Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Thursday, August 10th, 2023
Gizmodo published an article “exposing” CNET for deleting thousands of pages, as they put it to “game Google Search.” This, even though content pruning is a fairly common advanced SEO practice.
What CNET did. “Thousands of articles” were deleted in recent weeks (CNET declined to provide an exact number), according to Gizmodo. CNET confirmed the content culling. CNET decided which pages to “redirect, repurpose or remove (deprecate)” by looking at metrics such as:
- Pageviews.
- Backlink profiles
- Amount of time passed since the last update.
What CNET said. Content deprecation “sends a signal to Google that says CNET is fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors in search results,” according to an internal memo.
- Clearly, CNET needs better advice on how SEO works. Deleting content does not signal those three things. Publishing relevant, helpful, quality content for your audience is what makes you worthy of greater organic search visibility.
Removing content is not a decision CNET takes lightly. That’s what Taylor Canada, CNET’s senior director of marketing and communications, told Gizmodo:
- “Our teams analyze many data points to determine whether there are pages on CNET that are not currently serving a meaningful audience.”
- “This is an industry-wide best practice for large sites like ours that are primarily driven by SEO traffic. In an ideal world, we would leave all of our content on our site in perpetuity.
- “Unfortunately, we are penalized by the modern internet for leaving all previously published content live on our site.”
Sorry, CNET. Google doesn’t want to reward sites that are primarily driven by SEO traffic. The helpful content system is meant to reward websites that are primarily creating content for users, not search engines.
- There is no “penalty” for having old content on your website. Google will not send a manual action notice to CNET, or any site, because you have an article that was published in 2015, or 2007, or 2003, or whatever year.
‘Not a thing’. Before the article published, Google’s Danny Sullivan, via his @SearchLiaison account on X, posted:
- “Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn’t like ‘old’ content? That’s not a thing! Our guidance doesn’t encourage this. Older content can still be helpful, too.”
Sullivan was then asked what to do when old content has broken links, is no longer relevant or can’t be made more helpful. Sullivan’s response:
- “The page itself isn’t likely to rank well. Removing it might mean if you have a massive site that we’re better able to crawl other content on the site. But it doesn’t mean we go ‘oh, now the whole site is so much better’ because of what happens with an individual page.”
Except, it is a thing. Well, sort of. Much of this belief that “deleting old content is good for SEO” can be traced back to when Google once advised removing content. After Google launched Panda, a Googler shared this exact advice (emphasis mine):
“In addition, it’s important for webmasters to know that low quality content on part of a site can impact a site’s ranking as a whole. For this reason, if you believe you’ve been impacted by this change you should evaluate all the content on your site and do your best to improve the overall quality of the pages on your domain. Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.”
Yes, that quote is from 2011. But logically, it makes sense because we know some of Google’s algorithms, including helpful content, evaluate sitewide signals.
Old and low-quality. If you were to create a Venn diagram – where one circle is for “old content on your website” and the other circle is for “low-quality content on your website” – I would bet good money that there is a big overlap. Much of what passed for “good” content 10 or more years ago probably wouldn’t today. This is especially true for a 25-year-old site like CNET.
Sullivan, in a followup thread with the article author, pointed out that there is more need for nuance in this particular discussion and tried to make it clear that Google has never advised people to delete content simply because it’s old.
Other prominent Googlers, including John Mueller and Gary Illyes, have also advised improving content, instead of removing it, whenever possible. Barry Schwartz has covered many of these points on Search Engine Roundtable:
Why we care. I’ve found that deleting old content can be good for SEO performance. I’ve done it, written about it and spoken about it at conferences and on webinars. To be clear: deleting old content alone – just because it’s old – probably won’t help you much. However, deleting, improving and consolidating content should be part of your SEO strategy because it helps improve your overall content quality – or, as Mueller once put it, “building out your reputation of knowledge on that topic.”
Dig deeper. Why and how to delete content in bulk for SEO, a great case study by Search Engine Land contributor Jared Bauman.
Don’t trust Google’s advice blindly. Gizmodo’s article also featured a great quote Lily Ray, head of organic research at Amsive Digital:
- “Just because Google says that deleting content in isolation doesn’t provide any SEO benefit, this isn’t always true.”
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Thursday, August 10th, 2023
A well-crafted content strategy is a fundamental element for businesses to engage and expand their audiences. With so much being published, how can you decode the art of winning audiences through content?
