Barry Levine says, “Google is making a bigger play in the marketing data arena today, with the announcement that it is launching a new enterprise-oriented measurement platform called Google Analytics 360 Suite. In an announcement post appearing today on the blog Inside AdWords, Vice President of Analytics, Display, and Video Products Paul Muret wrote: “Sophisticated marketers who use analytics platforms are 3X more likely to outperform their peers in achieving revenue goals. It’s no wonder enterprise-class marketers have been telling us they need more from their marketing analytics tools.... [...]

Ben Davis says, “On Friday, Google explicitly stated what it expects from bloggers who receive free products (read the blog post here). In a nutshell: a prominent clarification of a commercial relationship, a no-follow link and content that isn’t suspiciously hotchpotch. We already knew this, so why has it peeved some SEOs? When is a link a natural link? The Google blog post in question prompted some SEOs to bemoan the fact that marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to earn organic traffic. Hasn’t Google made online PR a more tricky proposition than offline? If a company... [...]

Jamily Gann says, “If you’ve searched Google recently, then you may have notice something different. In the past, searches for products pulled up two or three paid ads in the search results, and then along the right side of the screen, more paid ads were displayed. Those right-side ads? They’re gone now. In their place is an opportunity for ecommerce companies. Hello Product Placement The words “product placement” bring to mind characters drinking from a can of Coca-Cola during the most exciting scene in the movie. Well, okay, we can run with that. Only, instead of characters, it’s... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “How does the behavior of Google search users differ on mobile devices vs. desktop computers? Are people more likely to focus on certain elements of search engine results pages (SERPs) when using smaller screens? To find out, Mediative conducted an eye-tracking study in 2015 with 49 people of various ages. Participants were given 41 search tasks to complete using the Google search engine on an iPhone 5. The researchers tracked where users looked, how long it took them to look, when they clicked, and how long it took them to click. Both organic and paid listings were examined. Google... [...]

Demian Farnworth says, “Watch the video. Ignore the copy. That’s my advice to you once you land on Google’s site dedicated to the new Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project: “The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is an open source initiative that embodies the vision that publishers can create mobile optimized content once and have it load instantly everywhere.” If you are not a developer and you read the copy, you will be swallowed alive by jargon. Watch the video, however, and you’ll almost immediately understand what AMP is all about (not to mention a funny Spinal Tap reference,... [...]

Greg Finn says, “Last year, Google announced Smart Goals, a nifty product that can help advertisers create programmatic conversions when a true conversion hasn’t been set up. Over the coming weeks, this new type of conversion, driven by machine learning, is now open to a whole new set of advertisers. Previously, advertisers needed to have 1,000 website visits in the past 30 days to be eligible for the program. Now, the requirement is being slashed to 500. Furthermore, the ceiling for advertisers who are eligible to use Smart Goals has increased to allow for more adoption. Smart Goals are... [...]

Tian Wang says, “With today’s blog post I’m sharing everything one needs to know about an underappreciated tool: the Google Analytics add-on for Google Sheets. In this post I’ll be covering the following: 1. What is the Google Analytics add-on? 2. How to install and set up the Google Analytics add-on. 3. How to create a custom report with the Google Analytics add-on. 4. A step-by-step worked example of setting up an automated report. 5. Further considerations and pitfalls to avoid. Thanks to Moz for having me, and for giving me the chance to write about this simple and powerful tool!”. The... [...]

Larry Kim says, “Worried about the recent changes to Google’s ad layout on desktop search? Don’t be! I come to you today with a simple message: Keep calm. This change — which will see Google show up to four ads above organic search results and remove text ads completely from the right side of desktop search results — is a net positive for paid desktop search and PPC marketers. Yes, really. Like Kevin Ryan, I’ve been urging people not to panic since this change started rolling out. Plenty of search marketers have overreacted and predicted certain doom, but there is no reason for... [...]

Matthew Ingram says, “If you’ve been searching on Google’s mobile site, you may have started seeing a selection of news articles from various publishers at the top of the search results, in a carousel that allows you to swipe from one to the other. And in the corner of the “card” for each article you might have noticed a tiny lightning bolt. Welcome to Google’s AMP project. AMP has been in the works for almost a year, and has been in beta mode for a number of months with publishers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and Vox Media. Now Google is rolling out AMP-modified... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Last week, Google launched autotrack for analytics.js (aka Universal Analytics) to make it easier for marketers to get more out of Google Analytics without having to go through a big customization learning curve. The autotrack library “attempts to leverage as many Google Analytics features as possible while requiring minimal manual implementation. It gives developers a foundation for tracking data relevant to today’s modern web,” explains Philip Walton, developer programs engineer at Google in the blog post announcing the launch. Autotrack offers a collection of... [...]