Call in Real Life. It’s funny, but anyone who’s participated in conference calls can identify with the pain points brought up in the video. Seeing the sponsorship by Zoom might make people take a second look at how Zoom can help solve those pain points. If a B2B marketer has tried all the channels you mentioned and still hasn’t seen success, what should they try next? No PPC channel in and of itself is the end-all solution for B2B marketing. If you haven’t been successful after extensive testing of channels, you may want to take a step back and revisit how your brand presents itself to users. Does your messaging clearly present what problems you can solve for customers? Are you using wording that customers can relate to, or do you stick with corporate jargon? How user-friendly is your website? Interviewing your current customers can help give you more launching points into areas you can investigate. Do you have a clear methodology for explaining your product? A simple explainer video can go a long way in providing an overview of a complex product. Once you’ve worked through your branding, your creative, and your messaging, you may then end up coming up with enough ideas to revamp how your brand is presented from the ground up. Then you can follow that process up with refreshed campaigns across channels. More from SMXThe post SMX Overtime: How to manage and optimize B2B accounts appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2X91Gg3 On Wednesday, Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief will host a discussion with experts in PPC for our third Live with Search Engine Land discussion. The conversation will focus largely on B2B advertising during this time. We’ll discuss how everyone is doing/adapting to new circumstances, what experts are seeing and advising right now and about expectations and advice for the longer-term. In addition to Ginny, a renowned PPC expert herself, the panel will include:
The chat will take place at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 1, and we will allow up to 50 people into the meeting to experience the discussion live and ask questions. We will then post the video of the meeting for the larger Search Engine Land audience to enjoy. If you would like to be part of the meeting please fill out this form. We will send calendar invites to the first 50 people who sign up. We at Search Engine Land know there is so much uncertainty now in our community, and we hope this series of live discussions, presentations, tutorials and meetups help everyone stay sharp and up to date on tactics and best practices. We do not plan to gate these sessions. This isn’t about leads for us. This is about giving great marketers a platform to inform, support and convene our global community at a time when so much is up in the air, including livelihoods. If you have an idea for a session or would like to join a panel, email me at [email protected]. In the meantime, check out our most recent chats below. The post Next up: PPC experts join Live with Search Engine Land appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2xzz5FM There are loads of coding for beginners resources out there, but often they don’t actually start at the very beginning. Here we’re going to look at common roadblocks encountered by beginners trying to learn to code. You may know that source code is almost always just text files written using a computer language ‘syntax,’ which amounts to a set of instructions for the computer. The common language that both humans and computers understand is mathematics. If you don’t initially think of math as a language, then remember that morse code transmits human language using a syntax that could easily be described in terms of mathematics. Computers understand mathematical systems. Why do some source files look like crazy character noise? Good programmers write source code that looks logically organized. It just gets transformed through processing. If you open a file that you can’t immediately read, you may be looking at compressed data, binary code, or source code that has been reduced or ‘minified’ by removing unnecessary white space. Minified Source CodeThis last case is probably what you see most often when you use the ‘View Source’ feature of your web browser. Think about this article and its text. Think about how it would look if we removed all the spaces between all the words. You could probably read it, but there would be troublesome spots and it would take much longer. Spaces are pretty necessary. A minifying procedure wouldn’t remove necessary space. What if the style guide for this sentence requires double-space? Two spaces between words in article writing are not an absolute necessity but they make it easier for human readers. In these cases, a minifying process for efficient transmission across great distances could remove one redundant space in order to reduce the total file size. Programmers Space Things OutDouble-spaced text is easier to read and computer programmers use a lot of extra white space for precisely that reason. Computer source code is harder to read than plain text, and therefore we use far more whitespace than even a double-spaced article would. Whitespace is how programmers structure Python code, for example. Sometimes we use 2, 4, or 8 spaces in a row to simulate tab characters, and sometimes we use the tab characters themselves. We use carriage-return ‘characters’ (the notion of a carriage-return is from our old typewriter days). The computer simulates carriage returns which allows us to use the ‘return’ character (or newline) as whitespace in order to organize our code and make it easier to read. How we organize our code with white space is usually dictated by some sort of personal, traditional, or company-required logic so that humans can read our instructions before they get compressed or get translated into machine code by a compiler. These alternate forms of text are much harder, or even impossible, to read. When text is minified, you can usually figure out what simple code is doing, even though it’s more difficult to read when extra whitespace has been removed. When you’re looking at a text file that has been compressed, however, it is completely obfuscated. File CompressionCompression nearly suffices as a sort of crude (not secure) cryptography. Compression algorithms use mathematical formulas along with a table (or crosswalk/dictionary) to substitute for characters and their positions throughout an original text. When you decompress a file, the computer uses that table in combination with the generated formulas in reverse to restore an original text. Compiled Source CodeUltimately, when we’re writing computer programs, we’re writing programs that need to be processed by a CPU. When we write (client-side) JavaScript, our instructions need to get ‘interpreted’ by the browser and translated into machine code for the user’s CPU to process. That’s why JavaScript can crash your browser (and why Google measures the CPU load of the scripts you write). Compiled source code starts as text files. Text is then transformed into machine code instructions by a corresponding compiler for performance boosts over code that is otherwise interpreted at run time. When you open machine code binaries, you’re going to have a hard time understanding any of it. That’s because it’s streamlined code for computer processing and is not in a form that any of us should open. In summary, there are three ways you might see computer code noise that looks totally arcane:
Of all these, only assembly language is anything a computer programmer might write. If you’re writing code in assembly language, then you’re probably a magician. At some point in your journey you may end up writing something like Assembly or Perl that, to the ordinary eye, still looks like a bunch of crazy noise. More development tips for SEOsThe post Coding for SEO 101: Understanding source code, compressed code and compiled code appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2wJajmG Google has published 8 videos, about 75 minutes of Google employees talking, from the Google Webmaster Conference event from last November. We published our five tips from that event back then but now you can watch most of the talks from that day on YouTube. The Welcome Address: Web deduplication: Google Images: Google Rendering: Google Titles, Snippets and Results: GoogleBot and Web Hosting: Google Knowledge Panels: Google Search Improvements over the Years: Why we care. Many of you were unable to attend this Google event and Google is not going to be hosting another one of these events in 2020. So here is your chance to get some really good talks about Google search directly from Google search engineers. The post Google webmaster conference videos now available appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3aIEjxP |
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