This Week in Search: Google Integrates Optimize with AdWords, and More!

Google recently introduced an integration between Optimize and AdWords, aimed at making ad testing and personalised landing-page creation easier for marketers. As Google’s visual editor for landing pages, Optimize allows marketers to quickly and easily change and test landing pages related to their AdWords ads.

Spotify, one of the world’s largest online audio-streaming platforms, performed an A/B test with Optimize 360 (the enterprise version of Optimize). The testers used Optimize to create a custom landing page dedicated to audiobooks for the German audience, showing this page to half of their users. The results were phenomenal – the custom landing page increased Spotify’s premium subscriptions by 24 per cent.

This feature is now available on the new AdWords experience. To start driving results through A/B testing with Optimize, just follow these instructions from Google.

Google My Business removes anonymous reviews

Google My Business appears to be disregarding anonymous Google reviews towards a business’s overall star rating. Originally reported by two individuals on Twitter, this is a subtle nod by Google on its journey to promoting local, relevant customer engagement from registered Google accounts.

Business owners will also find this news useful. Generally, anonymous reviews can be quite damaging to a company’s online reputation. With this update, business owners are able to efficiently repair damaged relationships with their customers.

John Mueller provides useful search insights

In recent Google Hangouts, John Mueller revealed some useful insights for webmasters all over the world:

• Having multiple sites on the same IP address is not a problem – an issue arises when these sites contain the same or similar content, which Google can deem as a “collection of doorway sites.” In this case, one of these sites might get indexed, or they might all get demoted. John recommended creating fewer and stronger sites with “unique content and unique products”.
• Subdomains and subdirectories are treated the same way in Google search. He recommends only using a subdomain if the page is something different from what is currently on the site.
• In a recent Twitter reply, John revealed that Google does not downgrade a site according to the number of typos in the content. However, he does suggest fixing known issues on the site.

StumbleUpon is shutting down

StumbleUpon has announced it is shutting down on the 30th of June after 16 years of faithful service to the internet.

Garret Camp, StumbleUpon co-founder, is building a new-and-improved discovery platform: Mix.com.

After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to focus fully on building Mix and transition StumbleUpon accounts into Mix.com over the next couple months.

Users will be able to import their favourites, interests, and tags from StumbleUpon onto Mix. If you’re apprehensive about the move, visit Mix.com today!

Gain exclusive access to digital marketing insights in New Zealand

Pure SEO recently released the 2018 Digital Marketing Report. Here, we explore internet search trends and insights specifically for New Zealand. Download your free copy below!