Google Confirms Core Algorithm Update – Sends Online Serp Flux Tools Spiking – Newsletter July 2015

Back in June, we heard a lot of chatter regarding a possible algorithmic update by Google. This chatter concurred with an extremely noticeable temperature spike on MozCast – a tool which seeks to track fluctuations in the search results.

When the update rolled out, many believed this was either the Panda update (which was announced as pending at SMX Advanced) or possibly related to HTTPS changes Google had made earlier with the thought that Google is tightening the screws regarding HTTPS as a ranking factor.

Google’s engineer Gary Illyes soon denied the possibility of a HTTPS update with this tweet.

Followed by debunking the idea of a possible Panda refresh with this statement.

“This is not a Panda update. As you know, we’re always making improvements to our search algorithms and the web is constantly evolving. We’re going to continue to work on improvements across the board.”

So, what we can confirm is – This was a normal Google “core” search update where Google won’t give us any details on! Some believe that this update benefited news and magazine websites.

Nonetheless, we also heard a lot of rant that many SEO campaigns were completely destroyed by this update. Hence, we decided to do an in-depth research and analysis of our campaigns. Since we monitor close to 3,000 websites with more than 50,000 keywords (local and national), we get a birds-eye view of how our campaigns are performing.

We are very happy to announce that this update didn’t have any impact on our campaigns. In fact, we have seen improvement. The new deliverables which we introduced most probably saved our clients. This update is a fine example of how our strategies future-proof our client’s businesses.

Here are some of the latest additions to our deliverables –

• Magazine / News Placement
• Q&A Posting
• Review Widget
• Local & Social Community Setup
• Conversion Optimization Report
• User Testing Video

So, if you come across any website which has been affected by this update, we can help you out. Just connect with us and let our professional SEOs to do the work for you.

We recently spotted Google testing a new user interface (UI) for the local pack search results on the desktop search interface for numerous search queries across different industries. This new interface looks more like the mobile UI than the normal desktop UI.

Here are some of the noticeable changes in this new design –

• Website URL is missing which would probably make tracking organic positions a tedious process.
• Clicking on the listing takes you to a search result page with “Business Name” + “Geo” as the search query as opposed to landing on the business website earlier. Might be an attempt to reduce bounce rate!
• Main Category is now included in the listing.
• Business Hours are now included in the listing.
• Address displayed is not complete. Just the street name which might confuse the user.
• Link to Google My Business page is removed.

As always, we will keep a close eye on this and keep you updated on future developments.

Twitter has been making many changes to its features to take the platform to next level of success. Twitter announced that one of the important update is going to be made in July i.e. Removal of 140 character limit on DM. People and Marketers must be eagerly looking for the latest update as it would let them convey things in their own way without any restriction.

As though, Twitter has limited the users with 140 characters on a tweet update, people couldn’t express anything in brief. Now, Twitter is giving an option for everyone to engage with the platform more freely. The new character limit for a DM would be around 10,000 characters. Also, as part of their announcement Twitter is revising its APIs so that third party developers with applications offering direct messaging functionality can update their applications in advance of July.

How it is going to help brands?

Earlier, Twitter made it possible for users to accept DMs from any other Twitter user without following them. It was really a great advantage for the brands as they could spread the word to users even if they were not following the specific brand. Now, this is the second major change in DM and it’s expected to be utilized at its maximum level by each and every brand which is really active on the platform. Brands will finally be in a position to provide the same type of customer support through Twitter that they currently provide through email.

Last August, Google released its website phone call tracking feature, Website Call Conversions. This feature allows marketers to track website visitors from AdWords’ paid listings with call tracking phone numbers dynamically inserted onto web pages. Most importantly, the phone calls are tracked to the keyword level.

We usually don’t go out on the “bleeding edge” with new features, preferring to let others work out the bugs and issues. However, the ability to track phone calls to the keyword level promised to help us optimize lead generation campaigns for clients where phone calls are the highest volume conversion type.

Google’s site call tracking is giving us much more conversion data to the keyword and ad level helping us generate more leads at a lower cost per lead for our clients.

How Google’s Site Call Tracking Works

There are a number of call tracking systems available similar to Google’s. Like Google’s site call tracking, it dynamically changes phone numbers on web pages if the visitor came to the site from a traffic source we are tracking, such as from a paid search ad on Google.

However, that system can require many phone lines to track phone calls to the keyword level, which can be both costly and cumbersome. There’s no extra charge for Google’s site call tracking, and while it is more complicated to implement than most AdWords conversion tracking.

Google’s Website Call Conversions Is Not For Every Web Marketer

Google’s website call tracking may not be right for every web marketer. Here are some key differences between it and some of the other available third-party tracking systems.

Only tracks traffic from Google AdWords. Google’s Website Call tracking only tracks calls generated from Google’s AdWords search engine advertising network. Most of the third-party call tracking systems can track calls generated from many traffic sources, including other search engine advertising networks, organic search traffic, and traffic from other referral sites.

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