Content blocking has been a feature of the internet for a long time. Usage, and industry chatter, reached panic levels when Apple released iOS 9 in September 2015. The question everyone is facing is simple: How does content blocking affect my business? Turns out, when you directly measure what’s happening on websites, the answer is […]
Archives for 2016
Google Testing Darker AMP Icons in Search Results
Google is testing a new darker AMP symbol in the search results. The new icon stands out significantly more when you compare it to the usual light grey symbol you normally see in the search results. Mats Tolander spotted it in action: This is quite different from the usual grey, but still not as noticeable […]
Google Local Testing 2-Packs for Local Search Results
Google seems to be testing replacing their local 3-packs with 2-packs instead, even for queries that would normally show 3 results, and with many results showing in the “more places.” The map itself is still showing 3 icons, even though there are only 2 results displayed below it. There are lots of examples where Google […]
Google Testing Another New Desktop UI
Google is testing yet another version of their mobile, this one affecting the layout most predominantly. What is notable about this test is it also drops the total number of search results from the page. We have seen this test with the card style UI Google has recently been testing (where each result appears within […]
Google Testing Click to Call on Organic Generic Local Queries
Many are used to seeing click to call feature in the mobile results for Google AdWords results. You also sometimes see it for specific brand queries or on generic queries when you start going pages deep in the results. But now Google is testing click to call for businesses on the first page of the […]
Google Testing Mobile Local Knowledge Panel on Desktop
Google is testing a new style of the local knowledge panel on desktop, which is actually the mobile version of the knowledge panel. Here is how it appears, the primary difference in the photos at the top being displayed carousel style rather than the desktop style: With the mobile style, it is also missing the […]
Google’s Pilot for Real Time Indexing of Breaking News Now Available
Want to push breaking news live directly to Google’s search results? Google is now accepting publishers for their pilot of the Search Live Coverage Carousel feature, which allows publishers to push breaking news to the search results in real time. Yes, you can push your breaking news content updates, whether content or video, directly to […]
3 Online Marketing Tools that Have Grown into Something Awesome This Year
I love tools and I love watching them evolve and grow. I think that building a cool tool is only half of the deal: It’s keeping innovating it based on ever changing trends that makes a tool successful. In this fast-paced digital world, you need to be building and re-building your platforms again and again […]
Bing Testing Site Name Only With No URL in Search Results
Bing is testing out something interesting – instead of showing the URL of the site, which is pretty standard across search engines, they are showing the company/brand name only. Here it is in action: I couldn’t replicate it in the English results. It isn’t clear if it was only for Microsoft URLs. This test is […]
Google’s New Mobile Interstitial & Popup Change Applies at Page Level
If you were wondering how Google would apply the new interstitial / popup changes to pages, Gary Illyes from Google has confirmed that it is applied on a page level and not a site level. @digitalwhat the algorithm affects individual pages, not whole sites @googlewmc — Gary Illyes (@methode) August 27, 2016 This isn’t too […]