Webcology

Brian Freiesleben shared a screenshot of a featured snippet showing up not in the first position of the Google Search results page but lower down on the page. Back in the old days, I thought featured snippets can show in multiple locations but we could be wrong. Maybe since the new deduplication change, it stopped. Google search will adopt the SpecialAnnouncement structured data type, the company announced Tuesday. Although support is still in development, Google has published guidelines for using it on COVID-19-related announcements and site owners can already begin marking up their content with it. At the time of publishing, Google did not announce a specific rollout date for the data type in search results. Google has ended its short-lived test of monthly ad budgets, it appears. Advertisers that had access are now being notified, according to a screenshot of the notice that Gianpaolo Lorusso of AdWord Experience tweeted on Wednesday. Google is testing displaying new attributes for local results that show if there is dine-in, delivery or takeout services. Brian Freiesleben and Mike Blumenthal shared screenshots with me over the past few days.

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COVID-19 has evolved into a global event impacting public health as well as the economy. These are uncertain times, and we don't have all the answers, but what we do know now is that small businesses have felt sudden changes in their campaign performance as a result of this worldwide pandemic. We’ve seen that global events often impact PPC performance, and COVID-19 is no exception. As businesses change their operations, people stay in their homes more, and the world reacts to a pandemic unfolding in real time—they turn to online search and news for answers to their questions and solutions to their new needs. For some advertisers, these new searchers are driving new audiences to find their way to advertisers' sites, and some are becoming new customers. For others, the results aren’t as great, and the strategies will need to shift. Marie Haynes is posting a weekly poll on Twitter asking SEOs if they are seeing organic search traffic declines for their customers sites during the COVID-19 period. Most are reporting declines in the past week, abut 60%. While about 16% are saying they saw an increase in traffic and 14% saying they saw no change. Google posted some tips on how to navigate your Google Ads search ads campaigns through the COVID-19 outbreak. Google wrote "as communities respond to COVID-19, we know that this time presents unique challenges for businesses. Below are some considerations as you evaluate your ads and adapt to dynamic market conditions."

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Google support is one of the biggest issues people have been worried about since the beginning of COVID-19. Google has been posting notices in the Google Ads and Google My Business (as well as other products) help areas that phone and other support areas may be slow or unavailable. Google said this is "in light of COVID-19" challenges. We should all be patient with each other during these times.

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Google announced, "In March 2020, Google will introduce a new Business Operations verification program." Basically, if you are asked to verify your business and you do not within 30-days, Google Ads may place restrictions on advertiser's ads serving. It says "Advertisers may be asked to provide information about their business operations as part of a new verification program. This includes, but is not limited to, their business model, services offered by the advertiser, and their relationships with advertised brands or third parties."

As concerns around coronavirus continue to mount, internet advertising giants Google and Facebook begin to prohibit ads for medical face masks.
In Google’s case, it is more strictly enforcing a policy that was already in place which restricts ads that capitalize off the coronavirus. For now, Google is only restricting ads for face masks. However, note how the company says it will “continue” to take action “as needed.” In theory, Google could restrict other types of ads in the future depending on how the situation escalates.

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Tulsi Gabbard lost a lawsuit she filed against Google when U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled Gabbard had no valid claim that Google violated the 1st Amendment because Google is a private company, not a governmental agency. Gabbard’s campaign was trying to argue Google should be considered a “state actor”, the equivalent of a government or government department and thus subject to the free speech protections guaranteed in the First Amendment.


“Google is not now, nor (to the Court’s knowledge) has it ever been, an arm of the United States government,” Wilson wrote. He dismissed the complaint with prejudice, which means it’s over. Gabbard can’t regroup and try another line of similar argument.

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Search Console is being upgraded by Google thus giving users the ability to download complete sets of data from reports. Previously, the Search Console only allowed users to download specific table views. In addition to exporting more and better data, Search Console reports will be easier to read once they’re downloaded. This change is being made in response to requests from Search Console users and is available to take advantage of immediately.

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Google webmaster trends analyst John Mueller is planning to investigate a particular link building practice and is seeking assistance from SEOs. Aleyda Solis started a thread on Twitter bringing attention to a deceitful form of link building that has been popping up. The tactic involves an individual claiming to own an image used in an article and demanding credit in the form of a backlink. Solis explains how this happened to her, and that the image in question couldn’t possibly belong to the person she received an email from. Google has added a feature to make it faster to share audiences within manager accounts. There is now a manager account-level setting called “Continous audience sharing” that will enable you to share all available audience lists in the manager account with all of its sub-accounts. Google said an option to share lists created in sub-accounts with the manager account will be coming in a matter of months. This might not be an appropriate action for your situation because it pulls all of the sub-accounts into the audience sharing pool. Before you share a list with another account, be sure you have the proper permissions from the account that owns the list, Google cautions. Advertisers must also consider their privacy policies and be sure to only share remarketing lists with accounts when they’ve received the proper consent from users.

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Google Partners program is launching later this year, which may require current partner companies to make several changes. For companies to maintain their Google Partner status, they will have to meet a new set of requirements that go into effect in June 2020. Google is sending emails to partner companies to help them determine whether they’ll maintain partner status as per the new requirements. The Digital Analytics Association announced that they have absorbed the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), an important milestone in the history of search marketing.

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Social Media Sites in 2020 And Facebook Goes To Court. Today on Webcology Jim is joined by Michelle Stinson Ross, Director of Marketing at Apogee Results. Michelle is a recognized authority on the search and social media both within the industry and in the greater business world. Besides being a fairly frequent guest on this show, listeners might have read her columns at Forbes, Search Engine Journal, The SEMPost, and Marketingland. She is a regular speaker at events like the Digital Summit Series, SMX, and PubCon.

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WordPress 5.4 And Privacy Concerns today on Webcology. Jumpshot, a popular marketing analytics tool, will be shut down by parent company Avast following controversy over the unauthorized sale of user data. Vice reports that the data in question is highly sensitive and was supposed to remain confidential. Documents obtained by Vice reveal how the Avast antivirus program collects data from people who have the software installed on their computers.

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