Since Search Engine Land launched, we have given SEO experts a platform to share their in-depth knowledge and timely insights – with the goal of helping you solve problems, manage challenges and understand the constantly shifting SEO landscape.
What follows are links to the 10 most-read, must-read Search Engine Land SEO columns of 2024 that were contributed by our fantastic group of Subject Matter Experts.
Dive into Google Search Console’s features and reports, plus how to navigate the tool like a pro, from basic setup to advanced SEO analysis. (By Anna Crowe. Published July 8.)
Get more done in less time with these must-have AI tools to automate tasks, optimize content and improve your search engine rankings. (By Ludwig Makhyan. Published Sept. 27.)
Steps for using GSC to review your traffic, analyze the search landscape and make impactful optimizations for quick results. (By Marcus Miller. Published Aug. 22.)
Leverage AI like ChatGPT to generate more human-sounding long-form content. Refine prompts with details to produce engaging articles. (By James Allen. Published Feb. 26.)
Google now highlights content creators as trusted sources in search results. Here’s why this matters for E-E-A-T and how SEOs can benefit. (By Jason Barnard. Published Sept. 25.)
Addressing common questions, critiques and concerns following the massive Google Search leak and how your approach to SEO should change. (By Michael King. Published May 30.)
Understand what GEO is, how it’s revolutionizing digital marketing and key strategies to optimize for AI-driven search. (By Christina Adame. Published July 29.)
This breakdown unveils potential Google Search ranking factors, including details on PageRank variations, site authority metrics and more. (By Andrew Ansley. Published May 30.)
An in-depth analysis of how Google’s complex ranking system works and components like Twiddlers and NavBoost that influence search results. (By Mario Fischer. Published Aug. 13.)
Here’s a comparison of genAI tools ChatGPT, Bard, Bing Chat Balanced, Bing Chat Creative, and Claude based on four metrics. (By Eric Enge. Published Jan. 26.)
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/seo-columns-2024-search-engine-land-800x450-CAPl8A.jpeg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1450800Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2024-12-31 13:00:002024-12-31 17:42:04Top 10 SEO expert columns of 2024 on Search Engine Land
Search Engine Land gives PPC experts a platform to share their in-depth knowledge and timely insights – with the goal of helping you solve problems, manage challenges and understand the constantly shifting landscape of paid search, paid social, and display.
What follows are links to the 10 most-read, must-read Search Engine Land PPC columns of 2024 that were contributed by our fantastic group of subject matter experts.
Discover how this bid strategy can optimize your Google Ads campaigns for the most valuable actions and overall profitability. (By Sarah Stemen. Published Feb. 7.)
Learn to negate poor performers, track disapproved products and exclude spammy placements with Google Ads scripts. (By Nils Rooijmans. Published Sept. 20.)
Here’s how it affects your ad campaigns and what you can do to optimize performance despite limited visibility. (By Mark Meyerson. Published Sept. 10.)
Looking to elevate your Google Ads lead gen efforts? Here are nine levers that can boost your PPC campaigns toward significant growth. (By Menachem Ani. Published Jan. 10.)
Strategies for running Performance Max campaigns in 2024, covering campaign structure, creative, budgeting and conversion tracking. (By Navah Hopkins. Published April 11.)
Learn about Google Ads’ latest improvements to query matching and brand controls and what it indicates about how keywords will evolve. (By Menachem Ani. Published July 10.)
Leverage AI for PPC with improved prompts, data integration via plugins, custom GPTs, and API-enabled actions. (By Frederick Vallaeys. Published Feb. 1.)
Learn how to use ChatGPT to level up your paid search efforts without sacrificing strategy, authenticity and creativity. (By Amy Hebdon. Published Sept. 3.)
Two years of experiments reveal key findings on the best-performing bid strategies, keyword match types, campaign settings and more. (By Mark Meyerson. Published Aug. 29.)
Google Ads fixed the bug preventing Performance Max search query data from showing in scripts. Here’s how to analyze it PPC optimization. (By Frederick Vallaeys. Published March 13.)
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ppc-columns-2024-search-engine-land-800x450-B1eOpY.jpeg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1450800Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2024-12-30 13:00:002024-12-31 17:42:04Top 10 PPC expert columns of 2024 on Search Engine Land
Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, and its executive team held a strategy meeting with employees last week on its 2025 outlook and what Google needs to focus on to get there. As you can imagine, much of it was around AI and shipping AI products that are better, faster and more consumer focused.
Consumer focused Gemini. “Scaling Gemini on the consumer side will be our biggest focus next year,” Pichai was quoted as saying. The issue is, ChatGPT from OpenAI is quickly becoming the brand for AI, like Google is for Search. The CNBC article reads:
One comment read aloud by Pichai suggested that ChatGPT “is becoming synonymous to AI the same way Google is to search,” with the questioner asking, “What’s our plan to combat this in the upcoming year? Or are we not focusing as much on consumer facing LLM?”
