Our latest roundup of all the Google updates you need to know about.
1. There’s a new ad label in town.
There have been whispers about a new ad label for Google search ads. Have you seen it?
It’s green (with a white background), it’s more visible (so it can be easily read in search results) and it’s steadily taking over results pages since it was first spotted in Europe early this year.
According to Google, they, “routinely test potential improvements to the look and feel of our search results page. After experimenting with a new search ad label with a green outline, [they] decided to roll it out.”
2. 2017 brings an end to Site Search.
That’s right. The end of 2017 will bring an end to Google Site Search. What the heck does this mean for you?
Google is officially closing down support for the product, entirely. Google Site Search gives you the ability to power your internal site search engine. As an alternative, Google suggests you go with this free custom alternative product, or use its new cloud offering.
3. Have clients with virtual offices?
If you do, take heed: there’s been an update in the Google My Business guidelines about how virtual offices are handled when it comes to what is—and is not—considered a service-area business.
A service-area business is one that is able to serve customers right at its location. If virtual offices are listed as a service-area business, the new rule states that it must have a staff during business hours, physically available to serve customers.
A few details on this: there are some funky instances where a hybrid situation may come into play. Take, for example, a pizzeria. It may have a few tables and do some take-out business, but it also may offer mostly deliver service. In this case, the pizzeria can show its storefront address and a designated service area within Google My Business. And of course, when in doubt, Google can help decide on the best way to display your business address.
4. Multiple ad extension types in one swipeable carousel
Here’s a twist on the ‘ole swipeable cards in mobile text ads. Google has been using sitelinks extensions and price extensions there for some time now. But now they’ve livened up the party by adding multiple ad extension types, all within the same swipeable carousel ad.
In an example spotted last week, you can see ad extensions, call extensions and a few location extensions in one mobile text ad. Google is always testing, but is this the sign of a greater roll out to come? We’ll have to wait and see.
Credits to Searchengineland