Wendel clarks

Image by Gary Illyes Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, Google’s emoji conquest of the SERP is advancing on AdWords titles, Snapchat influencers may be fleeing the platform for greener pastures, and Facebook is making it easier for advertisers to compare the performance of their Facebook campaigns with their campaigns on other platforms. Also, Google’s Next Cloud Conference has revealed that Google’s machine learning technology can recognize objects in videos, and an unconfirmed ranking update dubbed “Fred” has been shaking up the SERP over the past few days. Emoji appear in Google AdWords ad titles A couple of weeks ago, we reported on the official return of emoji to the Google SERP, after a decision was taken to remove them in 2015. Now, emoji have been spotted in the wild in AdWords ad titles, suggesting … [Read more...] about Five most interesting search marketing news stories of the week

As of the August 22, the AMP project now provides the option to build aspects of ecommerce sites, such as product and category pages. It seemed only a matter of time before this would occur, especially after eBay announced the launch of 8 million AMP-enabled pages, but what exactly does it mean, and how should retailers react? What are the key changes for retailers? Anything that can increase conversion rates will always be welcome news for retailers, and the improvements in page load speeds that AMP brings will most likely help to achieve this. Furthermore, Google will display AMP pages in the search results, rather than just in the carousel. It’s important to note that this update does not affect rankings directly (yet), although site speed and on-site engagement metrics, which AMP is focused on, could have an impact on your rankings. Over time, it is also possible that Google will favour sites running AMP as they will cater for the growing mobile audience too. Although AMP … [Read more...] about What does Google AMP mean for ecommerce?

Editor’s Note: SEJ is a press partner of Authority Rainmaker 2015, and received press passes in exchange for event coverage. Day one of the Copyblogger was fantastic, and I was really looking forward to the speaker line up for day two. (If you missed it, you can read my recap of day one here.) I have to say, second day speakers did not disappoint. Here is a recap of all the speakers. Sally Hogshead: How to Perform Witchcraft: The Art and Science of Fascination in Your Marketing Sally is a branding expert, professional speaker, and the CEO of Fascinate, Inc. Before the conference began, I took her “How to Fascinate” assessment, which asks a series of questions about your personality to tell you which characteristics make you most engaging to others. The assessment gives you two advantages, which come together to create a personality Archtype. Mine was “The Trendsetter”, with primary advantage innovation, secondary advantage prestige. Sally stresses this … [Read more...] about Recap Day 2: Copyblogger #Authority 2015

Editor’s Note: SEJ is a press partner of Authority Rainmaker 2015 and received press passes in exchange for event coverage. Day one of Copyblogger’s Authority Rainmakers 2015 is over, and I have to say today included quite the impressive line up of speakers. All the presentations were really in-depth and offered good insights and useful, actionable tips. There was no fluff, no ‘best practices’ we’ve all heard hundreds of times. I had a great time and learned a lot! The morning started with Copyblogger CEO Brian Clark’s opening statement, and he addressed the quality of presentations we could expect right away. Most conferences, he said, if you walk away with one idea, you’ve done well. Rainmaker aimed to do much better than that – and I think they succeeded. Daniel Pink: “The ABC’s of Selling Your Product, Your Service, Your Self” Dan was a fantastic first speaker of the morning: he had a lot of energy and a lot of … [Read more...] about Recap Day 1: Copyblogger’s #Authority2015 Conference

In the American workplace, few things are valued as highly, or pursued as aggressively, as productivity. On average, Americans work more hours than just about any other industrialized nation in the world. They spend more hours at the office, take fewer vacations, and even go to work when they’re sick. For many, this isn’t a choice – it’s just what they have to do to survive. For some, however, the cult of productivity has become an all-powerful idol, and one that businesses all over the country fervently worship. Work-related stress has become a badge of honor. Employees regularly boast of how early they come in, how late they stay, and how little vacation time they’ve used. Even in casual conversation, many Americans simply can’t help mentioning how hard they’re working. Admit it – if you’re reading this at work, you’d probably rather be somewhere else, and that’s exactly how it should be. There’s more to life … [Read more...] about 5 Productivity Tips and Tools for Lazy Content Marketers