SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 27, 2013

Below is what happened in search today, as reported onSearch Engine Land and from other places across the Web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Keyword Planner Now Shows Trademarked Terms
  At some point recently, Google started to indicate terms that are trademarked in the Keyword Planner with the TM mark. Dan Shure of Evolving SEO tweeted about the new feature, noting that McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” tagline is not marked as trademarked while Staples’ “The Easy Button” is marked as such. (Burger King’s “Have It […]

• The Brave New World of SEO: Beyond Websites
  We hear it regularly – the death knell tolling for SEO. In the past several years, we’ve been bombarded by a barrage of change in organic search, from Penguin to Panda to Hummingbird, from inbound link penalties to [not provided]. Let’s face it: the only constant in search is change. But I propose that SEO isn’t […]

• 3 Ways AdWords Scripts Will Make Your Holidays Merrier
  The holidays are officially upon us, and if you’re reading this, I must give thanks to you for your time. When I still worked at Google, this was the time of year when new product launches came to a crawl since most advertisers were too busy to deal with change, and only the most persistent […]

• How To Run A Successful B2B Social Media Marketing Campaign
  Many marketers think of social media in the context of B2C companies: after all, 4 in 10 consumers buy products that they’ve favorited, liked, tweeted or pinned on various social networks. Yet, according to a recent study from MarketingProfs, 87% of B2B marketers use social media platforms in their content marketing efforts. In fact, of […]

• Google Adds Big Change To Display Bidding: Pay By Viewable Impression In AdWords
  In a significant move, Google rolled out CPM bidding by viewable impression in AdWords this week. Advertisers will only be charged for ad impressions that can actually be viewed in-screen by users, rather than on the traditional served impression basis. New reporting metrics are also available, all powered by Google’s viewability measurement solution, Active View, […]

For More Info about Search Cap

Google Keyword Planner Now Shows Trademarked Terms

At some point recently, Google started to indicate terms that are trademarked in the Keyword Planner with the TM mark.

Dan Shure of Evolving SEO tweeted about the new feature, noting that McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” tagline is not marked as trademarked while Staples’ “The Easy Button” is marked as such. (Burger King’s “Have It Your Way” also gets a TM.)

What is marked as trademarked and what isn’t appears to be somewhat inconsistent at this point. For example, in this set of queries for several Pittsburgh Steelers’ related terms, “steellers” and “steelers pictures” are no’t marked as trademarked. I assumed that meant that “Pittsburgh” needed to be included in the search to trigger the trademark. However, for some reason “steelers hat” is marked with with the trademark symbol.

The NHL was the only major sports organization I could find that wasn’t marked, likewise NHL team names such as Pittsburgh Penguins are not marked.

The trademarked terms can still be added to campaigns. The “TM” mark is not included with the keywords when they are added. Presumably Google is adding the marker to help eliminate user surprise when trademarked terms get disapproved. The inconsistency could cause more confusion if in fact keywords such as “steelers pictures” are eventually disapproved for trademark reasons.

For More Info about Google Keyword Planner

Google Seeking Feature Requests For Webmaster Tools

Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts posted on his personal blog a request for webmasters to provide feedback and feature requests for Google Webmaster Tools.

Matt and the Google search quality team is looking for new ideas on what would make Google Webmaster Tools more useful to you. Matt talked about how far Webmaster Tools has come but they want to continue to make it more useful.

To submit feedback, go to Matt’s blog and leave your feedback.

Matt’s disclaimer:

To be clear, this is just some personal brainstorming–I’m not saying that the Webmaster Tools team will work on any of these. What I’d really like to hear is what you would like to see in 2014, either in Webmaster Tools or from the larger team that works with webmasters and site owners.

For More Info about Google Seeking Feature Requests For Webmaster Tools