Google Panda patent grantedIn 2014, a patent (Ranking search results) written by Google’s Navneet Panda and Vladimir Ofitserov – possibly describing the Google Panda algorithm update, or parts of it – was granted. However, the fact that Google was granted this patent didn’t necessarily mean it was being used by Google at the time, or that it hadn’t been modified since the application was filed. Read all about it in Google Granted Patent For Panda Algorithm and dive deeper into Bill Slawski’s Google’s Panda Granted a Patent on Ranking Search Results and Is Ranking Search Results the Panda Patent? on SEO by the Sea. And here’s the patent. In short, it was about looking at inbound links and how many search queries were made about a particular page/resource, and it modified the “initial scores” for the pages/resources being ranked. Slawski explained the patent had many parts that worked together:
Also on this dayGoogle Search rolls out a more visual search interface on mobile with grid format2022: Were both top results position one or did Google count the one on the right as position two? Google Search Console users experience crawl stats report data issue2021: Between March 10 and 23 there was a data issue with the crawl stats report, no Google Search performance issues were associated with this data bug. Google adds practice problems and math solver structured data and Search Console reports2021: Google came up with new structured data and Search Console reporting to help educational websites understand which pages had these content types. Microsoft proposes method to automatically submit URLs from WordPress to search engines2021: Microsoft wanted to build into the core of WordPress the ability to automatically push new and updated URLs to Bing and other search engines. Microsoft Advertising introduces more automation via ad suggestions with auto-apply2021: Ad suggestions marked as auto-apply would start serving after 14 days if no action was taken. Google Podcasts gets a redesign and iOS rollout2020: The new design featured an Explore tab with recommendations based on the listener’s interests. Google turns on ‘mark a business temporarily closed’ for business owners on GMB2020: The tool was under ‘Close this business on Google.’ SEOs talk pivoting and planning for a future after COVID-192020: What veteran SEOs were doing to help clients adapt to business during and after the pandemic. COVID-Consumers: Pessimistic, but spending more online2020: A large majority of consumers expected a recession next year but were spending up to 30% more online, according to a survey. Social platforms cut streaming quality as ‘social distancing’ wages on2020: The push to downgrade streaming quality was primarily focused in Europe with regulatory mandates to reduce network strain. Video: Hamlet Batista on scaling and automating SEO with code2020: And a bit about using Python. Google webspam report: Hacked sites, user-generated spam, bad linking topped 2018 priorities2019: Google released its annual webspam report last week to highlight advances against content that seeks to manipulate ranking algorithms and harm users. Google AMP, mobile-friendly testing tools support code editing2019: Google announced that its AMP and mobile-friendly test tools supported the ability to edit code and rerun the test, live. Bing Ads bad account takedowns doubled in 20182019: Third-party tech support scams, cryptocurrency and weapons ad content topped the areas of attention. TravelTime maps API lets users search by time rather than distance2019: Users could search by time and make travel or transportation decisions accordingly. AdWords now applies recommended bids to new DSA categories automatically2016: The feature was designed to help managers set up a lot of dynamic search ad categories quickly. Contradicting other data, Compete says search traffic growing on the desktop2016: Firm argued number of searchers and searches per user have grown significantly on the PC since last year. Search in Pics: Google hammocks, “Star Wars” wall stickers & Matt Cutts playing with pandas2016: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more. Google Adds Subdomain Support To Change Of Address Tool In Google Webmaster Tools2015: You could now communicate subdomain moves in Google Webmaster Tools Change of Address tool. Google Clarifies “Mobile Friendly Update” Will Roll Out Over A Week, Be Yes/No Response & More2015: There were no degrees of mobile-friendliness in this algorithm. Google Launches Major Push To Get Local Businesses Online, Improve Data2015: New site offered tools, content and solicited business owners to update information. Google Misattributing Content From Major News Publishers2014: It was unclear if the issue was with Google or with the publishers. Five Days Later, It Looks Like Google Has Penalized Web Design Library For Selling Links2014: A website that was using Twitter to renew paid links appeared to have earned a Google penalty. BrandVerity Offers Feedback From Google, Bing On Paid Search Trademark Complaints2014: BrandVerity added a process to its paid search ad monitoring system to give clients direct feedback from Google and the Yahoo Bing Network on trademark violation complaints. Apple Broadening App-Store Search With Related Keywords2014: While this wasn’t entirely helpful it did offer some discovery potential. Google Finally Discontinues The Blocked Sites Feature2013: After over a year of the blocked sites feature not working (and two months after Google promised it would return) Google officially declared they were discontinuing the feature. Google Streamlines AdWords Rules On Using Trademark Keywords2013: Google announced an update to its AdWords trademark policy that streamlined the rules on using third-party trademark keywords in campaigns. Google Adds Publisher Opt-Out Tool For Shopping, Flights, Hotels & Local Search2013: Google’s tool was a result of an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission over antitust charges. Bing Offers Recommendations for SEO-Friendly AJAX: Suggests HTML5 pushState2013: Bing announced support for HTML5 pushState as a way to implement AJAX on a site in a way that helped Bing crawl and index the URLs and content. Facebook Graph Search Now Passing Keyword Data To Webmasters2013: The keyword data was passed from Facebook with a query string [q={keyword}] appended to the end of the referring URL. LinkedIn Is Getting Smarter With Enhanced Search Features & Improved Query Results2013: LinkedIn launched a new unified search feature and a smarter query intent algorithm that continuously served up more relevant results. Apple Buys Indoor Location Company, What’s It Up To?2013: Did Apple see indoor location as a future part of the iOS platform? Was Android Tablet OS (Honeycomb) Rushed to Market?2011: “To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs,” said Andy Rubin, vice-president for engineering at Google and head of its Android group. Updated: Is “FaceSense” Forthcoming?2011: Facebook was testing new ad targeting options that displayed creative beside content that was contextually relevant, similarly to Google’s AdSense. Zuckerberg In Zion: Speaks To Senator Hatch, Students At BYU2011: He spent a fair amount of time talking about the “misconception” that advertisers can access your personal information, but rather, that Facebook does the targeting based on advertiser selection. Search In Pics: Yahoo Purple Door, Bus Stop & Google Honeycomb2011: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google Bug & Slow PR Leads To Chinese Hack Rumors2010: Google executives page was showing up in Chinese