SMB Mobile Websites Saw 11 Percent Page View Gain After Mobile-Friendly Update

There has been discussion and debate about whether and how much websites were affected by Google’s Mobile-Friendly algorithm update. I wrote last week about a study that argued non-mobile-friendly sites were disappearing from the top positions in mobile search results.
Now comes a study of small business websites that shows meaningful traffic gains for mobile-friendly sites in the post-Mobilegeddon period.
Small business mobile site developer Duda looked at roughly 4,700 small business websites hosted on its platform that were already mobile-friendly (mobile-only and mobile-responsive). The company tracked these sites for six weeks before and after the Mobile Friendly Update to establish traffic levels.
What Duda found was that on average, these SMB sites saw a 10.8 percent increase in page views post-Mobilegeddon. Interestingly, sites with the smallest traffic levels before the update saw the biggest gains. Duda CEO Itai Sadan told me this was both the most interesting and the most unexpected aspect of the findings.

As the chart indicates, SMB sites that were averaging 100–200 visits per week saw traffic growth of nearly 14 percent. Sites that were performing better saw lower levels of growth but still saw improved visibility.
In an email exchange with Duda CEO Sadan, I asked whether there was any difference between the performance of mobile-only and mobile-responsive SMB sites in their tests. He said, “We didn’t find data that would be statistically significant enough to reach any conclusion on this topic.”
For many of these very small traffic SMBs, the increase in visibility could have a material impact on sales, given the more qualified nature of mobile search vs. desktop searchers.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/

Major Billing Improvements & Consolidated Billing Arrive On Bing Ads

One of the larger problem areas that advertisers have wrestled with in Bing Ads has been billing. This shouldn’t be such a struggle for advertisers, and after today, it won’t be: Bing Ads has announced major changes to the way that billing (and accounts) work on Bing Ads.
The new features arriving in your Bing Ads account are:

Consistent Account Navigation

A standard complaint about Bing Ads is that the navigation can be confusing, and performing even simple tasks like checking on account charges can be difficult. 
The new changes will keep a consistent navigation on every Accounts & Billing tab, so users can toggle between a specific account and their full campaign.

Toggleable Prepay & Postpay Options

Unlike Google, Bing still offers helpful payment options like prepay and postpay. Now, agencies that are managing clients won’t be stuck making a choice that they’ll have to live with in perpetuity.

Agencies will have the ability to switch their billing to the format that works best for them.

Bulk IOs

Bing Ads will now support the creation and management of bulk insertion orders across all accounts. The service that was launched last summer allows for the creation of an insertion order with the capabilities for instant approvals, editing of existing IOs and an IO change history. All of this can now be completed in bulk across all accounts.

Consolidated Billing

Last but not least is the option for consolidated billing. Only want one monthly invoice? Still want all campaign data broken down, however? Agencies will have the option to choose consolidated billing:

And they can also see a full summary by account and campaign level charges directly on the invoice:

This is absolutely great news for all Paid Search marketers. For more information and the official release, head on over to the Bing Ads blog.


Source: http://searchengineland.com/

Is Google Experimenting With Bringing Twitter Into Desktop Search Results?

In May, Google began showing Twitter listings within its mobile search results within the US. Now it looks like those might be coming to desktop and beyond the US.
The folks at Conductor tipped Search Engine Land to Twitter integration showing up in Google’s desktop results in the UK. Here’s an example:

Conductor tells us they’ve spotted this integration for several celebrities and large brands, but only when checking results within the UK.
We can’t replicate the results, but it could be that Conductor got tagged into an experimental group, which is common for how Google tests. We’re checking with Google for any official confirmation.
Postscript: A Google spokesperson confirmed that the company has been experimenting with displaying Twitter in desktop search results since mid-July: “We don’t have more to announce for now.”

Source: http://searchengineland.com/