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    This day in search marketing history: March 12

    Written on March 13, 2023 at 7:01 am, by admin

    Google publishes video of search quality meeting

    In 2012, Google shared a video from one of its search quality meetings – something that few outsiders had ever seen.

    Google annotated the video to make the conversation more understandable to the general public, as well as explain more about the particular feature that was being discussed, a change to how it handles spelling corrections.

    “I got to attend one last October, and it was one of the most fascinating, interesting things I’ve witnessed in my nearly 16 years of covering search,” wrote Search Engine Land’s Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan. “I watched many different features get evaluated, with discussion and debate flying back-and-forth among those gathered in the crowded room as well as those interacting through video conference…”

    Read all about it in An Unprecedented Video Glimpse Into How Google Crafts Its Search Results.

    Also on this day

    Google pushes out deadline parallel tracking for Video due to ‘global events’

    2020: The mandatory deadline was extended into June.

    Ecosia to join Chrome v81 default search engine choices

    2020: The not-for-profit search engine joined Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo as an option in 47 markets.

    Google Ads rolling out Budget Planner forecasting tool

    2019: Designed to show how changes in spend could impact campaign performance.

    What will Google Hotels mean for online booking sites?

    2019: The new site mirrored the UI of Google Flights – would it have a similar impact on the hotel booking market?

    Bing Ads brings 3D ads to Search with Samsung

    2019: Users could interact with the desktop ad format to inspect product features and details.

    DuckDuckGo CEO testifies: Privacy legislation isn’t ‘anti-advertising’

    2019: Gabriel Weinberg also believed that privacy legislation could make the internet more competitive.

    Google confirms core search ranking algorithm update

    2018: Google acknowledged the suspected update but said there was nothing webmasters can do to fix their sites if they dropped in rankings.

    Google tests rounded mobile search design without full Google logo

    2018: This new interface used a more rounded design and boldly omitted the full Google logo at the top of the search results page.

    AdWords custom columns now available at keyword and ad levels

    2018: You could track and optimize to custom metrics tailored to your goals at all levels of your campaigns.

    Chat rate is the new CTR for AdWords message extensions

    2018: Google would roll out message reporting metrics in the next few weeks for the US, the UK, Canada and other countries.

    Google Local Pack Displaying Logos In Web Search Results

    2015: Google was testing a new local pack in the web search results that displayed maps plus logos and pictures of the business listing.

    Google Mobile Multi-Colored Line Separators Now Live

    2015: Google seemed to be rolling out the new mobile interface where they showed Googley colored line separators in the mobile search results.

    Google, Wal-Mart Breakup Suggests Problems Ahead For Local Inventory Ads

    2015: Wal-Mart reportedly had plans to offer inventory data directly to its shoppers through Wal-Mart.com and its mobile app, rather than through an intermediary.

    Google To Publishers Concerned Over The Knowledge Graph; Searchers Still Need Your Content

    2014: While Google’s goal is to give searchers a quick answer, there is no substitute for the searcher to do deeper research by clicking into the sources provided in the Google search results.

    Google’s New Look Search Results: Still An Experiment

    2014: Google’s head of search, Amit Singhal, said “we’re always experimenting” and this design test was just that, one of Google’s experiments.

    Google Reviewing “Not Provided,” Withholding Keywords From Organic But Not Paid Search Clicks

    2014: Google said it was reexamining the issue and seeking a better solution.

    Google Confirms Giant Banner Ad Test Is Dead

    2014: The test only ran in the U.S. and was small with about 30 advertisers participating and banners showing on about 5% of search queries.

    Google Adds Concert Dates To Knowledge Graph

    2014: Concert information for a musician would be pulled from the artist’s official website if the site included structured data markup.

    Yahoo Goes Live With Yelp Local Reviews

    2014: When you clicked on “read all  . . .  reviews” or “write a review” you were taken to the Yelp profile or review page for the specific business.

    Google Launches Help Center For Hacked Sites

    2013: Complete with step-by-step instructions and videos that outlined each part of the process. 

    Will Google Now For iPhone & iPad Boost Google Search App Usage?

    2013: A promotional video suggested the Google Search App for iOS may be gaining Google Now support.

    It’s Official: Google Settles “WiSpy” Case For $7 Million

    2013: Google had to take additional measures to educate employees and consumers about data privacy.

    Facebook: No Plans For An External Search Engine

    2013: Facebook was focused on improving search from within Facebook through Graph Search.

    Google Webmaster Tools Revamps Crawl Errors, But Is It For The Better?

    2012: Unfortunately, several pieces of important functionality were lost with this change.

    Survey Paradox: People Like Google But Not What It’s Doing

    2012: Survey respondents had a very positive view of search and the quality of search results. Yet the majority gave an unequivocal thumbs down to search personalization (and behavioral targeting).

