Search Engine Roundtable Podcast

Matt Abbagnaro was kind enough to meet me in some parking lot last minute to discuss search marketing. We picked the parking lot so I can find an Electrify America charging station and charge while we do our interview. I did not find the charger, they were broken anyway, and I decided to just drive around a bit to do search marketers in a car not drinking coffee edition.

Matt owns an agency named Search Engineers, they are a few-year-old company does works with service-based businesses. He started working at the beginning of COVID but he was let go and then started to market his music. Once he saw traffic coming to his music, he saw he can make this into a business. So he started an e-commerce business, which he sold in April 2022 and then started to do client service work.

He does mostly PPC and started doing Google Ads prior to smart bidding and performance max. So we spoke a bit about performance max. He said performance max works best when you give it enough data, and that is true. Google representatives have told him that PMax needs about two weeks to learn, but he said he needs to give it more data.

He sometimes is surprised to see the success of performance max. We then spoke more about PMax in general.

You can learn more about Matt Abbagnaro on Twitter @TheRealLilStain and on LinkedIn.

This week in search, we had yet another week of heated Google search ranking volatility without a confirmed Google search ranking update. Google said it would drop the Ping endpoints for Google Sitemaps later this year. Some are seeing the new index coverage report in Bing Webmaster Tools. Google said word count is not an SEO thing. Google said a new website's home pages should be indexed. The dedicated Perspectives search feature may be rolling out. Google is testing larger product images in the search results and is testing larger images in the Google Ads. Google is testing showing product pricing graphs over three months. Bing added AI to its shopping results with price matches, buying guides and review summaries. Bing added emoji reactions to its knowledge panel search results. Bing Chat added predictive financial advice. Microsoft wants Bing Chat on Apple CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto. In September, Google will shut down the Buy on Google program in the US. Google local panels have a new “by owners” tab. Google Ads bug caused issues this week with seeing recent data. Google Ads brand restrictions for broad match in Search campaigns and brand exclusions in Performance Max campaigns are rolling out. Google Ads may disapprove ads for using third-party click tracking services. Google Ads Liaison gave an explainer on value-based bidding. Microsoft Advertising is updating its policies on July 1st. Google Analytics 4 support for AMP pages goes lives days before the Universal Analytics shutdown And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

I announced the winner of the BlueSky contest, it was Olga Zarr @SEOSLY.

In part one we learned about Amy Toman and her love for small business. We dug more into that love in part two and also spoke about helping small businesses with local optimization, even with low budgets. Plus, we spoke about the Google Product Experts community.

Most local SEOs care deeply about small businesses, she said she does a lot of side work for solo businesses and small attorneys that need to get their names out there. She does a lot of local optimization on their websites but also does a lot on the Google Business Profiles listings for their businesses.

The cover images need to be different based on the business category. She just loves it when the people she helps come back and realize what magic you have done for them across Google Maps and local search. Watching these small businesses gain in traffic by making minor changes excites her.

She said that despite these businesses having low budgets, she can help and direct them in the right direction. Most of the time, it is explaining to the business what they need to do by explaining it or sending them a resource.

We then dove into the local SEO community and how much of her time she gives away for free to help these local businesses. She is a huge fan of the Google Product Experts, and they are so giving and generous with their time. It does help them because they see the bigger issues before most in the industry. So it does help them with their clients by helping others for free.

We also spoke about some of the people who post take it out on the Google Product Experts. Google Product Experts do not work for Google, but the local businesses that post there do not work for Google. So they take it out on these people who are answering their questions for free.

There are so many issues that they need to deal with, across frustrated businesses, confusing help documents, bugs, and then all the spam.

To learn more about Amy, you can follow her on Twitter @BubblesUp and on LinkedIn.

