Digital State Consulting - Google AdWords

Having raved so much about the SearchMetrics ranking factors study a couple of weeks ago, it seems only fair to redouble my efforts in relation to what can only be described as a comprehensive breakdown of its major (and minor) findings, along with interpretation and lessons for the SEO industry as a whole.

In short, Marcus Tober has done all the heavy lifting in order to provide the blueprint for effective search marketing in 2014.  So, now all you need to do is read it and implement all the lessons – easy, no?!

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I’ve previously discussed the recent Adwords revision to incorporate close variant matching as standard and I’m still firmly of the opinion that the impact is minimal (and, on the whole, a positive one).  Nevertheless, I appreciate that some people do not feel the same way and want to regain control over their variance – as such, it only seems fair to point out this new script to facilitate that desire.

And whilst we’re on the topic of Google tinkering with its services, there was an excellent critique on Blind Five Year Old this week, regarding the Sitelinks Search Box.

Essentially, the new feature is exploitable if you do not implement the schema markup – with the possibility of competitors’ ads swamping brand searches.

As schema markup has seen far from universal take-up thusfar, we could be looking as a battleground in the short to medium term (it’s important to stress that this feature is not yet rolled out to the UK so let’s hope Google gets things sorted before our clients start to suffer losses on their brand search).

And now to give credit where it’s due, a new feature and a key Adwords revision on google AdWords that looks VERY interesting – Ad Customizers.  If you’re a PPC manager in Cheshire and you got excited by Dynamic Sitelinks, then this is guaranteed to appeal.  They look, on first impressions, like a great tool to differentiate your Ads and maximise CTR/conversion – get used to them, your competitors almost certainly will very soon.

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If you’ve built your website relatively recently – or you’re considering building a new site in the near future – the chances are that WordPress was/is on your list of potential suitors.

If WordPress is your platform of choice, you’ll benefit from casting your eye over this handy list of plugins to aid site speed; and if it isn’t, perhaps the adaptability these plugins demonstrate is enough to make you reconsider…

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And finally, just because I really can’t get enough of these articles that stereotype all CEOs as incapable of appreciating the relevance and scope of search marketing, here’s Neil Patel at SEJ, putting the boot in on some familiar lessons!