Google Image Search Changes – 30th January 2013 Google is changing how image search works making it faster and more reliable to the user. The look and feel of image search will be changing. You will soon be able to flick through various images from the previews using your keyword, without having to go back into the search page which will streamline the process, giving it more of a tablet feel. This also means users won't necessarily have to click through to the website to get high quality images which could have an impact on traffic to websites. Some webmasters have already said they have seen a decrease in traffic coming in from Google Images since the new features launched last week. However, there is also more opportunity to better optimise images. How does this change for webmasters? Just a couple of points below. Google now display detailed information about the image (the metadata) right underneath the image in the search results, instead of redirecting users to a separate landing page. Google now feature some key information much more prominently next to the image: the title of the page hosting the image, the domain name it comes from, and the image size. Google have said that "Google Images has always been about providing you visual answers. We hope this update makes it easier and even a bit more fun to find the images you’re looking for." It's still early days, but we will be keeping an eye on traffic coming through image search. -
Jimisha Lakhani
More information at: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/faster-imagesearch.html
Advertisers Increased PLA Budgets By 600% In Q4 – 30th January 2013 The Google Shopping gamble paid off – for both Google and e-commerce advertisers who ran product listing ad campaigns last quarter. Today, Marin Software released findings showing that, after the transition of Google Shopping to an entirely paid model in October, advertisers increased their share of search budgets directed toward product listing ads by nearly
600%. Those advertisers were rewarded with higher click through rates and lower cost per click than text ads. Advertisers allocated more of their budgets to PLAs as consumers increased their engagements with the image ads. In the last year, the share of search clicks from PLAs increased 210%, rising from 2.5% to 6.5%. In the 4th quarter alone, Marin found the impression share of PLAs jumped 60% as holiday shoppers searched for products and gift items.
Marin says it expects to see marketers continue to increase their investment in product listing ads. In addition, more marketers will add PLAs to their paid search mix. Increased adoption and investment in the ad format will likely have an impact on the relatively low CPCs seen last quarter. It will be interesting to watch both clicks through rate and CPC trends over the next several months as advertisers capitalize on the rising impression share of PLAs and continue to refine campaign targeting. – Chris Richardson More information at: http://searchengineland.com/marin-report-advertisers-increase-pla-budgetallocations-by-600-percent-146595