One Thing Marketing: Friday Finish Line | Where Did The Ads Go? Google Removes Right Side Ads

You likely don’t have time to sift through the inner workings of the Web searching for the most relevant digital marketing news. That’s fine, you don’t need to do that. Luckily, we’ve compiled seven articles throughout the last couple weeks that grabbed our attention.

Check them out.

SEO/SEM

5 WAYS TO INCREASE LOCAL ONLINE EXPOSURE

As local search continues to factor in to the decision-making process of consumers and inevitably plays a part in deciding which company gets the business of buyers, visibility and a digital presence are as important as ever. In a recent Search Engine Land article, multiple components of successful local optimization are discussed in detail. The five subjects are noted below:

On-page elements for location landing pages
Signals from Google My Business
Citations
User-review websites
High-quality backlinks

SEO FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES

A recent article by Saijo George discusses the latest trends in online marketing that local businesses should abide by in order to ensure that searchers are finding their business on search results. Among the article’s findings is the importance of updated and relevant listings in Google My Business (GMB). GMB is acting as the long-term replacement to Google+ and is vital for potential visitors to learn about company’s seasonal hours, new locations and more.

Also discussed is the importance of mobile compatibility, building quality links and investing in content. This may seem like a re-occurring theme, but that’s because the search engines are putting their trust in companies who invest in building a strong digital experience for users in order to improve searchers’ experience.

GOOGLE REMOVES ADS ON RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF RESULTS

Google went ahead and made its biggest change of 2016 (so far –stay tuned) a couple weeks ago by modifying how paid search results appear. Over the years, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing paid ads visible at the top of the page then persistently wrap down to the right side of the screen. But moving forward the search engine plans to serve advertisements purely as the top three to four results.

For the user, this means less results on the page and a more crisp experience. To paid search professionals, it means that the limited supply of ad space will undoubtedly lead to an increase in cost per click. Because of this, businesses might be forced to emphasize SEO and other mediums to reach customers.

PAGINATION, LOAD MORE AND INFINITE SCROLLING

In a comprehensive overview that includes studies of more than 50 e-commerce websites, the Baymard Institute determined that Load More buttons and “lazy loading” functions provided a better user experience compared to pagination and infinite scrolling. The article also discusses its findings on mobile and desktop.

Social Media

FACEBOOK CANVAS

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Facebook is steadily rolling out its instant article function that allows users to read content from publishers without leaving the social network, avoiding slow load times from external mobile websites by serving content on Facebook. Similarly, the new Canvas platform allows advertisers to create full-screen media experiences for users after they click on an advertisement. Canvas is designed to create rich experiences for users that can range from videos, images, GIFs and more.

INSTAGRAM ADVERTISING OUTNUMBERS TWITTER

Instagram’s advertising business continues to progress at rapid rates. A matter of fact, it now has more active advertisers than Twitter — 200,000 compared to 130,000, respectively. On a global scale, Instagram now has advertisers in more than 200 countries and a heavy presence outside the US. Marketing Land breaks down the details here.

Food for Thought

If social media decided the presidential candidates, you would see Vermont senator Bernie Sanders versus businessman Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Not to say that it can’t happen in reality, but according to a recent study, these two presidential hopefuls have drawn excellent engagement with today’s plugged-in audience.

With that being said, the heavy use of Twitter and other social media platforms in this race could set the trend for future candidates in years ahead. But what would happen if it happened in campaigns of the past? This piece by Huffington Post gives us some insight.

Many of you are running a business rather than running for office. Our SEO experts are ready to analyze all your website information to provide you with the most accurate reporting of your strengths and even areas for improvement!

The post Friday Finish Line | Where Did The Ads Go? Google Removes Right Side Ads appeared first on Onethingmarketing.net

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Friday, March 4, 2016

Friday Finish Line | Where Did The Ads Go? Google Removes Right Side Ads