🔍 E-commerce explodes with nearly 45% growth in Q2

Plus, explicit images cause Google to cancel a search experiment. Aug 20, 2020 Good morning Search Marketer, I knew I forgot something yesterday. Google went public exactly 16 years (and one day!) ago. Then just a five-year-old company, its IPO took place on August 19, 2004. Google offered 19,605,052 shares at $85 a piece, and it was valued at more than $23 billion. At that point, it claimed about 40% of the domestic search market. For comparison, Alphabet shares floated around $1,555 per share yesterday, and, while figuring out its exact value isn’t as straightforward as the company has branched out (YouTube, Android, etc.), it’s market cap exceeded $1 trillion in January. Love it or hate it, Google is a linchpin in our industry, and we’ve staked the success of our brands and clients, as well as our own livelihoods, on its decisions. As retail sales have slowed overall, [e-commerce has gained momentum](, fueled in no small part by consumer necessity and the ongoing pandemic. E-commerce spending as a percentage of total retail grew from 11.8% in Q1 to 16.1% in Q2. For comparison, online shopping growth for Q1 was 14.8% YoY — in Q2, it surged to 44.5%. “It’s clear that Q4 will be another huge quarter for e-commerce,” writes Contributing Editor Greg Sterling, “Retailers and brands should be preparing now and operating under the assumption that people will go online first before they go to any stores.” And, [Microsoft Advertising Editor has been updated]( with two potentially timesaving features: AI-powered recommendations, which launched as a closed beta in November but are now available globally, can include suggestions for bid optimizations, new keywords to add, and fixes for ad groups that are missing ads or keywords. And, campaign-level audience targeting, which was previously only accessible in Microsoft Advertising’s online interface, can now be applied within the Editor. Take care and have a great day! George Nguyen, Editor Chatter Explicit content causes Google to pause header image experiment Google was briefly testing background header images for search results based on query. We were able to replicate this yesterday on Chrome mobile using various queries that included the word “idea” (e.g., “creative ideas,” “flower ideas,” “ideas for Christmas”). “We’re always testing new ways to improve the Search experience and make it more helpful, modern and delightful to use,” a Google spokesperson told us. However, the search engine has now hit the brakes on this experiment: “We don’t intend for any headers to be triggering for suggestive topics,” Google’s Danny Sullivan [said]( after a nude image appeared in the header as people tested search terms to see if they could trigger something racy, “But given that some were, we’re pausing the experiment to investigate. Also, headers shouldn’t be explicit or have nudity. We’ll check on that, too.” Tip of the hat to [Yvo Schaap](, who first spotted this *air quotes* “feature.” How to Identify Site Quality for Link Building How to evaluate a site for “quality” is the most misunderstood concept in SEO. As a result, you may be leaving sites out of your outreach that can drive ranking, or you may be including sites that will provide no value or potentially get you penalized. If you’re interested in scaling up a high-impact link building program while lowering risk, attend this webinar. [RSVP Today »]( Search Shorts COVID-19 resources, header attributes and Doodles. Market finder COVID-19 resource. Google Ads announced that [Market Finder has a nice COVID-19 resource for businesses and advertisers](. Mixed up header elements. Are you using your header elements and attributes wrong? It doesn’t really matter from a search point of view. Gary Illyes from Google wrote on Twitter “[it’s fine from search pov, semantically might arguably be weird, but then the web is weird so…](” Julius Lothar Meyer Google Doodle. Did you see the Google Doodle for the [190th birthday of Julius Lothar Meyer](, the German chemist who pioneered the periodic table, not the [SEO periodic table](, but the periodic table of elements. Do you have what it takes to win? Submit your best campaign to the 2020 Search Engine Land Awards today! This is your chance to showcase company achievements, attract new business, and boost team morale. [Enter now! »]( What We're Reading We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader. [6 ways to use your voice to get more done]( – Google Blog [A more detailed, colorful map]( – Google Blog [Creative Diversification — More Hooks and Less Risk for Link Building]( – Moz [Free Google Shopping Listings: What We’ve Learned Three Months In]( – Metric Theory [Google Ads Guide: How to Leverage Responsive Search Ads]( – Seer Interactive [How to Do a Backlink Audit in 5 Simple Steps]( – SEM Rush [How to Optimize for Featured Snippets (Part 2)]( – RankRanger [Link Building Case Study: How We Built Backlinks With a ‘Stats’ Page (And Ranked #1)]( – Ahrefs [New Online Publishers Claiming Content Not Being Shown In Google News]( – Search Engine Roundtable [What Is a PPC Audit? Why Are PPC Audits Important? How Do You Do One?]( – BruceClay [Search Engine Land] [( [Want to advertise?]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. [Unsubscribe.]( [We respect your privacy.]( This email was sent by: Search Engine Land - a Third Door Media, Inc. publication with headquarters at 279 Newtown Tpke. 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