Author: Nancy McCord

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Important News We Are Watching From This Week

Be in the Know on Microsoft Advertising

Be in the know! This week we have found a few nuggets that you may want to review or do a deeper dive into from our blog post.

Is It Worth Writing Website Meta Descriptions?

“Many SEOs debate the importance of creating unique meta descriptions. It can definitely help with click-through-rate from SERPs, but, for most, it’s often a low priority SEO task. Will the news that Google overwrites our work make us less likely to spend time on it?” Read the full article.

From our point of view, we do still recommend writing these to assist in click through rates from the search results. We have seen Google write there own before and then later roll back their action.  It makes sense to write them and if Google does or does not use them is a non-issue at this point.

Google is Tweaking the Layout of Google Local or Google Maps Listings

We are seeing the removal of addresses in Google Maps listing tests by Google. See pic.

Google also appears to be listing the years in business in some Google Maps listings. Read the article and see the pic.

Google Ads Does Away with Broad Match Modifiers

Google has announced that it will no longer honor broad match modifier keywords and will instead merge the broad match modifier into phrase match. For now if there are broad match modifier keywords in the account, Google will simply deliver them as phrase match.

How do we feel about this? Well, we expect to spend more time on negative keywords list creation to sculpt ad results. We are not terribly worried about this due to the extensive use of machine learning used in ad delivery. We do expect broad match modifier keywords in the account to start to receive fewer and fewer impressions over time. We will no longer add broad match modifier  to ad accounts. Read the full article for more details.

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Your Privacy – What Are You Doing About It?

Your Privacy - It is a Commodity

Read any newspaper like the Wall Street Journal and you’ll see conversations about privacy and the changes that are happening soon with Apple, Facebook, and now with Google Chrome. You have a right to be concerned about how big business is working to continue to make money off of serving you ads with persistent tracking cookies.

Apple and Facebook are in a finger pointing game with Apple rolling our new privacy updates in a new iOS roll out and Facebook putting up a wall to garner your tracking approval for ads. Add to this Google’s change to the Chrome browser which will block third party tracking cookies and now group your data in audiences for proprietary ad targeting and you will see that big business considers your online activity a goldmine for their own purposes – to make money by serving you ads.

These internet behemoths do not have your best interest at heart – protecting your privacy. Their interest is in making money off of the information you share or share unwittingly. Case in point, have you looked at something online and then in minutes seen the product appear in your Facebook feed? Of concern to me is voice conversations had near an Alexa, and then ads appearing for that item in Facebook shortly there after. Could it possibly be that Alexa is now involved in ad targeting or was this just  a fluke?

Google knows everything that I do and I am starting to get uneasy with that knowledge. As my firm work for a cancer treatment firm, for criminal lawyers, and for bed bug exterminators, and we do a wealth of research for them, Google now thinks that I have cancer, am embroiled in criminal enterprises, and have bed bugs at my home.

I personally have started to take action to minimize my online data footprint out of exhaustion with targeted advertising and the inherent loss of control and incessant “watching”.

Here’s what I am doing right now to try to get back in control of my data.

• I have minimized all activity on Facebook. I am testing out MeWe.com as they voice that they do not collect data or (at this time) use my data from the platform for advertising. But, no friends or family members are using this platform except my husband. I may simply abandon Facebook.

• I use only the Microsoft Edge browser and do not use Google Chrome except for a narrow work purpose. Edge has better privacy control and on top of that is super fast. A win-win in my eyes. Google knows too much about me and I am not willing to supply more information at this point. I may even start using secure private browsing just to stop tracking.

• DuckDuckGo – is the search engine that powers my own website searches and I have recently downloaded their mobile browsing app and am considering using the desktop version as my search engine of choice. They now show ads, but still claim to protect a user’s privacy.

I have previously felt that the more Google knew about me the better it was for me, as search results and ads were always tailored to things I thought I wanted. But now, I am more wary.

My privacy is starting to be a commodity that I am unwilling to share freely. I am now wanting more control over who knows what about me and who uses my information for ad targeting and how.

 

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1-29-21 What We Are Watching This Week

McCord Web Services is a Google Partner and a Certified Google Ads Professional

There are just a few new things in the world of Google that we are watching this week.

Rich Snippet Changes

Google has a new validation tool for Rich Snippets you may be using on your website. You’ll want to click in and check your code in the new validation tool as Google is stating that they will drop your snippets indexing in search if you do not make updates to have the code be valid. Read the full detailed article here.

Local Service Ads and the Impact on Standard Google Ads Campaigns

In 2020 Google started testing Local Service Ads for lawyers. A number of firms have done research on how using both Google Ads and Local Service Ads impacts Google Ads performance negatively.

After review of the data, it appears that Local Service Ads will be shown preferentially by Google and are typically clicked on more by users due to the richness of the interface and ad appearance. CTR and CPA are negatively impacted in Google Ads when the client is using both programs.

If you are using Local Service Ads AND Google Ads (standard professional version), you will want to dive in and read the full article.

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Google is Continuing to Test New Google My Business Features and Components

Nancy McCord and Bandit

If you have not set up and regularly update your Google My Business page, now is the time to start getting serious about it. Google considers the Google My Business page important and is currently testing a number of features and enhancements.

We encourage you to read this article – what is of most value is the images that show several of these new enhancements actually from searches and how Google is handling services, reviews, and the addition of Google My Business Posts, Events, and Special Offers in Google Maps listings.

We have not been able to duplicate these searches to see the results ourselves, but we do know that when Google tests layouts and features it usually is about getting ready to rollout a wider test.

What is important to know is that if Google considers Google My Business important, so should you.

Of late other items that Google has tested in Google My Business are local service ads, a Google Guaranteed money back feature, and Google Verified – for vetted businesses.

With Google considering that the local experience and ability to find services “near me” is crucial to relevancy, Google My Business is just one part of the equation for web visibility and success in Google organic listings.