    Google’s Easter Eggs For Binary, Octal & Hexadecimal

    2012: The easter egg showed the value of the results in those number systems.

    Microsoft’s Photosynth App Goes Worldwide After 6 Million US Downloads

    2012: Photosynth made it simple to create photo panoramas without any additional stitching/editing required.

    Four Sites Impacted By Google’s “Farmer Update” Speak Out

    2012: Reactions from local community directory AmericanTowns.com; product reviews site Buzzillions; small business networking site MerchantCircle; and product search engine TheFind.

    Bing Apologizes For Japan Quake Tweet

    2011: In the controversial tweet, Bing promised to donate $1 to quake relief for every retweet, up to a maximum $100,000 donation.

    Google Adds Microdata Support For Rich Snippets

    2010: In addition to microformats and RDFa support, Google had added microdata support, which was part of the HTML5 specification.

    Can Google Stay In China And Still Save Face?

    2010: China’s no-compromise-on-censorship position was reiterated by a top-level Chinese minister.

    Yahoo Goes Hollywood With New TV, Celebrity Shortcuts

    2010: The TV shortcut showed the title and a short synopsis of the next episode, along with video clips and links to see photos, the show’s schedule and an episodes list.

    Google Explains How Search Ads Rank & Cost

    2009: A video showed how Google prices and ranks search ads in the AdWords system based on quality and bid.

    Google Improves Image Search For iPhone & Android

    2009: You could see up to 20 images on a single page. When you clicked on the details of that image you could view a larger thumbnail, visit the web page, or view it in full size.

    Google Voice: Next Generation Telco?

    2009: Google announced a wide range of new services under the banner of Google Voice.

    Yahoo SearchMonkey Accepts Videos, Games & Documents – No Application Required

    2009: Flash video, games, and documents could now be embedded into Yahoo search results with only a few lines of code.

    Twitter’s Traffic Growth & The Rise Of Social Search

    2009: There were a lot of stats and analyses about Twitter’s traffic, how it compared to other social search sites, and who benefited from all the traffic Twitter can send.

    Google Exec Tim Armstrong Named New AOL Chairman & CEO

    2009: One of Google’s longest serving executives, Tim Armstrong, was departing the company to become AOL’s new chairman and CEO, replacing existing chair and CEO Randy Falco.

    Open Letter To Google: Do The Right Thing, Divest Yourself Of Performics

    2008: Why spinning off Performics needed to be a priority.

    Message In A Bottle: Google Now Stores Messages For Unverified Webmaster Central Users

    2008: Google announced it would have webmaster communication messages waiting for webmasters even if they have not yet verified their site in Google Webmaster Tools.

    “Google Earth Town” Nanaimo Wires Self To Google Maps To Drive Tourism

    2008: Nanaimo, a British Columbia town on Vancouver Island, was also known as “Google Earth Town” or “the capital of Google Earth.”

    News Corp. Appears To Close Door As AOL Opens One To A Potential Deal With Yahoo

    2008: Were the stars aligning for a potential Yahoo-AOL alliance in an effort to address both companies’ woes?

    Health Insurance Carrier Aetna Introduces Personalized Health Search From Healthline

    2008: Vertical health destination and search engine Healthline teamed up with US health insurance carrier Aetna to offer what the company called Aetna SmartSource – customized health search.

    Search Biz: Google’s Project Management Tools, Iowa Seeks Microsoft, & More

    2008: Click Forensics got $10 million in funding; an early Googler donated money to San Jose State; the fight to control IAC carried on and more.

    Google Warning Against Letting Your Search Results Get Indexed

    2007: The days of doing a Google search that brought up results leading to search results from other sites were heading for a close.

    Google Rumored To Have Dish Networks TV Ads Deal

    2007: Google and Dish Networks were reportedly going to sign a TV ad deal.

    Google Print & Radio Ads A Success All Around

    2007: Advertisers and publishers were happy with early tests from Google’s Print Ads and Audio Ads.

    How Much Is ‘Local Search’ Really Worth?

    2007: A roundup of various local online advertising forecasts and some perspective on what the “local search market” may be worth.

    From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

    Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

    These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

    < March 11 | Search Marketing History | March 13 >

    The post This day in search marketing history: March 12 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    This day in search marketing history: March 11

    Written on March 12, 2023 at 4:01 am, by admin

    Google officially acquires DoubleClick

    In 2008, the European Commission approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, valued at $3.1 billion.

    The commission found that the “transaction would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers, either in ad serving or in intermediation in online advertising markets.”

    The deal was first announced April 13, 2007. The EU began its investigation in November 2007. The US Federal Trade Commission approved the purchase in December 2007.