Comparing OpenAI to Google. Pichai also showed a chart of large language models, with Gemini 1.5 leading OpenAI’s GPT and other competitors. But that lead might not stay and that Google may have to play catchup, he suggested. “I expect some back and forth” in 2025, Pichai said. “I think we’ll be state of the art.”
“In history, you don’t always need to be first but you have to execute well and really be the best in class as a product,” he said. “I think that’s what 2025 is all about.”
Build and ship faster. Pichai also stressed that the company needs to go back to its early roots and build and ship faster, while also being more scrappy. Throughout the meeting, Pichai kept reminding employees of the need to “stay scrappy.”
“In early Google days, you look at how the founders built our data centers, they were really really scrappy in every decision they made,” Pichai said. “Often, constraints lead to creativity. Not all problems are always solved by headcount.”
This will help Google compete in this area.
“I think 2025 will be critical,” Pichai said. “I think it’s really important we internalize the urgency of this moment, and need to move faster as a company. The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefits of this technology and solve real user problems.”
Why we care. 2025 will be a big year for AI, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other AI startups. This is an important year for these companies to gain market share and brand recognition in this space.
It will also be an exciting year, as these AI technologies should lead to fundamental changes in consumer behavior.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/sundar-pichai-1920-800x450-POubos.jpeg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1450800Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2024-12-29 14:05:262024-12-31 17:42:04Google’s CEO warns ChatGPT may become synonymous to AI the way Google is to Search
The world of digital marketing in 2024 has been nothing short of transformative, with Google once again taking center stage in many of the year’s biggest developments. From the ongoing debates about third-party cookies to advancements in Google Analytics and the rising distrust among advertisers, the year was marked by shifts that tested the adaptability and resilience of marketers everywhere.
As we enter the last few weeks of the year, let’s take a look at the top newsworthy headlines according to pageviews.
Advertisers expressed frustration, citing financial strain, loss of cashflow flexibility and lack of benefits.
Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin confirmed that only a small subset of advertisers would be impacted.
9. Google Ads ad copy: what works and what doesn’t in 2024
Optmyzr analyzed over 1 million Google Ads to uncover key insights into ad copy strategies, focusing on metrics like CPA, CTR, and ROAS. The findings challenge conventional wisdom and highlight opportunities for marketers to improve performance.
The report covered:
Ad strength – its misleading
Pinning Assets – against Google’s recommendations, it could be worth pinning all headlines
Sentence case vs Title Case – sentence case is a clear winner especially for RSAs
Creative length – shorter headlines performed better
8. Google is shutting down websites made with business profiles
This caused the need of a new site for brands who had GBP websites, using platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress, Google Sites, or GoDaddy
It took little coaxing to have several advertisers let us know why their trust is at an all time low. Advertisers complained of manipulative practices, lack of transparency, erosion of trust and much more.
The rise in ad spend and growing confidence in paid media suggest advertisers adapted to challenges in 2023, leveraging mobile and emerging platforms like PMax to drive performance.
Advertisers are used to the odd Google Ads reporting glitch here and there, however in August, a unique one happened where competitor data was exposed.
Advertisers were unable to manage campaigns or access critical performance data. Additionally, a serious data breach has exposed unrelated item IDs, product titles, and Merchant Center information, potentially revealing competitors’ sensitive information.
It took a week for the issue to be fully resolved.
In July, advertiser Brais Calvo Vázquez’s discovered that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) includes a hidden report that allows users to compare conversion data exported to Google Ads, helping to identify and explain discrepancies between the two platforms.
This tool, accessible by appending “/advertising/key-event-differences” to a GA4 property URL, provides advertisers with insights to improve campaign accuracy and performance.
Some users have had access to this report for over a year, indicating it may have been in extended testing. Google made no comment to this discovery.
The changes aim to provide advertisers with enhanced transparency and control, allowing them to safeguard their brand reputation. The SPN includes websites and apps that display search ads, extending beyond Google’s main properties like YouTube and Google Discover.
1. Third Party Cookies
There had been back and forth about third party cookies for years now and whether to deprecate it and in 2024, Google had high hopes of going ahead with doing getting rid of it. However, their hopes were dashed almost as soon as they started their tests.
In January the report was Google started phasing out third party cookies. They were axing cookies from 1% of browser traffic, and the speculation at that stage was that they would phase out third-party cookies by the second half of 2024 as a crucial move in its Privacy Sandbox initiative.
“The Privacy Sandbox initiative aims to create technologies that both protect people’s privacy online and give companies and developers tools to build thriving digital businesses.”
However CMA had lots (39 and counting) of concerns, the three key ones being:
Google would still benefit from user data whilst competitors would be limited form this data,
That they will show favoritism towards their ad tech,
Publishers and advertisers won’t able to detect fraudulent activity.
