Tag: Google

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Google is Dropping Continuous Scroll in Search Results

Team reviewing a proposal from McCord Web Services.

In a significant shift, Google has announced that it will be dropping continuous scroll for search results and moving back to displaying 10 organic results per page. This change reverses a feature that had been rolled out to improve user experience by allowing seamless scrolling through search results. The reversion to the classic 10 results per page format is expected to have a profound impact on organic search results and the need for businesses to invest in Google Ads to maintain visibility.

Introduction

If you’re a business owner who relies on Google Ads for your online presence, this Google search update is a game-changer. For a while, continuous scroll made it easier for users to browse through multiple search results without having to click ‘next.’ Now, Google is reverting to its original format of displaying only 10 organic results per page. This change will undoubtedly influence how businesses approach their SEO and advertising strategies. Here’s why this shift is crucial and how it impacts organic search results and Google Ads.

The Impact on Organic Search Results

Decreased Organic Visibility

One of the most immediate impacts of this change is the decreased visibility for websites that are not on the first page of search results. With continuous scroll, users were more likely to see and click on results beyond the first 10. Now, being relegated to the second page or higher means potential organic traffic will drop significantly.

Increased Competition for Top Spots

The fight for those coveted top 10 positions will become fiercer. Businesses will need to work even harder to produce high-quality, SEO-friendly content regularly. This means investing in SEO experts and consistent content updates to stay competitive.

Quality Over Quantity

While quantity has always been a factor in SEO, quality will now take center stage. Google’s algorithm favors sites with valuable and relevant content. Therefore, businesses must prioritize creating engaging blog posts, detailed articles, and informative website content to improve their chances of ranking within the top 10 results.

The Impact on Google Ads

Increased Need for Advertising

With fewer organic results being displayed per page, businesses will find it more challenging to gain visibility through organic search alone. This change will likely push more companies to allocate budgets for Google Ads to ensure they remain visible to potential customers.

Higher Competition and Costs

“As a Google Partner and SEO expert, my firm feels that businesses will need to increase advertising budgets in Google Ads and work with an SEO expert to provide quality blog and website content in order to improve site visibility,” says Nancy McCord, Founder of McCord Web Services. This increased reliance on Google Ads will lead to higher competition for ad placements, potentially driving up the cost-per-click (CPC) for competitive keywords.

Strategic Ad Campaigns

Businesses will need to become more strategic in their ad campaigns, focusing on targeting the right audience and using compelling ad copy to stand out. This also means leveraging all available features of Google Ads, such as ad extensions and A/B testing, to maximize ROI.

Conclusion

The shift back to displaying 10 organic results per page is a significant change that will influence both organic search results and Google Ads strategies. Businesses must adapt by investing in high-quality content and increasing their advertising budgets to maintain visibility. By understanding the implications of this update, business owners can make informed decisions to stay competitive in an increasingly challenging digital landscape.

Stay ahead of the curve and consider working with an SEO expert to optimize your website and a Google Ads consultant to enhance your ad campaigns. This dual approach will help ensure that your business continues to thrive online despite the evolving search engine landscape.

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Are There Consequences of Google.com’s New Continuous Scroll?

Person Surfing the Web on Desktop

Recently Google released a new feature for Google Search for desktop – continuous scroll. This fresh look for Google Search was clearly created from careful analysis of user behavior.

In terms of users moving through material of interest, Google sees continuous scroll as a way to get more information in front of a reader without the break of clicking to new pages. The problem with this new feature is the loss of top SERP placement for SEO and top of page placement for Google Ads. For Google Ads this may cause a drop in conversion numbers.

What Google Says About Continuous Scroll

Google has not released an official blog on the topic of continuous scroll on desktop, but here is what Google had to say when continuous scroll was released on mobile.

“While you can often find what you’re looking for in the first few results, sometimes you want to keep looking. In fact, most people who want additional information tend to browse up to four pages of search results. With this update, people can now seamlessly do this, browsing through many different results, before needing to click the ‘See More’ button.”