Learn how to define your audience using personas and conversion data and create a tailored content strategy for new audience groups. This isn’t just about content creation; it’s about delivering experiences that convert.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to transform your content strategy and truly connect with your audience.
Register and attend, “The Art of Winning Audiences Through Content,” presented by iQuanti.
Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.
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Thursday, August 10th, 2023
Google has rolled out significant updates to its Performance Max Best Practice Guide.
The refreshed document now includes information on new strategies, advising retail marketers on how they can better optimize campaigns and improve conversions.
Why we care. If you don’t keep up-to-date with the latest best practice guidelines from Google, the strategies you use to optimise your campaigns may be outdated and no longer effective, which could cost you in terms of reach, conversion and ROI.
What’s new? The updated document details new tools and features that marketers can use to market their campaigns more effectively:
- PMax benefits – The updated guide explains how switching from Standard Shopping campaigns to PMax can increase conversions.
- A/B testing – The document advises running A/B tests to prove that switching from Standard Shopping campaigns to PMax has increased your conversions. If you’re satisfied with the results, it encourages you to continue using PMax for the best results.
- Plan budgets early with Performance Planner – It explains how to use Google’s Performance Planner to review your campaign’s projected monthly and quarterly performance. This tool can also be used to get recommendations on how to amend your campaign for the same spend. It’s worth noting that the tool’s forecasts are adjusted seasonally to enable marketers to identify conversion opportunities during key periods like holidays.
- Taking seasonal action – The guide also contains tips on how to reduce ROAS targets to boost visibility for high-priority products during key periods, for example, in the lead-up to a holiday. Google advises setting more aggressive ROAS goals ahead of time to ensure your campaign reaches potential customers already researching purchases for maximum conversions.
- Consolidation – Google advises consolidating your campaign structure where possible whenever you set up a new PMax campaign. This helps AI to optimize performance across channels using a unified budget.
- Reaching high-value customers – Google has rolled out its New Customer Acquisition with High Value optimization tool in beta. This feature was designed to help optimize campaigns for new customers with a high predicted lifetime value, while still optimizing for regular new customers and engaging existing customers.
- More insights and reports – The updated document also provided information on its new reporting features, including:
- Asset group metrics
- Performance change insights
- Creative strength tests
- Product-level data
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What has Google said? Google announced its new features via an update posted in its Help Centre. A spokesperson said:
- “We’ve created these best practices for retail marketers who are running Performance Max campaigns with a Google Merchant Center feed.”
- “If your goal is to increase sales and reach new customers, these guidelines will help you get there.”
Deep dive. Read Google’s Retailer Best Practice Guide for more information.
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Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia failed to find evidence that Google harmed rivals by limiting their search visibility.
While Google was cleared in this aspect of a DOJ antitrust lawsuit that began in 2020, Google will still be in court starting Sept. 12. Google will defend claims relating to its Search Ads 360 product, as well as deals the company has struck to ensure it is the default search engine on mobile devices and browsers.
Why we care. It will be worth watching to see whether Google is found guilty of stifling competition in ad buying or in its mobile phone and browser deals – and whether any of this ultimately leads to any changes for search marketers.
Claim: Google weakened Specialized Vertical Providers (SVPs). Google was accused of harming niche companies (e.g., Expedia or TripAdvisor in travel; OpenTable in restaurant reservations; Amazon or eBay in shopping). Specifically by:
- Limiting the visibility of SVPs in Google’s search results.
- Demanding that SVPs make their data available to Google on terms no less favorable than it does to others.
- “With respect to those allegations, Plaintiffs have not demonstrated the requisite anticompetitive effect in the relevant markets to make out a Section 2 prima facie case,” wrote judge Amit P. Mehta.
Claim: Google uses Search Ads 360 to thwart competitors. Google remains accused of “harming competition by delaying the implementation of various SA360 product features for Microsoft Ads that have long been available for Google Ads, thus harming Microsoft’s ability to compete.” Other rival tools mentioned were Skai, Marin and Adobe.
Google launched a new version of SA360 in February 2022, which added four features (call extensions, dynamic search ads, responsive search ads and local inventory ads), and said it was testing a fifth missing feature (auction-time bidding) at issue.
