The Official Google Blog doesn’t mention Bing obviously, but describes instant scrolling (Google will load 1000 results organized in “pages”, but you can click to get more at the bottom of the list) and the other key element of Google Images new design: a dense tiled layout that is the result of removing the text that described each image (size, weight, URL) in the old design.

To be able to read information about the image, you just have to hover the mouse cursor over the image and a larger preview with the image description will swiftly appear.

If you like an image but it’s not 100% what you are looking for, clicking on “Similar” will open a new image search page that will show results that Google’s algorithm classified as similar to the one you selected. This is one of the best executed and most useful features of Image Search.

Clicking on an image takes to a landing page that shows the image in a frame on top of the page hosting it, which is shown as a background. From a usability standpoint the interface is better than the old one that used to show a small thumbnail on a frame at the top of the browser window.

Display Ad Builder Tool for Image Search Ads

A cool demo of the Display Ad Builder Tool shows how to create Image Search Ads. You just need to choose a template, customize your ad with a headline, description and click text, load an image (process not shown in the demo), indicate the destination URL and Google will create different display network ad formats for you.

As you can see in the image above, the ad text in the demo is sometimes shown only partially because of the different ad sizes, but this issue doesn’t occur in the actual Display Ad Builder Tool.

Related posts:

1. Google Real Time Search

   By Daniel Peiser - 10 Dec 09 - SEO

2. AdWords introduces View-Through Conversion Trac...

   By Daniel Peiser - 5 Oct 09 - SEM

3. Bing Wave 2: A Move to Social Search

   By Richard Bramer - 23 Oct 09 - Social Media

To add Sitelinks to your campaign (Ad Sitelinks will be the same for all ads in your campaign) you need to select the “Show additional links on my site” option in the “Ad Extensions” section under the Campaign Settings tab.

You can select up to ten links, but only 4 will be eventually chosen, depending on the keyword that triggered the ad and the ad’s quality score.

As you can see in the screenshot example above, Ad Sitelinks offer opportunities to segment users and direct them further down the purchase funnel. It’s also possible to organise Ad Sitelinks according to brand segmentation or direct users to the most converting pages, choosing brief but effective ad text for the links.

SEO for sitelinks in organic search results

Sitelinks are one of the solutions Google implemented to offer enhanced listings in natural search results, providing more options to users by allowing them to jump directly to important pages of a site, bypassing the homepage and navigation menu.

Pages ranked at the top position on the SERP can show eight sitelinks, arranged in two columns; other search results will feature up to four sitelinks listed in one single row above the URL.

Users can have an overview of a site’s structure and best content before choosing a search result over another, but not all sites will have sitelinks and they would be automatically generated by Google’s algorithms. In this example it’s interesting to see two different anchors Google used for the same destination page, “Streaming” and “Calcio Streaming”.

In fact webmasters cannot choose which pages would appear as sitelinks or the link text, but it’s possible to exclude a page from sitelinks from Google Webmaster Tools.

How to get sitelinks for your website on Google

Google hasn’t revealed the algorithm behind sitelinks: Webmasters can only speculate about it and test different theories.

Sites that show sitelinks in search results are well structured, have a clear hierarchy and consistent text links. Search engines need to be able to navigate the site, understand the navigation hierarchy, the meaning of categories and the topic of sub-pages.

According to Bill Slawski of SEO by the SEA, an authority in analyzing search engine patents, sitelinks would appear to help users in navigational queries. Pages could be shown depending on log file analysis and data collected from Google Toolbar: Web page popularity would be a primary factor, determined by CTR, traffic data and links pointing to the page.

Ann Smarty lists six educated theories that could explain the factors concurring in generating sitelinks. Traffic data, on-page SEO and internal architecture are confirmed as important factors, but domain authority, brand strength and the absence of competition on specific queries would also influence the appearance of sitelinks.

Related posts:

1. SEO Link Building Tool for Competitor Analysis

   By Daniel Peiser - 16 Nov 09 - SEO

2. SEO and Internal Linking

   By Peter Jackson - 4 Sep 09 - SEO

3. SEO of Breadcrumbs Navigation

   By Daniel Peiser - 27 Nov 09 - SEO

Overview: Learn how tracking conversions can take you beyond clickthrough rate and help you focus your spend on the ads and keywords that drive sales and leads;
How the data in Search Funnels can take you a step further and tell you which ads and keywords are assisting your conversions;
How Conversion Optimizer can use your conversion tracking data and cost-per-acquisition goals to help you focus your spend on the clicks most likely to convert.

Ticket Information: Register on website

Venue: Webinar at 9am PST / 11am CDT / 12pm EDT

Related posts:

1. Facebook Ad Conversion Tracking features Post-I...

   By Daniel Peiser - 16 Mar 10 - PPC

2. AdWords introduces View-Through Conversion Trac...

   By Daniel Peiser - 5 Oct 09 - SEM

3. The Summer of Conversion: Transform Your Market...

   By Daniel Peiser - 11 Jun 10 - Events

The Ad Planner Top 1000 list is updated monthly, and includes many websites that aren’t in the Google Content Network.

Traffic information like the number of unique visitors and page views can be very useful for display ad branding campaigns looking to target only the largest websites, but performance statistics aren’t taken into account and well performing websites could be excluded by this filter. Another possible drawback is that the number of impression you serve may decrease, but your ads will run only on well-known websites.

Google Content Network placements found through Ad Planner can now be organized in lists and easily exported into AdWords, to make building media plans of managed placements easier.

Related posts:

1. AdWords introduces View-Through Conversion Trac...

   By Daniel Peiser - 5 Oct 09 - SEM

2. Modified Broad Match Keyword Targeting in AdWords

   By Daniel Peiser - 13 May 10 - PPC

3. Google Extends YouTube’s Promoted Videos

   By Richard Bramer - 15 Oct 09 - Video

This new AdWords targeting option add a new degree of control in PPC strategies: The broad match modifier can bring more impressions than phrase match keywords, but less traffic than broad match, while offering control over keyword close variants like singular/plural forms, abbreviations, acronyms and stemmings.

By putting a plus symbol (+) in front of one or more words in a broad match keyword, you can implement the modifier, including close variants and excluding synonyms and related searches. The Inside AdWords graphic below shows the differences in reach of keyword match types (broad, modified broad, phrase, exact).

Depending on the specific words you modify, you can influence the reach your keywords will have, and then adjust your bids accordingly to achieve your campaign’s target ROI.

Related posts:

1. Free webinar on AdWords Conversion Products

   By Daniel Peiser - 7 Jun 10 - PPC

2. Google AdWords: beat the online brand sneaks

   By Daniel Peiser - 12 Apr 10 - PPC

3. AdWords introduces View-Through Conversion Trac...

   By Daniel Peiser - 5 Oct 09 - SEM