This week we saw the continues heated and incredibly volatile Google search results continue throughout the whole week, and then it exploded this morning. Google’s Gary Illyes said we should avoid using LLMs and AI for diagnosing SEO issues. Gary also spoke about AI and Google at a Google Central Live event in Tokyo. Google Search Console released the new INP core web vitals report. Glenn Gabe highlighted an ongoing issue with “local guide programs” queries showing in the performance reports in Search Console. Google’s John Mueller said before migrating content to a new domain, launch the site without that content and see what happens. Google selling Google Domains won't have an SEO impact on you. Bing Chat got a significant performance boost. Bing Image Creator to see a big improvement next month. Google sued a business over allegedly creating fake business profiles and fake reviews. A study shows that removing the address from your Business Profile will tank your rankings. Google added red dots to the Business Profile dashboard for unread items. Google mobile search has a new look for some local results and reviews. Google Merchant Center had this weird timeout bug with disapproved URLs. Google Ads brings store sales reporting and bidding to PMax campaigns. Google Analytics 4 added Google Ads conversion credit selections. Google Ads is encouraging advertisers to upgrade from DSAs to PMax. Google Ads is testing automatically created assets setting for PMax. Google pushed the non-last-click rules-based attribution model depreciation date off a month. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: This week's video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own.

Also, make sure to subscribe and comment on the YouTube video to have a chance to win a Bluesky invite.

Amy Toman and I met at a beach in New Jersey on a stormy rainy day, because we wanted to be weather reporters. Amy is a local SEO specialist at Digital Law Marketing and is also a Google Product Expert for Google Business Profiles.

Amy told us her history, being born in Brooklyn but not having a strong Brooklyn accent. She has always been around digital marketing, she sent her first email pre-1990 and her kids were always online. Several years ago, she started her own agency after people continued to ask her for help and advice with SEO and marketing. Now she is at an agency doing her local SEO thing.

She worked for a pet care website and organically she got into helping really small businesses with online local marketing. She is super passionate about helping small local businesses.

Her colleague encourages her to go to the Google forums to learn and ask questions and that is where she became much more interested in local SEO and Google Business Profiles. She works now at Digital Law Marketing which does legal marketing and she is in love with her company and her team.

To learn more about Amy, you can follow her on Twitter @BubblesUp and on LinkedIn.

This week, we had yet another pretty hot and unconfirmed Google search ranking update in the middle of the week. Google finally launched that perspectives filter in the mobile US search results. Google updated its Search Generative Experience to use data from reviews and photos within Google Business Profiles. Google now lets you virtually try on clothing. Google Bard will support Google Lens, and Google Lens can detect skin conditions. Bing Chat now supports voice search on desktop. Bing Chat is also testing visual search features. Google launched a new search quality form to report spam and more. Google Search Console improved its indexing reporting. Google Search Console breadcrumb report may now show more errors. The Conch House founders told their story of how they spammed Google and made close to a million dollars. Google Ads launched a new design in the advertiser console. Google AdSense now finally integrates with Google Analytics 4. Google Merchant Center is testing new checkout buttons. Google Merchant Center released its product data specification updates for 2023. Google Ads broad match keyword campaign setting tests dropping other match types. Google Maps for iOS now has a business tab. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: Wix - has a new marketing dashboard that makes getting all your data really freaking easy, make sure to check it out.

In part one, we spoke about who is Menachem Ani and also about how to structure performance max campaigns in Google Ads. In part two, we talk about onboarding new clients and e-commerce with Google Ads.

Menachem told us sometimes clients come to him from other agencies, and a lot of the time, it is from customers who are starting from scratch. He said it is easier to take over a client with an account because they already have data and numbers to work with. I then asked him about red flags about taking on Google Ads clients, and he said things to watch out for, including not giving campaigns enough time to perform. So often they like to do a quick audit of the campaigns prior to taking on the client.

In terms of how much time you need to give a campaign, it varies, it depends on budget and volume. It also can vary on the cost per click, but you need a certain level of conversions and traffic to measure. Sometimes it can take four weeks, and sometimes it can take twelve weeks. During those weeks, you are actively tweaking the campaigns to improve things and make progress.

I asked him if there was a situation where Google Ads was not the right fit for a customer. He said when it comes to lower order value with private label brands, and Google Ads might not be a good fit.

We then transitioned to talking about all Google is doing around e-commerce and what he is doing to leverage that. He said first thing, do not be resistant to change, adopt it and figure out how to make the new thing work for your clients. We also discussed the confusion between Google Ads, and Google Merchant Center organic versus ads. He gave us a brief history of this and how this is changing.

Menachem also explained when to use Google Shopping Ads versus Performance Max.

