GOOGLE CHANGES NEW SEARCH RESULTS PAGE LAYOUT
Google is constantly updating to keep up with the latest in trends and digital developments, and recently they’ve made some subtle, yet important changes to the search results page layout. Although they are cosmetic, these small changes can have quite a big impact, and play a much larger role when it comes to tracking analytics for both paid and organic searches.
Below is the before and after pictures of what Google’s design was, and what it looks like today for their homepage.
Before
After
The subtle design features a much more distinct box around each item, with a drop shadow on the home page. You can find that changes were made to both the search results, as well as the search engine page.
Each search result is now more distinguished, and as you can see from the image below, the ads are more difficult to decipher from the organic results. The only thing that really separates the ads from the organics is the small green box to the left of the ad. This small separation will make it more difficult for users to identify the difference between the two, and I expect it to increase click through rates on the ads.
I first noted this change as of 01/19/17, and we’ll continue to track changes to the search results. We will be tracking to see if there’s any change in paid versus organic traffic for our clients.
FREE 2017 CONTENT CALENDAR TEMPLATE (DOWNLOADABLE)
Last year, one of our most popular blog posts was our free 2016 content calendar via Google Sheets, complete with sections for your social media posts so that you could plan out your whole year of content marketing. In that spirit, we’ve updated the calendar and once again it’s free to download and use at your discretion.
How to use this content calendar template:
- If you can open it, then it’s saved onto your Google drive. To save your own copy that you can edit, simply go to File –> Make a copy to have your own. There is no need to request us for access to use the sheet. Repeat: There is no need to request us for access to use the sheet!
- Navigate the months using the tabs at the bottom of the screen.
- US Federal holidays are highlighted in blue. Weekends are highlighted in pink. Just so you don’t mistakenly schedule a blog post for the weekend.
- Key dates for the months are listed in Column C-D. We deliberately added a generous helping of silly days (hello, Barbie Day on March 9), famous birthdays and today-in-history entries for the occasional moment when we run out of clever things to say on social media. You can change these of course to the type of content that makes sense for you.
- This calendar was completed within the last few days. Obviously a lot of things can happen between now and 2017. We encourage you to check other sources in case you’re building campaigns around sports and other special event dates.
Ready to plan out your year?
Download our exclusive 2017 Content Calendar Template
Plan out your entire year in one place.
I’m interested in SEO/PPC services
OLD WORLD, NEW FRONTIERS: CLIENT CELEBRATES HOLIDAY SUCCESS
With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, gratitude has been on my mind a lot lately. While the list of things I am grateful for is extensive, working with amazing, local companies run by incredible people is pretty high on the list. I wanted to take a little bit of time out of my day to say thanks to one of our partners here at Globe Runner, so I made my way to Old World Stoneworks.
Old World Stoneworks is a pioneer in the cast stone fireplace mantel industry that began in Dallas over twenty years ago. Yellow, red, and brown leaves lined the streets of the gorgeous Vickery Place neighborhood on my drive there. General manager Mike Jung and his company have a breathtaking storefront that displays what you should expect when ordering a cast stone fireplace mantel with them.
I got a chance to sit down and talk with Mike about some of the exciting projects him and his company recently wrapped up. Their artisan stonework was featured on the long-running home improvement show “This Old House” on PBS, and the episode will air this season. The showrunners reached out to Mike about installing one of their fireplaces for the house in Arlington, Massachusetts they were renovating. Another exciting development is a partnership with La Madeleine to do cast stone fireplace mantels for some of their locations such as the restaurants in Austin and Fort Worth.
One of the collaborative efforts between Old World and Globe Runner was the updated platform of their website. They sought to make it more retail friendly and Mike told me, “We are excited from a business perspective to see how e-commerce does” in 2017 and beyond.
Old World prides itself on designing and creating their mantels locally. The production of the fireplaces are all done in the Dallas suburb of McKinney. The passion for the product that the entire team shares was infectious. On days like these I can’t help but express how thankful I am thankful for the privilege to work with companies like Old World Stoneworks. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving, too.
GOOGLE ADWORDS EXPANDED TEXT ADS – HOW ARE THEY CHANGING PAID SEARCH?
Earlier this year, Google announced expanded text ads that would change the way PPC advertising would work. The main change is that instead of having a 25-character headline with two 35-character descriptions, you’d have two 30-character headlines and an 80-character description to play with.