In April the deadline for third party cookie deprecation moved from end of 2024 to 2025, conceding to the concerns the CMA raised in February. The had put evidence together that they were still doing the right by the industry and wanted to give the CMA enough time go over all the documentation they had provided.
Later that same month the concerns increased to 111 with the primary concern now being that Google will become too dominant in the market if their Privacy Sandbox solution went ahead.
After a couple of months of silence, the final decision came – Google scraps plans to kill third-party cookies in Chrome. The new promise is to introduce a new experience in Chrome whilst the Privacy Sandbox AMI will continue to be developed for alternative solutions.
That is a wrap on 2024. Several major talking points there, unsurprisingly mostly focused around Google there. What do we think 2025 will bring us? I reckon a lot more AI updates and experts truly needing to different themselves from those who just use AI as their selling point. It would also be interesting to see whether the Google we know now will have all its brands still intact by this time next year.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ppc-news-2024-search-engine-land-dURRNR.jpeg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2024-12-27 13:00:002024-12-31 17:42:04Top 10 PPC news of the year 2024 on Search Engine Land
Google Ads introduced Brand Report, a new dashboard tool that gives advertisers consolidated insights into reach and frequency across campaigns.
The tool simplifies how brand advertisers track campaign performance by providing deduplicated metrics in one place, rather than scattered across multiple reports.
The details. Brand Report consolidates data from multiple tools, streamlining analysis of KPIs and demographic performance.
Advertisers can filter results by age, gender, and other on-target demographics.
Accessible directly in the Google Ads dashboard under “Insights and reports.”
Why we care. This update is significant because it finally solves the headache of piecing together reach and frequency data from multiple places.
By providing deduplicated metrics in one dashboard, you can now easily see who they’re actually reaching across campaigns, spot where they’re overspending on the same audiences, and make faster, smarter decisions about their brand advertising investments.
Key requirements:
Available at the single account level (no multi-account or MCC support).
Metrics cover a max of 92 days and up to 10,000 campaigns.
Requires 10,000+ impressions per campaign for data to populate.
Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns are excluded.
What’s next. You should now look out for when other campaign types, like Search, Performance Max and Shopping, will be included in the reports.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GfwI7kfXIAAYzoT-D5ftMW.png?fit=569%2C503&ssl=1503569Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2024-12-26 22:52:422024-12-31 17:42:04Google ads rolls out Brand Report for enhanced advertiser insights
This tutorial gives you hands-on access to my journey of creating a digital assistant capable of connecting with any system via a RESTful API to perform various tasks.
Here, I’ll be demonstrating how to save a user’s basic information and create a new project on their behalf via natural language processing (NLP).
00webguruhttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngwebguru2017-05-30 11:45:272024-12-31 17:18:05Developing A Chatbot Using Microsoft’s Bot Framework, LUIS And Node.js (Part 1)
For the holidays, the owner of (and my boss at) thirteen23 gave each employee a Google Home device. If you don’t already know, Google Home is a voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant and is a competing product to Amazon’s line of Alexa products.
I already have the Amazon Echo, and as Director of Technology at thirteen23, I love tinkering with software for new products. For the Amazon Echo, you can create what are called “skills”, which allow you to build custom interactions when speaking to the device.
00webguruhttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngwebguru2017-05-29 12:36:582024-12-31 17:18:06How To Build Your Own Action For Google Home Using API.AI
How about an icon set that gives your UI designs just that finishing touch they need? One that stands out while keeping the design clear and legible? Vincent Le Moign spent two years on designing such a set, and we are very happy to feature part of it as a freebie today.
The EGO icon collection shines with its well-balanced, geometric style — perfect to make a bold statement without being obtrusive. To prepare you for nearly everything that an app or web interface could ask for, EGO covers tech- and office-themed icons, just like commerce, transport, nature, and leisure motifs. 100 icons in total that can be resized and customized to your liking (AI, EPS, SVG, Sketch, Iconjar, and PDF versions are available). Black and duo-tone blue versions are already on board when you download the set.
Websites with long or infinite scrolling are becoming more and more common lately, and it’s no mere trend or coincidence. The technique of long scrolling allows users to traverse chunks of content without any interruption or additional interaction — information simply appear as the user scrolls down the page.
Infinite scrolling is a variety of long scrolling that allows users to scroll through a massive chunk of content with no finish line in sight (it’s the endless scrolling you see on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr feeds).
As we look deep into 2017, one of the questions on every web developer’s mind ought to be, “What trend will define the web in 2017?” Just three years ago, we were talking about the “Year of Responsive Web Design”, and we’ve all seen how the stakes were raised when Google announced Mobilegeddon (21 April 2015) and started to boost the rankings of mobile-friendly websites in mobile search results.
Today, as our findings indicate, responsive web design is the norm, with 7 out of 10 mobile-optimized websites being responsive, up from 5 last year, which begs the questions: What’s next? Where is it all heading? We solved the screen-size issue and had a great run for a few years — now what?