More to come, but to learn more about Menachem Ani follow him @MenachemAni and on LinkedIn.

This week we had yet another unconfirmed Google search ranking update in the middle of the week. The Google Search Generative Experience AI snapshot answers are now twice as fast. Most SEOs seem unimpressed by the new Google Search Generative Experience. Google News Showcase is coming to the US, finally. Plus, the Google News app has a new follow tab, and Reader Revenue Manager is adding a survey option. Google said videos do not need to be in the first element, but they do need to be in the user's face for it to get video thumbnails in the search results. Google said don’t pick cheap domains on TLDs overrun by spam. Google said there is no such thing as index bloat. Google said having multiple navigations has no impact on your SEO performance. Google said you might want to consolidate pages that are shown as host groups in search,. Google Ads had a major outage this week for a few hours. Google Ads trademark policy is changing, and now they will only do specific advertiser requests, not industry-wide. Google Ads can now sync columns and segments across MCC accounts. Google Ads API version 14 is out. Bing is testing side labels in the search results. Google Business Profiles can now display longer-form video. Google Bard is better at math and coding logic, plus you can export tables to Google Sheets. Bing Chat increased limits, added more visuals for travel, and expanded Bing Image Creator but had to temporarily disable sharing chats. Google is working on bringing an AdSense connector to GA4. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by Rank Ranger, the all-in-one- professional SEO software. Rank Ranger is a comprehensive SEO platform that allows you to grow your business with data and analytics. It offers valuable insights through advanced rank tracking, including above-the-fold tracking, Organic Share of Voice reporting, actionable SERP feature data, and SERP analysis tools.

In part one, we spoke about who is Menachem Ani and also about how to structure performance max campaigns in Google Ads. In part two, we talk about onboarding new clients and e-commerce with Google Ads.

Menachem told us sometimes clients come to him from other agencies, and a lot of the time, it is from customers who are starting from scratch. He said it is easier to take over a client with an account because they already have data and numbers to work with. I then asked him about red flags about taking on Google Ads clients, and he said things to watch out for, including not giving campaigns enough time to perform. So often they like to do a quick audit of the campaigns prior to taking on the client.

In terms of how much time you need to give a campaign, it varies, it depends on budget and volume. It also can vary on the cost per click, but you need a certain level of conversions and traffic to measure. Sometimes it can take four weeks, and sometimes it can take twelve weeks. During those weeks, you are actively tweaking the campaigns to improve things and make progress.

I asked him if there was a situation where Google Ads was not the right fit for a customer. He said when it comes to lower order value with private label brands, and Google Ads might not be a good fit.

We then transitioned to talking about all Google is doing around e-commerce and what he is doing to leverage that. He said first thing, do not be resistant to change, adopt it and figure out how to make the new thing work for your clients. We also discussed the confusion between Google Ads, and Google Merchant Center organic versus ads. He gave us a brief history of this and how this is changing.

Menachem also explained when to use Google Shopping Ads versus Performance Max.

More to come, but to learn more about Menachem Ani follow him @MenachemAni and on LinkedIn.

I posted the monthly Google webmaster report for June and as you can imagine, it was a big month. Google launched the Search Generative Experience for some. We posted some of the early complaints on SGE; it is missing the result count, there is very little personalization, and the experiment ends in December 2023. Google Bard’s local results can now be more relevant. Bing Chat added anchor text hyperlinks, I think. Bing teased Bing Chat Webmaster Tools integration soon. Bing Chat is better at sports and has a new Android home widget. Google Search Console is reporting some sites as being desktop indexing when they are mobile indexing. Google Search Console had a huge delay this week, but it is now better. Google Search Console Insights added a new report for content growth. Google said to allow Googlebot to bypass age gates on adult sites. Google now treats .ai domain names as generic TLDs. Google Perspectives is now live, and it is a lot of featured snippets. Google added more car comparison tools to search. Google said charitable donations in exchange for reviews are not allowed. Google Local Service Ads sent out mass policy violation notices. Google updated its shopping ads, free listings policy centers, and made other updates. I showed off screenshots of the new Microsoft pubCenter. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by BruceClay, who has been doing search marketing optimization since 1996 and also has an amazing SEO training platform.