So what effect does this have on PPC advertising? There are a few things that you’ll need to keep in mind.
Uniformity Across Devices
One of the goals of expanded text ads is to make advertising more uniform across devices. Previously this year, Google cut out side ads on desktop, removing some of the distinction between mobile and desktop devices and—incidentally—allowing more space for ads. This was a natural lead in for expanded text ads.
More Words, More Freedom
Ultimately, expanded text ads allow for nearly 50% more text, and the structure changes somewhat. This doesn’t just mean you’ll have more room to convey your message—you’ll also need to restructure your ads to make the best possible use of the new format.
Some of the rules remain the same. Your headline will most likely be read first, and the description last (if at all), just as before. But now that you have two headlines, you’ll be able to incorporate more information, a stronger call to action, more engaging wording, etc.
You’ll also need to prioritize what goes where, since the first headline will almost certainly be noticed, but the second headline (depending on the device and the length) may appear on a second line or even be truncated.
Mind Your URL
Another change that has been made is the way your URL is displayed in the ad. Expanded text ads extract the display URL from the final URL, which you can then customize with up to two paths tacked on to the end. It’s best to match these paths to your ad’s keywords to make it more relevant—and thus more likely to be clicked.
For more information on PPC services, call or contact the office of Accelerate Online Marketing today.
5 REASONS TO RUN SEO AND PPC TOGETHER
When determining their online marketing strategy, many companies feel like they need to opt for either SEO or PPC. After all, they both ultimately achieve the same end—attracting visitors to your site and increasing revenue. Using both might seem redundant.
The truth is it’s not redundant at all. SEO and PPC do reach the same ultimate goal, but they do so by different means. PPC is highly targeted, whereas SEO is more organic, and the two can bolster each other dramatically. Following are five reasons why the two should be combined:
- Expanded data: When researching the effectiveness of keywords, using SEO and PPC helps you figure out what’s most effective by providing more overall data. This lets you quickly figure out what changes to make and increase clickthrough and conversion rates more promptly, making you more agile.
- PPC generates results quickly: Not only does PPC bolster keyword data, but it does so very quickly. This makes it optimal for testing keywords prior to use in an SEO campaign.
- SEO helps find long-tail keywords: Just as PPC helps inform short keywords, SEO can help you gather data on long-tail keywords. It does this naturally, and it can help you improve your PPC campaign with more targeted wording.
- Dominate the results page: A very practical way that PPC and SEO help each other out is by essentially doubling your presence on search engine results pages. Assuming both your ads and your content are well designed, you’ll be able to have organic results as well as paid ads appear on relevant searches.
- SEO can reduce PPC costs: In certain industries, high ranking keywords will demand a large price for PPC. In these cases, it’s more cost-effective to use these expensive keywords for SEO while targeting the cheaper ones in your PPC campaign.
At the end, the two combined add up to far more than either could accomplish independently. Contact the dedicated Digital Rockstars at Globe Runner to learn more about how our Dallas SEO services and PPC services can benefit your business.
GALLERY 550 OPENING AT GLOBE RUNNER HQ A SMASHING SUCCESS
On Thursday, October 13, Globe Runner held its third official Gallery 550 exhibition at its Addison, Texas, offices and it was a resounding success.
Clients, members of the public and employee family and friends flooded into the office to see what artist Alejandro Castanon cooked up (the open bar didn’t hurt either). What they found were inspired, vibrant paintings depicting some of Dallas’ most iconic landmarks, from the Old Red Courthouse to the city skyline, as well as a host of pieces dedicated to musicians such as Amy Winehouse, The Beatles and Kurt Cobain.
Alejandro and the Globe Runner team decided the best way to spice up the event would be to raffle off a live painting. A portion of the proceeds from the raffle was donated to Breathe Boldness, a foundation created by Dallas Cowboy Joshua Thomas with the goal of feeding 100 million homeless people.
Alejandro and the Globe Runner team decided the best way to spice up the event would be to raffle off a live painting. A portion of the proceeds from the raffle was donated to Breathe Boldness, a foundation created by Dallas Cowboy Joshua Thomas with the goal of feeding 100 million homeless people.
Huechteman Photography
WHICH HALF OF YOUR MARKETING IS WORKING?
Have you ever thought to yourself, half of my marketing works just don’t know which half?
