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... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “No doubt you’re all aware by now that Google is removing ads from the right-hand side of its search results pages (SERPs). Ads will now only appear at the top and bottom of SERPs. To give some context around what this means for search marketers, we asked several experts for their take on why Google made this decision, and also how marketers need to adjust their PPC campaigns as a result. Why did Google remove the ads? Richard Hartley, PPC Director at Jellyfish These days, Google is ‘mobile first’ due to mobile searches beginning to overtake desktop searches,... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Google Accelerated Mobile Pages entered the world on February 23rd, a day earlier than expected. If you have been a little dozy for the past few months, here’s a quick skill pill to bring you up to date. They load hella fast Fairly obviously, given the name of the project (Google Accelerated Mobile Pages). This new open source approach to HTML is designed precisely to enable seemingly instant loading of mobile pages. Probably best to get the official Google Developers introduction, so here it is”. Four things you need to know about Google Accelerated Mobile Pages... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “The rise of influencer marketing doesn’t seem to be slowing, and it’s easy to see why. It is the inevitable result of content and social coming together, and many brands have already seen some impressive results from this channel. But with it comes a number of challenges that many marketers are struggling to overcome, as outlined in our recent report, The Rise of Influencers, in collaboration with Fashion and Beauty Monitor. In this post I’m going to cover the top three challenges that marketers face when it comes to working with influencers, and how you can overcome... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Google’s desktop search results page is undergoing a change that will mean fewer ads displaying for many queries. The company is rolling out a change worldwide that eliminates ads on the right side of a desktop search results page. It affects all queries in all languages around the world. It also brings Google’s desktop search results page in closer alignment with its mobile search results, which (obviously) don’t have any space to the right of the screen. There’s one exception when ads may still show on the right side of desktop search results: Product Listing Ads... [...]

Zachary Evans says, “Ever click on a result in the Google Search Results Page only to have some annoying video start playing or huge pop-up ad block your entire screen? Annoying, right? Well, the good news is that Google is aggressively tweaking its search algorithm to remove pages and websites that do the kinds of things that infuriate visitors. The latest algorithmic update came at the end of 2015, and was dubbed Phantom III (because it wasn’t initially confirmed by Google) and followed two other Quality Updates designed to boost sites that provide favorable user experience. This is... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “AdAge has confirmation that Google is launching AMP search results mid-next week, on Wednesday, February 24th. AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, a Google-backed project intended as an open standard for any publisher to have pages load quickly on mobile devices. Searchers should be able to begin seeing AMP in the news carousel this coming Wednesday but if you want to see them now, you can access a demo on your mobile device by going to g.co/ampdemo. Google told us they would be launching AMP sometime in February and they held true to their word. Google has been... [...]