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🔍 Google adds snippet settings, won't pay French publishers licensing fees

Good morning search marketers, do you want to modify your snippets?

Google announced new snippet settings that allow site owners to control the way their listings appear in Search. The new meta tags — max-snippet, max-video-preview, max-image-preview — can be used alone or in combination to tell Google how you want your snippets to look. Support for the new meta tags begins in mid-to-late October. It's not clear how much demand there is/will be for this functionality, and it bears repeating that how you use these tags has no effect on your rankings.

Here we go again. Google says it will not pay French publishers copyright licensing fees to include their content in its search results. To comply with an EU Copyright Directive passed last year, Google will instead show links and "very short" blurbs of news stories rather than pay to show longer excerpts. We've seen this play out before in Germany and Spain where search traffic to publishers sank when their snippets all but disappeared. Publishers are "faced with a relatively stark choice: demand licensing fees, see only skeletal content in search and watch their traffic dwindle," reports Greg Sterling. 

As Amazon's ad business grows, so does the tool ecosystem to support it. Out of beta this week, Sidecar's latest e-commerce advertising solution, Sidecar for Amazon, aims to streamline management, optimization and reporting for sponsored products, sponsored brand and product display campaigns. 

And a quick note for users of the popular browser add-on Keywords Everywhere. It is switching to a (nominally) paid model due to a deluge of bots, the developer tells us. It won't break the bank, costing most users just a few bucks a month. 

Read on for a look at using RSAs for small accounts by contributor Amalia Fowler and more. 

Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief

 
 
 
Pro Tip
 

Smaller accounts don't have to be afraid of responsive search ads

"Adopting responsive search ads in smaller accounts doesn't have to be all or nothing, and it doesn't have to be terrifying," explains Amalia Fowler of Snaptech Marketing. "When creating your RSAs, I recommend the following: 1) Add your RSAs to existing ad groups with a minimum of two well-performing expanded text ads; 2) Have each piece of copy be distinctly different from one another. Ask yourself if the combinations would be redundant or if each adds value; 3) Add headlines and descriptions you already have data behind and ones that you know are high performing; and 4) Consider an automated bid strategy in tandem with your RSA (but don't do both at once, or you won't be able to tell what caused the consequent successes or failures across the account)."

Read More »

 

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Search Shorts
 

Google core update status...

Google core update status. As of yesterday, the roll out seems slow with the Sept. 2019 core update, but we are keeping an eye on it.

Don't email Google. Gary Illyes from Google said emailing Google for SEO support won't help.

Don't change URLs. Google's John Mueller says you really should try not to change your URLs.

 
What we're reading
 

We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader

11 Must-Do Ad Updates for a Company Rebrand – WordStream

Check Your Google My Business Verification Status – Online Ownership

Content Marketing vs. Link Building Case Studies – What to Focus on – Cognitive SEO

Does disavowing links work in 2019? Here are some case studies – Marie Haynes Consulting

Google Assistant rolling out to more Chromebooks – 9to5Google

Google Review Stars Drop by 14% – Moz

Google Translating Knowledge Panels – Search Engine Roundtable

How Google invests in news – Google Blog

How to Optimize YouTube Videos: SEO Foundations – RankRanger

The Ultimate Guide To GSC Keyword Data – Botify

Will AI Replace SEO Writers? – SuccessWorks

 
 
 
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