Our weekly digest of what’s happening/trending in the digital world provided by Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and Search Engine Roundtable.

From Search Engine Land

New Google smart bidding signals coming: price competitiveness, seasonality for Shopping campaigns
Mobile app ratings will also soon be among the signals Google uses in automated bidding. Read more

A new customer experience, how AI is changing marketing
Armed with data and insights, Watson Marketing empowers marketers to know their customers better than ever and help drive loyalty. Read more

The time has come to optimize for IRLs rather than URLs
Drive-to-store strategies have reached a tipping point where they can play a significant role in improving performance of online marketing due to more reliable tracking methods. Read more

Google starts showing more images in web search results
It might be time for you to focus a bit more on image SEO. Read more

New European Google local SERPs prompt users to ‘find results on’ other sites
Google appears to be trying to prevent a formal local search antitrust complaint. Read more

Google updates Custom Search mobile layout
Redesign includes the search box and refinements, thumbnails and pagination Read more

App-marketer spending on Apple Search Ads Grew by 90% in less than a yearh
The data comes from Kenshoo’s Q1 2019 Quarterly Trends Report, capturing trends from more than $6 billion in ad spend. Read more

Google search spend growth slows as click volume rises, reports show
Mobile continues to fuel growth in click share and spend, and Shopping remains steady growth vehicle for retail spend. Read more

SEO guide to optimizing your LinkedIn profile for more connections, better leads
Learn how to craft messages for new connections and attract clients to your profile with this SEO guide to LinkedIn optimization. Read more

Younger users rely on snippets and knowledge panel, often don’t click, survey says
Yet ‘position zero’ doesn’t always win says survey, which reveals relatively discerning users. Read more

Still have active destination URLs in Bing Ads? It’s time to migrate to final URLs
Say goodbye to standard text ads by the end of the year. Read more

From Marketing Land

A new customer experience, how AI is changing marketing
Armed with data and insights, Watson Marketing empowers marketers to know their customers better than ever and help drive loyalty. Read more

Are you wasting money on Google Ads?
Eliminate wasted spend and maximize ROAS on Google Ads in 5 simple steps. Read more

Privacy-centric browser Brave launches its twist on display ads
Brave Ads are now available on desktop in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the U.K. Read more

Here’s how to incorporate shoppable Instagram posts into your e-commerce strategy
With Instagram shoppers able to purchase directly through posts, the simplified path to purchase makes the platform attractive for retailers. Read more

We can’t live without digital media, but why would we want to?
In the past, media had no role in our health, transportation or infrastructure but technology has disrupted the boundary between media and non-media interactions. Read more

Facebook ad revenue keeps rising, 3 million advertisers using Stories Ads
The company generated $14.9 billion in ad revenue during the first quarter of the year, with 93% coming from mobile ads. Read more

From Search Engine Roundtable

Google: We Don’t Hand Rank Web Pages, It Would Be Impossible
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that Google does not manually hand rank any web page. He added the web is too big for that and if they tried, it would be impossible. Read more

Google Search Console URL Parameters Tool May Change
Google’s John Mueller hinted on Twitter that the URL parameter tool that was added to Google Search Console in 2009 may not be 100% ported to the new Google Search Console. Read more

Google spotted testing version of GoogleBot that can render more content
Google may be able to fully crawl more advanced and modern web apps sooner than you thought. Read more

Google Might Change How NoIndex In Robots.txt Works
For years Google has been communicating and we’ve been reporting that Google does not support using the noindex direction within your robots.txt file. Read more

Google: It’s Easy To Read Between The Lines
As you all know from reading this blog, I try hard to read between the lines when it comes to what Google and Googlers are saying. Read more

Google Defends Search Results: No Influence On Ads Or Google Analytics
Here we have Danny Sullivan, who now works at Google, defending Google’s organic, free search results. Read more

Google & Brackets – How Google Use Brackets In Search
I noticed over the past couple weeks, when Google announced the before and after search commands that some SEOs didn’t realize that when Google uses brackets, it is there way of quoting a search phrase. Read more

Google: Nofollow Link Attribute Is Working Fairly Well
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that the nofollow link attribute has been and still is working fairly well. Read more

Google Search Console Coverage Report Delayed 16 Days & Counting
It is now 16 days and counting since the Google Search Console Coverage report has been updated. Read more

Google My Business: POI Establishment Category
I am seeing reports of business owners and local SEOs saying they are seeing a new category being added to some of the business listings they manage. Read more

Google Maps Business Reviews Vanishing After Suspension Removal
There are numerous reports of Google Maps listings, Google My Business listings that have had their suspension removed then seeing all of the reviews they had on their listings vanish. Read more

Google Images, Featured Snippets & Videos More Often In Web Search Results
TIt looks like Google is showing more vertical search features in the core web search results – more often. Read more