    In 2008, display advertising represented about 32% of total US online advertising (roughly $6.7 billion), according to the IAB.

    Read all about it:

    Also on this day

    Google launches automated vehicle ads

    2022: This format used vehicle data feeds in Google Merchant Center to match users’ searches with ads.

    Google Search Console rich results report updated

    2021: Google tweaked some of the job posting structured data requirements and also how it checked the validity of FAQ and Q&A structured data.

    Static headlines now available for DSAs in Microsoft Advertising

    2021: Marketers could now have full control over their ad text with Dynamic Search Ads.

    Google bans face mask ads globally due to misleading coronavirus claims

    2020: The face mask ban came amid a rise in false claims around coronavirus prevention and price gouging.

    Google signals stricter enforcement of GMB image guidelines

    2020: Google wanted to ensure all content that appeared in the Business Profile was “relevant, high quality, and appropriate.”

    Video: Detlef Johnson on SEO for developers

    2020: The long-time developer and SEO was working to bring the disciplines together.

    Google explains how dates within search results snippets work

    2019: Google also offered a few best practices for helping it find the right date for that snippet. 

    Google showing image thumbnails in mobile search results snippets more often

    2019: RankRanger said the average number of thumbnails per search result page jumped from 4 to 5.

    Google launches marketer-friendly Google Ads API query builder

    2019: The interface made it easy to build queries for reporting.

    Report: 65 million US smart speaker owners, smart displays quickly gaining traction

    2019: Surveys suggested there was still considerable room for growth.

    Google to bloggers: Disclose & nofollow links when reviewing gifted products

    2016: Google issued new best practices to bloggers who received free products.

    Search in Pics: Google Dance with Matt Cutts, Google’s ice rink & Zootopia

    2016: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

    Google Webmaster Tools Adds Blocked Resources Report & Updates Fetch & Render Tool

    2015: Google added a report that showed which resources you were blocking GoogleBot from by host name and updated the fetch and render tool.

    Study: Growing “Mobile Fanatics” Segment Search More, Increasingly Shun PCs

    2015: Just over 40% of the U.S. smartphone population, these mobile users searched more and relied more on their mobile devices than conventional smartphone users.

    Report: Brands May Lose 10K to 60K Visitors Per Month To PPC Trademark Bidding

    2015: Study looked at trademark usage in paid search across 10 industry verticals.

    Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin Vulnerable To Hackers

    2015: The Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin was open to an exploit where hackers could do a Blind SQL injection. 

    Google Now Targeting Italian & Spanish Link Spammers

    2014: Google’s Matt Cutts announced warnings to Spanish and Italian webmasters and SEOs not to use unnatural links to promote their sites.

    Yahoo Search App Gets iOS 7 Design Upgrade & More

    2014: The updated iOS Yahoo Search app got a new minimalistic design.

    Better Data, Public Transit Coming To Apple Maps In iOS 8

    2014: Apple’s iOS 8 would see a number of improvements, including better and more complete points of interest and business data.

    Survey: Consumers Blame Brands For Bad Location Data

    2014:  71% said they were most likely to be home when they research and confirm a business location before visiting the business for the first time.

    Google’s Matt Cutts On Upcoming Penguin, Panda & Link Networks Updates

    2013: Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced new updates with Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithms and new link network targets in 2013.

    Google Wins Lawsuit Over Monetizing Your Name With Ads

    2013: Google has won a lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin woman over Google Instant suggestions leading to a search result set that had ads.

    Google Experimenting With Search-History “Topics” In Google Now Cards

    2013: Feature clustered users’ search histories into topics that can easily be searched again.

    “Better Than Google” Claims: Why Doesn’t Anyone Believe Them?

    2013: Despite the commercials and despite Microsoft reporting that after extensive testing users preferred Bing 2:1, people generally expressed skepticism.

    Google’s Mayer Envisions Future Of Location-Based Services At SXSW

    2011: Mayer shared her vision for a future enabled by the search company’s technologies.

    Google Enables Negative Keywords For Product Listing Ads

    2011: Google announced the new targeting capability, saying it was the first of more extensive targeting features it was working on.

    Google Set For US Senate Committee Antitrust Investigation

    2011: Google’s inevitable encounter with a formal antitrust inquiry in the US took a step closer.

    Major Earthquake Hits Japan, Google Launches Person Finder Tool

    2011: Related: Internet Lowlifes Already Targeting Japan Quake Search Results

    Hitwise, comScore Show New Highs For Bing

    2011: Bing saw its largest share to date – 13.6%.

    Facebook Place Page Owners Get Reports On Check-Ins And Deals

    2011: The new reports could help business owners refine the deals they were offering and track foot traffic from Facebook users over time.

