All Script And Tols For Free: 🔍 New Google local SERP goes live in Europe

🔍 New Google local SERP goes live in Europe

Feb 24, 2020

Good morning search marketers, we're back but still buzzing from SMX West.

As we were returning home, a new look for local search results started rolling out across Europe. The new local SERP features a prominent directory box — above the map and local pack — that prompts users to "Find results on" other directory sources such as Yelp. What's not clear, yet, is how Google is deciding which directories to show in this box. The changes come as Google tries to comply with the antitrust ruling against the company in shopping search and stave off the potential for antitrust action in local search.

With more advertisers and bigger budgets flooding Facebook and Instagram, it's getting harder to run efficient campaigns. Madeline Fitzgerald, senior strategy development manager at 3Q Digital, shared several tactics for tackling rising CPAs on Facebook in San Jose last week. Tip #1: "If you're noticing that your CPCs are really high, one of the first things you should do is check your audience sizes. If you're seeing that [it's] getting too specific, see if there are any other interests, behaviors, demographics that we can add."

Read on for a Pro Tip on cutting wasteful search spend on close variants, whether Google pays attention to BBB ratings and more.

Ginny Marvin,
Editor-in-Chief

Pro Tip

Stop phrase and broad match modifier keywords from unnecessarily spending on close variants

"Google's done it again. Not content with making exact match keywords anything but exact, they've extended 'same meaning' close variants to phrase and broad match modifier keywords," explains Daniel Gilbert of Brainlabs.

"Not only are plurals, stemmings, misspellings and changes to word order all fair game for your keywords, now implied words and synonyms in search terms will also trigger phrase and BMM. For those of us who rely on precise keyword matching and granular data for the best insights to work with, this is another major blow."

"But something can be done. We've got a script that provides a stopgap workaround that will tide you over until Google comes to their senses."

Learn more »

Look beyond Google for the search intelligence you need

Do you think Google Ads, Auction Insights and Keyword Planner provide everything you need for paid search success? If you do, think again. Google is actually becoming a black box, shifting its PPC tools to smart bids, smart creatives and smart campaigns. The result is that more and more advertisers are in the dark. Join our paid search experts to hear how you can supplement Google's existing PPC tools with the competitive intelligence you need to better understand the search landscape.

RSVP today »

Search Shorts

Internal search reports, status codes and BBB ratings.

Google internal reports. Did you ever wonder how Googlers report on search-related issues internally? Danny Sullivan shared an example of such a report on Twitter.

429/503 HTTP status codes. Here is what Gary Illyes from Google calls a "fun fact." Serving 429/503 HTTP status codes will slow down crawling, yes, but if you serve them for a longer period of time, they will remove the pages served with said codes from the index.

BBB ratings and Google. No, we don't use BBB ratings as a ranking factor, Danny Sullivan at Google had to say again.

Google's Danny Sullivan to keynote SMX Advanced!

Join us June 8-10 in Seattle for Danny's first return to the SMX stage since joining Google in October 2017. His through-the-looking-glass keynote will provide an invaluable glimpse into the search engine's inner-workings from the man who knows it best.

Learn more »