Google Introduces New Search Ad Position Metrics

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Search Ad Position Metrics

It's important to understand where your ads appear on the search results page. Contrary to common perception, average position is not meant to describe where the ad appears on the page. Average position reflects the order that your ad appears versus the other ads in the ad auction. For instance, an ad position of “1” means that your ad shows ahead of all other ads, but it doesn't necessarily mean the ad was at the very top of the page.  Sometimes, there are no ads displayed at the top of a search results page above organic search results.  It can be confusing.

That’s why Google is rolling out four new metrics that – unlike average position – provide clear insights on where your ads are appearing on the search results page.

  • Impr. (Absolute Top) % – the percent of your ad impressions that are shown as the very first ad above the organic search results.
  • Impr. (Top) % – the percent of your ad impressions that are shown anywhere above the organic search results.
  • Search (Absolute Top) IS – the impressions you’ve received in the absolute top location (the very first ad above the organic search results) divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
  • Search (Top) IS – the impressions you’ve received in the top location (anywhere above the organic search results) compared to the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.

Please contact us about your Google Ads.  Our agency is recognized as a trusted business partner by Google. As a Google Partner, we are prepared to help your business succeed with Google Ads.

Planning Google Ads for Holiday Traffic

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Planning Google Ads
Holiday traffic is on the rise.  Is  your Google Ads campaign ready?

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 59% of U.S. consumers planned to begin holiday shopping in November, and 22% started or were planning to start in October.* To be there when your customers are searching for your products, start optimizing your Google Ads campaigns for the holiday season.

For businesses that thrive during the holidays, this will mean making changes to your Google Ads campaigns to ramp things up for the holiday season.   It's competitive out there and this isn't a time to just let your campaign run on auto-pilot.

For businesses that typically slow down during the holiday season, it's time to make changes to your Google Ads campaign to minimize advertising spending during the holidays.

Whether you are gearing up for record sales or a holiday vacation, we can help you get your Google Ads optimized for the holidays.

 

*The NPD Group conducted an online survey in September 2017 among a U.S. representative sample of NPD online consumer panel members. The survey was completed by 3,785 individuals aged 18 and older. Brand Keys surveyed 11,625 shoppers and Prosper surveyed 7,349 consumers Oct. 3-10 for the NRF.

Mobile-First Indexing on Google

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Mobile-First Indexing on Google

Mobile-first indexing is well underway at Google.  Since mobile has become a more widely used platform to perform searches, Google will now utilize the mobile version of the website when it indexes and ranks pages.  As a result, we expect to see search engine rankings drop for websites that are not well optimized for mobile.

What does this mean for your website?

  1. If we developed a responsive website for you within the last five years AND you have been subscribing to Ongoing Support (which includes version, theme and plug-in updates), then your website is already optimized for mobile.
  2. If your website is more than five years old OR you have not been subscribing to Ongoing Support, please contact us for a complimentary mobile review.
  3. If we did not build your website, please contact us for a complimentary mobile review.

Google evaluates all desktop and mobile content to determine mobile friendliness.  We have and will continue to place great importance on the mobile User Experience (UX) as it significantly affects the indexing and ranking of websites.

Sometimes when we develop a responsive website, a client will ask us to organize content and/or navigation in a way that adversely affects the responsiveness of their site.  When such a request is made, we do inform the client of the negative impact their suggestion(s) may have on the mobile optimization of their website. Please keep in mind that since Google has implemented mobile-first indexing, it will be now be crucial for websites to deliver an optimal mobile UX.

If you've received a notification from Google about your website's mobile-first indexing, forward the notice to us for a review.

Have questions or would like a complimentary mobile review of your website?  Send us an e-mail.  We’re here to help!

Google Analytics Language Codes

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Here’s a reference for the language codes you will find in your Google Analytics reports:

