Google has updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google posted “We’re updating the “Trusted Store” badge, so now when you score an excellent rating on your Shopping experience scorecard, the badge will say “Top Quality Store” instead.” No impact. Google said this is just a name and title change and this won’t have any impact on anything else. “There’s no action you need to take, and the update will not affect your performance metrics at all,” Google added. What it looks like. Here is a screenshot showing this badge: More history. Google had the trusted store badge for years now, and now has decided to rename it slightly. We don’t know why Google renamed it, you or I can speculate if we want. Earlier we reported about the Google Shopping experience scorecard where Google said it would reward merchants that provide an “excellent customer experience” with “a boost in rankings,” “a badge” and “other benefits that will help consumers find your business,” within the Google Shopping tab in Google Search. The badge increases engagement. Google said the trusted store badge, “based on our early testing,” drive more clicks to the merchants listings, Google said they are “more likely to receive clicks.” Google also said the search company is “seeing stronger traffic to lesser-known merchants.” How to earn the badge. Merchants receive a Trusted Store badge based on their performance across metrics relative to other merchants, including but not limited to shipping speeds, shipping and return costs, and return windows. We documented a lot of these metrics over here in our earlier coverage, but here is Google’s help document as well. Rings a bell. Does this trusted store badge ring a bell to you? Well, yes, a decade or so ago, Google had a free trusted store badge for merchants as well. This was more on the search ad side of the coin, whereas this new badge is for free product listings. Why we care. Badges can help you generate more clicks on your listings, so it is worth looking into and gaining a badge if possible. Will the slight change in the name of this badge impact click-through rates? I doubt it but you should be aware of this change. The post Google Top Quality Store badge replaced Trusted Store badge appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/a7ZN9sy
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Google Business Profile (GBP) services might have more to do with local rankings than previously thought, according to recent tests from Sterling Sky (Disclosure: I work at Sterling Sky) and Whitespark. Specifically, adding pre-defined services in GBP seemingly impacts local search rankings. Before this finding, you could do little with GBP to influence local search results beyond location, categories, reviews and keywords in the business name. Now, you can add GBP services to the list of key local SEO factors to prioritize. Since when did GBP services matter?GBP services didn’t majorly impact local rankings back in 2019 when we conducted the initial test. At the time, Google was slowly and silently adding pre-defined services to plenty of GBP categories. But when we retested this in 2022, the results were substantially different. Whitespark’s Darren Shaw conducted a similar test with positive results. Both tests showed that adding pre-defined services to your GBP listing significantly improves local search rankings. But excitement over this discovery is only felt within the local SEO community. Many small business owners don’t know how to add services to their listings or where to start. That’s because Google doesn’t announce new features as much, keeping them hidden in a new and confusing search edit interface nobody likes. Where to find services in the GBP dashboard (NMX)To find services in the GBP new merchant experience (NMX), you must go to the services section of the menu. From there, you’ll see a list of your categories and corresponding services under each category. Click Add more services, and a new screen will pop up with the current services available to select under that category. Some categories have more services, while others have none. If you have any pending service suggestions to accept or remove, you need to do that first before you can click for more services. Do all categories have services to add?No. Not all categories have pre-defined services you can add. However, we have noticed that Google is constantly adding new ones. Check your GBP regularly to see whether there are any new services that are relevant to your business. Interestingly, I have seen examples of businesses with multiple listings with different pre-defined services under their primary category. So if you manage multi-location businesses, ensure you’re checking services for all your locations to avoid missing out on new services. How do GBP services impact local rankings?From tons of testing, it seems that adding services in GBP helps improve both implicit and explicit keyword rankings. This is extremely exciting, considering how hard the Vicinity update made it to rank for implicit keywords far away from your physical location. These services also help improve rankings for niche service-based keywords. For example, under the electrician category, Google shows two services related to “alarm installation” and “electric car charging." If those are services you want more leads for, then checking those off will help improve your local visibility for searches. Sourcing unique content ideas from GBPThis is also great for getting content ideas, especially if you manage multiple businesses and accounts. These predefined services can give you unique topics and keywords for your service pages that you probably wouldn't have thought of alone. To