OrderDynamics Monthly Google Updates Report – February 2013

For the start of the year, Google updates were relatively minimal. Changes to the Search, Analytics and Adwords platforms focused primarily on improving user experience by simplifying processes and implementing short-cuts to cater to those with less advanced technical savvy.

Google Search

Google’s first Panda algorithm update of the year took place on January 23, making this the 24^th update since the algorithm was first introduced in February 2011. The update was reported to impact English search queries by 1.2%, only marginally less than the December update which caused businesses to see noticeable fluctuation in their search rank. It was suspected that an update had occurred a week earlier on January 17, as many sites saw drastic, multiple-page drops in search rank, however Google did not confirm that any change was made at that time.

Google Image Search saw an update to the results layout on January 24, which allowed faster viewing of images by making pertinent information to the image available right on the results page when clicking on it, rather than being automatically being redirected to the host site. With the new format, when an image is clicked on it is pulled into a focal section on the page for larger view and to display image credentials. Google reported that this format aims at simplifying image browsing while helping users to not lose track of images that appeal to them.

Google Analytics

On January 24, Google Analytics announced a series of UI improvements including widgets, search enhancements and shortcut enablement.

• With the introduction of new widgets and layouts, users can produce reports on custom metrics and formats, and easily export them for sharing.
• Short cuts to saved custom reports can now be pinned to the enhanced sidebar for easy access to non-standard reports.
• The Recent History tool enables an auto-save of recently generated reports to be found in a drop down history list when clicking in the search field, and is essentially another short cut to simplify and streamline report generation.
• Search was also enhanced to allow for data searches across all reports and dashboards, rather than specifically the one being displayed.
• Keyboard shortcuts were implemented for the following:

o   Access to quick search: s

o   View account list: shift + a

o   Set date range to today: d + t

o   View on-screen guide: shift + ?

• Date/period comparison pre-sets were optimized by adding a year-over-year option, eliminating the need to scroll through the entire calendar year to select comparison dates.
• New report export options were added for Excel XSLX and Google Docs.

Google Analytics also introduced the Google Analytics Solutions Gallery on January 28, targeting users who are unsure of what metrics to measure, and how to identify whether their reports showed positive or negative performance. The Solutions Gallery provides examples of dashboards from sites that are performing well, the type of reports they are generating, and metrics they are monitoring to measure site performance; users can download these examples and use them as a benchmark with which to compare their own Analytics. Current Solutions examples include:

• Social sharing reports – understand what site content users are sharing and how
• Publisher dashboard – identify visitors’ clickstream to your site, and what they do once they are on it.
• Engaged traffic and advanced segment – measure traffic that is high value and truly engaged (stay onsite for 3+ minutes, and view 3+ pages), and understand what it is about your site that appeals to them.

Google Adwords

On January 16, Adwords started the New Year by introducing the Mobile Ads Showcase App. The App enables Adwords users to create, test and store a portfolio of ads, while also allowing them to view ads as potential visitors would see them. This feature is currently only available for the Android smartphone platform.

At the end of the month, Adwords implemented new features to the year-old Adwords for Video tool. Businesses using video ads now have access to data on reach and frequency reporting, which identify how ads are viewed and their average impressions. Column Sets are a new feature that allows users to select specific goals for which Adwords provides a set of information and indicates which columns in the set include data important to those goals; sample goals that are catered to include building brand awareness, optimizing ads for conversions, growing ad audience, and driving more ad views. The Geo-Map is another new tool that provides map visualization of where video ads are viewed most.