af Afrikaans sq Albanian
ar-sa Arabic (Saudi Arabia) ar-iq Arabic (Iraq)
ar-eg Arabic (Egypt) ar-ly Arabic (Libya)
ar-dz Arabic (Algeria) ar-ma Arabic (Morocco)
ar-tn Arabic (Tunisia) ar-om Arabic (Oman)
ar-ye Arabic (Yemen) ar-sy Arabic (Syria)
ar-jo Arabic (Jordan) ar-lb Arabic (Lebanon)
ar-kw Arabic (Kuwait) ar-ae Arabic (U.A.E.)
ar-bh Arabic (Bahrain) ar-qa Arabic (Qatar)
eu Basque bg Bulgarian
be Belarusian ca Catalan
zh-tw Chinese (Taiwan) zh-cn Chinese (PRC)
zh-hk Chinese (Hong Kong SAR) zh-sg Chinese (Singapore)
hr Croatian cs Czech
da Danish nl Dutch (Standard)
nl-be Dutch (Belgium) en English
en-us English (United States) en-gb English (United Kingdom)
en-au English (Australia) en-ca English (Canada)
en-nz English (New Zealand) en-ie English (Ireland)
en-za English (South Africa) en-jm English (Jamaica)
en English (Caribbean) en-bz English (Belize)
en-tt English (Trinidad) et Estonian
fo Faeroese fa Farsi
fi Finnish fr French (Standard)
fr-be French (Belgium) fr-ca French (Canada)
fr-ch French (Switzerland) fr-lu French (Luxembourg)
gd Gaelic (Scotland) ga Irish
de German (Standard) de-ch German (Switzerland)
de-at German (Austria) de-lu German (Luxembourg)
de-li German (Liechtenstein) el Greek
he Hebrew hi Hindi
hu Hungarian is Icelandic
id Indonesian it Italian (Standard)
it-ch Italian (Switzerland) ja Japanese
ko Korean ko Korean (Johab)
lv Latvian lt Lithuanian
mk Macedonian (FYROM) ms Malaysian
mt Maltese no Norwegian (Bokmal)
no Norwegian (Nynorsk) pl Polish
pt-br Portuguese (Brazil) pt Portuguese (Portugal)
rm Rhaeto-Romanic ro Romanian
ro-mo Romanian (Republic of Moldova) ru Russian
ru-mo Russian (Republic of Moldova) sz Sami (Lappish)
sr Serbian (Cyrillic) sr Serbian (Latin)
sk Slovak sl Slovenian
sb Sorbian es Spanish (Spain)
es-mx Spanish (Mexico) es-gt Spanish (Guatemala)
es-cr Spanish (Costa Rica) es-pa Spanish (Panama)
es-do Spanish (Dominican Republic) es-ve Spanish (Venezuela)
es-co Spanish (Colombia) es-pe Spanish (Peru)
es-ar Spanish (Argentina) es-ec Spanish (Ecuador)
es-cl Spanish (Chile) es-uy Spanish (Uruguay)
es-py Spanish (Paraguay) es-bo Spanish (Bolivia)
es-sv Spanish (El Salvador) es-hn Spanish (Honduras)
es-ni Spanish (Nicaragua) es-pr Spanish (Puerto Rico)
sx Sutu sv Swedish
sv-fi Swedish (Finland) th Thai
ts Tsonga tn Tswana
tr Turkish uk Ukrainian
ur Urdu ve Venda
vi Vietnamese xh Xhosa
ji Yiddish zu Zulu

Immediate Notification When Someone Mentions Your Business Online

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Did you know that Google will notify you every time someone mentions your business or website online?

Would you like to receive notifications each time your competitor is mentioned online?

All you have to do is set up Google Alerts.   With Google Alerts, Google will send you e-mails anytime your web page or company name is mentioned.

Google Alerts is an easy method of finding new pages and articles linking to your site or mentioning your service.

Or, for monitoring your competition.

Just go to:  https://www.google.com/alerts

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts to Save Time

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If you use Gmail, you're going to love these keyboard shortcuts to help you breeze through that email.

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts to Save Time

 

Google Plus Introduces Giant Cover Photos

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Google Plus introduced giant cover photos this week along with several other features in an effort to make their social network bigger and better.  The new larger photos occupy nearly half the screen.

The cover photos aren't the only changes on Google Plus. The “About” tab is redesigned, and “Reviews” now compiles all of your reviews from Google Local.

These new Google Plus improvements are still rolling out, so not everyone can see them yet.

If you need help getting your cover photo ready, just contact us.

Why You Should Use a Google Ads Certified Partner

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Google Ads

Like many business owners, you may not have a significant amount of time to invest in learning Google Ads and managing your own advertising account. Hiring a professional can help save you time while maximizing the return on your investment. In many cases, you'll actually spend less overall using a Google Certified Partner who uses their experience to get the best results on a limited budget than if you were to manage your campaign on your own.   It is just as important for a company with a small advertising budget to use a professional as it is for a large company with a huge budget.

Google Certified Partners

Google Certified Partners have invested time training and using Ads to become certified, and using their expertise may benefit your campaigns and help generate new leads and business from Google advertising programs.

In choosing a Google Certified Partner, you should consider your core advertising needs and try to match them with a professional's services. To learn more about our services, click here.