- “…there remains a genuine dispute of material fact with regard to the anticompetitive effect of Google’s disparate development of SA360’s ad-buying features. Summary judgment is therefore denied as to that part of the Attorneys General’s claims,” Mehta wrote.
What Google is saying. Google published the following statement via Court dismisses state AG claims about Google Search:
- “We appreciate the Court’s careful consideration and decision to dismiss claims regarding the design of Google Search. Our engineers build Search to provide the best results and help you quickly find what you’re looking for. People have more ways than ever to access information, and they choose to use Google because it’s helpful. We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive,” said Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs & Chief Legal Officer.
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Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
Search results are not chat results.
In search, the input is a query. The output is what we have called a SERP, or search engine results page.
A SERP is full of answers and ads. It has links to websites, text, images, featured snippets, and videos. “SERP” has been used in search marketing for more than two decades.
In chat, an input is a prompt. The output is text, ads, images, videos (and sometimes clear links, in the form of small citations) – often trained on or powered by search results.
But what’s that page of results called, exactly?
We at Search Engine Land believe that this LLM-fueled, generative AI, end user-facing output – whether it’s Google’s Search Generative Experience, the new Bing or another search/AI platform – needs a name.
“Kein ding sei wo das wort gebricht,” my colleague Kim Davis put it recently. Translation: “No thing can be where the word is lacking.”
So we are introducing a neologism into the search marketing lexicon: CHERP for Chat Experience Result Page.
Search vs. chat experience: The distinction is needed
There’s a fine line between language that clarifies concepts and jargon that unnecessarily clouds issues and creates confusion.
We are at one such crossroads right now with generative AI. Specifically: the results pages various chatbot interfaces produce.
We expect Google and Microsoft Bing to continuously update and test the various elements, just as they continue to tinker with the traditional search results pages.
The search marketing industry currently lacks the precise language needed to distinguish between traditional search results pages and the results produced by generative AI.
Google and Bing have referred to their generative AI offerings as “experiences.” So that’s why we’re suggesting a new acronym for the results by those experiences be dubbed Chat Experience Results Pages or CHERPs.
What is a SERP?
The term SERP stands for “search engine results page.” In simple terms, it’s a page of search results you see after you enter a query on Google, Microsoft BIng or any other platform.
Origins of SERP
The origin of the term “SERP” can be traced to 2000 in a forum post by Webmaster World founder Brett Tabke.
The earliest SERPs typically consisted of 10 blue links and endless pagination of search results. PPC ads were also present, usually above organic search results and on the right rail.
Evolution of SERPs
Google began reimagining the SERP with Universal Search in 2007, blending Search with news, video, images, local, maps and more. And as 2010 approached, Google was introducing a variety of instant answers, including weather and sports scores.
Big Google SERP changes continued in the 2010s, most notably with the integration of the Knowledge Graph into Google Search and seen on the SERPs via knowledge panels. In 2014, Search Engine Land reported on a new type of detailed answer that would later become known as featured snippets.
Now, in 2023, we have seen a massive change to Search: generative AI. Microsoft calls it the new Bing, or Bing Chat. Google calls it a Search Generative Experience.
As of this writing, both experimental experiences are not fully rolled out. But it’s only a matter of weeks or months before that happens.
What is a CHERP?
The term CHERP stands for “chat experience results page.” In simple terms, it’s the generative AI result you see after you enter a prompt on Google, Microsoft Bing, ChatGPT or any other generative AI platform.
Let’s illustrate with an example prompt – “what is a SERP” – using Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT.
Google
The chat results page consists of:
- Two paragraphs of text (one dedicated to a Search Engine Results Page; the other to a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan). This includes two citations (the clickable quotation marks) that, when clicked, result in a dropdown, which lets you click on three sources, which are brand names.
- Three links (with images) in the Snapshot, which in this case are duplicative.
- Suggestions to Ask a follow up.
New Bing
The chat results page consists of:
- One paragraph of text (only discussing a Search Engine Results Page). This includes three visible numbered citations (plus two that are not visible, you have to click on the +2 more). The sources are domains.
- No other links or images.
- Two suggested follow-up question bubbles.
ChatGPT
The chat results page consists of:
- Nine paragraphs of text, including an ordered list of six items (only discussing a Search Engine Results Page).
- No citations, links or images.
- No suggested follow-up questions.
All of these results minimize traditional search and are based on answering questions – and encouraging users to ask more questions. They are results pages unto themselves.