my understanding, Google suggests these services based on searches users have done related to the category or the industry the business is in. In a way, Google is telling you what people are searching for. Thus, it's worth mentioning these on your website as long as you provide that service. Track your local search resultsAs with everything in local search, you should take many screenshots to track results. Take before and after screenshots of the SERP and local finder when adding new services to your GBP listings. Grab screenshots of top and related keywords and jot down a few notes of what you see. Then, a few days later, after you've added these services, retake the same screenshots and compare the differences. The ranking impact seems to take 24 to 72 hours to take effect. I highly recommend tools like Mobile Moxie’s automatic SERP tracker to do this automatically, or you can do it manually using a location-changing extension like GS Location Changer. (Tip: use incognito and the tool at the same time.) I recommend tracking local rankings using a geogrid tracking tool like Places Scout or Local Falcon. Both tools let you see how your listing ranks across a service area using pins to show rankings at specific markers within your city. By tracking local rankings before and after adding services to your GBP, you will likely see a nice increase in local rankings for keywords related to the services you added. Keep your GBP strategy updatedLocal SEO is constantly evolving, largely thanks to Google's many changes to GBP. Monitor your GBP listing regularly and keep up with the latest product updates. Google will often silently release features like pre-defined services, so stay updated with your local SEO news. The post How Google Business Profile pre-defined services can impact local SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/zlXcFnL The “New Business Guide to Google Reviews” by GatherUp is an essential resource for growing businesses looking to attract more customers through the power of Google search. This comprehensive guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to claim and optimize your Google My Business profile, how to solicit and respond to customer reviews, and how to deal with Google and their overall review process. With real-world examples and expert advice, this eGuide is a must-read for any business looking to build a better review strategy and improve their online reputation. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download your copy. The post Boost your visibility in search with online reviews appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/7zgDriO Google has confirmed a bug in Google Search that resulted in a drop in traffic to video content between the dates of May 4 through May 17, 2023. This was not just a Google Search Console reporting bug, but a bug with Google Search. What Google wrote. Google posted, “A bug caused a drop in video traffic from May 4 to May 17, and has since been resolved.” I asked John Mueller of Google if this was just a reporting glitch, and he said no, it was beyond reporting. “It was not just reporting,” he told me on Mastodon. Search Console reports. If you go to Google Search Console, click on the search performance report, and filter it by “video” content, you will see an annotation added to the chart on May 4: Why we care. If you noticed a drop in traffic between May 4 through May 17 and you publish a lot of video content, it may be related to this bug. In this case, the reporting was not the issue and the reports should be accurate. There was a bug with Google Search that resulted in less videos showing up in the search results. The post Google Search bug caused a drop in video traffic appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/NVdn1Lq Marketers have relied on paid and organic search to deliver steady results time and again over the past decade. Changes occurred gradually, giving marketers ample time to adapt their strategies. But today, the pace of change in search marketing is accelerating, with more shifts expected in the next two years than in the past eight combined. Evolution in search has been a slow march toward automation and consolidation. To get ahead of the curve, we must stay current on what’s changing and learn the reason behind it. Here’s a rundown of events that have a significant ripple effect on the search marketing industry. 1. Privacy legislation and signal lossIn May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enforced across Europe. GDPR gave EU citizens many rights over personal data, including access to correct, delete, and port data. Organizations that violate the GDPR can be fined up to €20 million or 4% of their global annual turnover, whichever is greater. Another important date for internet privacy is September 2020, when iOS14 launched on Apple devices. The update included a new feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), allowing users to opt out of being tracked by apps. This change has made it more difficult for advertisers to track users across apps and websites, reducing the effectiveness of targeted advertising. This iOS update changed the landscape of digital advertising. Another watershed event – albeit forthcoming – is on July 1, 2023, when CPRA (California Privacy Rights Act) becomes fully enacted. CPRA applies to businesses that collect personal information about California consumers, regardless of the company’s location. The CPRA has the authority to investigate and prosecute violations of the law, and it can impose fines of up to $7,500 per violation. CPRA has some legislative teeth with heavy penalties for non-compliance. Google has announced that it will phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by the second half of 2024. This change will significantly impact online advertising since third-party cookies are crucial for targeting ads. They enable advertisers to target specific audiences and track online advertising performance. Google aims to improve privacy by phasing out third-party cookies, often used for tracking and advertising. By phasing third-party cookies, Google makes it harder for websites to track users across different sites. The browser market share in the United States looks is as follows:
