Pure SEO’s This Week In Search series takes a look at the top SEO and SEM news stories from the week.
Google continues to introduce even more features, ranging from a questionnaire for screening depression to voice shopping for Walmart.
Google Adds Tool to Screen Depression
Google has teamed up with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add a depression screening tool to its search results. Now, those searching for keywords such as ‘depression’ or ‘clinical depression’ on a mobile device will be answered with a PHQ-9 screening questionnaire.
The questionnaire is designed to test what a person’s level of depression may be. It aims to raise awareness about depression and encourages people to seek medical help if required. The PHQ-9 test will be followed by the usual search results regarding symptoms and treatments.
Google Launches ‘Landing Pages’ Mobile Assessment Tool
Google is helping advertisers improve their mobile performance with their new ‘Landing Pages’ tool. A tab in the new Adwords experience will make it easier for marketers to assess which individual URLs need to be fixed for better mobile engagement. It will be launched in the next few weeks.
This assessment tool will identify the URLs that drive the most clicks, breaking it down to show which percentage of mobile clicks coming from smartphones land on a mobile-friendly page. These reports will allow marketers to identify and prioritize which URLs need paying attention to.
Ads on AMP Pages Will Load Even Faster
Already the fastest on the net, now ads on AMP pages will load even faster. Phase 2 (out of 3) of the AMP Project’s advertising plan has been completed. A new feature called ‘Fast Fetch’ allows ad requests to be made before the ad response is rendered. The two actions will be performed independent of each other, which means ad slots will render before the user views them.
For a detailed report on the rolling out of this new phase, read this article.
Study Shows 57% of Search Traffic is Mobile
According to a recent report from BrightEdge, 57% of search traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. They also discovered a discrepancy in ranking positions for keywords, depending on whether the search was made on a mobile device or a desktop. Their research shows that 79% of all keywords rank differently on a desktop compared to a mobile device, with 47% of those keywords being in positions 1-20.
Walmart and Google Partner Up to Offer Voice Shopping
The two powerhouses have teamed up to bring Walmart voice shopping to Google Assistant and Google Home. Free delivery will also be available through Google Express.
Walmart said, “One of the primary use cases for voice shopping will be the ability to build a basket of previously purchased everyday essentials. That’s why we decided to deeply integrate our Easy Reorder feature into Google Express. This will enable us to deliver highly personalized shopping recommendations based on customers’ previous purchases, including those made in Walmart stores and on Walmart.com. To take advantage of this personalization, customers only need to link their Walmart account to Google Express.”