Search engines have SERPs. Answer engines have CHERPs.
Language must change to reflect new realities
Why is coining the term CHERPs necessary? Do search marketers really need another acronym?
Yes. It’s necessary for accurate communication and to provide clarity for clients or stakeholders when explaining whether you have visibility in the search or chat experience.
Just on Google, since it continues to be, by far, the biggest player:
- Is your ad appearing above, within or beneath SGE?
- Even if you have strong organic visibility in search results, will that matter if your competitors are getting cited (and potentially clicks from) the chat results above the organic search results?
Hopefully, Google and Bing will provide us with the data we need to understand and report on how people are getting to our websites.
Search continues to evolve. As it does, our language also must evolve.
CHERPs, as a new term, is familiar, while also being different enough to create a clear distinction.
Did you ever used to say or write, “rank on Page 1 of Google”? Well, you can’t do that anymore, thanks to Continuous Scroll. Google evolved. Our language must evolve with the platforms.
There has also been a push within tech to make terms more inclusive. That may be why Google renamed its Webmaster Guidelines to Search Essentials. The term “webmaster” has become a relic of an earlier era.
Thankfully, we hear the terms “white hat” and “black hat” a lot less. I’ve always found these to be cartoony (see also: link juice) and undermine all the great and professional work we do that drives billions of dollars in revenue every month for brands and businesses of all sizes.
Words matter. Clarity matters.
SERPs and CHERPs will co-exist
To be clear, SERPs will continue to exist – as long as Google and Bing serve search results. We’re not suggesting CHERP as a replacement for SERP, like how many have tried to “rebrand” SEO over the years.
No, we think of SERPs and CHERPs as two unique entities that may or may not occupy the same space on a platform that produces content using generative AI.
The purpose of introducing CHERPs as a new term is so that we, as an industry, can clearly distinguish between results pages from search versus chat.
We think it’s needed. We hope you agree.
The post From SERPs to CHERPs: Generative AI results need their own name appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
Google will be showing fewer rich results in its search results, specifically showing less FAQ rich results across the search result snippets and limiting How-To rich results to desktop devices.
Google said this update will roll out over next week globally.
FAQ changes. Google said the FAQs, FAQPage structured data, rich results will only be shown for “well-known, authoritative government and health websites.”
For all other sites, this rich result will no longer be shown regularly, Google added.
Which sites Google decides to show them for are automated and algorithmic.
Don’t remove structured data. Google said there is no reason to remove structured data from your site. Google said “Structured data that’s not being used does not cause problems for Search, but also has no visible effects in Google Search.”
HowTo changes. Google said the How-To, from HowTo structured data, rich results will only be shown for desktop users, and not for users on mobile devices.
Google added that “with mobile indexing, Google indexes the mobile version of a website as the basis for indexing: to have How-To rich results shown on desktop, the mobile version of your website must include the appropriate markup.”
Why we care. If your site is impacted by this, you may see a decline in clicks from Google Search to your site. Your Google Search Console performance reports would show the decline in clicks and your analytics traffic would show a drop in traffic from Google Search.
Google wrote, “For both of these items, you may also notice this change in the Search Console reporting for your website. In particular, this will be visible in the metrics shown for FAQ and How-To search appearances in the performance report, and in the number of impressions reported in the appropriate enhancement reports. This change does not affect the number of items reported in the enhancement reports. The search appearances, and the reports, will remain in Search Console for the time being.”
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Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
Google Ads is rolling out several new features ahead of the holiday season.
The platform has made the changes in a bid to improve insights, expand access to the Search top slot, reduce onboarding time for local inventory ads, and enable marketers to quantify the impact of online-only bidding vs. Smart Bidding for store visits.
Why we care. It’s important to stay up-to-date with Google’s latest features, and test them, so that you can gain early learnings to help shape your campaigns and bidding strategies.
What’s new? Google Ads is launching several new features to help drive efficiency for digital marketers, including:
- Enhanced insights – Google Ads is updating its product page with more details regarding product issues, for example, stock inventory, missing feed information and high bidding targets (like ROAS). This is to help you better understand the performance of categories, brands, product types, and custom labels, giving you the power to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
- Local inventory ads update – Google Ads is cutting down the average onboarding time for local inventory ads and has also introduced a new local store unit ad format. You can use this new format to better showcase your brand to potential customers as it combines inventory data from your local product feeds with imagery and information from your business profile.
