Googlebot identified a significant increase in the number of URLs on your website
that return a 404 (not found) error. This can be a sign of an outage or
misconfiguration, which would be a bad user experience. This will
result in Google dropping those URLs from the search results. If these
URLs don't exist at all, no action is necessary.
Recommended Actions:
1
Identify the URLs with errors
Open the Crawl Errors report in your Search Console account to review the list of sample URLs.
If these URLs are meant to exist,
review the server configuration to make sure that it returns 200 OK (you
may need help from your server administrator or hoster for this). If
these URLs are invalid or not meant to exist, review the source of the
URLs. Fix any links to these URLs from within your website and consider
contacting external sites linking to them. Consider redirecting the
invalid URLs to the appropriate page on your site, if recognizable. URLs
that return 404 Not Found do not affect the rest of your website's
visibility in search.
3
Verify the fix
Once you've fixed the URLs with errors,
make sure that Googlebot can access and see your URLs properly, or that
they return the correct error result code. Use Fetch as Google for this
step.
Now that the holidays are here, and you’ve selected the right ad
for your business, here are some suggestions for targeting and creative
best practices to get new customers and attention during the holidays.
And everything described below can be done right from your page.
1. Target the right audience
No
matter what kind of ad type matches your business goals—whether you’re
trying to get sales or awareness—increase the reach and effectiveness of
your ads by targeting audiences.
When you boost a post and want to target audiences beyond people who like your Page and their friends, select People you Choose through targeting. This allows you to target based on location, age, gender and interests.
When you promote your website or the call to action
on your page, specify the interests of the people you want to reach.
The Interests field will initially be filled, but add or remove any
interests that don’t apply to your business.
When you’re creating a local awareness ad,
go beyond thinking about the radius of the area you want to reach.
Layer on additional demographics, such as age and gender, so that you
reach the right people for your business.
2. Build your creative
Stand out this season by creating warm, holiday-themed ads right from your Page.
Feature high-quality images. Use bright, cheerful holiday-themed images of your business to reach more people.
Create incentives. Create promotions, such as discounts, free shipping, limited-time offers or holiday giveaways.
Keep the story going. Create a seamless look from your ads to your site, so people stay connected to your message.
Add a call to action. Include a single, clear call to action that tells people what to do, such as "shop now" or "sign up today."
Keep image text short. Ensure there's no more than 20% text within your ad image for it to be approved. Try our grid tool.
3. Keep the momentum going
No
matter what kind of business you are—a store with a physical location
or a website that sells things online—if your holiday goal is to get
people to know about you and what you offer, here are two easy things
you can do:
Identify
what about your ads resonated with people. Was it the imagery? The
tone? Future ads should be similar to your best performing ads.
If
your ads received attention from a particular demographic, make sure
you target your next set of ads to that particular demographic.
Columnist Kristine
Schachinger provides a handy primer on entity search, explaining how it
works and how Google is using its RankBrain machine learning system to
make it better.
Earlier this week, news broke about Google’s RankBrain, a
machine learning system that, along with other algorithm factors, helps
to determine what the best results will be for a specific query set.
Specifically, RankBrain appears to be related to query processing and
refinement, using pattern recognition to take complex and/or ambiguous
search queries and connect them to specific topics.
This allows Google to serve better search results to users, especially in the case of the hundreds of millions of search queries per day that the search engine has never seen before.
Highlight what matters most
to your business through smart reporting, and use your analysis to improve your AdWords performance.
This video guide covers how to surface the right insights and turn them into action.
Watch this 3-minute video guide and learn how you can improve your AdWords campaigns with actionable reports.
Don't want to distract your
colleagues by watching the video at work? Why not read all about it instead! Get the full guide to Finding Actionable Insights through AdWords
Reporting.
Calculated Metrics are user-defined metrics that are computed from existing metrics and drive more relevant analyses and enable greater actionability without leaving the product.
Creating calculated metrics
To create a new calculated metric in Google Analytics follow these steps:
Select the Admin
tab
Navigate to the appropriate VIEW
Click on Calculated Metrics
Click on NEW CALCULATED METRIC
You'll then see the Add Calculated Metric interface:
To create a calculated metric you need to populate the following fields and click the Create button when finished.
Name – Provide a descriptive name (i.e. "Average Order Value"). This will appear in the Metric selector for custom reports.
External Name – Automatically populated based on the value entered in the Name field and should not be modified. It can be changed from the recommendation during creation but it cannot be changed after it is created. The External Name value must be unique.
