🔍 Google's EU Shopping approach under scrutiny again

Nov 11, 2019

Good morning search marketers, is Google's EU Shopping remedy working?

Not according to the European antitrust chief, who had offered early support. Google's efforts to drive more traffic to European comparison shopping rivals from its own search results have essentially failed, Margrethe Vestager said last week. The effort stems from a 2017 judgement and $2.7 billion antitrust fine levied against Google by the EU for favoring its own content in search (Google is appealing). Under the new arrangement, Google Shopping itself competes for placement with the comparison engines with no dedicated or reserved slots. Vesteger could seek further changes.

Interestingly, this could have implications for Google's "search choice" auction antitrust remedy for Android users, says Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling. Google plans to use an auction to feature the three highest bidders were to appear, along with Google, for users to select a default search engine. But that approach could be undermined by a determination that the PLA shopping comparison auction is fundamentally unfair.

Keep reading for a Pro Tip from Shari Thurow, who will also be speaking at SMX East this week.

Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief

Pro Tip

Learn the signs on lost cause SEO projects

"If website owners are too attached to a site design that you know is not completely search-engine friendly, is this SEO situation a lost cause? It depends on the site design," explains Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing Interactive. "Some design elements are difficult to modify, such as navigation elements that appear in the wrong place where users/searchers do not expect to see them. Some navigation elements are not in the design at all, like location-based breadcrumb links and footers."

"I do not give away specific design recommendations in a proposal. But I want to know whether or not implementing client teams will support our design recommendations. Sometimes, I use one example of design modification to measure how intense (or not) the pushback is. I can do this during pre-bid phone calls."

Learn More »

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Search Shorts

SEO conspiracy theories.

Robots.txt or Sitemap ranking. Google's John Mueller said if your robots.txt or sitemap file is ranking for normal queries (not site:), that's usually a sign that your site is really bad off and should be improved instead.

SEO conspiracy theories. One Googler is tired of dealing with his words being twisted into conspiracy theories, Martin Splitt is done talking about ranking.

Don't block URLs with parameters. John Mueller of Google said Don't use robots.txt to block indexing of URLs with parameters.

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