It’s a common problem that marketers run into and owners definitely face. Some have tried to conquer that problem and I will say there are a lot of things that can be done to figure out which half of your marketing is working.
I would like to go deep on that topic and figure out what we can do to track marketing better and determine what’s actually effective and what is a complete waste of money.
Call Tracking
Some of the tools that we use are call tracking, so what we like to do is track every single phone call that comes in to the business. Ideally we put a dynamic call tracking number on the website. That way each individual user that makes a phone call gets a different phone number. By showing them a different phone number, we know exactly which user triggered the call. By knowing the user, I know which campaign they came in through. The other thing we can do is separate out last click attribution from original click attribution.
Click Attribution
So let me break that down for you. What I mean by that is last click attribution is the last thing that they did before they made a purchase. I attribute that campaign with the visit. Let’s give an example. If somebody saw an ad that you were running on Facebook and came to your website but did not purchase, they left your website and came back a week later and made a purchase. But when they came back, instead of coming through Facebook, they came from google search. Which one of those campaigns actually drove that sale?
Was it the last click or the first click that purchaser made? Well they are both important actually. But I would really like to know whether or not my Facebook campaign was effective and generating more awareness that then brought that customer back later. I would like report, and what we do today is implement some very sophisticated marketing software that allows us to tie back the original time that a visitor came to my website. We know exactly when they came to the website first. When they do identify themselves by making the purchase, I can connect the dots between the final purchase and the first time they visited us.
So now we know the entire life cycle. and we can report back, last click attribution and initial awareness, or first click attribution.
Those are just 2 methodologies that we use to report to clients how we are performing as an agency and which campaigns are performing which ones are winners, which ones are dogs.
GLOBE RUNNER CEO ERIC MCGEHEARTY APPEARS ON PLAYMAKERS TALK SHOW
PlayMakers Talk Show
We are thrilled to announce our very own CEO of Globe Runner Eric McGehearty will be joining PlayMakers Talk Show on 770 KAAM this Friday, September 30 at 3 pm.
Be sure to tune in! If you miss the Friday show, don’t worry because there will be an Encore Presentation on Saturday at 2 pm.
For those who don’t know, Eric is an entrepreneur and thought leader. His writings on business and entrepreneurship have been published in Forbes, Octane Magazine, and Yahoo Small Business Advisor.
In is not so “free time” he is a nationally recognized artist showing in galleries, museums, and public spaces. His sculpture in Fort Worth was recognized by America for the Arts as one of the top 40 pieces in 2007.
Eric is also the co-founder of the non-profit Stand UP LD a support network for parents and educators seeking resources to support and inspire children with learning differences.
Play below to listen to a promo for the show!
MICRO-MOMENTS: BREAKING DOWN ‘I-WANT-TO-BUY’ MOMENTS
Micro-moments are the small instances each day when someone uses a mobile device to quickly search for a bit of desired information. One type of moment, called an “I-want-to-buy” moment, centers around using internet searches to help with purchasing decisions. These moments present a massive opportunity for companies looking to attract buyers.
‘I-Want-To-Buy’ Moments Defined
An “I-want-to-buy” moment is any instance when you search for information to help with a purchase. This can include both on-the-spot purchases (like which brand of cologne to buy during a shopping trip) and large investments (such as buying a house).
These moments are often spread throughout the day, made either before a shopping excursion, while in the store, or over the course of days, weeks, or months prior to a large purchase. The one thing all these instances have in common, however, is the fact that they usually result in a purchase.
The following scenario breaks down what actually happens in these moments.
Scenario
Let’s suppose Doug is out on a grocery trip during which he intends to buy something to help with his athlete’s foot. He finds the foot cream section in the store and notices a wide variety of different brands, the prices of which range from around $6 (for a 10oz generic brand) to $60 (for a 4oz name brand).
How does Doug decide? He certainly doesn’t want to spend $60 on a small tube of foot cream, but what if the cheaper brands don’t work at all? He does a quick search for reviews on his phone to help him choose a brand.
Making the Most of the Moment
Doug’s not going to sit there forever sifting through content, so if you’re in the foot cream business, you need to provide content he can find and digest quickly. Creating this kind of content involves planning and online marketing savvy. During the process, consider what your audience needs to know prior to making purchasing decisions. Well-executed content will draw customers during these moments.
For additional help with “I-want-to-buy” moments, contact us at Accelerate Online Marketing today.
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