Google Launches Website Call Conversions Tracking for AdWords

Google added a big new feature to AdWords this week: website call conversions. With a code snippet added to your site, Google can now track when users either click on your phone number or dial it directly, so you can track which users are making calls and which ads are driving them. You can assign different values to calls from different pages of your site and learn not only which ads and keywords drive the most calls, but which drive the most valuable ones too. For businesses that place a high value on customers calling in, this could be a game changer.

Google AdWords to Require Close Variant Matching

More AdWords news for the week – from September, users are going to lose the option to ignore close variants on keywords. Since 2012 users have had the option to set their ads to display to users using search terms that are plurals or close spelling matches to their targeted keyword, but now every ad will display for close variants. Google are touting the benefits of close variant matching, highlighting the fact that it generally lowers cost per click and improves clickthrough rates. Not everyone’s happy though, with some SEO experts bemoaning the loss of choice, and worrying that for some sites and campaigns, close variant matches make things worse.

Greggs Hit by Knowledge Graph Blunder

If you’re frustrated by the enforced close variant matches, this might cheer you up. UK bakery chain Greggs found themselves at the wrong end of a Google algorithm this week when the Knowledge Graph for the company used a picture of their logo captioned: “Providing sh*t to scum for 70 years.” Thankfully, after some social media-based pastry negotiations, Google fixed the problem, restoring Greggs’ good name. Last year a similar problem hit PC World, which saw a Knowledge Graph logo captioned: “PC WORLD: Like hell, but with worse customer service.”