Ginny Marvin says, “Advertisers have begun receiving claim notice emails related to a $22.5 million settlement in a class action suit against Google. The case, Google AdWords Litigation, Case No. 5:08-cv-03369-EJD, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, stems from a 2008 claim that Google did not disclose that it placed ads on parked domains and error pages in violation of California’s unfair competition and false advertising laws. The advertisers sought restitution for the difference between what they paid per click versus what they would have paid had they... [...]

Andy Taylor says, “There are plenty of options for particular metrics to drive paid search programs toward, but not every KPI is created equal. Here, we’ll dive into what your preferred KPI says about you and provide recommendations to help you assess whether your KPI reflects the goals you care about. All insights are at least slightly hyperbolic and assume you have a one-track mind for your KPI of choice. I bet some of you out there can keep two, three, maybe even more KPIs in mind when managing accounts, as you should. You’ll just have to meld the descriptions to uncover those deep... [...]

Jacob Baadsgaard says, “Ever feel like AdWords is one giant juggling act? You cut your cost per click, only to watch your conversion rate drop. You increase lead volume, but those leads don’t turn into sales. You finally boost sales, but now your cost per click is unprofitably high… When does the madness stop? With all of these apparently conflicting priorities, it can be easy to drop the ball a few times. Or, worse still, you might feel like AdWords isn’t worth the effort, throw your hands in the air and quit. However, there is a way to juggle all of your marketing goals —... [...]

John E Lincoln says, “Do you have an app that you’d like to rank in mobile search engine results? If so, you’re going to need to make room in your SEO strategy for app optimization. For apps, there are distinct ranking factors. Although they are similar to ranking factors for a standard web page, there are differences that you need to know about. Here’s how you can optimize your app to get the best possible rank. Yes, you need to optimize According to a recent Google report, 27 percent of users find apps through a search engine. That’s up from 2 percent to 3 percent in 2014. That... [...]

Julie Joyce says, “I’m one of those people who thinks I can usually handle things by myself — I don’t need or want anyone’s help. It’s been tough for me to let go of that attitude when it comes to link building, but I’ve been doing much better lately after realizing that it really is beneficial to have more involvement from various people. Sometimes that extra involvement has been kind of forced on me. Sometimes I’ve had to beg for it. But all in all, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that the best links we get these days come from working together with the client, their... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Today, Google has reaffirmed that 15 percent of Google searches done by users on a daily basis have never been seen before. Google said this back in 2013 and now has restated that metric as Google announced Project Owl this morning. Google wrote: There are trillions of searches on Google every year. In fact, 15 percent of searches we see every day are new — which means there’s always more work for us to do to present people with the best answers to their queries from a wide variety of legitimate sources. While our search results will never be perfect, we’re as... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Bing Ads rolled out three new features this week for Shopping Campaigns. Search term report at product level: Advertisers can now see which search queries triggered product ads a the product ID level with Product Search Term. This report will show whether products are triggering for appropriate search terms. But in the blog post, Bing Ads also points out that this report can help guide product title optimization in ways you might not already be thinking about, such as seasonal triggers: Example: If you’re selling personalized photo frames and you notice seasonal... [...]

Jordan Kasteler says, “You might disagree, but I see Search Engine Optimization as both an art and a science. You need to be creative in your approaches to please search engines and outsmart competitors while also applying solid research and analytics-based strategies. To do this, you need to employ a variety of techniques and tools. Unfortunately, however, most people tend to stick to what they know. That can be dangerous in the rapidly evolving SEO space, as the search engines continually adjust what they’re looking for and how they display results. Following, some of the significant... [...]

Bryan Stenslokken says, “The importance of schema.org has significantly grown in the SEO world since its introduction in 2011. Schema.org is a collection of schemas for structured data markup (sometimes called “schema markup”) that helps search engines better understand content on websites. Implementing this markup on a site can also improve how that site’s listings appear in SERPs. By properly implementing structured data markup from schema.org, you can gain a competitive advantage, increase click-through rate, drive additional traffic and cost-effectively improve organic search... [...]

David Freeman says, “Links have always commanded significant focus when it comes to increasing organic search performance. Over the years, SEOs have built them by any means possible — legitimate and otherwise. Recently, the market has adapted to significant algorithmic shifts and adopted a content marketing approach to link building. This move has led brands and SEOs to create huge volumes of content, often in a silo, with the pure purpose of building links to drive organic search performance. This approach rightly focuses on hitting channel KPIs, but it overlooks the wider business performance... [...]