SEO Wash-up Monday 30th November

Google Updates

Google featured snippets with ‘How to schema’ – Several users have noticed that Google is now showing some search results with featured snippets with the “how-to” schema showing. They mention that they think this might be the first time they’ve seen structured data influence a featured snippet.

Google tests knowledge panel in the middle of the search results – It seems like the search giant is testing the knowledge panel box in the middle of the search results. A few people have posted videos on social media of this in action. But some users have not seen or able to replicate this.

Google ads has created a new ad destination report – They have launched a new report that is called ‘ad destination report’. They have said that this new report will help you understand how your customers convert on your website.

To see the new ad destination report, you can find it as a segmentation in your reporting tables. By using the ad destination report, you can see which conversions came from clicks to your app versus clicks to your website. They mention that this will make it easy for users to understand where their customers engage with you most and how to increase that engagement. Furthermore, they say that you will see if customers landed on your Business Profile or got directions to your store prior to a conversion.

This is an example that Google has given, ‘You are a retail advertiser with both an app and a website. With the ad destination report, you may see that people who have your app are more likely to buy than those that visit your website alone. So, if those visitors do convert at a higher rate, then you may want to focus on building more engaging features in your app. This insight can also inform your marketing strategy so they can lead you to run campaigns that drive app installs.’

Bing

Bing rebranded to Microsoft Bing (with a curved logo) – They have been testing and testing for a couple of months, and now Microsoft has made it official and rebranded Bing to Microsoft Bing. Bing also has a new curved logo, which they have been testing since April earlier this year.

So, when you go onto Bing.com, you will now see the Microsoft Bing name and Microsoft logo. They have also mentioned that they have started to shift in product to Microsoft Bing, which reflects the continued integration of our search experiences across the Microsoft family.

Bing Tests Mouse Over Favicons in Search Result Snippets – Bing has been testing a new user interface, where when you hover your mouse cursor over the title of a search result snippet, it will then show the favicon of the site on the left of that title. Users have been sharing and chatting about this new user interface mentioning that it is ‘cute’. Some users have made GIFs in action for other users where you can click on it to enlarge it.