By the end of 2024, third-party cookies will be effectively retired, as Chrome, Safari and Firefox represent almost 90% market share of web traffic in the United States. Google Privacy Sandbox is developing alternative methods to target audiences and track ad performance without third-party cookies. These initiatives from Privacy Sandbox include:
Performance measurement and audience targeting have been the cornerstone of digital marketing. The evolution of digital privacy has forced ad-serving platforms such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and others to develop new modes of targeting and measurement. As the ad serving platforms change, marketers must also modernize their strategies to stay competitive. 2. Machine learning and automationMachine learning algorithms have advanced significantly in recent years in parallel with signal loss caused by advancing privacy legislation. As a result of these two changes, advertising platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are overhauling their ad platforms to rely on automation and artificial intelligence. Google is always playing the long game. Historically, they have known that marketers needed support with cross-campaign attribution. In addition, Google has known for a long time that data is going to become restricted due to privacy advancement. Finally, this foreknowledge is coming to fruition with automation and consolidation. Google Ads introduced data-driven attribution (DDA) in September 2021. DDA is a machine learning model that uses your account's historical data to determine how people interact with your various ads and decide to become your customers. DDA can help you improve your Google Ads campaigns' performance by providing a more accurate view of how your ads contribute to conversions. Bid algorithms aren’t exactly new in paid search advertising. Google introduced Smart Bidding in 2013 with the launch of target CPA (tCPA) bidding. The ability to bid to dynamic values such as revenue and ROAS was introduced in 2017. As with most changes, the adoption of these features was slow. Many advertisers did not want to relinquish control of bidding to the platforms. Loss of control and expanded reliance on machine learning will be a continued theme for digital advertising. Over time, Smart Bidding algorithms have improved significantly, and they are now the preferred method of bid management. Manual bidding still occurs for some aspects of campaigns, but the usage continues to dwindle. As data and automation evolve, the core functionality of keywords is changing too. Google Ads changed the functionality of exact match in 2021. Previously, exact match keywords would only trigger ads for searches that matched the keyword exactly. However, now exact match keywords can also trigger ads for searches that are close variants of the keyword. This change means ads may show for searches that include misspellings, synonyms, and other close variants of keywords. It is no secret that Google and Microsoft have aggressively encouraged advertisers to expand into the broad match. However, many advertisers, including myself, had a negative perception of broad matches. The query matching was too general, and traffic quality was often subpar. Over the past two years, we have expanded our broad match usage. Broad match can provide additional search coverage and revenue growth when paired with well-crafted bid algorithms. Consider testing it again if you have shied away from broad match. In July 2021, Google Ads retired broad match modified (BMM). Microsoft Ads followed suit by retiring their BMM offering in March 2023. This is the beginning of keyword match type consolidation. (This is pure speculation, but Google/Microsoft will retire another match type within 12-18 months.) If I had to make a prediction, phrase match would be phased out in favor of exact (for control) and broad (for reach). These changes directly result from machine learning advancement within ad-serving platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. 3. Campaign consolidationData-driven attribution was an essential element for campaign consolidation within Google Ads. Google’s ad serving algorithm mastered user intent on their core search product. The algorithms needed to understand how ads performed across channels within the Google ad ecosystem. Once the algorithm understood how to optimize across Google properties, that opened the door for further consolidation. Campaign consolidation first came as Smart Shopping on Google and Microsoft. Google Smart Shopping was a campaign that allowed businesses to automatically show their product ads across Google's search network, YouTube, Display Network, and Gmail. Smart Shopping campaigns used machine learning to optimize bids and placements. Throughout 2022, advertisers had to migrate Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max. As a result, performance Max (PMax) is the current peak of campaign consolidation. PMax allows advertisers to access new inventory, ad formats, and audiences across all Google channels, including YouTube, Search, Gmail, Shopping, and Discovery. Another consolidation point