Search Engines | PPC Ian

Yahoo! Pushing The Limits of Organic Search

Posted by: PPC Ian Comments: 9 comments so far

Mar. 09

I’m a huge fan of Yahoo! Back in December, I posted about how Yahoo! Rich Ads Are Back. Recently, I have noticed Yahoo! pushing the limits of organic search as well. Go to Yahoo! and type in the word “refinance”. A screenshot of the results is below. Check out the Quicken Loans result. I’m totally thrilled with the integration of the mortgage refinance rate table right into the organic result.

This was the vision of the Search Alliance all along. Yahoo! and Microsoft partnered so adCenter could power the paid and organic results on both search engines. However, Yahoo! always had the plan that they would focus on user experience and advanced add-on functionality on top of the standard results. It’s awesome to see this vision turning into reality. Great work Yahoo! Want to customize your organic search results on Yahoo? Reach out to your account management team and see what beta tests may be available.

Image in this post © Yahoo!

Posted in: Search Engines | Tags: organic search, yahoo | Comments: 9 comments so far, join the discussion!

Sitelinks Now Have Arrows Pointing To Them

Posted by: PPC Ian Comments: Be the first person to comment

Feb. 09

I’m a huge fan of Google sitelinks. Sitelinks are showing up more and more, with some ads now displaying Six Sitelinks. (Make sure your campaigns have six sitelinks or else there’s no way you will get the full benefit when Google wants to serve up six sitelinks.) Now, Google is improving sitelinks even more. Check out the screenshot below, the search results for the query “life insurance”. There’s a little arrow next to the sitelinks pointing right at them! Starting today, I’m seeing this little arrow with both paid and organic ads.

So far, I have not experienced a ton of clicks on sitelinks themselves. Rather, sitelinks are amazing because they allow you to get additional real estate for ad copy, raising your overall CTR. Personally, I wish more people clicked on sitelinks because they allow you to segment your traffic and theoretically improve the overall user experience. Now, with the little arrow, this may become reality! I know when I include arrows on landing pages they definitely draw the user’s attention. The arrow next to sitelinks should definitely increase clicks on sitelinks which will be fun to measure.

Posted in: Search Engines | Tags: sitelinks | Comments: Be the first person to comment!

Google Local Maps Pushing Down Paid Ads

Posted by: PPC Ian Comments: 6 comments so far

Feb. 03

Check out the screenshot below of the Google search results for the ever competitive query, “auto insurance”. At the top of the right rail, you’ll see a map. If you click the title of the map (“Map for auto insurance”), you get taken to a local results page that includes local brokers. If you’re a local broker, this could be a great way to get more business. However, if you’re a paid search advertiser and show up on the right rail, this means lower CTRs.

The map pushes all ads on the right rail down. At the end of the day, this means it’s more important than ever to show up in the top yellow bar. Otherwise, your ad will get a significantly lower CTRs. Google is supposed to normalize CTRs for position for purposes of quality score, but I wonder if they are factoring in this new map feature. The lower CTRs of right rail advertisers could be a vicious cycle if Google is not taking this new map feature into account.

My advice: Work on your CTRs, landing pages, and overall account structure/efficiency to make sure you show up in that top yellow bar! It’s becoming more important than ever to avoid the right rail, if possible, and show up in the yellow bar.

Screenshot of Google search results © Google

Posted in: Search Engines | Tags: adwords, google maps | Comments: 6 comments so far, join the discussion!

Uncover Hidden Tricks With Google Instant

Posted by: PPC Ian Comments: 11 comments so far

Jan. 21

It’s the weekend so it’s time to relax. It’s time to have a little fun and stop taking things so seriously. In that light, I wanted to share some really cool “hidden tricks” today with Google Instant. Some of my team members actually shared these with me on Friday and I was so excited about it. I absolutely can’t get enough of Google’s humor. For SEM geeks, like myself, this stuff is too funny.

Below, you will see two screenshots. The first is the search engine results on Google when I type in “askew”. As you can see, Google Instant technology actually makes the page go askew for the word askew, how cool is that!

The second screenshot shows the search results for the search term “do a barrel roll”. This one is so crazy, you just have to see it for yourself. Type in “do a barrel roll” on Google Instant and the entire page does a barrel roll. Obviously, my screenshot is just a moment in time during the barrel roll process.

Bring these into work on Monday and you’ll be the hero of your SEM team. Do you know any hidden tricks with Google Instant? There just have to be more. I have not yet taken the time to search for other Google tricks, but definitely looking forward to uncovering more of them!

Posted in: Search Engines | Tags: askew, do a barrel roll | Comments: 11 comments so far, join the discussion!

Capture Email Addresses With Google AdWords

Posted by: PPC Ian Comments: 7 comments so far

Dec. 27

I’m a huge fan of Google AdWords ad extensions. What are ad extensions? They are new ways of customizing your AdWords ads to greatly improve your overall CTR and interaction with searchers. Basically, Google is challenging the traditional paid search ad format with new, special extensions that make your ads more interesting and interactive than ever before. Different ad extensions make sense in different verticals. Some of my favorite examples from the finance vertical include Call Extensions and Sitelinks. In the retail vertical, you may quite familiar with seller review extensions.

Recently, I noticed another cool ad extension that’s still in beta testing, email lead capture extensions (check out the screenshot below). For many verticals, the money truly is in the email list. This is never more true than in the “daily deals” vertical. When I search for “sf deals”, I found a neat ad by Pinchit that allows me to sign up for their email deals without ever leaving Google AdWords! If you make a lot of money from your email list, I highly recommend asking your AdWords rep about this extension. If you’re in a vertical that is not as reliant on your email list, I highly recommend testing the other extensions, you will not be disappointed. Great work Google, please keep the cool ad extensions coming.