    Google Is Bing’s 4th Largest Referring Source

    2010: MSN was by far the top source, the last site visited by 42.7% of Bing users before they went to Bing. 

    Google Goes Live With “In-Stock, Nearby” Mobile Shopping

    2010: Google was working with a limited number of retailers but was inviting others to apply to become part of the program.

    US Regulators May Be Gearing Up For Google-AdMob Challenge

    2010: It appears that there were some problems for the acquisition.

    Bing’s Market Share Up For Third Straight Month: Hitwise

    2010: Hitwise showed Bing gaining share for the third straight month, and its 9.7% share of searches in February was up 4% over its January numbers.

    March 2010 Yahoo Search Update

    2010: The update included possible updates to Yahoo’s crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms.

    Facebook Search Gains Boost Bing & Motorola Puts Bing On Chinese Android Handsets

    2010: Facebook saw 10% search query growth in the past month.

    Chomp: An Apps Search Engine Or “Yelp For The App Store”

    2010: Its objective was to enable people to more easily discover and review iPhone apps.

    Google Gets Into Behavioral Targeting, Launches “Interest-Based Advertising” Beta

    2009: Interest-Based Advertising allowed advertisers to deliver ads based on hundreds of interest categories and previous interactions with those users.

    Google’s Matt Cutts Talks About Redirected Links & Nofollowed Links

    2009: He answers how Google handles links that are 301 redirected and how Google handles nofollowed links from authority sources.

    Create Custom Driving Directions With Google Maps Maker

    2009: Google said this tool was not perfect but it did make for a new way of creating driving directions.

    Hitwise: Visits To Gmail Surpass YouTube

    2009: Gmail was second only to Google.com in terms of visits among Google’s properties.

    Fortune 500 Still ‘Largely Invisible’ In Natural Search, Study Says

    2009: The companies were spending $51 million per day on PPC for primary keywords, but they only ranked in the Top 100 natural search ranking for 21% of the keywords.

    Judge Denies Punitive Damages In Viacom Vs. YouTube Case

    2008: Judge said “common-law punitive damages cannot be recovered under the Copyright Act,” and denied Viacom’s action against Google and YouTube.

    Search Biz: DoubleClick To See Layoffs? Walmart Drops The “Google PC,” & More

    2008: Those Linux-based “Google PCs” didn’t sell like hotcakes, said Walmart; Yahoo got a small paid search distribution deal with LiveDeal and more.

    From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

    Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

    These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

    < March 10 | Search Marketing History | March 12 >

    The post This day in search marketing history: March 11 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    Webinar: The 360-view content strategy you need by Cynthia Ramsaran

    Written on March 9, 2023 at 7:57 pm, by admin

    Whether selling to businesses or consumers, buyers need access to various types of product content — emotionally-driven visual assets and objective information. This helps them feel most confident when making buying decisions.

    Delivering this experience requires digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) tools.

    Join this webinar and learn how to create a 360-degree view of their product content will be best equipped to create experiences that empower their customers across websites, social media, digital ads, packaging, in-store displays, and more.

    Register today for “Create Consumer Confidence With a 360-view Content Strategy,” presented by Acquia.

    Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.

    The post Webinar: The 360-view content strategy you need appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    Global Head of Microsoft Advertising steps down

    Written on March 9, 2023 at 7:57 pm, by admin

    In a LinkedIn announcement, Rob Wilk, Corporate Vice President – Global Head of Microsoft Advertising, announced he was stepping down from his post.

    “This is one of the toughest posts I have ever made on LinkedIn. I have made the decision to leave Microsoft to take the next step in my career.”

    Enter Kya Sainsbury-Carter. Taking over for Wilk is Kya Sainsbury-Carter, Vice President, Microsoft Advertising.

    Why we care. In pure “International Women’s Day” fashion, a new woman leader could have a significant impact on the company’s strategy, product offerings, and overall direction. Sainsbury-Carter could bring in fresh ideas and perspectives, which can lead to changes in the company’s marketing approach and target audience.

    Sainsbury-Carter is well-respected and has a strong track record with Microsoft Advertising. Ideally, this change could improve consumer trust in Microsoft and make it a more attractive partner for advertisers.

    The post Global Head of Microsoft Advertising steps down appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    TikTok enters the search ad market, challenging Google and Microsoft

    Written on March 9, 2023 at 7:57 pm, by admin

    TikTok is reportedly expanding its offerings by entering the search ads market, putting it in direct competition with Google and Microsoft.

    TikTok is preparing to launch its own search ads platform, which will allow advertisers to bid on specific keywords and phrases related to their products or services. During the beta test rollout last year, testers confirmed that when search ads were enabled, advertisers could gather the search terms responsible for conversions and leverage those high click-through rate search terms as headlines for their best-performing TikTok videos, resulting in additional benefits.

