SEO Wash-up Monday 11th November

Google Updates

Google’s latest search algorithm update – Google has made the largest change to its search system since they introduced RankBrain by rolling out BERT. Thy have said that it will impact 1 in 10 queries in terms of changing the results that rank for those queries.

So what is BERT? It is Google’s neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP) pre-training. BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It has been rolled out fully for English language queries but will expand to other languages in the future. The update will also impact featured snippets.

Google ads rolls out new affinity audiences & seasonal event Segments – They have launched two new features that target searchers. The new features include affinity audiences and seasonal event segments for in-market audiences.

• Affinity audiences – This feature helps increase awareness and drive users to your website who are interested in the products you sell. For example, if you are selling gym equipment or supplements, to reach new potential customers you can pair an affinity audience like “gym enthusiast” with generic gym keywords. So adding this, you can reach users who are looking for gym products as well as people who are passionate about gym.
• Seasonal event segments for in-market audiences – This feature is an excellent way to reach customers who are researching or comparing products and services. You can use this on search and YouTube to reach people with timely offers.

Responsive search ads is now live – Google ads has rolled out the responsive search ads after testing out for over a year and with the responsive search ad, it automatically tests different combinations. It learns which combinations perform best for your ad headlines and descriptions, then puts them together for you. The responsive search ads is now available to all advertisers in all languages, as well as in Google Ads Editor, the API, and the mobile app. They have also rolled out the following Google Ads tools:

• Performance column – This helps identify which of your creative assets are driving results in high volume ad groups.
• Ad variations – This supports responsive search ads, which allows you to run your own ad copy tests and see how different variations of your ads perform.

Google My Business Tests Auto Replies – They are testing a new feature that will help business owners respond to reviews left by customers within Google maps. So all you have to do is go into the Google My Business’s reviews section and click on reply to a review, which Google can automatically fill in with a response. 

Google changes expandable featured snippet – Google has recently been testing the expandable featured snippets with changes to the design and layout of it. It is now showing less content in the expandable element.