Pure SEO’s This Week In Search series takes a look at the top SEO and SEM news stories from the week.
This week Bing and Google help advertisers in anticipation for Christmas, and local libraries are supported.
Bing has upgraded its Visual Search experience with technology that detects several objects in one image. Previously, users had to manually draw a lasso around an object for Bing to identify it, but now Bing will automatically detect them and mark them with a square selection box.
This makes it even easier for users to find objects in an image. Clicking on the selection box will prompt Bing to search for images and/or products related to the object you selected. This upgrade is only available on desktop.
Google’s Search app for iOS will help users find more content without having to return to the search bar. Now, when you view a web page within the app, you will find suggestions for related content when you reach the bottom of the page. These suggestions can be ‘pulled up’ and tapped, and you will be sent to a new page.
Related content appears to be based on what other people have viewed after reading the current page. Google is basing the suggested pages on general web browsing trends. This feature is currently only available in the U.S, with plans to become available in more countries and in more languages soon.
Google has brought out a new feature that helps users find e-books at their local libraries. Users can search for the title of a book, load the knowledge graph card and then click on the new ‘Get Book’ tab. If the e-book is available to borrow from a local library, Google will display it underneath ‘libraries near you’.
Users can borrow the book or add it to their wishlist by tapping on the name of their preferred library. This feature is currently only available on mobile devices.
Google has updated its Merchant Center in order to help Google Shopping advertisers get ready for the upcoming holiday season. The main update is the new ‘Opportunities’ tab, which will show cards when a suggestion is available. This may help advertisers gain more clicks. Opportunities include minor adjustments, important feed fixes and anything in between.
Other updates include the option to use more than one feed for submitting product data, and the ability to add multi-country feeds. Google has also made it possible to add multiple team members as admin or standard members to one Google Merchant Center account.
Now advertisers can set ad extensions for all campaigns at the account level, with Bing Ads’ new update. Ad extensions can be added and edited under the ‘All Campaigns’ tab. The addition of an account level ad extension will automatically apply to all current and future campaigns, excluding call extensions and sitelinks.
The maximum number of extensions for one account is 20, and only 6 are allowed to be image extensions. This update is promising for advertisers as it will drive more clicks.
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