The Impact

Google seems to think that SEO results will improve as there will no longer be pages in the SERPs, but the simple fact is that people do not want to scroll through 50+ results of website listings trying to find an answer to a search query.

When it comes to Google Ads, Google say that ads won’t show on the bottom of the page but rather in the middle of a given portion of scrolling. From my point of view, the bottom of the first page, is better than the middle of what would have been the 3rd page of results.

Google has already stated that users of Google Ads will see an increase in impressions as users scroll down the page. On mobile, continuous scroll was one thing, because users could always find results on desktop, but now with desktop folded into continuous scroll, it is a whole new ball game.

Truthfully, I do not know the full impact continuous scroll will have on the digital Netscape, but I am watching and looking for solutions as problems emerge.

As an experienced Google ads and SEO expert who is always interested in drastic changes Google makes to its platforms, I am watching closely to see how continuous scroll impacts my clients marketing and SEO efforts.

About the Writer

Christopher Harper is a Senior Associate at McCord Web Services, a Google Partner. He is a certified in all areas of Google Ads and an expert in Search Engine Optimization.

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Privacy Changes Create Challenges for Google Ads Advertisers

Solutions Ahead Privacy Forward Marketing

Privacy challenges and changes are causing a paradigm shift in advertising. Not only is Google Ads impacted but all online advertising platforms including Microsoft Advertising, AdRoll, and others.

This is a complex topic, but I will work to make it easy to understand. Regulations and expectations have changed. The Chrome browser will be retiring the use of third party cookies in 2022. Many browsers like Firefox and Microsoft Edge are already providing users expanded privacy protection. With Google serving nearly 80% of digital advertising, it and the Google Ad platform will be hurt the most by these new privacy initiatives.

The bottom line is that third party cookies which are being degraded drive conversions as a user travels the web. Knowing more about you and what you share with Google (via cookies) and what browsers record about your activities online – drive conversions for advertisers. Take that away and advertisers will be less relevant to your needs. When advertisers struggle to make conversions and drive sales, Google is impacted as advertising dollars are moved to other advertising products.

81% of internet users this year became more concerned about privacy and personal data. 59% of internet users feel that their privacy is not sufficiently protected by the companies that they do business with. (From the Google Partner seminar on Planning for Privacy-Safe Growth.)

The challenges are real. Google has introduced an initiative to be used in Chrome and is hoping other browsers will embrace it. It is called FLoC Federated Learning of Cohorts. This initiative plans to anonymize data and then group users into clusters which it will use as audiences for ad serving. Already, Microsoft Edge and possibly even Firefox have said they will block FLoC tracking.

The difficulties are real for businesses advertising digitally. With less direct information, that was previously delivered by third party cookie tracking, the less relevant ads will be. Remarketing lists will be smaller as many users will not be able to be tracked.  Fewer conversions will be recorded in the Google Ads control panel to be used by the bidding algorithms to adjust bids to deliver optimized results. There will be less personalization and fewer personalized ad served to you after you have done a recent search for a product.  Google will have limited ability to create audience lists that will be meaningful that can drive additional conversions and sales. The list goes on.

These privacy changes are great for consumers, but for advertisers will require a shift in approach to reach relevant audiences to promote their products and services in a new privacy-safe way.

The key to this new world is the use of first party data. Here are my recommendations.

If you are not collecting email address for interaction with clients through form fills or purchases, you should plan on implementing that right away.

If you are not collecting client emails on a spreadsheet for marketing use, start now. If you are using customer relationship management software you should be downloading and then exporting your properly formatted customer list into Google Ads every six months (Google’s recommendation).

All businesses should be using Customer Match in Google Ads and then layer this audience over all campaigns. This first party data will help the modeling that Google will be doing in your account to help your advertising be more productive.