language. Google Now Offering “Remarketing” To All AdWords Advertisers2010: Google had initiated a trial of remarketing for display and text ads throughout its content network in March 2009. Google China: Congressional Praise; Microsoft Supports Tyranny & Google Eats Poo Cartoon2010: The reactions to Google’s partial withdrawal from China continued. Microsoft Announces Raft Of New Bing Features: Improved UI, More “Answers” And Of Course Foursquare2010: Many of the improvements were focused on the UI, richer vertical experiences, maps and real-time information. The State Of Search Engine Marketing 20102010: The North American search engine marketing industry was expected to grow 14% from $14.6 billion in 2009 to $16.6 billion by the end of 2010. The Things That Facebook Causes, According To Google, Yahoo & Bing2010: Divorce, depression, jealousy, cancer and more. SES New York 2010 Day 3 Live CoverageGoogle Voice Search & My Location Now On Blackberry2009: The My Location feature let you search without needing to input a city name or some other geographic modifier. Yahoo Closes The Cabin Door On FareChase2009: An alert on the FareChase website indicated it was the service’s final day and encouraged users to instead use Yahoo Travel. Google’s Search Box Grows As Needed: Yahoo & Live Search Don’t2008: Google would increase the width of the search box if a query was long enough to warrant a wider search box. White Spaces: Google’s Second Bite At The Wireless Apple2008: Google did not win any of the 700MHz bandwidth, although it secured the right of open access for third-party devices and software on the C Block. Is Yahoo Hoping For Justice Department Intervention To Stop MicroHoo Merger?2008: Was government intervention the secret hope of Yahoo management? OpenSocial Becomes More Open, Facebook Says No; AOL Flamed By Mag; Court Rules Against Clicking Minors2008: Google, Yahoo, and News Corp.’s MySpace joined forces to announce that OpenSocial, the social networking platform alternative to Facebook’s platform, was going to become a non-profit foundation. From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
< March 24 | Search Marketing History | March 26 > The post This day in search marketing history: March 25 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/search-marketing-history-march-25-394830
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Google’s top 3 search ranking factorsIn 2016, Google’s Andrey Lipattsev revealed that links, content and RankBrain were the top three ranking signals in Google’s search algorithm. RankBrain was the third most important ranking factor. Google told us so in 2015. As for the other two? Lipattsev revealed them during a Q&A and said: “I can tell you what they are. It is content. And it’s links pointing to your site.” Read about it in Now we know: Here are Google’s top 3 search ranking factors. Also on this dayGoogle Maps blocked 100 million abusive business profile edits in 20212022: Less than 1% of the content viewed on Google Maps was fraudulent or abusive, Google said. Google Search adds booking and appointment availability for healthcare providers2022: This was a pilot with a limited number of providers, including MinuteClinic at CVS. Twitter adds keyword search to Direct Messages2022: Twitter announced it was giving users a long-requested feature – the ability to search the direct messages (DM) inbox by keyword. Google announces global launch of property promotion ads for hotels2021: Property promotion ads helped hotels capture demand from users looking for places to stay. Microsoft Advertising blocks 1.6 billion ads while dealing with the pandemic, says annual ad quality review2021: Microsoft said it was committed to keeping the ads in Microsoft Bing fair and in compliance with its ad policies. Summer Olympics postponement further shakes 2020 ad spending expectations2020: The postponement would impact digital as well as TV ad spending plans. Winners and losers: How COVID-19 is affecting search behavior2020: Social distancing resulted in wild click behavior swings across sectors including grocers, productivity tools, restaurants and hotels. Yelp announces fundraising partnership with GoFundMe to support local businesses2020: Donate buttons appeared on profiles in selected categories by default. Bing Ads Editor now supports Enhanced CPC, exports to create expanded text ads2017: Version 11.9 offered support for Enhanced CPC bidding and the ability to export standard text ads to a spreadsheet formatted for enhanced text ads. Search in Pics: Google aquarium bathtub room, hanging bubbles & sports court2017: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more. French privacy regulator fines Google for not removing RTBF links outside of Europe2016: CNIL in France refused to compromise on its demand for Google to remove all Right to Be Forgotten content from its entire index. YouTube reports 224% jump in refugee-related searches since start of elections2016: Refugee, immigration, gun control, economy and health care-related searches on YouTube had risen during the past year. Bing May Remove Navigation To Additional Search Result Pages2015: Bing was so confident in some of their search results that they would remove the pagination to additional search result pages. Yahoo Asking Firefox Users To Make Yahoo Search Their Default Search Engine2015: After Yahoo lost some Firefox users to Google, Yahoo began notifying these users to switch back to Yahoo Search as their default search provider. Google Slaps Greek Sites With Penalties2014: Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, responded on Twitter to someone who noticed that many websites in Greece received penalties. Nearly A Year Later, Google’s Penalty Notices Remain Confusing2014: Notifications continued to be confusing when they should have been getting easier to understand. Google’s Matt Cutts: Determining If Your Site Ranking Is Result Of A Penalty Is “Tricky”2014: Cutts answers: How can you tell if your site is suffering from an algorithmic penalty, or you are simply being outgunned by better content? Google Now Comes To Chrome For Desktops & Laptops2014: It had only been available through mobile devices or to those using beta versions of Chrome. New Google Search App Feature Creates Radio Station Based On Recently Played Music2014: Saying “Play some music” after tapping the Google search mic or saying “Ok Google” would prompt the app to create an “I’m feeling lucky” radio station. Quora Kicks Off Verified Profiles With Spotlight On President Barack Obama2014: Quora announced new Verified Profiles, adding a checkmark to profile pictures of public figures and writers deemed worthy by the site. Open Letter To EU Competition Commissioner Exerts Pressure For Tougher “Vertical Search” Settlement With Google2013: Letter asserts that the EU must address “Google’s search manipulation practices” in the form of “the systematic promotion of Google’s own services, and the systematic demotion or exclusion of its competitors’ services.” Wait… Google Banned BeatThatQuote Again!2011: To recap: Google bought a website, penalized it a day later, then removed the penalty two weeks later and now a day after the penalty was removed, they penalized it again! New Reports Aim To Add Value To AdWords Campaign Experiments2011: Google provided new reporting for its AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), which allowed advertisers to test keyword, bids, placements and other variables. Google Wants TV Show Owners To Start Tagging Video2011: Google encouraged TV show owners/providers to begin tagging their online videos with several