will include Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) into PMax. Google has not provided a specific date for this migration, but the company has said it is working on integrating the two features and expects to make the change soon. Staying ahead of the curveThe last five years have felt like the slow incline of a roller coaster. And it feels like the next two years will be a screaming rush of the drop. The drop will be driven by privacy legislation, machine learning, automation, and artificial intelligence. Buckle in, folks! The post 3 key trends impacting search marketing today appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/vmgNcUH Merchants will soon have a new tool in their advertising toolbelt: Google’s Product Studio. With the help of generative AI, Product Studio will help merchants create unique product imagery. Here’s what was announced today at Google Marketing Live. With this tool, advertisers can lean on Google’s generative AI to help enhance their creative in a handful of new ways: Custom Product Scenes. With this feature, a product can be uploaded without a background, and AI will do the rest. With a few prompts, backgrounds can be added to the product to make it more eye-catching. In one example, a skincare company used Product Studio to add AI-generated peaches with tropical plants in the background to a plain product photo. Removal of backgrounds. Product Studio can also flip it and reverse it. If you have a background that you think is too distracting, the generative AI can remove the content within Product Studio without ever leaving Google. Increased resolution. If your assets aren’t up to par from a pixel standpoint, Product Studio can help you with that, too. Using generative AI models, merchants can create cleaner, crisper creative from lower-resolution images. AI-generated images won’t have a distinct tag or watermark to tell that they were manipulated, but according to Google, that data will live within the image metadata. Why we care: Creative is a huge pain point for many SMBs, and according to Google, product offers with more than one image see an increase in impressions (+76%) and clicks (+32%). Assuming this technology works as well as the demos show, advertisers can spin up and test far more creatively faster than ever. The custom product scenes alone should be a reason to rejoice as it integrates real product photos with near-unlimited opportunities. This should be a massive win in both time-savings and volume for advertisers that love testing creative. The post Google Product Studio brings AI-generated images to advertisers appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/L7uYQmn A unique new tool – chat – will let you create Google Ads campaigns. Using Google AI, a new interface will help users set up campaigns directly within the online editor in a conversational format, Google announced today at Google Marketing Live 2023. The best part: it’s optional, not required. Chat or not, it’s entirely up to you and your accounts. How it works. To get started, users can simply respond to a prompt for a preferred landing page. Google AI will generate the following for that campaign:
The process isn’t fully automated. Users can still edit all the suggestions before pushing them live to the world. Google Ads has already leveraged AI and machine learning for campaign help. But this interface is more of an integrated experience. In the demos, the Google Ads AI shows that it generated a specific number of keywords/headlines/descriptions or other assets for review and cues up alongside the chat for easy editing. Users can also prompt Google Ads AI for more specific detail on those assets. For example, a prompt for a beauty brand could include asking for anti-aging copy: Why we care. Advertisers across the board should be celebrating this news due to the intrinsically cooperative experience it brings to the campaign creation process. This tool will help give advertisers ideas, save time and build faster instead of automating the entire process. The post Google Ads lets you create campaigns using conversational AI appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/PpBK2Ry Google AI can now pull automatically created assets (ACA) based on the context of a search query itself. Google announced this new ACA program feature at Google Marketing Live today. Until now, Google Ads could skim landing pages using AI and machine learning to automatically create assets from various eligible sources, based on predictive performance and relevance. But this addition of generative AI offers a new twist for advertisers. Why we care. The addition of generative AI addition to ACAs should be a boon to relevancy for advertisers. Leveraging other ads and landing pages for better query matching should make ads more dynamic and effective if you are ok with giving up control to Google AI. But be careful. While this technology can greatly improve your ad’s relevancy, it might not be the best bet for highly regulated industries or brands with stringent compliance standards. By giving up complete control to AI, Google will be the final say on what is displayed on your ads. Advertisements are regulated by the FTC and you won’t be able to guarantee the message that will be displayed by the ACAs. What’s different? In the past, Google would use “eligible sources” to power the ACAs before heading into the auction. Now, Google AI will process the context of a query to adapt search ads toward user intent. For example, Google showed the search query [skin care for dry sensitive skin]. Google’s AI could use content from your landing page and existing ads to generate a targeted headline titled “Soothe Your Dry, Sensitive Skin.”