    What’s happening. So why is TikTok making this move, and what does it mean for advertisers and consumers alike? Let’s take a closer look.

    Google has long been the dominant player in this market, thanks to its massive user base and sophisticated advertising platform. However, TikTok has been making strides in the advertising space in recent years, and its user base is rapidly expanding.

    By entering the search ads market, TikTok is looking to capitalize on this growth and provide a new advertising platform for businesses looking to reach younger, more engaged audiences. TikTok’s user base is largely comprised of Gen Z and millennial users, who are notoriously difficult to reach through traditional advertising channels.

    Studies suggest “almost 40%” of young people searching for a lunch spot would do so on TikTok or Instagram rather than Google Maps or Search, Prabhar Raghavan, svp for Google’s knowledge and information division, said last year

    How it works. TikTok’s search ads platform will allow businesses to bid on specific keywords and phrases related to their products or services, just like they would on Google. However, TikTok’s platform will likely offer some unique features and targeting options that Google does not.

    For example, TikTok’s platform may offer more robust audience targeting options, allowing advertisers to reach users based on their interests, behaviors, and demographics. This could make TikTok’s platform more appealing to advertisers looking to reach specific audiences.

    For consumers, TikTok’s entry into the search ads market could mean more relevant and targeted ads. If advertisers are able to more effectively target their ads to specific audiences, consumers may be more likely to engage with those ads and find products and services that are relevant to their interests.

    Not so fast. However, it’s important to note that TikTok’s foray into the search ads market is not without risks. Google has a massive head start in this market, and TikTok will need to offer compelling features and competitive pricing in order to attract advertisers away from Google’s platform.

    Additionally, TikTok will need to ensure that its search ads platform is user-friendly and does not detract from the user experience on the app. If users feel inundated with ads or if the ads are not relevant to their interests, they may be less likely to engage with the platform overall.

    Why we care. TikTok’s entry into the search ads market represents a new opportunity to reach younger, more engaged audiences. TikTok’s user base is largely made up of Gen Z and millennial users, who are difficult to reach through traditional advertising channels. By offering a new advertising platform with robust audience targeting options and unique features, TikTok may be able to provide advertisers with a more effective way to reach these valuable demographics.

    Additionally, TikTok’s platform may offer more competitive pricing and better ROI than Google’s platform, making it an attractive option for advertisers looking to stretch their advertising dollars.

    The post TikTok enters the search ad market, challenging Google and Microsoft appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    How ChatGPT can help with local SEO

    Written on March 9, 2023 at 7:57 pm, by admin

    ChatGPT can help with various SEO tasks. “Help” being the operative word.

    It’s important to acknowledge that:

    Local SEO is no different on all of these counts. ChatGPT isn’t designed to be a local SEO tool. Many tools will perform specific local SEO tasks better than ChatGPT ever will.

    But there are a lot of local SEO tasks that ChatGPT can be useful for, and some of them may surprise you. This article covers how ChatGPT can (and can’t) help in four specific areas of local SEO.

    1. ChatGPT and Google Business Profiles

    Local businesses can make plenty of tweaks and optimizations to their Google Business Profile (GBP). 

    While ChatGPT can’t directly interface with your listing, it could help with the following:

    Google Business Profile categories

    A quick way to get ideas for categories is to look at what your competitors are doing. Let’s see if ChatGPT can help there:

    List of business competitors

    This is a pretty good list of local cheese shops nearby. Let’s see if ChatGPT can give us their GBP categories:

    Google Business Profile categoriesPrior to 2021, Google Business Profile was known as Google My Business (GMB), thus the use of the latter term in the prompt.

    Pretty quick and impressive! Keep in mind that ChatGPT outputs are not always accurate.

    The tool is “not connected to the internet, and it can occasionally produce incorrect answers. It has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content,” according to its FAQs.

    So I wanted to find out how it got this information:

    Google Business Profile categories - sources

    Uh-oh. Again, ChatGPT is not connected to the internet.

    I’ve highlighted this issue before, but if you ask ChatGPT to explain the process it used to get an answer, it will often give you a summary of how *one* might get that answer that can’t really be how *ChatGPT* got that answer.

    That was the case here:

    Google Business Profile categories - process summary

    OK, so how did ChatGPT actually generate these categories?

    Google Business Profile categories - process

    It guessed! And upon closer inspection, two of the competitors ChatGPT listed don’t exist.

    This highlights a significant limitation of ChatGPT for local SEO: much of the information it has access to will be outdated, so you have to take the outputs with a grain of salt.

    Be sure you’re not relying on the tool for anything that would require a high degree of precision when it comes to local business information.

