SEO 2021 in review: Endless updates, title rewrites, GMB becomes GBP and more
Despite facing a still-raging pandemic and a slew of updates, SEOs rose to the challenge. Here’s our recap of the year’s most important SEO stories and news.
Google Shopping
Google Shopping is a service that lets users search for products online and compare prices.
Vendors can list products for free, with additional paid advertising options available. Product results are ranked based on relevancy, quality and spend (for sponsored listings).
Google Shopping was formerly known as Google Product Search until taking its current name in 2012.
We invite you to read our guides and tips for using Google Shopping, along with the latest news and feature updates.
PPC 2021 in review: Privacy and automation force advertisers to adapt
From the deprecation of broad match modified keywords to FLoC to RSAs becoming the default, PPC professionals dealt with a lot of change in 2021.
Google Merchant Center shows relative visibility, page overlap rate, higher position rate metrics
The new Competitive visibility report can help merchants get a more defined view of their reach across Shopping ads and free listings, who their competitors are and how visible their offers are compared to their competitors.
Google Merchant Center now automatically displays badge eligibility for products
Merchants no longer have to manually figure out which badge is being applied to each of their items.
Google now allows the sale of medical tests kits
New Google Merchant Center policy now allows you to list your at-home results or lab results and over-the-counter test kits in both free and paid Google Shopping.
Google Ads shopping ads bug results in huge CPC spike; issue now resolved
The bug was between 6pm PST on Friday Nov 12 through 3am PST Saturday, Nov 13.
Google rolls out product feed support to more video campaign types
Brands can now make any Video campaign more shoppable without having to create a separate Trueview for shopping campaign.
Holiday shopping SEO: Last-minute tips and techniques for e-commerce sites
How to optimize the work you’ve been doing year-round and what to avoid ahead of the most profitable time of the year.
Google introduces new ‘Deals’ features for the Shopping tab and Merchant Center
The company is expanding areas in its search results where deals can appear and making it easier for smaller retailers to showcase their promotions.
Meta or meh? Facebook’s new rebrand; Friday’s daily brief
Plus, the secret to managing people is less management and more peopling
Google reduces the unique product identifiers enforcement on free product listings
Instead of removal from Google Search, your products may still show up but the performance will be limited.
Consumer interest in nightlife, entertainment, fitness businesses surge; Thursday’s daily brief
And holiday sales will break a new record as Cyber Week growth slows down.
Google extends its shopping integrations to include BigCommerce
Google now has integrations to show free product listings for GoDaddy, Shopify, Square, WooCommerce and BigCommerce merchants.
The revised Google search quality guidelines are out; Wednesday’s daily brief
Health insurance ad formats for Microsoft Advertising...
Google’s new policy means it literally won’t pay to deny climate change; Monday’s daily brief
Plus, why basic questions about search marketing never go out of style.
Google unveils multimodal search, new SERP features; Thursday’s daily brief
Plus, the case for zero-party data as we approach the end of third-party cookies.
Google search gets larger images, enhances ‘About this result,’ gets more ‘shoppable’ and more
While MUM was the highlight of the Google Search On event, more search changes were announced — some might generate a lot of interest for search marketers.
E-commerce SEO guide: New documentation from Google
The new guide from Google gives e-commerce SEOs documentation they can take to clients and stakeholders to get their recommendations implemented.
Google provides some reasons why it won’t use your HTML title tags; Monday’s daily brief
Plus, Instagram tests ‘Map Search’ and last-minute holiday shopping SEO tips.
New technology from Apple & others help me plug in; Wednesday’s daily brief
Plus more on Google search-related changes that you may have missed.
Google to enforce unique product identifiers on free merchant listings
Starting on September 15, 2021, Google said it will begin to enforce the requirement of products having unique product identifiers in the merchant feeds for free listings.
Search marketing in the dark: Google, give us more data!; Wednesday’s daily brief
Also Google said HTML title tags still used for ranking purposes.
Your AI and ML primer — and why it matters for search; Friday’s daily brief
Plus, the latest trends in local search: personalization and depth of content
Coloring the black box: a new look at managing Smart Shopping campaigns
From actionables to high-quality PPC management
Title changes in Google Search causing distress; Wednesday’s daily brief
Also Google Shopping bug and Google Ads campaign set up screen.
Google Shopping issues in the UK lead to sharp KPI declines
If your accounts or campaigns have been affected by this issue, it's critical to communicate to clients and stakeholders that this change is a glitch in their metrics, and not indicative of other issues.
SERP trends of the rich and featured: Top tactics for content resilience in a dynamic search landscape
There is no single tactic that works in isolation. The SERP is so highly dynamic at the moment, that aiming for, or banking on a single part of the SERP is likely to leave you vulnerable to traffic disruption if/when things evolve.
Advanced techniques for driving conversions in Google Shopping campaigns
Conversion rate is a great indicator of the relevance of your product to the search terms it appears for.
Do you follow the Google guidelines?; Wednesday’s daily brief
Also, Target impression share in Microsoft Advertising grows.
Google’s local ads tips for the back-to-school shopping season
More than 50% of North American back-to-school shoppers say they’ll check for in-store inventory online before heading to a store, according to Google.
The rise of Google Shopping in search marketing
Learn how top retailers have leveraged the rise of Google Shopping in search marketing, driving increased online sales.
Why search marketers don’t think a dedicated four-year degree is necessary; Thursday’s daily brief
And, PPC pros, say goodbye to the standalone Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value strategies.
Google announces new deals sections, promotional tools and expanded reporting ahead of the holiday shopping season
Promotions uploaded via Google Merchant Center are automatically surfaced to shoppers, regardless of whether the merchant advertises on Google.
There isn’t always a quick answer in SEO and that is okay; Wednesday’s daily brief
Search Console changed how you debug some AMP URLs.
New GoDaddy integration lets merchants easily show inventory across Google
This Google integration means small retailers on GoDaddy will be able to reach an even wider audience to sell their products and services.
Sharing is caring; Wednesday’s daily brief
Plus, Broad Match Modifier goes away in July
Google rankings, quality and relevancy; Wednesday’s daily brief
Also, non-AMP content now in top stories carousel.
Google may suspend merchant sites that show invalid product availability
Google Merchant Center has a new policy for Inaccurate availability due to inconsistent availability between the landing page and checkout pages on your website.
If almost everyone uses Google, does that make it a public utility?; Thursday’s daily brief
Plus, tips for choosing the right event to speak at.
WooCommerce’s integration with Google Shopping is now live
The integration with shopping partners like Woocommerce makes it even easier for retail and commerce partners to reach increased audience across Google's properties.