new fields that could be used in both video sitemaps and mRSS feeds. Google Morphs AdWords Offering For Major Motion Picture Studios2011: Google announced a new version of AdWords called Media Ads, aimed initially at marketers of major motion pictures with new releases. Report: Google Most Valuable Brand Of 20112011: Brand Finance said, “the world’s increasing dependence on the internet is reflected by Google’s position at no. 1.” Italians Issue Another Dubious Anti-Search Decision2011: Yahoo (in its capacity as a search engine) was found liable for helping facilitate copyright infringement by indexing and linking to sites that allowed the unauthorized download of an Iranian film. Everyone Wants A Piece Of Google: More Antitrust Saber-Rattling By States Attorneys General2011: Ohio was the latest considering an antitrust investigation against Google, joining Wisconsin and Texas. Google Settles & Wins Lawsuit Against ‘Google Cash’ Scammers2011: Google won a $1.6 million settlement against five defendants that it sued in December 2009 over the use of Google’s name in what the company called “a widespread Internet advertising scam.” Official: Facebook Not Testing Web Search Box, Says Malware Might Be To Blame2011: A Facebook spokesperson said a second search box was not a Facebook test and was likely caused by some third-party action or tool. “Anti-Search Engine” FindTheBest Adds Buying Guides, Top 10 SlideshowsYear: There was a “consumer reports”-like angle here except that the content was from a range of third-party sources and all free. European Advocate General Finds Against Trademark Bidding in Interflora Case2011: The European Advocate General recommended that the Court of Justice of the European Union rule against retailer Marks & Spencer for bidding on the trademarked terms of the flower delivery network company. The Yahoo Search Direct Alphabet: Where Every Letter Starts With Yahoo2011: In Yahoo’s Search Direct feature, 21 of the 26 one-letter alphabet queries showed a Yahoo property as the first “answer.” Google Gains Try Again Button For Discussion Results2010: Google said it was “meant to give users who click on a result, visit a web page, then click back, the opportunity to discover more information of that same type.” Google Maps Finally Welcome To Home-Based & Service-Based Businesses2010: A Google spokesperson called it a limited test, though “many” business owners were able to see the new options. So Now Google Thinks Everyone Should Care About Chinese Censorship?2010: Google’s Sergey Brin wanted the US government to make fighting Chinese censorship a high priority and was disappointed with Microsoft for continuing to censor. Google’s Lobbying Spend Up 1,500% Since 20052010: Google’s spend on lobbying went from $260,000 in 2005 to more than $4 million in 2009. Google Bookmarks Lists2010: Google updated Google Bookmarks to allow you to create lists and share those bookmark lists with others. Bing Offers Free T-Shirts … For Your Xbox Avatar2010: They took their Bing promotional efforts inside Microsoft’s own Xbox gaming platform with free codes that let Xbox Live users outfit their avatars in Bing T-shirts. SES New York 2010 Day Two CoverageGoogle Insights For Search Adds Valuable New Features2009: New data sources, category suggestions and U.S. metros. Google Implements ‘Orion’ Technology, Improves Search Refinements & Adds Longer Snippets2009: Refinements were improved and would appear more frequently, and more often, at the top of pages. Microsoft Taking On Google Street View With “GeoSynth”?2009: Microsoft was planning to compete more aggressively with Google StreetView by soliciting user-generated photos and then geotagging and Photosynthing them. Search Veteran Gerry Campbell Becomes CEO Of “Real-Time” Search Engine Collecta2009: Campbell was at Alta Vista and later spent several years in the search unit of AOL. BioNumbers – Specialty Biology Answer Search Engine2009: BioNumbers was a collection of common biological numbers that was useful for scientists and researchers. Google Deemphasizes Search In Experimental Mobile Interface2008: Google quietly introduced a new, experimental mobile interface called “LCB” that emphasized browsing instead of search. Google AdWords Officially Launches Demographic Bidding? Maybe Not2008: Demographic bidding allowed advertisers to show their ads to specific age groups and genders. Google News Makes Commenting More Visible2008: Google added a link to the home page of Google News that says “Comments by People in the News” and made it easier to comment on an article. Court: Use Of Trademark In AdWords Copy Is An Infringement2008: One of the first times the plaintiff won in a case between advertisers over trademarks in search ads. From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
< March 23 | Search Marketing History | March 25 > The post This day in search marketing history: March 24 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/search-marketing-history-march-24-394706 Google search advocate John Mueller has always downplayed the value of HTML sitemaps. Recently, he reiterated his dissatisfaction with HTML sitemaps, saying:
This is a slightly stronger stance than what he’s expressed in the past:
While Mueller makes a good point, in my opinion, we can’t just completely drop HTML sitemaps. Links and website usability still matter. I also like what former Googler and now popular SEO expert Pedro Dias said in response to Mueller’s remarks, which reflects the reality of the web:
There is a compromise between both HTML and XML sitemaps, so as always in SEO, “it depends.” Read below why, when and how to use sitemaps to benefit your website and its users. What are sitemaps and why did they get invented?In the early days of the web, many websites grew organically. Websites weren’t appropriately planned by information architects according to UX best practices. They started from scratch, and webmasters added content whenever needed in often far-from-usable ways. Those were the days before blogs, social media or content management systems. When you built a site, you did it yourself using HTML. In most cases, you were manually coding the HTML in a text editor, using a messy WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or one of the first often custom-built and pretty cumbersome CMS tools. Either way, website structures quickly became confusing. So out of necessity, people started adding sitemaps to their websites to make some sense of the increasing disorder. Those sitemaps were created in plain HTML and looked like any other webpage, part of the fact that they displayed a map instead of written content. Later search engines introduced so-called XML sitemaps meant to replace manual “search engine submission.” More than 25 years later, HTML sitemaps are less preferred. But can we really stop using HTML sitemaps, just like we dropped guest books or webrings? HTML vs. XML sitemaps – the visible vs. the invisibleTo make it short and simple, the main difference between HTML and XML sitemaps is that an HTML sitemap is usually visible to website visitors while an XML sitemap is not. (The latter primarily made for search engines.) The XML sitemaps standard was introduced at the end of 2007 by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing (then MSN). By default, they are formatted in a way that does not display well or is readable for humans. Instead, such sitemaps are used mainly to ensure proper and faster indexing by search engines. On the other hand, just because a resource is on an XML sitemap does not mean Google and Bing will index it, or it will be findable even if it’s in the index. Another SEO colleague Rob Watts added a tongue-in-cheek, first-hand account to the debate by saying:
So with XML sitemaps only theoretically ensuring crawling and indexing, do we have to focus on them and neglect visible or visual sitemaps? Why should we create sitemaps solely for Google?Over the years, Google spokespeople told us to create websites for users, not search engines. Why make an exception when it comes to sitemaps and only create them for Google and other search engines? It makes me wonder whether other SEO tactics that display one thing for search bots and something different for website visitors may also be a good idea. Anyway, Google said so, so we must listen, right? Not really. There must be a reason why Google dislikes HTML sitemaps and prefers XML. XML sitemaps are usually automated and include all the content published as soon as it's online. On WordPress, numerous tools create sitemaps for you. Yoast SEO also covers you, for example, even the basic free version. In 2020, WordPress finally added XML sitemap support to its core, so you won't even need external plugins. The XML code format is also machine-readable, while HTML is messy. HTML has to work despite errors, while XML breaks when you forget a character. So at the end of the day, the XML sitemap creation works mostly behind the scenes without error-prone human hands interfering. Also, most people will never see your XML sitemap, they wouldn't even know where to find it as it's not linked anywhere visibly on the site. Making XML sitemaps work for peopleLuckily, there is always some middle ground. You don't have to make XML sitemaps invisible. You can format XML sitemaps with stylesheets just like you do with any HTML pages. This technique has been working as long as XML has been around. There are tutorials out there that help you with that. Indeed for a while, it seemed that XML would replace HTML as the web standard, or it was a compromise called XHTML. For compatibility reasons, that didn't happen. Even though the XHTML format was cleaner and less error-prone. When an error happened, the website did break. With HTML5 introduced instead, browsers embraced sloppily coded websites to make publishing easier but at the expense of automatic crawling. Now you have ideally created an XML sitemap that can be read by people without coding skills. Remember that it's still a bland list of all the content you have. You may still consider creating a readable HTML sitemap for your website visitors. When to use visual or HTML sitemapsIt's not either/or. You can:
It depends on what your site looks like and what your objectives are. Use these questions as a guide to making a decision:
That said, there are edge cases, and many websites do not conform to typical standards. Here are example use cases for visual or HTML sitemaps. Legacy and/or hard-coded sitesBelieve it or not, there are still legacy sites from decades ago on the web, and even hard-coded sites made manually in HTML, CSS and/or JavaScript. In fact, you've probably used one quite often. Amazon.com is almost the same site it was many years ago. It has been continuously refreshed over the years and improved to this day. An all-out redesign would have been too risky and disruptive for the bottom line. Some basic legacy sites may have difficulty creating an XML sitemap on the fly. So it's not a problem when they have a hard-coded HTML sitemap instead. Do you have to remove it because Google says so? Of course not. Large sitesWhen Mueller said that you needed proper site navigation, he was generally right. But it does not always apply to larger sites. You can't possibly fit a highly complex site with thousands of pages into a menu without it quickly spiraling out of control. For better findability, it's useful for both humans and search bots to have sitemaps that reflect the overall site structure. You don't have to list every page, as that would make it too large. Alternative to mega menusMany sites attempt to fit as much as possible into their site navigation and end up having so-called mega menus. You hover your mouse over the navigation, and the menu suddenly covers the whole site. Users get quickly overwhelmed visually with dozens of options to select from. Also, sometimes, if a user is not fast enough to point at the right menu item, it will disappear when they lose the level one menu. Mega menus are tempting, especially with large companies where every stakeholder wants to be on top. But they are often a user experience nightmare, as Smashing Magazine founder Vitaly Friedman clearly demonstrates. Sites without internal searchWhen doing web outreach, you might notice that many sites make it quite hard to contact them. Such is often the case with sites having no internal search feature. You will often struggle to locate their contact page. A search feature would be a logical solution, yet surprisingly some sites do not have one, even those run on WordPress, which has built-in functionality. Some themes or website owners simply remove the search input. When I can't find a standard page in your menu and there is no search feature available,a visual sitemap would be nice. Orphan pagesWhen you manage to create a menu that is usable without becoming so huge that it does not fit some screens anymore, you will often end up with orphan pages. Orphan pages are webpages that are not linked internally from the menu structure or inside the content. This happens when content gets removed and updated, and some links disappear. Oftentimes, orphan pages should be removed altogether. Others still make sense but might not be as significant to place into the main menu or the footer links. Such orphan pages would be fine when linked in a visible, readable sitemap so that people looking for them can find and access them. Faster indexingLet's be honest! Just because a page or other resource (think image or video) is listed on an XML sitemap does not mean Google will index it. Your site may not have enough authority to get all its content into the Google index. This was quite a common issue for new sites in the past. Especially with newly created sites and Google having more limited computing power, some content did not make it into the index on purpose. It's less of an issue now, but you still may want to link content internally to boost your chances of getting indexing. Link to the more important content on top, prominently, and/or more often. Better link equityWhen we talk about authority, we refer to the link equity that some SEOs still call "link juice." An HTML sitemap that shows some links on top and others at the bottom regulates link equity flow to some extent. Pages linked on top are expected to have and receive more authority than pages at the bottom. With XML sitemaps, there is no such hierarchy, as far as I know. All resources listed on it are just that, items in a list. The item on top is merely the latest one, not necessarily the most important one or the one needing the highest authority. There is no inherent hierarchy on XML sitemaps unless you code one into it by declaring that some resources are more important and, thus, should be crawled more often than others. A visible HTML sitemap allows you to link those resources on top that matter most and thus send more users and authority their way, just like in your site navigation. So it's not "latest" on top but most important on top, ideally. UsabilityAs we are talking SEO here, the most important aspect of sitemaps, improving usability, comes at the end. This is Search Engine Land and not UX Collective, after all. They advocate creating an (internal) UX sitemap for every website project, at least while establishing the information architecture. HTML sitemaps improve the overall user experience, especially:
These are still the strongest use cases for HTML sitemaps, just like in the ‘90s, way before Google started using links for indexing and ranking and long before XML sitemaps were introduced. Older users (I admit I'm among them) may even prefer clear and page-style sitemaps instead of shaky menus that vanish when you don't touch them or search features showing irrelevant items. Some elderly people cannot use mouse-over and mouse-click actions efficiently. People with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, need as few mouse actions as possible. Thus, a one-page overview might be best for them. Useful sitemap examples in the wildThe New York TimesI often use the New York Times as an example because almost everybody knows the publication, and it's such an authority. This time I want to show the NYT as an example simply because they managed to do something right and stand out. The NYT uses visible HTML sitemaps in a way that is really helpful for readers, search users and search engine bots alike. The NYT has several sitemaps highlighted by fellow SEO Chris Long of Go Fish Digital on LinkedIn. It is a prime example of using sitemaps to benefit a website.
I don't want to go too much into detail here, as Long has done an excellent job already at it. Apple.comAnother great example of sitemap usage for a large site is Apple.com. Their plain and simple text sitemap is useful for people and search engines. However, note how much the sitemap differs from the actual top navigation the Apple site has above the content. The "Apple sitemap" starts with "About Apple" (not linked) and the following links: ![]() The site navigation starts with the shop and specific products in contrast: ![]() Apparently, the SEO team decided to make the shop and products more visible to website visitors and search bots. At the same time, the true structure or importance of the pages seems to be completely different. In any case, the huge Apple sitemap gives users a good overview of the site contents without overloading the page despite more than a hundred links. Moreover, they have another sitemap in the footer reflecting the top menu structure instead of the standalone "sitemap" on the dedicated page. It is smaller both by the font size and by the number of links listed but still very useful. ![]() So no matter where you end up, you always have a site navigation or sitemap to help you. An "everything is easy to find" user experience is central to the Apple website design. The post When and how to use HTML sitemaps for SEO and UX appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/html-sitemaps-seo-ux-when-how-394763 If your brand is like most, you create various types of content across multiple channels. You might even have more than one creator on your content marketing team. How do you ensure the content you publish stays consistent in look, feel, and sound anywhere it appears online? How do you make sure it stays true to your brand voice and style no matter who creates it? If you want consistency in your brand content and presence – and you should! – you need to create brand style guidelines. This guide will explain how. What are brand style guidelines?Brand style guidelines are a set of rules that govern how your content looks, feels, and sounds. Think standards: for your brand voice and tone, your logo and color palette, grammar rules, how to use and spell your brand name, how to use visuals in content, and more. Usually, these guidelines are recorded in a shared document that your whole team can access. Each creator follows your guidelines to ensure your content stays consistent no matter who touches it. Why you need brand style guidelines in your content strategyA well-developed, thoughtful set of brand style guidelines is one of the key ways your brand identity is cemented in place. When each piece of content you create adheres to these guidelines, it contributes to your overarching, consistent reputation across the web. That’s no small feat, as brand consistency can increase revenue by 10-20%. On the other hand, what happens if you don’t have brand style guidelines in place? You risk creating a jarring or confusing experience for people who interact with your brand. For example, let’s say you publish a blog with a serious, facts-driven tone, but your brand voice is actually casual and light-hearted. That’s a big disconnect that will give your audience a mixed message. The same will happen if your content and platforms have various styles, tones, voices, and stylistic choices. Your brand identity will be like a shifting sea versus a strong, steady pillar people can trust. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re most concerned with. Trust. Consistency builds trust. Inconsistency kills it. And brand style guidelines help you cultivate consistency. How to create brand style guidelinesBefore you can create brand style guidelines, you must first have a firm grasp of your brand’s identity, including your mission, values, audience, and goals. These things form the foundation on which you’ll base your guidelines. The point of a brand style guide is to cement your identity in place, so you must figure out each piece before you can document them. Don’t continue onward until you’ve accomplished this. 1. Brand identity: Mission, vision and ‘About us’To start your brand style guidelines, record your business’s mission statement, vision for the brand, and the values underlying everything you do. This section can also include your brand’s story or “About us” (how was it founded? Why was it started?). Here’s a quick list with definitions:
![]() We include these elements in your guidelines because they can directly inform your brand’s personality, voice, and style. They can also guide how you approach creating content. For example, say your brand was started out of your founder’s basement. Say the idea came from a group of friends hanging out and spitballing. When relevant, creators can take this story and weave it into your content. It might also inform your brand voice – i.e., casual, friendly, down-to-earth. This story is an important part of the brand personality, so it has a place inside the brand style guidelines. Bottom line: Paint an overarching picture of your brand, so anyone who reads and follows your guidelines understands the heart of the business and what you stand for. 2. AudienceNext, include an overview of your audience. This part must be based on audience research, so if you haven’t done that yet, now’s the time. If you’ve already created some business personas based on segments of your audience, add them here. For example, Mozilla Firefox’s brand style guidelines include written descriptions of their two personas: adventurous amplifiers and caring confidentials. ![]() This piece of the puzzle is important for any content creators who will work with your brand. You can’t write or create targeted content without first understanding the target audience. 