SEO Wash-up Monday 9th January 2023

Google Updates

New Google AdSense format, called “Side rail” ads – The search giant has rolled out a new AdSense ad format named side rail ads. Side rail ads stick to the sides of your web pages when the user viewing the page is on a widescreen device, such as a desktop computer. Google mentions that those who have already tuned on anchor ads will see the side rails automatically start to show up on your website after December 2022. If you do not want side rail ads, then you can turn off this option in your Auto ads settings within the AdSense console.

Google has improved the search console discover performance report – Google has explained the discover performance report in Google Search Console, mentioning the report has been improved. Specifically, Google mentions that they have improved the system for counting clicks and impressions within Google Discover. This happened back in November 2022, going forward.

Furthermore, Google has added that this might result in an increase in your clicks and impressions in your Discover Performance reports, which is a more accurate representation of the true clicks and impressions. Although this does not mean your content is showing up more often within Google Discover, but rather, Google is better at reporting on it in Google Search Console.

Bing Update

Microsoft advertising has added new features – Microsoft mentions in their monthly advertising news about the new features and a bunch of new stuff. The new features include new flyer extensions, restate the revenue value associated or retract the conversion, a new calendar view for ad scheduling and more.

• Flyer extensions – These are now available globally within Microsoft advertising. The flyer extensions allow you to showcase your image flyers next to text ads. advertisers can create up to five flyer extensions per account, and the system will uniformly keep them in the rotation.
• Retract & restate conversions – Users can now either restate the revenue value associated or retract conversions within Microsoft advertising. This is useful in scenarios like returned or cancelled orders, partial returns or reduced conversion value, or correcting a data error, allowing you for more flexibility and accuracy. Although this is a beta, you can request access by asking for it.
• Calendar view for ad schedule – There is a new calendar view in the in the ad scheduling section of Microsoft advertising online. This will provide you with a clear overview of all the times when your ads will serve with your default bid (0% bid adjustment), a positive bid adjustment, a negative bid adjustment, and all the times when your campaigns will not deliver.
• Asset library folders – Microsoft has added new folder capabilities within asset library in Microsoft advertising. They mention that with all the creative assets you can use to power your Microsoft advertising campaigns, the asset library is a valuable tool to house everything in one place and to help you better organise your assets.
• Auto-Generated remarketing lists – The auto-generated remarketing lists are a fast and easy way to leverage remarketing and boost performance. There are three types of lists available including all visitors, all converters and smart remarketing lists.