    That said, one of the areas where ChatGPT can be helpful is idea generation (provided you’re willing to vet the ideas):

    Yelp and GBP categories

    Google Posts content

    If you keep in mind what Google’s said about AI content and all the potential downsides, you can use ChatGPT to help create posts for your business profile.

    This can be an interesting option since many local businesses have busy employees who wear multiple hats, and writing may not be a strong suit for some.

    ChatGPT doesn’t currently follow the character or word counts you specify. Generally, the output will map roughly to what you ask – but if you specify 750 words, you may get 400-500.

    Google Posts

    Not bad! As you can see from the post, ChatGPT mentioned various types of cheeses, so you need to check. The more information you can feed into your prompt, the better the output is likely to be.

    Videos

    If you need video content ideas, you can ask ChatGPT to give you relevant questions for an FAQ or Q&A video:

    Video - FAQs

    It could help you with a script for a video:

    Video - script

    Products

    ChatGPT can help create descriptions for your product features in GBP:

    Product descriptions

    Question and answers

    You can also use ChatGPT to respond to questions in the question and answer section of your Google Business Profile. Again, proceed with caution here. 

    This is an essential section of your profile, and ChatGPT may flat-out say incorrect things. If you have the bandwidth and can write concisely, it’s certainly better to answer these yourself.

    Still, if you struggle with writing these responses and have a large volume of questions, ChatGPT can structure answers here as a starting point. Be sure you edit for accuracy.

    GBP Q&A

    You need to include better context in your prompt, so it can produce something usable:

    GBP Q&A - response

    Edit the response to match how you’d want to answer these questions.

    2. ChatGPT and Google reviews

    Getting as many high-quality reviews as possible is a major component of local SEO. Here are a few ways ChatGPT can potentially help.

    Draft an email template to encourage reviews

    Emailing customers and creating handouts are good ways to get reviews for your business.

    Ensure you know Google’s specific guidelines on user reviews and that the output you create with ChatGPT complies with the rules.

    (As you may have guessed from previous warnings: you do need to proceed carefully and vet the output!)

    Email template for reviews

    Review sentiment analysis

    One interesting use for ChatGPT is to quickly surface the best or worst out of a set of reviews. This can be useful for a local business in a few ways:

    If you’re using the web interface and have any volume of reviews, you’ll have to paste reviews into several prompts, as the character limit is 2,000. (You can also now remedy this through the API):

    Review sentiment analysis

    After that, I took all the reviews I had grabbed and pasted them into ChatGPT in ~2,000 character chunks. (You can export your reviews from your GBP account, copy-paste or scrape competitor reviews.)

    Here’s the output:

    Review sentiment analysis output

    You’ll get some great ideas here, especially if you already have many reviews. (You could even batch all of your competitors’ reviews together to analyze.)

    If this was my business, I could pull positive reviews to feature on a store poster or a testimonial page on my website. The negative reviews can point me to specific issues that must be addressed.

    Conversely, if this were one competitor or a group of competitors, I would have some good takeaways, too:

    Responding to reviews

    If you find yourself at a loss of what to write or aren’t confident in your English in responding to these reviews, ChatGPT can help get you started with review responses.

    Here is an example of a response to a positive review:

    Response to positive review

    And to a negative review:

    Response to negative review

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    See terms.

    3. ChatGPT and local on-page SEO

    I’ve covered how ChatGPT can help with traditional content and SEO tasks, plus some keyword research prompts you can try. 

    Many of those can apply to specific local SEO tasks as well.

    Topic ideation

    ChatGPT can be beneficial as a starting point to brainstorm ideas (that you’ll want to vet against a keyword research tool with competition and search volume data).

    I like to start with a couple of broad prompts to get some general topic ideas, like getting a sense of the top publications writing about the topic:

    Topic ideation

    And the types of posts they write about:

    Content types

    Then you can get some more specific topic ideas for your site:

    Specific website topic ideas

    Not bad! Again I’d now want to go through a thorough process for finding things like recipe ideas or pairing terms that my site would be able to rank for, but this is a good starting point for topic ideas.

    Schema

    Depending on your business type, various schema may be relevant for your site. ChatGPT can help you quickly generate the schema.

    ChatGPT-generated schema can be a hit or miss, so make sure you have a developer QA’ing the code.

    Schema for business

    This data will be from 2021, so if things like address, phone number, or hours have changed, input this data manually or use a different tool for this purpose.

    Location pages 

    While you must be careful with location pages in the wake of recent Google updates, they can still be a valuable tool for local businesses if executed properly.

    (Proceed carefully before cranking out many location-specific pages with ChatGPT-generated content.)

    First, we can quickly get a list of towns:

    Location pages

    Then we can get a list of relevant terms (basically whatever we’ve determined our core keywords to be here):

    Core keywords

    We can ask ChatGPT to give us some points of interest for cheese fans and relevant information about our shop in relation to the town:

    Location pages - related businesses

    Some may be out of business or inaccurate, so I must vet the information. Still, these are great potential additions to a town-specific page about my cheese shop. At the very least, I now have ideas for types of businesses to include. 

