Google Cracks Down On Linking Schemes; Makes AdWords More Accessible
Linking is a great way to drive traffic to your online business, but nobody said link building was easy. Still, you’d do best not to fall for a shady backlinking scheme. If you do, Google has your number.
Recently, a wave of bloggers received manual actions from the search giant due to unnatural outbound linking strategies they used in return for promoting free products. Google previously warned bloggers against the practice, and instructed them to use nofollow tags in links to product reviews for which they were compensated. Those who didn’t follow the instruction were penalized, and ordered to remove the links.
This isn’t the first or last time Google has cracked down on site owners who try to game the system, so read up on linking schemes, and be sure to use best practices when building your business.
So, what does Google like? Revenue. Specifically, AdWords revenue. As a result, it’s made it easier for businesses to use the ad platform by integrating AdWords reporting within Google Analytics. Marketers can now make changes to their campaigns, auto-tag ads with UTM codes, Sitelinks reporting and a final URL dimension. Google is still unrolling these capabilities, so sit tight if you don’t yet see them in your account.
Sales Rank, FBA Top Two Factors in Amazon Search Ranking
Fulfillment By Amazon makes operations much easier on ecommerce owners, and it turns out that using the service can also make retailers more visible.
Recently, ecommerce agency Ripen conducted research to determine the top factors that can bring a retailer to the top of an Amazon search results page. The product’s seller rank was No. 1 on the list by a wide margin, and the second most significant factor was whether the product was being sold via FBA.
These findings may not be surprising, but Ripen did uncover another factor that correlates negatively with ranking: Using third-party fulfillment or merchants tended to hurt rankings. In fact, these were the only two factors that were found to lower search ranking.
There’s a New Option for Ecommerce Owners Looking to Streamline Operations
The demand for omnichannel technology in ecommerce is at an all-time high – for both retailers and consumers. Fulfillment company Innotrac recently joined forces with eBay Enterprise to form Radial, an ecommerce operations company that uses omnichannel technology to cater to consumers, whether they’re on- or offline, and no matter what device they use.
It’s unclear what size businesses Radial will cater to, but its technology and anticipated pervasiveness in the ecommerce world may be one step toward making advanced omnichannel solutions and analytics readily available to all retailers.
With omnichannel marketing, small business owners can gauge the effectiveness of their channels, streamline operations and personalize the shopping experience of each customer. Read more about it here.