3. Visual elements: Logo, color palette and typographyYour brand style guidelines can also include rules for using visuals, like how your logo appears in content and your brand color palette and preferred fonts. This information is super-important when you work with graphic designers or web developers. Standard visual rules will help your content look cohesive across channels, whether you're posting on your blog or social media, creating ads, building presentations, sharing videos on YouTube, etc. For example, Medium has strict guidelines on how its logo can and cannot be used. ![]() And Starbucks has guidelines showing their preferred fonts and how to use them. ![]() 4. Brand voice, tone, and styleNext, you'll need to include rules guiding how creators present your brand to the world through content. Stipulating brand voice, tone, and style is one of the main ways to keep your messaging consistent across channels. Brand voice Your brand voice is essentially your brand personality. It determines how you come across to customers when you communicate with them, whether through writing or speaking. For instance, maybe your brand is spunky and funny, sophisticated and mysterious, or intellectual and nerdy. Even further, your guidelines should explain how your unique brand voice will show up in content. For example, a brand with a spirited, fun voice might insert jokes or puns in the content. They might use GIFs and emojis. Their sentences might trend on the short side, and their explanations will be clear and down-to-earth. Brand tone Your brand tone determines how your voice is delivered. For example, if you come up with a great promotion for customers, you might tell them about it excitedly. Or, if you have to deliver bad news, your tone might be apologetic or subdued. Generally, your brand voice doesn't change because it's associated with your brand personality, which stays pretty consistent. But your tone can change because different situations call for adopting different tones. You can stipulate which tones to use for different circumstances in your brand style guidelines. Brand writing style Your brand writing style includes your preferred word usage, grammar, spelling, and formatting rules.
Mailchimp has a fantastic example of comprehensive brand writing style guidelines to check out for inspiration. They go so deep, they're a completely separate guide. For instance, Mailchimp has detailed rules about their voice and tone, how to use specific web elements (such as headings and subheadings) in their content, a detailed grammar guide, and much more. ![]() A few tips to keep in mind about this part of your brand style guidelines: Tip 1: If your writing guidelines are also this in-depth, consider creating a separate document/resource just for writers, as Mailchimp did. Otherwise, the rest of your team will have to wade through pages and pages of irrelevant information. Tip 2: No time to create an encyclopedia of writing style rules? It may be helpful to choose a pre-existing, standardized style manual to base yours on, instead. Large publishing entities have already developed robust style guides that you can use to underpin your own, like APA, MLA, or Chicago Style. Use these as the foundation and layer your unique brand voice guidelines on top. Each manual has subtle differences, so vet them carefully to choose the best match for your brand. 5. Other guidelines to considerLastly, consider these other helpful sections to add to your brand style guidelines. Rules for using visuals in contentConsider adding rules for how you want creators to source images for blogs and other content. Can they use stock photos? Should all images be custom graphics? Are screenshots allowed? Is there a specific look/feel you want all visuals to have? Rules for sourcing and citing statistics, studies, research, and other dataA great task to keep consistent across content like blogs is how writers source and cite research like studies, expert quotes, data, or surveys. For example, are any sources off-limits (like Wikipedia or low DA websites)? How should creators mention and link to sources in content? Use casesIf you can, show the people using your guidelines use cases and examples of do's/don'ts when writing and creating brand assets and content. Show correct and incorrect uses of your logo, good and bad examples of brand voice, good and bad visual usage, the right and wrong way to link to sources in content, etc. In Mozilla Firefox's guidelines, there are specific examples of how to use the brand voice/tone, for instance, correctly. ![]() Ready to create your own brand style guidelines?Creating brand style guidelines comprises just one part of building a content strategy. It might not be the most exciting part, but it's mega important to keeping your brand presence consistent across the web. And consistency matters far more than you may think. Consistency is a major reason your audience will trust you because a consistent voice and presence build credibility. A steady presence is always better than a wavering one. You can trust it to remain reliable and true, no matter the circumstances. So, the question remains: Do you want your brand to be seen as reliable, trustworthy, and constant – or scattered, confused, and unreliable? Whether you have a clear set of brand style guidelines in place can help determine which category you fall into. The post How to create brand style guidelines and why you need them appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/create-brand-style-guidelines-how-why-394734 ![]() In a recent survey, Pew Research Center found that “81% of the public say that the potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits.” And “79% of consumers are concerned about how companies use the data collected.” It’s clear – businesses need to prioritize customer trust and data privacy. The e-book, In Data We Trust, shows you how customer data platforms (CDP) help obtain customer trust through privacy-driven personalization. Check out the e-book to discover how a CDP can benefit your brand and keep reading to discover the five key ways a CDP establishes trust. 5 ways a CDP establishes trust in data with customers1. Reduce risk from siloed dataData silos result in costly processes and increased risk in multiple areas, such as inaccurate customer insights, including privacy preferences. With a CDP, first-party data is collected, meaning it’s consented and directly from the source. 2. Propagate privacy preferencesIf your consent data is not real-time, you could breach privacy regulations while consent preferences are waiting to be updated. For example, if someone requests their data to be deleted and it takes your organization longer than is legally mandated to fulfill that request, your brand can face significant penalties for non-compliance. A CDP propagates privacy preferences throughout the entire customer journey across all channels and maintains them through the lens of the customer. 3. Enable operational efficiency and business agilityTo be a privacy-driven organization, businesses must break down communication and data silos to understand what data is being processed and why. Some CDPs enforce a common nomenclature for data, allowing business and IT units to speak one common language. This shared language prevents departments from falling behind whenever privacy requirements change or new technology investments call for new integrations. 4. Give customers transparency and control over their dataCustomers are empowered by global privacy regulations to manage when their data is collected, stored, and utilized. A CDP becomes a trusted repository of customer data and the governed supply chain that connects customer devices to the platforms that deliver value. As a trusted steward of their data, your customers will have access to the most accurate set of their personal data when they request it. 5. The ultimate customer experienceA CDP helps brands better understand customer behavior and preferences through a single customer view. Customers want to be known and understood regardless of where and how they’re engaging with your brand. That said, customer data can reside in different systems with different privacy settings. CDPs enable you to collect trusted customer data from all touchpoints to produce a 360 view of your customers, enabling real-time engagement on any channel based on customer preferences. And this level of personalization can be done at scale through a vendor-neutral, real-time CDP like Tealium, which you can learn more about here. The post In data we trust: How to establish customer trust through data privacy appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/in-data-we-trust-how-to-establish-customer-trust-through-data-privacy-394563 Reddit has announced a series of updates to its Ads Manager to accommodate its growing global advertising business and cater to the diverse needs of its advertisers. These changes are effective immediately and offer specific improvements for self-service clients and international advertisers. New features introduced in Reddit’s Ads Manager:
Simple Campaign Creation. Enables advertisers to create a campaign with a single ad in just three easy steps: create an ad, set up targeting and budgets, and select payment. This feature is particularly helpful for self-serve advertisers who want to launch ads quickly and seamlessly. Automated Ad Creation. Allows advertisers to build and test multiple sets of ad variations to determine which messaging connects best with their target audience. This feature saves time previously spent creating new ads one-by-one. Multi-Currency Support. Advertisers from more than 40 countries can choose from various international currencies, including the Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), and New Zealand Dollar (NZD). Once campaigns are live, Reddit has made several updates to improve ad management. Improved Community Search. Lets advertisers find targetable communities based on topic relevance, ensuring better reach to relevant audiences. Reporting Retention. Now supports a 12-month look-back, enabling advertisers to analyze their ads’ activity over time. Bulk Edit Improvements. Allow advertisers to change bids, budgets, and third-party reporting trackers for ads across multiple campaigns and ad groups simultaneously. These updates reflect the platform’s diverse advertiser base and aim to help all clients get the most from their campaigns on Reddit. As the company continues to scale and welcome advertisers globally, Reddit’s focus remains on providing an easy, intuitive, and dynamic advertising experience, says Shariq Rizvi, Reddit’s EVP of Ads Monetization. Why we care. The new features simplify and streamline the ad creation process, making it more efficient and saving advertisers time and effort. Advertisers can also better target and find relevant communities for their campaigns, increasing the likelihood of reaching the right audience. The post 6 new Reddit Ads Manager features appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/6-new-reddit-ads-manager-features-394760 It’s still very early in the AI search engine arms race, but it appears Microsoft has made gains on Google thanks to the new Bing. Microsoft has previously told us that one-third of preview users were new to Bing and that Bing passed 100 million daily active users following the new Bing preview. Elsewhere, Similarweb data showed:
Why we care. If Microsoft Bing is growing its search share, that means your site potentially could get more organic traffic from Bing. We’re starting to see evidence that traffic from Bing is up for some brands and publishers. As always, anything that makes us slightly less reliant on Google traffic is a notable development. More from Similarweb. Over the last seven days:
And over the last 28 days, bing.com was up 13.6% and google.com was down 2.8%. Similarweb also reported:
Meanwhile, those traffic gains to Bing paled in comparison to traffic growth to ChatGPT (chat.openai.com), which was up 21.3% week over week. Publisher traffic. Prior to Feb. 7 (the day the new Bing launched), Bing made up just 1.22% of Search Engine Land’s organic search traffic. Now Bing is up to a 2.6% share. Google still dominates – it has dropped from 98.2% prior to Feb. 7 to 96.7% now. Bing traffic to Search Engine Roundtable is up 155%. Barry Schwartz shared that data earlier today on Twitter:
Meanwhile, Bing is becoming a significant referral source, even “beating Google on some pieces,” according to a tweet by Jez Corden, managing editor of tech publication Windows Central.
Social engagement data: Bing up, Google down. Comscore won’t have comprehensive traffic numbers available until the end of the month, but the company shared some social engagement data with Search Engine Land (Source: Comscore Social, Content Pulse, March 1-21, 2022 & 2023):
The post The new Bing making (small) gains on Google Search appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/new-bing-small-gains-vs-google-search-394733 Google Discovery ads have been updated with new features to help brands stand out on our most engaging ad surfaces, including
New, engaging layouts & product feeds. Advertisers can leverage various layouts, such as carousels, square, and portrait, to create more compelling and impactful ads. With this feature, advertisers can display products to consumers based on their interests and intent. Retailers can use lifestyle images and concise text from their Google Merchant Center catalog to deliver more relevant ads. According to early tests, including product feeds in Discovery ads with sales or lead generation objectives can result in an average of 45% more conversions at a similar cost per action, Google says. ![]() Updated reporting and measurement. Later this month, advertisers will be able to utilize product-level reporting to track the performance of their Google Merchant Center catalog items in product feeds based on metrics such as impressions or clicks. This means that retailers who are promoting a diverse array of products will be able to discern which types of products are generating more interest and take relevant business-related actions. Beginning in Q2, Discovery advertisers will be able to obtain a more precise understanding of their campaign performance in the Google ecosystem through data-driven attribution (DDA). DDA credits conversions based on how individuals interact with your ads and employs your account data to identify which campaigns are having the most significant impact on your business objectives. You can then utilize this information in combination with automated bidding strategies like Max Conversions to generate even more conversions. Advertisers who switch to data-driven attribution from other attribution models generally see an average increase of 6% in conversions, Google estimates. Conversion Lift experiments. To accurately assess the effectiveness of campaigns, Google introduced Conversion Lift experiments last year. This is one of their most recent measurement solutions that enable advertisers to determine incremental conversions based on either users or geography. “For advertisers who are running both Discovery ads and Video action campaigns, you can use Conversion Lift based on geography to measure their impact together. Reach out to your Google account representative to learn how you can participate.” Dig deeper. Read the announcement from Google. Why we care. These new tools can help to optimize your ad campaigns more effectively. By utilizing product-level reporting, advertisers can identify which products are driving more interest and take action accordingly. Data-driven attribution helps to accurately measure the impact of ad campaigns on business objectives, while Conversion Lift experiments provide insights into the incremental conversions generated by their campaigns. The post 3 new Google Discovery ads features appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/3-new-google-discovery-ads-features-394747 As the sun begins to set on Google Analytics Universal Analytics (UA), businesses are (or should be) gearing up for the transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). With just 100 days left until UA is officially retired, it’s crucial for organizations of all sizes to understand the benefits and challenges of migrating to GA4, as well as the essential steps to ensure a smooth transition. A Q&A from Steve Ganem, Director of Product for Google Analytics, helps us gain invaluable insights into the key features, challenges, and advantages of adopting GA4. What are the biggest misconceptions about GA4?