SEO Wash-up Monday 12th December 2022

Google Updates

Google Ads rolls out “sponsored” label – For a long while Google has been testing a new ads label in search called “sponsored” in bold black text. Now, Google has officially rolled it out in the Google mobile SERPs. This new update is part of Google helping users make sense of the information, they want to ensure that ads are clearly labelled, which is why the label will now be featured on its own line in the top-left corner of Search ads.

Google also mentions that they want the label to be prominent and clear across different types of paid content. This means that when ads show on Google’s mobile search results, those ads will now be labelled with the word “sponsored” in bold black text font. Moreover, Google mentions that this new label and its prominent position continues to meet its high standards for being distinguishable from search results and builds on their existing efforts to make information about paid content clear.

Google Ads now has three new reporting columns – Google Ads has rolled out three new reporting columns that includes results, results value and conversion goals columns. Google mentions that these columns are available on the campaigns page for tables and charts, as well as in custom reporting pages like the report Editor or custom dashboards and at the manager account level.

• Results column – This shows the number of conversions you have received across your primary conversion actions for each of the standard goals in your Google Ads account. It also shows the impact this campaign is driving against goals it’s not optimising towards.
• Results value column – This shows the calculated conversion values you have received across your primary conversion actions for each of the standard goals in your Google Ads account.
• Conversion goals column – This will show the goals listed in your Google Ads campaign-level settings that drive performance.

Google Local “preview this place” large image carousel – Google has been testing a new local feature that has a section named “preview this place.” This shows an image carousel from the local business profile of that business in search.

Google trending now for shopping results – Google now shows a “trending now” box in the search results for shopping and product-related queries. This was announced back at the Search On event and now seems to be slowly rolling out.

Google grouping photos by category for some business profiles – It seems Google is grouping photos together by category for some business profile local panels. This means that if there are several photos of the location’s bathroom, Google will group those together and show how many photos they have of that category.