SearchCap: Google AdWords call conversions, links study & more

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Soon, import call conversion data into AdWords for better attribution & optimization
  Jul 20, 2016 by Ginny Marvin

  Tracking call conversions will no longer be limited to measuring call length.

• New Google ranking study shows links are incredibly important to the ranking algorithm
  Jul 20, 2016 by Barry Schwartz

  Many think links are a declining ranking signal in Google’s algorithm, but this new study shows links are more important than ever.

• An experiment in trying to predict Google rankings
  Jul 20, 2016 by JR Oakes

  In late 2015, JR Oakes and his colleagues undertook an experiment to attempt to predict Google ranking for a given webpage using machine learning. What follows are their findings, which they wanted to share with the SEO community.

• New insights on the customer decision journey
  Jul 20, 2016 by John Cosley

  Columnist John Cosley shares research from Bing Ads on the customer journey and explains how you can apply these learnings to optimize your paid search campaigns.

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Top 10 video creators in June: BuzzFeed Tasty keeps the lead, but loses a million views
• Ad tech firm Likqid Media launches publisher solution that can handle either HTML5 or Flash video ads
• Expanded Text Ads: Are they living up to the hype?
• 12 programmatic creative tactics for retail and retailer brands
• Using spark files for content creation
• What do employers look for in a content marketer?
• A CMO’s View: How Dollar Shave Club built its brand on video marketing
• Imperson unveils chatbot platform so you can create your own character
• DialogTech launches machine learning to automatically categorize phone calls
• 5 ways to send the most relevant emails to your recipients
• Twitter expanding Featured Tweets and response time tests to more brands
• Christmas in July: 4 ways to maximize your holiday ad budget
• On Prime Day, 74% of all US e-commerce happened on Amazon [Report]
• MarTech Today: Euclid Analytics’ guest WiFi, Google’s AMP for Ads & Nasdaq’s influencer discovery tool
• Microsoft reports $22.6B in revenue for Q4, reaching $92B for its 2016 fiscal year
• Twitter-NBA deal marks first exclusive original shows for social network, company confirms

Search News From Around The Web:

Local & Maps

• Google My Business Bulk Import Gets An Import Summary Screen, Search Engine Roundtable
• How often is Google Earth imagery updated: Europe, Google Earth Blog

Link Building

• How Google Still Depends on Backlinks, Majestic Blog

Searching

• Google Flight Results Show Sponsored Box With Images, Search Engine Roundtable
• SearchResearch Challenge (7/20/16): Finding connections between people, SearchReSearch

SEO

• How Does Content and Inbound Marketing Fit Into SEO?, Search Engine Journal
• How to Find the Best Local SEO Company (28 Important Questions), ignitevisibility.com

SEM / Paid Search

• Automatically counting cross-device conversions for a more accurate and complete view of performance, Inside AdWords
• Google Increasingly Showing Four Text Ads Above the Organic Results on Phones, Merkle
• Create Visually Appealing Reports With Google Data Studio, PPC Hero
• Device-specific bid modifiers coming to AdWords API, Google Ads Developer Blog

Search Marketing

• ​How to Create Images That Attract & Convince Your Target Niche, Moz
• Google Releases AMP Case Study & Here Are My Results, Search Engine Roundtable