- New A/B experiments – You will now be able to quantify the impact of online-only bidding vs. Smart Bidding for store visits and store sales by running A/B experiments. This feature is currently available for Standard Shipping campaigns but is also being rolled out to search campaigns in the near future.
- Expanded access to the Search top slot – Google Ads has implemented a new interactive ad format that shows business information, such as opening hours, and prompts customers who have shown explicit local shopping intent (like searching “near me”) with productive business actions, such as directions or calls.
What has Google said? The changes to Google Ads were unveiled via an announcement on its blog. A spokesperson said:
- “This holiday season is just around the corner, which means one thing: shoppers and retailers alike are working on their checklists. In fact, today’s shoppers are being more intentional with their holiday purchases, with 74% planning their shopping ahead of time.”
- “AI-powered tools are transforming businesses’ ability to move faster, better understand the intent of their customers, and engage them in new ways across the path to purchase.”
- “Today, we’re excited to share new tools to generate insights and new features to help you do more with Google AI.”
Deep dive. Read Google’s new ads and insights features announcement for more information.
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Monday, August 7th, 2023
A new metric, called Brand Authority, is now available in the Moz Pro SEO toolset and the Moz API, the company announced today.
What is Brand Authority. Moz’s new Brand Authority metric can be found in Domain Overview. Moz assigns an “online brand strength” score between 1-100. There is also a new brand comparison visualization.
- “At a high level, Brand Authority combines Moz’s knowledge of search intent and search volume to calculate a score that reflects the total strength of a website’s branded search terms,” according to Dr. Peter J. Meyers, Moz marketing scientist.
- “For instance, we know that searches like [iPhone 15] and [iPad Pro] strongly reflect awareness of the Apple brand. Brand Authority combines all this data and scales it against the strongest known brands.”
- “While we can’t tie a specific Brand Authority score to a specific offline factor, it inherently reflects the total (including offline) influence big brands have in the world.”
This metric is based only on U.S. data, but Moz said it plans to add data from more regions in 2024.
The data points used by Brand Authority will be updated at different intervals, but the metric will be refreshed bi-monthly, Meyers told Search Engine Land.
The price of a Moz Pro won’t be increasing with the addition of this metric. However, accessing Brand Authority data in the API will incur additional charges, Moz said.
Why we care. Moz customers may want to check out the metric and see whether it’s useful for SEO, PR or other marketing activities – and get a general sense of how Moz assesses your brand strength compared to your competition. However, I expect many SEOs, especially those who don’t use Moz, to be skeptical of another 1-100 “authority score.”
Why Moz cares. I asked them why how SEOs and marketers can use this score. Meyers said:
- “While the mechanisms of how brands impact search results are complex and not always transparent, we know that understanding and being able to measure brand influence is incredibly important for SEOs, hence the motivation to create a metric like Brand Authority.
- “Because Brand Authority encompasses success signals beyond search, it has many interesting use cases for PR and broader marketers, but it is firmly rooted in our SEO expertise.”
How Moz describes Brand Authority. According to Moz, users can use the metric to:
- “…assess their marketing gaps to maximize their return on investment (ROI), see the true value of sales prospects and potential acquisition targets, and assess the real influence of the media brands that pick up their stories.”
How it’s different from Domain Authority. Moz is the company that created the controversial Domain Authority metric, which predicts “how likely a website is to rank” in search, using a similar 1-100 scoring system.
Domain Authority isn’t going away. Both metrics will co-exist. Meyers said the metrics are “complementary” and there is little overlap between how the two metrics are computed:
- “Domain Authority remains an important indicator of online strength and ranking potential, while Brand Authority captures broader signals of an organization’s influence.
- “Our improved Domain Overview tool now displays a 4-quadrant visualization of Domain Authority vs. Brand Authority to help customers understand their relationship to their competition.”
Brand Authority vs. other brand score metrics. Search marketers have relied on metrics such as NPS (net promotor score), share of voice and sentiment analysis to measure brand strength. But Brand Authority attempts to “capture people’s awareness of a brand even before they begin their search and buyer’s journey,” Meyers said:
- “Brand Authority is a search-centric metric that helps us understand the influence of brands (including ‘offline’ influence, such as traditional advertising and word of mouth) on our online efforts, by analyzing searchers’ awareness of brand terms (including sub-brands, products and services),” Meyers said.
