Google has released the new Speed Report in Search Console – what is it, how do you use it, and what’s so great about it anyway?
Following several screenshots teasing the release of the new Speed Report in Search Console, Google has finally released an ‘experimental’ beta version. The report enables users to assess the speed of their site’s URLs quickly and accurately. You can find it beneath the ‘enhancements’ tab:
The advantages of Search Console’s new Speed Report
Prior to the release of this report, speed testing was a troublesome task. SEOs and site owners have been reliant on third-party tools, masses of PageSpeed Insights tests, or complex Big Query requests to test page speeds. The new Speed Report improves on these tools in a number of ways.
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Ease of use
One of the main perks of Search Console’s Speed Report is that…
Set up an automated dashboard that will streamline your reporting process
Google Data Studio is a free reporting and data visualization tool which you can use to pull in data from multiple online data sources and present it via easy-to-read and interactive dashboards.
Launched by Google in mid-2016 and out of beta in October 2018, Data Studio offers far more flexibility than Google Analytics in terms of the type of dashboards you can create. While Google Analytics dashboards can only display data from within Analytics itself, with Data Studio you can pull together data from multiple sources and display it all in one place.
It’s tempting to dive straight in and start adding elements to the blank canvas that’s now in front of you. Before you do that, take some time to decide what data you need in your report and how you’re going to present it.
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Five months after Google announced the rolling out of what is commonly known as the ‘EAT Update’, just what have we learned about Google’s interpretations of expertise, authority and trustworthiness? The answers lie in those brands that have thrived
Since Google announced the 'broad update' in August, leading brands have seen some significant and sometimes erratic changes in their organic search visibility. Some brands saw their visibility almost wiped out entirely, only to return to normal shortly afterward. Weeks of volatility followed as Google appeared to tweak the dials on the updated algorithm.
This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the same as in March, as we covered here: https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoX
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 1, 2018
Five months on and, whilst the volatility may have calmed down somewhat, there are still major…
Is Google's AI and Machine Learning intelligent enough to deliver Smart Campaigns that gain results?
Did you manage to watch Google's Marketing Live Keynote speech? The Smart Insights office had some mixed opinions about Google's "new products" and whether or not, Google's Marketing Platform does, in fact, live up to marketers' expectations of delivering ads, or whether it's the same features as before, but in one place under a new name.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President for Ads, introduced the keynote with a striking message:
"Advertising that works for everyone"
This has never been more important than it is today. Not only do we, as marketers, need to be better with how we create and target our ads, we need to be creating ads that consumers can trust. It should be advertising that works for everyone: Advertising at its best always puts people…
Google AdWords – Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform – has recently rebranded and is now known as Google Ads
The name may have changed, but the underlying principles of the system are the same now as they were 18 years ago when AdWords was launched. You write an ad for your business, choose keywords that determine what sort of searches your ad will appear for on Google, and say how much you are willing to pay each time someone is directed to your website as a result of clicking on your ad.
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It’s pretty easy to set up your first Google Ads campaign, but it’s also very easy to do it…
Build your own CrUX dashboard on Google Data Studio to see visual stats on origin performance
After the latest announcement of changes to Google Ads, the introduction of responsive ads, better video and YouTube advertising, cross-device reporting functionality, and the lastest broad-core Google algorithm update, it seems Google has had a busy quarter.
Today, Google developers have announced the introduction of Custom site performance reports with the CrUX Dashboard (Chrome UX report).
Google has repeatedly stressed the importance of user experience on site. Optimizing mobile page speed has been number 1 priority - and they've stressed that sites and pages that are under-performing or give less than a satisfactory user experience will be penalized. Afterall, they don't want to be directing users to sites that are slow, have low-quality content and full of ads and poor navigation.
Before your site is negatively…
But what does this mean?
We're all aware of the length of meta descriptions - the snippets of information we see in Google Search - but how important are they and do people even pay attention to them?
Previously, the maximum length was limited to 160 characters. Google has now confirmed that the length of descriptions has been increased to 230 - this is meant to provide more descriptive snippets. More description of content can encourage clickthroughs and more organic traffic if the content is engaging.
In a recent article by Search Engine Land, Google stated:
We recently made a change to provide more descriptive and useful snippets, to help people better understand how pages are relevant to their searches. This resulted in snippets becoming slightly longer, on average.
Advice my Moz's Rank Fishkin tells SEOs to:
Make a priority…
The major updates from the 8 digital platforms that matter, that's Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter
Scarcely a day goes by without a new announcement from a social network or search engine which could theoretically have some impact on digital marketing. This leads marketers to spend vast amounts of time searching for and checking the latest updates, and then trying to work out if they will mean they need to change how they conduct their marketing.
That is why we've done the hard work of tracking, researching and assessing the marketing implications of the 17 most important updates so far this year from the major platforms that digital marketers use to promote their business. Now you can see at a glance what changes there have been this year, and click through to an article on each change to get analysis of the implications of the change. Well be updating the…
Our summary of the wide number of changes to Google AdWords and Analytics announced at the Google Performance Summit.
Value: [rating=5] (Webmasters, Account Managers, SEM Professionals, PPC Professionals)
Recommended links: Google Analytics blog & Google AdWords Blog
Yesterday (24th May 2016) Google announced a whole host of changes to their AdWords and Analytics platforms, citing the shift in mobile as the reason.
"The shift to mobile is no longer a change on the horizon. It’s here."
During the Google Performance Summit, the likes of Jerry Dischler (VP for Search Ads) & Brad Bender (VP for Display & Video Ads) talk through the steps and the processes involved in the decisions behind the changes. Skip to around the 27 minutes to get into the nitty gritty.
For the sake of not making this article too confusing I'm going to split the changes up into two sections:
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A quick briefing on the 6 new Google services announced at Google I/O 2016
It's important to keep up to date with the new spiel and jargon within #martech and media, to identify new marketing opportunities, or even if it's just to avoid any embarrassment in the office when you're asked for your view on the latest. Google and the other platform providers certainly keep us on our toes, especially their latest raft of announcements. You could say that with their new Alphabet parent, it reminded us of Alphabet soup.
Google's annual I/O event certainly had more new platform announcements than most. Here's our look at the 6 new services we counted.
1. Google assistant
This is Google's next step in machine learning and artificial intelligence and is a conversation-based tool designed to control smartphones, smartwatches and other devices. It's not a new product…
