Ted Schadler says, “We’ve all experienced this garbage: You are on your smartphone. You find a link that you hope will help you in a mobile moment. You click with the great hope that it will be exactly what you need. Some irrelevant popup ad grabs you by the arm and blocks your path. You suffer through the ad or the countdown before getting to the site. (And feel angry or bad doing it.) Now you finally find out: Does the website help or have you clicked in vain?”. Google Will Attack Popup Ads On Smartphones — Hallelujah! Forrester Blogs  [...]

Andrew Ruegger says, “Market-leading site analytics providers such as Google and Adobe continue to bring new insights about consumer behaviors through advancements in their analytics and tag management offerings. Both Adobe (Marketing Cloud) and Google (360 Analytics) have made big strides in improving their offerings to include tag management, measurement, attribution, optimization and more. These are designed to equip brands with the tools needed to maximize the value of their media investments and web traffic data. One free and easy place to look for new insights into your consumers is... [...]

Amanda Zantal-Wiener says, “Google is no stranger to algorithmic change. And usually, those changes are made for the sake of the user. Looking at a history of Google’s product announcements, usability is usually at the heart of the modification. So when Google announced its impending smackdown on mobile pop-up ads earlier this week, it came as no surprise that the major reason behind it was to enhance the user experience. For many businesses, the announcement carries major implications. Those that rely on advertisements as a primary source of revenue, for example, will be some of the... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google has removed the policy of limiting AdSense ads to three ads per page. The move can largely be seen as a response to mobile, on which pages have turned into never-ending streams and a specific ads-per-page policy doesn’t make much sense. A Google spokesperson confirmed the update to Marketing Land: “We’re always fine tuning our policies to make sure they reflect the current environment. In one recent change, we stopped limiting the number of AdSense ads that could appear on a page and instead now look at the overall balance of content and ads on a page.... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Google announced that is dropping the “mobile-friendly” label in search results. The company says that now 85 percent of pages in mobile results are in fact mobile-friendly. Google also said today in a blog post that it will impose a ranking penalty on “intrusive interstitials” that impede user access to content. According to the post: Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller. To improve the mobile... [...]

MOZ team says, “Google is constantly testing new design elements, but over the past few months they’ve been testing a change that, while it might seem small on the surface, represents a major philosophical shift. The screenshots in this post were all captured on live SERPs but appear to be tests and have not rolled out permanently. Here’s an example of the basic change. Notice how each result (ads and organic) is wrapped in a container and visually separated on a gray background. These containers are called “cards” in Google’s vernacular, and they’re important,... [...]

MOZ team says, “When Google says jump, it’s hard not to jump. Often we take the words of Google representatives as edict and law, but it’s important to understand subtleties and to allow for clarification with time. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses some angles to consider that will help you stay grounded when the “Big G” makes a statement about SEO”. When and How to Listen to Google’s Public Statements About SEO – Whiteboard Friday MOZ  [...]

SBT team says, “Two new events have been added to the Feature Calendar for November! Read more about both events, each with a starting date of Nov. 14, in our calendar below. Influencer Marketing Days, a two day event held at the TKP Conference Center located in Midtown, Manhattan, will cover issues pertinent to this burgeoning industry. Information shared at the conference will include research and statistics, different kinds of influencers, influencer marketing channels and more. Meanwhile NextCon 16, being touted by organizers as the must-attend business event of 2016, will be held at... [...]

George Freitag says, “Last week, Casey Meraz did a great breakdown on the state of local, showing where you should be heading with your strategy and answering some tough questions about the future of local search. Today, let’s look at all the recent changes that Google itself has been making to its own local product and examine how that will help you understand where they’re heading. This has been a big year for local search, with Google launching a ton of changes related to local, including several changes directly to their local platform, Google My Business. Marketers and brands are... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google is testing a new overview in the Opportunities tab in AdWords that gives advertisers an “Account Health Score for Search.” The feature was spotted and first reported by the team at Receptional, a UK-based digital marketing agency. As Receptional points out, the idea is similar to that of WordStream’s AdWords Grader, showing an overall score and a more detailed assessment. Clicking on the View Campaigns button brings up campaign overview with Health Scores listed for each and links to recommendations“. Google tests showing an overall Health Score for... [...]