Top 500 U.S. brands. In addition to the new metric, Moz revealed a list of 500 sites with the most Brand Authority. Five brands achieved a perfect score of 100:
- google.com
- youtube.com
- facebook.com
- amazon.com
- walmart.com
Also making the top 10:
- target.com (98)
- yahoo.com (98)
- homedepot.com (96)
- walgreens (94)
- foxnews.com (94)
The post Moz debuts new metric, Brand Authority, to measure brand strength appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Monday, August 7th, 2023
TikTok is implementing major changes to its ad products in Europe to ensure it meets EU regulations.
The platform plans to significantly reduce targeted advertising capabilities, while ads that violate its rules will be put on global bans.
Under the Digital Services Act, the platform is also going to provide users with additional reporting options and give more clarity to creators about its content moderation decisions.
Why we care. It’s more important than ever for marketers to keep up-to-date with TikTok’s policies as an ad being banned worldwide would be disastrous; reach and conversions would plummet, ROI would fall and it could also cause reputational damage. The changes to targeted advertising could also have a negative impact on reach, which may make you want to consider if ad space on an alternative platform would be more profitable.
Updates. TikTok announced several changes to its platform that will impact the user experience int he EU. These include:
- Additional reporting – TikTok users in the EU will now be able to report ads they believe are illegal. The platform is rolling out new features to simplify this process, including introducing complaint categories such as hate speech, harassment and financial crimes.
- Global bans – If content is found to break TikTok’s Community Guidelines, it will be removed from the platform globally. Content that doesn’t break its guidelines but does violate the law will be taken down in that country only.
- Ban on targeted ads for teens – Teenagers in Europe aged 13-17 will now no longer see personalised advertising based on their activities, whether that is on or off TikTok.
- Option to turn off personalisation – When personalisation is turned off by users in the EU, the ‘For You’ and ‘LIVE’ feeds will show popular videos from both where live and around the world – as opposed to content based on their personal interests. Similarly, when using non-personalised search, they will see results made up of popular content from their region and in their preferred language.
- More transparency – TikTok is planning to share more detail about its content moderation decisions with creators, including whether AI decided the action taken.
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What has TikTok said? TikTok confirmed the updates via an announcement on its blog. A spokesperson said:
- “The European Union has set a clear vision for platform regulation with the Digital Services Act (DSA). Following our updates in July about our Research API and Commercial Content Library, we are providing more information about the work that we are doing to meet our obligations under the Act by the August 28 deadline.”
- “Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. We know that ensuring the safety, privacy, and security of our European community is critical to achieving that goal.”
- “We will continue to not only meet our regulatory obligations, but also strive to set new standards through innovative solutions and by working with our industry partners, regulators, lawmakers, and civil society.”
Deep dive. Read TikTok’s Digital Service Act announcement in full for more information.
The post TikTok rolls out major Ads changes to meet EU regulations appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Monday, August 7th, 2023
Google Merchant Center has been issuing a new warning – for “inappropriate titles.”
The message appears to apply to Google Discover and Demand Gen ads within Google Merchant Center.
Product titles that fail to meet Google’s criteria face being penalized with restricted visibility in the U.S., according to a screenshot of the warning:
Why we care. A drop in visibility means your campaign will be seen by fewer potential customers, which could harm your revenue and ROI. In addition, getting Google to lift a penalty can be a lengthy process and, depending on how long it takes, this has the potential to have a long-term impact on your account, negatively affecting your visibility.
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Google’s requirements. How can you avoid this kind of Google penalty? Your product title must meet the following requirements:
- Assets must meet the Discovery and Demand Gen product ads quality requirements
- Assets can’t contain obscene or offensive language, including but not limited to profanity and sexual innuendos
- Assets can’t use placeholder text, distasteful formatting such as nonsensical punctuation or capitalization or incomplete sentences.
- Assets can’t be longer than 10 words before a delimiter
- Asserts can’t contain excessive details like product codes, SKUs or part numbers that aren;’t part of the product name.
Reaction. Google Ads ecommerce expert Dennis Moons, flagged the issue on X, prompting several other marketers to report similar experiences.
Some have commented that there may be a “bug” with the warning as it is being issued to product titles that are “harmless.” However, Google is yet to respond.
Deep dive. Read Google’s Discovery and Demand Gen Campaigns guide for more information.
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