“It’s a new product that is not mature enough to use.” Despite announcing the migration a little over a year ago, GA4 has been in use by advertisers since 2020, while the idea of web and app analytics has been around since 2019. With GA4, businesses can access valuable insights to help them make informed and strategic decisions for their operations. “It’s overly complex and doesn’t provide the same reporting as Universal Analytics” GA4 has a learning curve, but it’s essential to move beyond the traditional session-based mindset. To address the complexity of the current digital landscape, we developed GA4, incorporating features like a novel event structure and redesigned user journeys. Although these concepts might not be immediately clear or easy to grasp, businesses that overcome the learning curve will discover that GA4 is designed to efficiently navigate this evolving digital world and anticipate future changes. “It’s not designed for small businesses.” GA4 was developed to cater to businesses of all sizes, not just small or large enterprises. The aim was to establish a platform that offers comprehensive reporting capabilities and extensive customization options smoothly. This seamless experience is evident in features such as the personalized homepage, which presents the most pertinent reports to customers, and predictive audiences, which help identify users with a higher likelihood of making a purchase. GA4 effectively takes on much of the analytical workload, delivering crucial insights directly to businesses. Should I wait for Jumpstart?The short answer is no. For a more detailed response, manual migration remains the suggested method for all businesses. This approach allows for creating a customized property and ensures that everything aligns with your preferred configuration. This is particularly crucial for advertisers, as their conversion bidding might be linked to Universal Analytics, and it is essential to guarantee a proper transfer to GA4. While Jumpstart serves as a helpful tool for businesses with limited resources, it only establishes a basic property, making manual migration the preferred option. Furthermore, Jumpstart is being introduced progressively, and the earlier businesses transition, the sooner they can accumulate historical data for year-over-year comparisons. What are the challenges to migrating and how is Google addressing those?GA4 was developed for a new era of measurement, which entails new product features and a different measurement approach compared to Universal Analytics. While this doesn’t make it inherently harder, Google recognizes that change can be challenging, and the property’s distinct appearance and functionality compared to Universal Analytics may pose difficulties during migration. The Setup Assistant. Each tool within the Setup Assistant has been purposefully designed to tackle specific challenges in the migration process, such as property creation, tagging, goal migration, conversion swapping, and more. During preliminary user testing, these aspects were identified by Google as potential challenges and areas where businesses might face difficulties while setting up a GA4 property for the first time. Search Engine Land posted a guide late last year to give an in-depth look at the Setup Guide. Check it out here. Additionally, this tutorial has been helpful for many businesses making the transition. What are the key features in GA4 that businesses should know?“One of the reasons we’re so excited about GA4 is all of the new features that not only allow for durability in this evolving privacy landscape, but also that bring to life a new way of measurement that has evolved with how the web and app experiences are evolving,” Ganem said. That said, here are a few that are worth highlighting:
Why advertisers will lose out if they don’t moveBottom line: for advertisers, ROI is on the line. Once Universal Analytics property stops processing data on July 1st, 2023, conversions and audiences will stop flowing new data from that property into Google Ads. This could significantly affect the performance of their ad campaigns. It’s critical that advertisers make the switch to GA4, so that they are in a much more stable and durable position. What happens to Universal Analytics properties after July 1st?Universal Analytics properties will stop reporting new data July 1st. To be a bit more specific, they will stop processing data, meaning your standard UA property will no longer operate the way it does today. That said, businesses shouldn’t be surprised when they can still log into their accounts after July 1st – it will take time to completely sunset the product for all businesses. Historical data will be available for six months to aid with period-over-period comparisons, giving businesses a chance to export their historical data even after the sunset. Why is it so important to make the move now?Now is the time. By making the move you will:
Dig deeper. Still confused? Check out more resources:
Why we care. Plain and simple, UA is going away. But according to ChatGPT, here is why GA4 could be better for advertisers.
The post Countdown to GA4: 100 days to make the switch appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/countdown-to-ga4-100-days-to-make-the-switch-394725 Make sense of your marketing with the 101 Guide to Marketing Attribution by Digital Marketing Depot3/23/2023 ![]() Every marketer measures the impact of their activity but do they truly know the effectiveness of their activity and advertising spend? For the majority of marketers, the overwhelming answer is no. On average, marketers estimate they waste over one quarter of their budget (26%) on ineffective channels and strategies, according to a study by Rakuten. Though marketing attribution may seem like a difficult task, in a world where ROI is king, accurate marketing attribution needs to be at the forefront of every marketer’s mind to maximize the efficiency of their activity in 2023. This guide deep dives into how marketers are successfully moving the needle and implementing true multi-touch algorithmic attribution to measure and optimize their activity. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to make sense of your marketing attribution and get to value quickly with our easy-to-follow guide. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download the 101 Guide to Marketing Attribution from Snowplow. The post Make sense of your marketing with the 101 Guide to Marketing Attribution appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/make-sense-of-your-marketing-with-the-101-guide-to-marketing-attribution-394719 |
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April 2023
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