Google seems to have rolled out a new look and layout for local listings and cut the 7 pack down to a 3 pack.
The last few months or so I’ve noticed Google has been experimenting with a different look and layout for local listings. It now seems they have rolled this out across the board. 
Do Exact Match domains still carry any ranking value in 2015?
I think it’s too simple to say keywords in domains no longer hold value.
I certainly still think they do, they certainly do in folder names and file path, absolutely no doubt about that.
I also still see plenty of keyword rich domains that rank highly, and the keywords are a contributing factor.
continue reading this post »
This morning I noticed a big big change in a particular Local Business market I would monitor fairly regularly.
Something has happened to the Google My Business local rankings for ‘web design’ related businesses. These have always been a law unto themselves and only recently started to show again after Google had pulled them.
I keep a close eye on the local rankings for ‘web design Belfast’ terms and the 7 pack seems to have changed overnight.
So from these results here’s how to rank locally:
continue reading this post »
Which drops a suspended site quicker? Google My Business or Google Organic?
I’ll add more to the list but here’s a couple of kick off with.
1. The ability to add annotations/comments. This is long overdue. Having to write notes in a Google Doc and refer back to these is time consuming.
2. I’d like to have the date picker that’s in Google Analytics, it makes it very easy to compare this year with last year’s performance. You can run comparisons in Google Adwords, though arguably they aren’t as easy to read/digest.
3. Ad scheduling at Ad level, so that I could create different ad text for different times of the day.
4. Being able to group select Broad Match Modifier keywords.
5. Being able to set different ads to display 10%, 20%, 50% of the time.
6. More flexibility & common sense with mobile ads, seems a nonsense to have to run a separate mobile ad campaign with the same keywords and decrease mobile settings by 100% in the original desktop/tablet campaign.
7. I’d like to be able to simply click a button and restore an account to a previous date, rollback functionality. I rarely use the undo changes feature, and backing up an account and restoring would be too time consuming everytime you made significant changes.
8. Being able to review and assess Quality Score for keywords over time.
9. I’d like to be able to get an email notification sent straightaway when the daily budget runs out, and not have to go through the current process of setting up rules to run at certain times to check if the cost has exceeded a certain amount.
10. I’d like to be able to see all the IP addresses in Adwords and what they get up to on the site.
Update August 2016
11. It’d be great to have coloured rows rather than all grey rows, which can sometimes be hard to distinguish, and can lead to mistakes if you’re writing the figures down.
Have you got any?
Below is a quick comparison table I’ve drawn up between Google Adwords Express & Google Adwords.
| Google Adwords Express | Google Adwords |
|---|---|
| Easy to setup and admin | Much harder learner curve, much more complex, and ever changing |
| Automated Management, enter your service and service area and Google will get things up and running for you | You choose your own keywords, set bid prices and structure your account, you adjust bids, deal with quality score issues, poor performing keywords and ads. |
| Google Analytics stats and figures aren’t impressive | Google Adwords has better integration with Google Analytics and can give you a clearer picture of what Adwords visitors do on the website |
| Reporting is simple | Detailed reporting, you can drill down into everything |
| Adwords Express doesn’t support the advanced features that Google Adwords does. | Google Adwords allows to you use many of the more advanced features.
For instance you can run callouts & site links that many of your competitors are running. Remarketing and advanced advertising formats are available (read what remarketing is). Google Adwords support Youtube ads. |
Google Adwords Express may work for small businesses without the time and knowledge who want to run ads, but if you’re running campaigns spending hundreds of pounds a month, and your competitors are running Google Adwords campaigns with all the features then it is certainly worth considering running the full package even if that involves hiring a Google Adwords professional. You’ll need to look at your costs to see if it’s justified.
So Google as promised started rolling out their mobile algorithm
As yet there has been no widespread panic and I haven’t seen any dramatic changes and this will no doubt take a while to kick in.
Couple of points to note:
“While the mobile-friendly change is important, we still use a variety of signals to rank search results. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal — so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank high if it has great content for the query.”
Will Google sacrifice sites that have great content, simply because they aren’t mobile friendly? It appears from the statement above that mobile won’t be the sole overriding factor, and that non mobile friendly sites may still rank on Google mobile search.
Once your site becomes mobile-friendly, we will automatically re-process (i.e., crawl and index) your pages.
Unlike Penguin or Panda updates that have been run periodically, get your site mobile friendly and any drop that it’s been hit with could be corrected the next time your webpage(s) are crawled and indexed.
I’m happy to be tutoring the ‘Introduction to Google Adwords and Google Analytics’ training course on the following 2015 dates.
1st April (Completed)
13th May
8th July
9th Sept
4th Nov
The training sessions will have a maximum of 6 and will take place at the BigRockDesigns training suite at the Wellington Park Business Centre on the Malone Road.
continue reading this post »
I recently received the following unwelcome and confusing email from the Google Adwords Policy team for 3rd Party Non Compliance.
My advice, don’t panic if you get the following email from the Google Adwords Policy team.
Here’s the gist of the emails:
We recently conducted a review of your website, codefixersoftware.com, and have concluded that it misrepresents your company’s relationship to Google by:
Does any business really know what Google+ Local is?
Do any SEO’s really know what Google+ Local is?
Do you know the difference between Google Places, Google Local+ and Google My Business?
Do you know the difference between a Google+ personal profile page and a Google+ business page?
The address, follow button and local label in the screenshot above are helpful in determining whether you have a Google+ Local Page.
continue reading this post »
Michael Wall is an experienced SEO based in Belfast N.Ireland currently running his own SEO Agency.
Michael Wall is available for Internet Marketing, Google Adwords PPC and SEO work. Please call Belfast 02890 923383 or use the contact form.