Formatting Type:
Integer (with customizable decimal places)
Currency (Decimal)
Time
Float
Percentage (with customizable decimal places)
Formula – Start typing and you'll see a list of predefined metrics which you can use to create a formula. Accepted operators include:
Plus (+)
Minus (-)
Divided by (/)
Multiplied by (*)
Parenthesis
Positive cardinal numbers (0-9), can include decimals
Using the minus operator as a negative is unsupported (i.e. A-B is supported, but -B+A is not). Formulas are limited to 1024 characters.
Up to 5 (Standard) and 50 (Premium) calculated metrics are supported at the view level.
Using the Formula field and input examples
The Formula field provides a quick way to create and modify formulas using the following inputs:
Standard metrics – (e.g. Total Events, Unique Visitors)
Custom metrics – (e.g. Number of members, scores, awards, or points)
Constants – (e.g. 1.31*Revenue for currency conversion from USD to EUR)
Note: Combining currency and non-currency values in the Formula field is not supported and may lead to unexpected results.
Using calculated metrics
Once created, calculated metrics are available at query-time in the following locations:
When people turn to their mobile device to get answers or take action, it’s a
chance for brands to deliver. Are you there? That simple question can guide your
efforts as you embrace the mobile shift. Here’s how to think about identifying
micro-moments and evaluating your commitment to being there.
Marketers obsess over “being there” for their consumers. Whether it’s share at the
store shelf or share of voice on TV, these are metrics used to judge how present a
brand actually is. But what about on mobile, where there are billions of
micro-moments happening every day? Are you devoting the same amount of thought to
your mobile marketing strategy and your brand’s role in being there whenever
consumers’ needs arise?
When someone picks up their mobile device, chances are they want to learn, do,
find, or buy something right now. Whether in the form of searches, app
interactions, mobile site visits, or even YouTube video views, these micro-moments happen constantly.
And being there on mobile can drive big results and build a competitive edge for
your brand. Here’s why:
Many consumers aren’t brand-committed. Ninety percent of
smartphone users are not absolutely certain of the specific brand they want to
buy when they begin looking for information online.1
You get a shot at your competitor’s customers. One in three
smartphone users have purchased from a company or brand other than the one they
intended to because of information provided in the moment they needed
it.2
Your presence can drive brand awareness goals. Studies have
shown that you can increase unaided brand awareness by 46% (or 6.9 percentage
points) simply by showing up in mobile search ad results.3 And more
than half (51%) of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when
conducting a search on their smartphones.4
Showing up gets your brand in the game to be chosen, not just seen.
By being there, your brand has the chance to address consumer needs in the moment,
help move someone along their decision journey, and deepen
their loyalty. Showing up gets your brand in the game to be chosen, not just seen.
Look at how FIAT made a comeback in America by committing to being there for small
car researchers.
Case Study:
FIAT Drives Brand Goals by Being There in Search
After a 28-year hiatus, automaker FIAT returned to the American market, bringing
with it the FIAT 500, a small city car. But after such a long absence, FIAT found
it needed to build awareness with a new generation of American consumers. The time
was a good one: gas prices were spiraling upwards and Americans' interest in small,
efficient city cars was at an all-time high. FIAT saw that its old perceived
disadvantages could quickly become strengths.
The company deployed online and mobile search ads on category terms like “small
car” and “city car” to reach people in those micro-moments of research and
interest.
In addition, each ad made the most of its context. On desktop, FIAT's ads took
people to its online car configurator. (The FIAT 500 was available in a
half-million color combinations, and customizing it was part of the fun.) On
mobile, the ads pointed people to the nearest dealership, where they could see and
buy the car in person.
The results were tremendous. FIAT saw a 127% increase in unaided recall. The FIAT
500 became a huge success in America, and even more importantly, the brand was
back.
Learn more
Know and Grow Your “Share of Intent”
Unfortunately many brands are still falling short when it comes to being there for
consumers. Take the below examples from two categories (education and auto
insurance) which illustrate a broader, cross-industry pattern. In each case, there
are lots of category-relevant micro-moments happening in search at any given time,
but brands are missing opportunities to engage because they’re not showing up.
The charts illustrate what we might call “share of intent”–or how many times a
brand was there as a fraction of all category-relevant searches.
