Welcome to Greenlight's weekly dose of Blog Watch! It's that time when we share the latest news and insights that have caught our eye. Enjoy!
GOOGLE'S LATEST MANUAL ACTION PENALTY: SPAMMY STRUCTURED MARKUP
After dropping 15% of the rich snippets displayed in search results, Google have started issuing manual spam notifications to webmasters for "spammy structured markup" also known as rich snippet spam.
The new manual action message from Google reads as follows:
"Markup on some pages on this site appears to use techniques such as marking up content that is invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content, and/or other manipulative behavior that violates Google's Rich Snippet Quality guidelines."
According to most forum users, this is a new manual action which has yet to be covered on Google's guidelines page.
http://searchengineland.com/googles-latest-manual-action-penalty-spammy-structured-markup-183379
GOOGLE NOFOLLOWS GOOGLE+ PROFILE LINKS
Google have started changing profile links on Google+ to NoFollow by defaults.
Currently, the links you add in the "Story" section of your profile, do not seem to be nofollowed, but this may change in the near future.
There has been much discussion about the impact/non-impact of links on Google+, which have now don't matter at all, because nofollowed links are not links in the eyes of Google.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-profile-links-nofollowed-18063.html
GOOGLE BOOTS LARGE GERMAN AGENCY & CLIENTS FOR LINK SCHEMES
Following a warning issued issued early last week, Matt Cutts tweeted that Google have penalised a large German link network. This comes shortly after Google penalised Buzzea, a large French link network for violating their quality guidelines.
This time, Cutts did not call out which network, instead he said Google went after a German agency and their clients over their link network. Cutts indicated that this is not the last major German link network that Google will be gunning for, stating that there is "more to come in Germany."
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-german-link-penalty-18075.html
A COMPLETE PERSPECTIVE ON THE ONLINE TRAVEL INDUSTRY FOR 2014
Linkdex in collaboration with State of Digital pulled together a comprehensive industry report on the online industry. The aim is to explore the themes of integration, big data, and also gain an understanding the level of digital knowledge in the travel industry.
Key takeaways include:
- Digital has changed the way we travel. And 'social travel', influenced by social media, user generated content, and shared content is now massive part of the inspiration phase.
- The travel industry is facing a massive problem with content. Proactive and innovative strategies are necessary to scale unique, engaging content, and appeal to different niches.
- Businesses and brands with an investment in the sector have to constantly update their knowledge of digital and technology to remain relevant.
- Big data implementation; the personalisation of the user experience; and the trend towards global marketing reach for local destinations is a trend for the future.
http://content.linkdex.com/Travel-360.pdf
WHY YOU SHOULD STILL CARE ABOUT THE LINKS
Despite all the noise in the industry, links form a fundamental backbone of the web and having a plan to generate these links is essential. Last Tuesday James Agate from SEOmoz posted an article on "how to passively attract valuables links" with interesting tips on the topic. This is not a breaking news article but James brought something extra to the table this time redefining the process to maximise long term benefit by turning a few links into more links
The process is summarized in 5 key areas
1. Concept
2. Seed placement
3. Prime
4. Supportive outreach
5. Extend
http://moz.com/blog/filthy-linking-rich-how-to-passively-attract-valuable-links
FUTURE OF SEARCH AND CONTENT MARKETING
The percentage of people who used social media to find websites increased 7 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to Forrester Research data.
"People have specific needs when they search, MacGurn said, and Google and Bing aren't always the first place they go to get that information anymore. While major search engines will continue to be important, MacGurn predicts it will be "the death of a thousand paper cuts" as the big players take somewhat of a back seat to the many ways users want to find information online."
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2327242/Future-of-Search-Content-Marketing-Expand-Your-Mindset
CHANGE IN GOOGLE CONVERSION TRACKING
Google announced last week a few changes in regards to its conversion tracking configuration in Google Adwords. Basically, the two columns dedicated to conversion in the Web interface are changing for two new types of settings:
All Conversions: AdWords counts all conversions (per tracked conversion action) that happen after an ad click
Unique Conversions: AdWords counts only unique conversions that happen after an ad click. This is a good choice if you're not interested in the number of sales, but instead whether or not a certain kind of lead was generated.
We'll probably see those changes within the next few weeks, in the meantime if you want to know more, just hit the link below:
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3438531
MAKING THE MOST OF THE DIMENSIONS TAB IN ADWORDS
As everyone knows, the Dimension Tab in Adwords is clearly underrated! That Tab lets you analyse your audience, focus on your target market and understanding who is actually seeing your ads. If you dig a little deeper, it will also help you identify ways to increase your exposure or improve the efficiency of your account. The key feature is to be able to see those data at account, campaign and ad group level. Make the most of your day, check the dimension tab of your account!
http://www.ppchero.com/making-the-most-of-the-dimensions-tab-in-adwords/
HOW IS MOBILE IS GOING TO AFFECT PAID MEDIA IN 2014
This is a very short article highlighting the necessity to better consider the Mobile activity within the overall paid search strategy. From PPC to Paid Social, a whole range of new advertising tools have been released already in 2013 (Google enhanced campaign, Facebook mobile apps ads…) to enable marketers to better target this segment of the population. With an expected 1.75b consumers using smartphones in 2014, it seems that this year won't be defferent… more information here:
