Pure SEO’s This Week In Search series takes a look at the top SEO and SEM news stories from the week.
This week Google announced 5 changes that affects business owners, travellers and consumers.
Google to Penalize Sites that Use AMPs as Teaser Pages
As of 1 February 2018, websites that use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) as teaser pages will be penalized by Google. A policy change calls for all content on an AMP to be comparable to the original content on the canonical page. If a page doesn’t contain the same key content as the original page, Google will redirect it to the original page instead of the AMP.
Google says this will not affect the organic search ranking of the AMP, but AMPs that do not meet the requirements of the new policy will not be considered for search features that require AMP, such as the Top Stories carousel. Any violators of the policy will receive a manual action notification in search console and will be given a chance to fix the problem.
To learn more about why Google is doing this and what publishers can do to stay in the safe zone, read the full article here.
Google’s New #SmallThanks Hub Creates Digital and Printed Marketing Materials for SMBs
Using content pulled from Google reviews, businesses with verified Google listings can use #SmallThanks Hub, an online resource, to create posters, social media posts, window clings, stickers and more. Customized digital marketing content and printed materials are available to businesses in the US, but hopefully it will become available globally in the near future.
Google’s vice president of marketing for Ads & Americas said, “Simply search for your business name on the site, and we’ll automatically create posters, social media posts, window clings, stickers and more — based on the reviews and local love from your customers on Google.” She also said, “Reviews from your fans are like digital thank you notes, and they’re one of the first things people notice about your business in search results.”
Google AdWords Editor Updates to Support More Features
Version 12.2 of the AdWords Editor is out, bringing with it these new features:
- Gmail asset-based ads
- Campaign total budgets option for video ads
- Built-in custom rules for structured snippet extensions and non-serving campaigns and ad groups
- Semantic location
- Promotion extensions
- ‘Life events’
- Video campaign extensions
- Ad group level ad rotation
- Campaign language targeting available for Bengali, Tamil and Telugu.
Google Flights Makeover
A new design has been launched and Google says it will make it easier to find cheaper flights. It has a quicker interface and is visually appealing. For those who don’t like change, you’ll be glad to hear that the new design is an option and you will still be directed to the old design by default.
Google Adds More Product Information and Buying Guides to Shopping Results
Right in time for the holiday shopping sprees, Google has enhanced its mobile shopping experience by showing more product information for specific product searches, and adding buying guides for broad categories.
The product management director for Google Shopping wrote on Google’s The Keyword blog, “When you search for a specific product, Google.com now shows you other helpful information, like related items, and allows you to compare reviews, prices and other specs, side by side.”