Latest Google AdWords PLA Test: Segmenting Products By Brand

Google has been running several experiments on the way it displays product listing ads (PLAs) in the search results. We’ve seen ads grouped in pricing buckets, PLAs showing in knowledge panels, and now, PLAs segmented by brand.

While researching Chromebooks, Samuel Edwards at Tenthwave Digital saw the result below which groups product listing ads by brand. Samsung brand Chromebooks are displayed above a second grouping of HP brand laptops, followed by an “Other brands” category. (Note that there is actually an HP product relegated among the Other Brands.)

This format puts a whopping 12 PLAs on the page, with three text ads appearing below the PLA block. The pricing segment test — which I haven’t seen in the wild and may have been retired — only showed the more typical 8 PLAs.

I’ve been able to replicate this type of result, though with Acer replacing Samsung at the top of the heap, which raises the question of how Google decides which brands to feature in the results. So far, I haven’t found other examples of this type of brand segmentation in PLAs. If it works, Google will expand it to more queries.

Google added ratings to product listing ads in the U.S. in July and transitioned all PLAs to the new Shopping Campaigns type at the start of this month. PLAs have been a huge success for Google, RKG reported image-based product ads accounted for half of non-brand clicks among among its large retail client base running both text and product ads.

Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often

Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often According to a Moz tracking study the new formatted quick answers box you find in Google for queries like [what is seo] is showing up 98% more often than a week ago. Overall, general answer boxes, including stock quotes, weather forecasts, box scores and so on are showing up 44% more often. What are direct or quick answers from Google? Here is a picture of an example; but keep in mind it may or may not show images or photos within the box. However, they are different from the Knowledge Graph panel in that they are at the top of the search results. Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often Moz said the day-over-day increase from September 25-26 in new answer boxes was +98%, almost doubling the total number in their data set. Here is the graphic: Moz: Google’s New Quick Answer Box Now Showing 98% More Often This is not to say that these answers show up for 50% of the search queries you do; they do not. But ...

21 Link Building Ideas That Have Nothing To Do With Guest Posting

21 Link Building Ideas That Have Nothing To Do With Guest Posting I think we’ve gotten better at not relying completely on guest posting as the only way to get links. I think. At least, I sure hope we have. Don’t get me wrong: Guest posting done correctly still works really well – note the emphasis on “done correctly.” I’m not recommending you remove it from your tactic list, but a little tactical diversity never hurt anyone. Note: I’m keeping these high level and vague on purpose in order to inspire as many starter ideas as possible. I find this to be ideal for brainstorming. It’ll be up to you to take the ones you like, add your own twist, and flesh it out to make it work for your company. (C’mon, I can’t do all the work for you!) PR Boilerplate. Press releases aren’t dead. Make sure you have an optimized boilerplate at the end of all of your news releases that talks about your company. It’s almost always included if/when your release gets picked up by another source. Executive Bios....

Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool

Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool The new tool is at google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly and it basically gives you a pass or fail grade. Either it tells you that you are mobile friendly or you are not mobile friendly. The messages I was able to generate include: Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly. Not mobile-friendly In each output, the yes, you are mobile friendly or no you are not, Google may or may not give more or less advice depending on the site. For example, for this site, we got an “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly,” but it did add that “this page uses 9 resources which are blocked by robots.txt. The results and screenshot may be incorrect.” It then listed out those resources it had issues with, so you as the webmaster can decide if it is something that needs addressing. Here is a screen shot: Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool I then tested a site that I know what not mobile-friendly and Google explained what the issues were including (a) text t...

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