Subscribe to Search Engine Land’s daily brief

Search Engine Land is your #1 source for need-to-know search marketing news. Every day, you'll receive a comprehensive roundup of exclusive resources, analysis and insights.

Sign up for our daily recaps of the ever-changing search marketing landscape. See terms.

Click here to view the latest edition.

Here's what you'll get…

  • News Recap… A summary of the previous day's news with all the links you need to dive deeper into the coverage.
  • What We're Reading… A list of must-read news from around the web, curated by the expert editors at Search Engine Land.
  • Pro Tip of the Day… A worthy best practice or relevant piece of advice hand-picked from our contributors and bookmarked just for you.
  • Search Chatter… Wrapping up the best insights shared by search marketers on message boards, social media, and more.
  • Indicators… Highlights of recent data points from the field.
  • On the Move… Updates on new hires, promotions and awards among our community members.
  • The Soapbox… Short opinion pieces from our readers and contributors.
  • … and more!
 
September 17, 2020

Good morning, BOPIS is poised to play a big role this holiday season, 

Buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) is taking off amid the pandemic — it grew more than 250% YoY in August, according to Adobe. Ahead of the holiday season, Google is adding features to attract product seekers by promoting more local offline buying options — and give it an edge over Amazon. 

The features for retailers include a new local stores card with info from Google My Business, a more prominent “nearby” filter on the Shopping tab and greater visibility for the “curbside” and “in-store pickup” Labels on local Inventory Ads. Be sure to get your GMB and merchant feeds in order now.

How much does Google’s new search term filtering affect ad spend transparency? Fred Vallaeys and his team wrote a script to help you see the impact in your own accounts. In one account, Fred found the extra filtering Google added this month limits visibility into the search terms responsible for nearly half of its ad spend. 

NEARLY HALF?! That means this account has lost the ability to act on or optimize all of that ad spend. There’s no way to keep a check or at least watchful eye on how Google’s machine learning algorithms treated that spend. We’re just supposed to trust. Do you?

Keep reading for your daily Search Shorts and more. 

Ginny Marvin,
Editor-In-Chief
 
 
 
Social Shorts
 

Celebs sit out Facebook and Instagram. And?

The Kim Kardashian effect has come to the Stop Hate for Profit campaign against Facebook. The reality star announced she was joining the 24-hour celebrity-driven sit-out. She put out a call to her followers to join her in freezing their Instagram and Facebook accounts for the day Wednesday, saying, “… I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation – created by groups to sow division and split America apart….” Dozens of other celebrities participated in the Instagram Freeze. 

Why we care. The July advertiser boycott this summer had limited impact on Facebook’s business or practices. Despite ample press and a stock drop yesterday that likely had more to do with news of a possible antitrust suit in the U.S., the overall effect of this short boycott will be but a minor blip for the company. As of mid-afternoon ET yesterday, there were just 12.4K posts using #StopHateForProfit on Instagram and 26K people posting about it on Facebook. 
 

What is product information management (PIM) and why is it such a hot topic in both B2B and B2C commerce?

The ability to leverage PIM to deliver engaging product experiences and to be able to rapidly adapt is *key* in order to scale and grow. Join this webinar and learn how the current landscape has led to rapid digital transformation for online retailers to manage product information. Learn how to deliver the most relevant product content to your customers –at the right time, in the right place –and build compelling product experiences that fuel great customer experiences.

RSVP here »
 
Search Shorts
 

Google search ranking update on September 15th?

Google search ranking fluctuations. So the tracking tools that track the Google search fluctuations all spiked around September 15th and 16th but overall the SEO community chatter around this update has been quiet.  And no, Google has not confirmed an update.

Measure site speed. Google’s John Mueller said it is complex and sometimes confusing when you try to measure the speed of your web pages.  But Google does focus on the Core Web Vitals and maybe you should also?

Hack and ranking help. A site seems to have been hacked and it caused the Google rankings of that site to drop. Google’s John Mueller went back and forth on Twitter to help this webmaster fix the site.
 

Deliver exceptional customer experiences

Join us October 6-8 for 80+ tactic-rich sessions, empowering keynotes, virtual networking, and more… all free. Check out the MarTech agenda!

See the agenda »
 
 
 
What we're reading
 

We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader.

Eliminating Conflict Between CRO and SEO Efforts – PPC Hero

Google Discover Traffic Complaints From August 10th – Search Engine Roundtable

Google Says It Doesn’t Monopolize Digital Ad Market. Senators Don’t Buy It – NPR

How to Perform a Site Audit: A Complete Guide – RankRanger

Maximise PPC performance with these advanced test and learn ideas – Vertical Leap

Product vs Marketing Led SEO – Search Metrics

What Is Schema Markup? How to Use It for SEO – Ahrefs

What’s the Page Experience Algorithm Update? – BruceClay
 
 

Third Door Media, Inc.
279 Newtown Tpke. Redding, CT 06896 USA

© 2006-2020 Third Door Media. All Rights Reserved.