    I can also get ChatGPT to generate meta descriptions for these pages once I’m ready to get them live on my site:

    Meta descriptions

    4. ChatGPT and local link building

    Local links and citations are key signals for local search.

    If you’re willing to vet the lists, you can get ideas for organizations to sponsor:

    Local organizations

    Awards to win or organizations to join:

    Local awards

    I can also use ChatGPT to get a sense of the top local websites:

    Top local websites

    And the types of items they write about related to local businesses:

    Local website - article titles

    I can see that things like openings, new offerings, and charitable donations are highlighted on these sites and might be ideas to pitch for a story.

    You could also use ChatGPT to help you write outreach emails if you’re pitching stories or looking to be added to a list of resources.

    If you keep in mind what ChatGPT does and doesn’t do well, I’m sure you’ll find other applications for the platform to help make your local SEO efforts more effective and efficient.

    The post How ChatGPT can help with local SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    Google rolled out new site names, favicon and sponsored label on desktop search

    Written on March 8, 2023 at 3:56 pm, by admin

    Google has rolled out the site names, updated favicons, and sponsored labels on desktop search after launching this on mobile search last October. Google has been testing the desktop version since last November, and now it is officially live both on desktop and mobile search.

    What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the new Sitename and updated favicon in desktop search – note, the old interface just had the URL, not the site name or the favicon:

    Here is the “sponsored” label that replaces the “ad” label:

    Controlling site names. Google back in October explained that Google Search uses a number of ways to identify the site name for the search result. But if you want, you can use structured data on your home page to communicate to Google what the site name should be for your site. Google has specific documentation on this new Site name structured data available over here.

    Upgrading the favicon. Google also recommended revisiting the documentation for favicons for the latest best practices. Google is now also suggesting you provide an icon that’s at least 48 pixels and follows the existing favicon guidelines.

    Ads. This is also rolled out to the Google search ads on desktop, so the size of the site name, favicons, and also the ad label will be more prominent in mobile search. In fact, Google rolled out the “Sponsored” label in mobile search last October and today on desktop, officially replacing the “Ads” label from January 2020.

    Why the change. Google last October said the difference is to help provide “even more information about the sites that you see so you can feel confident about the websites you visit.” Here is more from Google on these changes:

    Favicons and site names are coming to desktop! You can learn more about how to provide site names and define favicons in search results here:https://t.co/AGkfEeIbIs https://t.co/E7PxSacIIx https://t.co/WBHGf12Xkw

    — Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) March 8, 2023

    For advertisers, business names and logos is still a beta but we are continuing to make more advertisers eligible over time. https://t.co/YRBD1JwnGe https://t.co/MfFvaPXaV0

    — AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 8, 2023

    Why we care. With any change to Google Search and the design of the search results, searchers may click differently. So monitor your click-through rate in Google Search Console and see if you need to make changes to your site name and/or favicon to make any improvements to your click-through rate from Google Search.

    This change went live on mobile months ago, but there is a possibility that it can impact desktop search differently.

    The post Google rolled out new site names, favicon and sponsored label on desktop search appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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    Why a Google search revolution never happened

    Written on March 8, 2023 at 3:56 pm, by admin

    Did Google move too slowly with AI? Is that why Google is now scrambling to put AI into everything? Two new reports paint two entirely different pictures of Google before – and since – the launch of ChatGPT.

    The Google search revolution that never happened. Two Google researchers created a chatbot that supposedly would “revolutionize the way people searched the internet and interacted with computers,” more than two years ago, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

    But executives were reportedly risk-averse, fearing putting out the AI product could hurt its $200 billion+ search advertising business and its reputation. And sure enough, Google took a significant reputational hit with its rushed Bard debut.

    What are Google’s AI principles? One reason for Google’s slow approach could be due to its AI principles. Google believes AI applications should:

    1. Be socially beneficial.
    2. Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias.
    3. Be built and tested for safety.
    4. Be accountable to people.
    5. Incorporate privacy design principles.
    6. Uphold high standards of scientific excellence.
    7. Be made available for uses that accord with these principles.

    So if Google had this AI technology ready more than two years ago, perhaps Google’s leadership felt it wasn’t as ready as those researchers did.

    Lack of sourcing was another internal concern. In addition to safety and accuracy concerns, there was another big concern the WSJ points out:

    “Integrating programs like LaMDA, which can synthesize millions of websites into a single paragraph of text, could also exacerbate Google’s long-running feuds with major news outlets and other online publishers by starving websites of traffic. Inside Google, executives have said Google must deploy generative AI in results in a way that doesn’t upset website owners, in part by including source links, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

    Yet when Google showed off its new AI capabilities in search, there we no links to sources. And it caused a little bit of outrage.