It’s worth noting that this missed opportunity in the form of low share of intent
is happening across devices, but it’s especially true on mobile. And as consumers
continue to lean on mobile, it’s even more imperative to close the presence gap.
What happens when you hold the mirror to your own brand? First, grab your mobile
device and perform some of the top searches relevant to your business category. Are
you there? Do you like what you see? What about when you do the same on YouTube?
Prioritize the micro-moments your brand can’t afford to lose.
Next, work with your team and your agency to get the “share of intent” metric for
your brand. Evaluate that metric for category-relevant searches on both mobile and
desktop, and see how you stack up against your key competitors. Chances are you’ll
discover some gaps. Create a plan to close those gaps over time by boosting your ad
coverage across a greater number of micro-moments and growing
your share of intent.
When you fail to be there, you’re simply handing opportunities over to your
competitors. Nobody wants that (except your competitors). So find those moments
when you should be present, and dig in your heels.
Four Key Moments to Be There
OK. You’re ready to be there in the micro-moments that matter to your brand, and
you’re committed to growing your share of intent, especially on mobile. But how do
you get started, since there are millions of potential moments?
A good guiding principle is this: be there across all stages of the consumer
journey, not just when someone is ready to buy. To accomplish this, consider
four key
moments types that represent the full range of needs people have.
I-WANT-TO-KNOW MOMENTS:
Someone is exploring or researching, but not yet in purchase mode. They want useful
information and maybe even inspiration, not the hard sell.
Consider this: Sixty-six percent of smartphone users turn to their
smartphones to learn more about something they saw in a TV commercial.5 I-WANT-TO-GO MOMENTS:
People are looking for a local business or are considering buying a product at a
local store. Being there means getting your physical business in their
consideration set in that moment.
Consider this: “Near me” searches have grown 2X in the past
year6 and 82% of smartphone users say they use search to find a local
business.7
Google Consumer Barometer Survey 2014/2015, U.S., n=1,000 based on internet users
I-WANT-TO-BUY MOMENTS: These are
huge, of course. Someone is ready to make a purchase and may need help deciding
what or how to buy. You can’t assume they’ll seek you out; you have to be there
with the right information to seal the deal.
Consider this: Eighty-two percent of smartphone users consult
their phone while in a store.8 I-WANT-TO-DO MOMENTS: These
may come before or after the purchase. Either way, these are “how to” moments when
people want help with getting things done or trying something new. Being there with
the right content is key.
Consider this: Searches related to “how to” on YouTube are growing
70% year-over-year.9
Building a strong “be there” strategy across the four key moment
types requires considering two things: a user’s intent and context.
Investigating intent will focus you in on more specific consumer needs that you
could address within each moment type. Here you want to look into things like top
searches, trending searches, and top search questions relevant to your category.
Ask yourself again–are you there? Prioritize the micro-moments your brand can’t afford
to lose.
Next, layer context on top of that intent. In other words, think about how the
consumer’s needs might change based on their situation. Does the device, time of
day, or location call for a more tailored approach to being there?
For example, should you be there differently for I-want-to-go moments during store
hours versus after store hours? Should you have a different presence strategy for
I-want-to-know moments when someone is inside your bank versus far away? When
they’re looking for instructions on a smartphone versus desktop?
Considering these intent/context combinations will not only help you identify more
specific micro-moments to go after, but they can also encourage ideas for how to be
most useful with your presence in your content, ad messages, and app functionality
when you are there.
For Sephora, finding out more about its consumers’ intent within the in-store
context allowed it to be there more meaningfully on mobile.
Case Study:
Sephora Learns How to Be There In-Store
The executive team at beauty retailer Sephora noticed how often its customers
searched on their phones while standing in the store aisles.
While many retailers fear that customers use mobile to shop competitors, the
Sephora team understood the power of mobile and was eager to see how the brand
could tap into that mobile behavior in a helpful and meaningful way.
The company learned that most of their clients were looking for reviews of the
products they had in their hands, or trying to remember which shade of makeup
they’d bought last time. With these needs-based insights in hand, Sephora developed
mobile website and app functionality specifically to serve shoppers in those
moments.
Key Questions:
To win in mobile, you have to commit to being there in the micro-moments that truly
matter to your business. Here are a few questions to ask yourself and your team:
Consider the most searched topics for your brand or category. Grab your mobile
device and try those searches. Are you there and do you like what you see?
Much like share of the store shelf or share of voice on TV, what is the share
of consumer intent you’re capturing with your mobile marketing strategy? How big is
the gap versus desktop? How big is the gap versus your peer set?
