Google-related News of Interest to Business in 2015 – What you need to know.

Google is the overwhelming market leader when it comes to search. When there are significant changes to their search algorithm or Google AdWords, business owners who depend on Google for traffic, leads, and sales should understand the potential impact of these developments upon their business. So far this year, there is Google-related news of interest to business in 2015.

Every year, Google will change their search algorithm 500 to 600 times. Most of the changes are minor but Google also rolls out major algorithm changes that affect search results in significant ways. Major algorithm updates are assigned names to explain changes in rankings. Here is a list of the major search algorithm changes for 2014. The name and a brief description of each major algorithm update is listed below:

• Pirate: A search filter designed to prevent sites that have a lot of infringement reports from ranking highly in Google’s listings.
• Penguin: A search filter designed to catch sites that are spamming Google search results by buying links or obtaining them through link networks.
• Panda: A search filter intended to stop poor quality sites from working their way up Google search listings. Poor quality sites are those sites that have content only for SEO purposes.
• Pigeon: A major local search algorithm update to provide useful and relevant local search results that are closely tied to traditional search ranking signals.
• Payday Loans: A search filter that targets spammy queries that are often associated with spam, often payday loans, accident claims and other insurance related sites.

Search engine algorithm updates can affect search engine results in significant ways. In 2015, Google has made some changes to their search algorithms and to AdWords that business owners should be aware of.

Mobile Matters

Mobile search has been growing at tremendous rates over the past several years. Google made this information official with a blog post on May 5, 2015 formally announcing that mobile search had indeed overtaken desktop search. It should be expected within Google that this transition to mobile search would be of strategic importance. Looking at the major search algorithm updates and Google AdWords releases in 2015, I find that this indeed is the case.

According to Google research, 56% of mobile search queries have local intent. In other words, 56% of all mobile search queries contain location related data such as stores nearby, driving directions, local businesses and so forth.

Google Call-Only Campaigns

On February 20, 2015, Google released their call-only campaigns for Google AdWords. In Google’s blog post announcing the new service, they state that “70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from search results”.

A call-in campaign enables shows mobile searchers an advertiser’s phone number, business description and call button right in mobile search results. This campaign format completely bypasses the weakest link in the mobile conversion funnel, the website.

In Google AdWords and pay-per-click advertising, advertisers pay for clicks that take users to the advertisers landing page. According to Wordstream, with desktop PPC advertising, 19 out of 20 prospects will not convert or complete the action that you want them to take on your website. For most local businesses, this will be to call the business.

With mobile search, advertisers capture 100% of the calls to leads and searchers are connected to advertisers at the precise moment when they need to – when they are actively searching and ready to purchase. This makes call-only campaigns a powerful way to reach time sensitive leads. As a result, it would be expected that call-only campaigns would have more value than alternative desktop PPC campaigns.

Google Mobile Friendly Search Algorithm Update

Google released a search engine algorithm on April 21, 2015 that boosts the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results. This is the first and only search algorithm update that Google publicly disclosed prior to implementation.

Dubbed “Mobilegeddon” in the popular media, this search algorithm update does not show web pages in mobile search results that are not mobile friendly. For many web pages that were not mobile-friendly and whose traffic came from mobile devices, they would have seen a large drop in traffic coming from Google.

The Google mobile-friendly update:

• Affects only rankings on mobile devices
• Affects search results in all languages globally
• Applies to individual pages, not entire websites.

Interestingly enough, in my experience, it was primarily personal and small business websites that were not prepared for the Google mobile-friendly search algorithm update. As a result, it was primarily these sites that were affected by the update.

7-Pack to 3-Pack

Because of the limited screen space associated with smart phones, Google only displayed the top three businesses for mobile local search queries. For desktop search results, Google showed the top seven businesses for local search queries.

As mobile usage continues to increase, Google has changed their desktop search results to appear similar to mobile-specific results of 3-packs.

A seven pack or most recently, a three pack is a generic term for the set of specifically local business listings within a page of organic search results . This is a very desirable place to be listed in search results if you are a local business.

Experts are saying that this has several implications for local businesses and local search. First is that it makes ‘local SEO’ more like SEO in that local businesses will need to focus more on optimizing their website rather than focus on promoting their business online within their geographic area.

A second implication is that the value of a position within a three-pack has increased substantially compared to when there were seven-packs. Experts are fearful that Google will attempt to monetize local search by converting the three-pack to paid advertising. As it is, many less sophisticated searchers are not going to be able to distinguish between a three-pack and paid listings.

Google Home Service Ads

At the end of July, Google started testing home service ads in San Francisco for housecleaners, handymen, plumbers and locksmiths. Google’s home services ads promote pre-qualified home service professionals and enable users to submit requests to the providers straight from the search ads.

Three listings for service providers appear in the Home Services Ads block when Google thinks that that a user is looking for a service provider based on the search query. The ads include a photo, their location and phone number as well as service qualities and offers. Users are then able to click a profile for additional details.

To be included in home service ads, providers must pass a background check, be insured and licensed and have a strong track record. “Strong track record” can be implied to mean reviews, mystery shoppers as well as additional criteria.

With search engine marketing or paid advertising, Google role in the referral process stopped as soon as the searcher was passed on to your website. With home service ads, Google role in the process extends all the way through to when the job is completed.

Upon completion of the job, Google will email the searcher a ratings and review request. If a provider receives a negative rating, it can be assumed that it will not be good for the provider in terms of their participation in the program.

If this test is successful, it can be expected that this new service will roll out to additional industries and markets.

This entire program is a new model for Google in that the ads are currently handled on a per lead basis. On the flip side, this is another way that businesses would have to spend in order to get traffic and business from Google.

Summary

After doing the research to prepare this blog post, I have some takeaways. They are as follows:

• Mobile is here and it is important to integrate it into all of your marketing activities. It used to be that Google led with desktop search. It seems as though Google may be leading with mobile search these days.
• Look for signals that local SEO is heading in the direction of search engine optimization. If this is the case, your website should play an even more important role in your digital marketing activities.
• Google seems to be increasing the number of ways that businesses can purchase traffic and leads for that matter. In other words, Google is looking to monetize local search.

From these takeaways, I have the following recommendations for small and medium-sized business owners:

• Find a way to integrate mobile into all of your marketing activities.
• Develop a process to get positive reviews for your business online, specifically through Google channels.
• Use your website as the central point in your digital marketing campaigns.
• Start looking for additional ways to generate traffic and leads for your business that does not rely on Google. In other words, businesses should start finding creative ways to get traffic but most importantly convert that traffic to sales online. Some would call this marketing.
• Start focusing on improving the conversion rate of traffic to your site as a way to increase sales and revenue.

Local search has gotten considerably more complicated this past year. There will be those businesses who seek to understand Google’s changes and respond accordingly to them. It will be those business who succeed in this game, at least until Google decides to change the rules once again.