    And along came OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Code Red. Google co-founder Larry Page, a decade ago, warned that “incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time, especially in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary, not evolutionary.”

    Love it or hate it, ChatGPT is a revolutionary technology. Shortly after the launch of ChatGPT in late November, Google declared a “code red” and sought help from Page and co-founder Sergey Brin. This was part of an effort to add chatbot features to Google Search this year.

    Then, Google rushed to introduce Bard, it’s answer to ChatGPT, on Feb. 6. That was one day before Microsoft had planned to unveil the new Bing with ChatGPT.

    Since that announcement, Google has tried to clarify that Bard is not search. The AI-powered chatbot features coming to search are based on similar technology, but Bard is a standalone product.

    Google AI = the new Google Plus? Google is now reportedly “stuffing” generative AI into more products, according to Bloomberg:

    “Some Google alumni have been reminded of the last time the company implemented an internal mandate to infuse every key product with a new idea: the effort beginning in 2011 to promote the ill-fated social network Google+. It’s not a perfect comparison—Google was never seen as a leader in social networking, while its expertise in AI is undisputed. Still, there’s a similar feeling.”

    Google pushed back on this, saying much of Google’s internal efforts involve having Googlers test and improve Bard. One Googler also told Bloomberg:

    Why we care. Is Google panicking or moving too slowly? Both could be true – or the actual truth may be somewhere more in the middle, where Google is really living by its AI principles. Call it a slow rush – as Google can afford to sit back right now and watch and learn from Microsoft and other generative AI players and avoid any (further) costly mistakes.

    The post Why a Google search revolution never happened appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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    Recession-ready your marketing strategy with personalized email campaigns by Digital Marketing Depot

    Written on March 8, 2023 at 3:55 pm, by admin

    woman reading email on smartphone

    In the modern e-commerce world, personalization is everything. It’s what engages customers, inspires them, and keeps them coming back. As the global economy moves closer to a recession, it’s important to apply those personalization tactics to your tried-and-true customer communication strategy — email marketing.

    First-party data is key to driving successful email personalization initiatives. Download this guide from Bloomreach and learn how to leverage first-party data to power your email campaigns to drive revenue and increase customer lifetime value.

    Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download Recession-ready Your Marketing by Doubling Down on Email.

    The post Recession-ready your marketing strategy with personalized email campaigns appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




    Maximizing your website tracking with Google’s Tag coverage summary

    Written on March 8, 2023 at 3:55 pm, by admin

    Google’s “Tag Coverage” feature now allows you to see which tags are firing on your website and which ones are not. You can access this summary from the Google tag sections of both Google Ads and Google Analytics, and through Google Tag Manager.

    What Tag Coverage is. Tag Coverage is a feature within Google Tag Manager that allows you to see a summary of which tags are firing and which ones are not. This feature is especially useful if you’re working with a complex website that has multiple tags or if you’ve recently made changes to your website’s tags and want to make sure everything is working correctly.

    The Tag Coverage summary displays the following information:

    1. Total number of tags on the website
    2. Number of tags that are currently firing
    3. Number of tags that are not firing
    4. Number of tags that have no data
    5. Number of pages with no tags

    How to Use Tag Coverage. To access the Tag Coverage feature in GTM, follow these steps:

    1. Sign in to your GTM account.
    2. Select the container you want to view.
    3. Click “Tags” from the left-hand navigation menu.
    4. Click “Tag Coverage” from the sub-menu.

    Once you’ve accessed the Tag Coverage summary, you can start using it to analyze your tags. Here are a few ways you can use this feature:

    1. Identify which tags are not firing: The Tag Coverage summary will show you which tags are not firing. If you notice that a tag isn’t firing, you can troubleshoot the issue to make sure that the tag is configured correctly.
    2. Analyze the data: The summary will also show you which pages have tags and which ones don’t. You can use this information to identify pages that may need additional tracking or to optimize your tags for certain pages.
    3. Optimize your tags: If you notice that certain tags are not firing on your website, you can use this information to optimize your tags. This may involve tweaking the tag configuration or adding additional triggers to ensure that the tag is firing correctly.

    Dig deeper. Read the full article on Google’s Tag Manager Help documentation.

    Why we care. The Tag Coverage feature in Google Tag Manager is an essential tool for advertisers who wants to ensure that their tags are firing correctly on their website. By using this feature, you can identify issues with your tags and optimize your tracking to ensure that you’re getting the data you need.

    The post Maximizing your website tracking with Google’s Tag coverage summary appeared first on Search Engine Land.

    Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




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