Review your Google Ads and Google Analytics tags – Google recommends use of the global site tag and an  upgrade to Google Analytics 4. You may want to consider moving to Tag Manager as Consent Mode will be turned on in the USA in the very near future. Add the  Google Tag Assistant to Chrome as an app then visit your website to see what tracking code version you are using now. You may need an updated.

Without data, Google expects to see conversions recorded in Google Ads decline. With data the hit may only be 5% or so. Google has stated that what data it cannot get from first party information, it will model. The less modeling the better.

It is important to know that even with these changes, your website is not impacted or your sales just your advertising. You still get the conversions it is just that the data on the sale or form fill no longer flows to Google Ads as it has before. With bidding algorithms using conversion/lead data to make bidding decisions it simply means that these tools become less effective in controlling costs and bidding effectively.

Overall, I want to express that I am not worried by these changes. In many cases I feel that the increased level of data protection is a good thing for the end user. What we want to do is to help all our advertiser embrace this new privacy environment and work to use that tools that are available to control the impact on their business.

We will be reaching out to our clients with an action plan to help address a number of these changes. Many of our clients have already been approached with a request to refresh customer match lists. More will be contacted in the near future to help them create customer match lists for the first time.

Our recommendation is to simply start by reviewing are you keeping a list of email address for customers and prospects. Can you offer a special download and get an email address in return to start building your first party data list? That is a great place to start.

Our team will guide you through the process in the month ahead with suggestions on steps you can take to have a privacy forward focus for the future.

For more information about McCord Web Services, a Google Partner, please visit our website to learn more about our mission and our services.

Update: as of late 6/24/21 Google announced that is delaying the Chrome cookie update until late 2023 due to advertiser concerns in embracing the new tracking technologies.

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Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA)

July 1, 2023 is the sunset date for UA or Universal Analytics.

Second in the nation behind California to enact online privacy regulation, Virginia’s new law takes effect on January 1, 2023.

Similar to the law in California that is again similar in itself to the more stringent privacy regulations in the European Union, Virginia has new privacy rules now too.

What does this mean for US and Virginia-based businesses and those selling in Virginia?

First and foremost, if you do not have cookie notifications on your website, now is the time to implement this scripting. There are many online services that provide the scripts to meet the European Unions’ strict rules and can be used to meet both California and Virginia’s regulations. We use cookie-script.com for our privacy adherence needs.

For Virginia businesses and those that do business in Virginia, here’s what you need to know about this recently passed act.

First you must be in compliance by January 1, 2023.

“Virginia’s legislation has a carve-out for information collected in the employment context, whereas California’s law applies to some employment data.” Read the full article.

The CDPA applies to the following business types:

• Those that control or process the personal data of at least 100,000 consumers.

• Those that process the personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derive more than 50 percent of their gross revenue from selling personal data.

Make sure to check this article for a number of exemptions. Virginia has made its law less stringent than California’s privacy law, but make sure you know what is covered and not covered.

What Are Your Rights in this New Law?

“Virginia’s law was modeled after California’s laws and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. Virginia’s law provides expansive consumer privacy rights, such as the right to access, right of rectification, right to delete, right to opt out, right of portability and right against automatic decision-making. The act includes a broad definition of “personal information,” a “sensitive data” category, and data-protection assessment requirements for businesses that control the data.”

“Consumers don’t have the right to bring a private lawsuit for violations of the act. Instead, the Virginia attorney general’s office will enforce the law. Entities will have the opportunity to cure violations or face a fine of $7,500 per violation.” Read more.

Most people expect other states to follow with restrictions similar to Virginia’s or California’s.

Our Recommendation

With privacy being in the forefront of everyone’s mind right now, it is time to look at adding a privacy statement and cookie setting acknowledgement script on your website.

When the EU rolled out it’s privacy regulation several years ago, many businesses opted to not update their site for cookie approval as they felt they were exempt (erroneously) by not selling services or products in the European Union. Now with expansion of similar regulations to California and Virginia, it is time to implement technology to be in compliance this year and at the minimum by December 31, 2022.