Are you only there at the bottom of the funnel, when people are in buying mode?
Or are you there across the full range of consumer needs, wants, and curiosities?
Are you also considering the various contexts of those needs, and are you adjusting
your strategy accordingly?
Sources: 1-2,4 Consumers in the Micro-Moment, Wave 3, Google/Ipsos, U.S., August
2015, n=1291 online smartphone users 18+ 3 Google/Ipsos MediaCT, Search for Brands Industry Research
Meta-analysis, 2013–2015 5 Google Consumer Surveys, U.S., May 2015, n=1243 6 Google Trends, U.S., March 2014 vs March 2015 7 Google Consumer Barometer Survey 2014/2015, U.S., n=1,000 based on
internet users 8 Consumers in the Micro-Moment, Google/Ipsos, U.S., March 2015, n=5,398
based on internet users 9 Google Data, U.S., Q1 2014, Q1 2015
This campaign type promotes your app to users on YouTube, Google Search,
the Google Display Network, and the Google Play Store—all the places
people are searching for new apps.
Keep it simple
Universal app campaigns help you maximize app installs while keeping
campaign management simple. You only need a few inputs to get a campaign
going—we’ll do the heavy lifting for you.
We’ll automatically optimize:
Your ads, finding the best-performing combinations of text, images and video
Your targeting, finding the right users for your app
Your bids, based on what we predict will maximize installs at your target cost-per-install
Your budget, concentrating your spend on the channels that deliver the most installs
Contributor is a new source of revenue for your sites, funded
directly by your site visitors. With Contributor, users pick a monthly
contribution level (either $2, $5, or $10) and those funds are used to
pay for your site—instead of ads. The result is that users see fewer ads
and you still get paid.
Here’s how it works: when Contributor users visit a site in Google’s
network, their monthly contribution is used to bid on their behalf in
the ad auction—so they end up buying the ad slot rather than a
traditional advertiser. The more they contribute, the fewer ads they
see, and you still get paid.
Share Contributor with your visitors
Contributor unlocks a new way for users to support publishers like
you—helping you thrive and focus on what you do best, creating content.
Tell your users that your site supports Contributor! Here are three ways you can help promote Contributor to your visitors:
We look forward to partnering with you to help you generate more
revenue from your site and keep your visitors happy. Stay in touch with
us and get updates about Contributor by joining the Google Group Contributor-Announcements.
Show the Contributor Badge on your site
Add a badge to your site template. The Contributor Badge tells
visitors to your site that they can help fund your content through
alternative means. There are three available color themes: “light,”
“dark,” and "white." The badge will adjust to fill the space you
designate. (Want more options? Let us know.)
Sample badge:
How to display the badge
Add the following script to your page:
You can specify the following variables:
width // int (size in pixels)
height // int (size in pixels)
theme // string: ("light" or "dark" or "white")
pub-name // string (max length: 16 chars)
pub-id // string (use your pub id; example: ca-pub-1234567890)
Keep in mind: the look and content of the badge may be changed by Google as we refine our messaging. Sign up for our publisher announcements to stay informed.
Set up House Ads
You can also place house ads on your site that promote Contributor to your visitors.
Link your ad to the Contributor site, using the following URL: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/?utm_source=publisher&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=your_pub_ID, where an example pub ID is ca-pub-1234567890.
Blogs or Announcements
Another way to introduce your site visitors to Contributor is through
a blog post or announcement. If this approach interests you, here are
some facts that your audience might find useful:
Contributor works on lots of sites; when users sign up, they’ll
get the Contributor experience on your site and all other compatible
sites.
Contributor only works on Google ads, and is subject to the same
auction mechanics as any other advertiser. So we don’t guarantee users a
100% ad-free experience, even on sites that only run Google ads.
![Improving campaigns with insights from AdWords reports [Video]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiUUdsh1ywFN5bE2Ekh8PFd6r28lBu8paHFTbAGqzw8LI0Udr4CspusFUC76vLKvNGB-iMknI0j63OCvPy04z5If9jBkW5wRLDp-OAnH_TfXY4NiMc7HnMlA6oHCOLCW2NZrCkfF-dZuOgRgfLb0p4Go5dHZzp8ortrwzGQy4hwHhfprNPLaz9pSNNWNf0JgJ8gDlx0=s0-d-e1-ft "Improving campaigns with insights from AdWords reports [Video]")