Campaign level. Generative AI for ACAs will be implemented at the campaign level, not the account level, which will lend itself nicely to testing as you can control what campaigns are powered by the AI. Availability. This is in a global open beta for the English language, with plans to expand to additional languages this year. The post Google Ads will create AI-powered assets that target search queries appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/er2Ls7j Google Ads have entered the chat – the Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) conversational chat, that is. On the heels of the AI-powered enhancements announced at Google I/O earlier this month, Google gave advertisers a slightly more precise picture of the ads plans within SGE today at Google Marketing Live: Google is experimenting with directly integrating Search and Shopping ads within the AI snapshot and conversational mode. There will also be the experimentation of newer native formats that leverage generative AI for ad creation customized to the user journey. How it looks. Just two weeks ago at Google I/O we saw ad units living above the SGE experience in a different colored section that was clearly labeled “Sponsored.” The new ads will have a bold “Sponsored” identifier but are mixed in with the results provided in the conversational chat. For example (cover your eyes SEOs), Google displays a sponsored listing as the top result for a conversational query of [hiking backpack for kids]: Google has yet to reveal any SGE ad metrics data (e.g., CTR) because it is still an experiment. Additionally, being in such an early stage, there is no way to opt in or out of ads showing in SGE. Why we care. This move will likely please advertisers while simultaneously upsetting those seeking more organic traffic. The implementation at Google I/O seemed slightly disjointed, with the ad results up and away from the chat. Still, we are starting to see a fuller picture of not only what SGE will be and how Google can monetize it by bringing ads into the chat in a native fashion. The post Google Search Generative Experience integrates Search, Shopping ads appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/OkznNcq Goodbye Merchant Center, hello Merchant Center Next. Today at Google Marketing Live, Google officially unveiled a new, simplified version of Merchant Center, called Merchant Center Next. More than just the look and feel of Merchant Center Next will change. For example, products can be automatically populated from a merchant’s website. Why we care. This new change should remove the headaches from less technical folks struggling with feeds while also bringing better insights for those data-hungry retailers. The Insights within the Performance tab look promising, especially for those prioritizing product error fixes. Merchant Center Next vs. Merchant Center. Merchant Center has been a manual process consisting of setting up a product feed along with all required products, pricing, imagery, descriptions and more. Merchant Center Next will detect all of this from your website and pull it in automatically. There’s good news, though: merchants can edit said products or turn the feature off entirely. While the experience is dubbed as a “simplified one,” according to Google, “the features of Merchant Center that larger retailers know and love won’t be going anywhere either.” Google is “committed to rolling out the new version at a responsible pace that brings users over when they can expect feature parity that meets their expectations.” Better Insights. One significant change will be to the user interface. A streamlined view will bring insight reports directly into the Performance tab. This appears to contain more data with new tabs shown that include:
Merchant Center Next will show all those merchants with online and brick-and-mortar locations all products in one view to help manage online and in-store product inventory in one destination, according to Google. New insights will also be displayed on the benefits of fixing product errors within Merchant Center Next. When Merchant Center Next will replace Merchant Center. The plan is for the rollout to be completed in 2024. Merchants will be notified when Merchant Center Next is ready for them. Many new users have already seen Merchant Center Next rolled out to them. Smaller businesses will be upgraded in the coming months. The post Google: Merchant Center Next to replace Merchant Center appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/BZOAuP3 |
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