Patrick Stox says, “Back in June, the AdWords Keyword Planner started displaying the same volume of searches for keywords that were similar. Search Engine Land reported on the anomalies and asked Google about it but didn’t receive a response at the time. Ginny Marvin speculated, and now an AdWords representative has confirmed, that this was caused by close variants.Many people and tools are overestimating search volume by adding together the results that AdWords Keyword Planner has already grouped, effectively doubling or tripling volume estimates.If you’re like me, you want to see... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “This morning, Google has released a new help document that defines the metrics used on the Google Search Analytics report that webmasters can find within the Google Search Console.Specifically, it aims at defining three core metrics used on the report; impressions, position and clicks.The document even goes through how these metrics change based on the type of result. For example, an impression for a basic blue link in the search results is counted when the page loads, but not when the user scrolls past the result. But an impression for a result in a carousel only... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “To help people gain experience with Google Analytics, Google is launching Demo Account for Analytics. The idea is to give those without access to a full-fledged account a way to get hands-on experience, but it can also be used by those with access to accounts who want a playground for experimentation before making changes — in a client’s account, for example. And of course, Demo Account can be used in any training environment.Demo Account is populated with real data from the e-commerce Google Merchandise Store and will include the features marketers typically set... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has removed the ability for businesses to edit their introduction/description field in the Google My Business portal. Google posted a note about this in the featured document.This feature was removed on August 1, 2016 and Google wrote:The Introduction/Description field is no longer editable in Google My Business. It only displays to users in Google+, and may still be edited there. Editing of attributes, coming soon to all Google My Business views, will be an improved way to describe your business to users on Google Search and Maps.I checked my Google+ profile... [...]

Ronell Smith says, “In 2011 I wrote a post here on Moz. The title was “Wake Up SEOs, the New Google is Here.”In that post I presented some concepts that, in my personal opinion, we SEOs needed to pay attention to in order to follow the evolution of Google.Sure, I also presented a theory which ultimately proved incorrect; I was much too confident about things like rel=”author”, rel=”publisher”, and the potential decline of the Link Graph influence.However, the premises of that theory were substantially correct, and they remain correct five years later:1.... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “After a Q1 that disappointed investors somewhat, Google parent Alphabet delivered a big quarter yesterday. The company announced revenues of $21.5 billion, which represented 21 percent growth year-over-year and beat analysts’ consensus estimates by more than $700 million.Paid clicks were up nearly 30 percent, which was also an expectations beat. However, CPCs were off 7 percent. Traffic acquisition costs were roughly $4 billion, up 18 percent, representing 21 percent of total ad revenue.Google segment revenue was approximately 99 percent of total revenue”.Google... [...]

Brian Hughes says, “With more than half of all Google searches happening on mobile, the search giant is continuing to push its mobile-first search vision. At its recent Google Performance Summit 2016, the company announced three major changes to empower advertisers to make mobile the centerpiece of their campaigns. Is your business ready?How mobile first search impacts businesses: understanding ‘micro moments’“Mobile first” has been a big theme for the past year — and for good reason. According to Search Engine Land, 82 percent of smartphone users rely on a search... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Alphabet Inc. today reports that Google’s advertising revenue rose 19.5% in the second quarter.For the second quarter in a row, Google’s paid clicks on ads across its sites and advertising network rose 29% compared with the same period a year ago, the company reported today.Looking specifically at paid clicks on Google-owned sites, such as its search engine and YouTube, the rise is even more pronounced, growing 37% year over year.The average cost per click on a Google ad decreased 7% compared with the same period a year earlier. On Google sites alone, the cost per... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Google’s Product Listing Ads accounted for 46% of retailers’ Google paid search clicks in the quarter, a three percentage point increase from the first quarter. The image-focused ads are set to account for more than half of retailers’ paid search clicks by the end of the year, according to a new report by performance marketing agency Merkle Group Inc.The report finds that Google’s push to eliminate ads from the right side of search results has helped boost PLA click volume 73% year over year in the second quarter, outpacing the 43% growth in PLA spending. The cost... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “As expanded text ads began rolling out, some advertisers noticed that the new, longer double headline is sometimes cut off. This can be frustrating and can have potential legal ramifications for businesses in highly regulated industries like pharmaceuticals.Google AdWords’ social team responded to the tweet above with a recommendation to keep the combined character count of the two headlines limited to a total of 33 characters to avoid having the second headline truncated”.Google reiterates suggested 33-character limit in ETA headlines to avoid truncationSearch... [...]