Welcome back to another installment of the SEOverview. It’s been a while, so let’s jump right into the biggest news in the Digital Marketing landscape.
Changes Coming to Google Ads Automated Extensions
Google Ads has announced three new changes that will be coming to their automated extensions. These new changes come in the form of automated and manual extensions can finally be shown together, reporting, and where these extensions can be added to the ads.
First and foremost, starting in March, automated extensions can finally be shown alongside manually created extensions. In the past, if you had manually created two different sitelinks, and allowed Google to automatically create other ones, it would either be the manual or automated extensions that would show up. Luckily that is no longer the case. If you have two manual sitelinks, Google can fill out the rest of the space with an additional 2 automated sitelinks.
The next change is simple, but still much requested. In the coming weeks, Google Ads will provide a report for “Automatically created” extensions. You can view these in the table view of the Extensions page.
Last, but not least, starting in March, extensions from higher levels in your account can serve with extensions of the same type from lower levels.
New Features for Search Ads 360
Google has revamped Search Ads 360 to include support for some newer Google Ads features like Performance Max and Discovery campaigns, a refreshed UI, and overall workflow improvements.
The new experience will start rolling out over the next few months, and Google will be sharing migration timelines as the year progresses.
This might not seem like a big deal, but for those agencies that are working on the enterprise level, this will save them a great deal of time. Sharing common technology with Google Ads will give Google a unified appearance across all of their Ads platforms.
Do Small Sites Stand a Chance?
Recently, John Mueller was asked if the search results are stacked against small sites, creating a situation that gives and advantage to large companies. While he did acknowledge that big companies are difficult to compete against, but all hope is not lost for the smaller sites.
On the basis of competing against larger businesses, Muller responded “But from a purely practical point of view, obviously if you’re a small company and you’re trying to compete with larger companies, then it’s always going to be hard.”
It might seem that there is no hope after that, but Mueller discussed the history of search rankings to show how true competition on the Google platform has been about the effort being put into creating a strong website for users, and not about how big the site is.
Mueller added, “That’s something where you, kind of, as a small company, you should probably focus more on your strengths and the weaknesses of the competitors and try to find an angle where you can shine, where other people don’t have the ability to shine as well.
Which could be specific kinds of content, or specific audiences or anything along those lines”
So while it isn’t impossible for a smaller site to overtake a larger one in Google’s rankings, it is still quite difficult. And if you’re looking for a team to help get you to that point, contact us or give us a call at (305) 455-0720.