A really quick post today, I just spotted Google testing a new look to their search engine results (which impact all organic and paid results). Once again this is on Google.co.uk and it disappeared almost immediately after running a few queries. The screenshot below will explain better than words -

Although the basic layout is similar, the new design has a lot more space between each result, which will (in my opinion at least) mean an increased CTR on the very top positions.

You can see a full size screenshoot here.

Another test we spotted this morning, this time for the organic results in Google.co.uk. The display URLs have been moved up from below the description snippet and moved to the side just underneath the title of the organic result. Screenshot as below for the ‘car insurance’ SERPs -

I personally think this makes the organic results look pretty cluttered and I found them harder to read.

I spotted a test last month where Google were adding spaces between keywords in Adwords display urls and today I have just noticed a new test, but this time for the organic results. I am not sure if this is entirely new (certainly not something I can remember seeing before), but Google seem to be testing capitalising the keyword in the display URL that matches the search query.

I captured a screenshot of a query for ‘flowers’ here in Google.co.uk. Notice how the words ‘Flower’ and ‘Flowers’ are capitalised in display URLs. Like serenataFlowers.com, Flowersdirect.co.uk, asda-Flowers.co.uk etc.

Almost immediately after I ran this query, Google stopped the test and I couldn’t replicate.

Seeing some strange Adwords tests this morning, with spaces between words in Adwords display urls when they contain a keyword in (or matched) to the query. Screenshot below for ‘theatre breaks’ as an example -

Notice the spaces in the display urls where the keyphrases within the search query are matched against the keywords within the domain in the display url.

So ‘superbreak.com’ becomes ‘super break.com’ with a space.

In my opinion this looks odd and is more confusing at a glance. This is obviously something Google are testing and alongside their recent background colour change to yellow, we have no doubt it’s with a view to increasing CTR.

Google has been playing with Adwords ad background colours again. We are now seeing a pale yellow colour in the UK SERPs, as per the screenshot below -

I first noticed this about a week ago while running some queries in the US and the tests still don’t seem to be completely widespread just yet.

We first saw a yellow ad background colour in 2007 (before turning to a pink PPC background in May 2010), although it’s difficult to tell whether this is the same yellow Google is trialing again now. The yellow now in these tests looks a little paler.

We know Google tests different background colours from time to time to test click through rates (CTR) of ads with a view to increasing them.

Many have argued in the past the colour change is to attract more attention to the top PPC ad spots and hence a higher CTR. However, is the real reason behind the continued use of very pale colours actually having the opposite impact blurring the line between organic and paid results which is utlimately leading to higher CTR?

You would have to say so.

Update – We checked the new Adwords background colour and it’s coming out as (#FFF8E7) known as ‘cosmic latte’. Wikipedia says this is the same colour as ‘all light in the universe added up‘ and describes it as a slightly beigeish white. So….. beigeish white, very close to the organic white. :-) Although we tested the old yellow background and it does seem to be the same colour.

As you might have noticed, I haven’t blogged here since August. Well, that was for a very good reason. This year I founded a new search marketing agency called Screaming Frog and have been working on a new onsite SEO tool, which has prompted this post.

It has been a little while in development, but I am pleased to announce our first SEO tool for release, the Screaming Frog SEO Spider. I am a big fan of the Xenu Link Sleuth tool for finding broken links, redirects and other site issues, but wanted to build a site spider with more emphasis on SEO. I also wanted something that was usable for all SEOs that you can point and click at anytime and didn’t have to log into an interface. The ability to export everything to Excel was a must as I often like to map out SEO recommendations in this format.

What Is The Screaming Frog SEO Spider?

The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is Java based program which spiders websites links, images, CSS, script and apps. It also fetches key onsite page elements for SEO, presents them in tabs by type and allows you to filter for common SEO issues, or slice and dice the data how you see fit by exporting and importing into Excel. You can view, analyse and filter the information as it’s gathered and updated continuously in the programs user interface.

The Screaming Frog SEO Spider allows you to quickly analyse or review a site from an onsite SEO perspective. It’s particulary good for analysing large sites where manually checking every page would be extremely labour intensive (or impossible!) and where you can easily miss a redirect, meta refresh or duplicate page issue.

The spider allows you to export key onsite SEO elements (url, page title, meta descriptions, headings etc) to Excel so it can easily be used as a base to make SEO recommendations from. The following video should give you a better idea -

What Information Does The Screaming Frog SEO Spider Report?

A quick summary of some of the data collected -

• Errors – Client & server errors (4XX, 5XX)
• Redirects – (3XX, permanent or temporary)
• External Links – All followed links and their subsequent status codes
• URI Issues – Non ASCII characters, underscores, uppercase characters, dynamic uris, over 115 characters
• Duplicate Pages – Hash value / MD5checksums lookup for duplicate pages
• Page Title – Missing, duplicate, over 70 characters, same as h1, multiple
• Meta Description – Missing, duplicate, over 156 characters, multiple
• Meta Keyword – Mainly for reference as it’s only (barely) used by Yahoo the last time I checked. Missing, duplicate, multiple
• H1 – Missing, duplicate, over 70 characters, multiple
• H2 – Missing, duplicate, over 70 characters, multiple
• Meta Robots – Index, noindex, follow, nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet, noodp, noydir etc
• Meta Refresh – Including target page and time delay
• Canonical link element
• File Size
• Page depth level
• Inlinks – All pages linking to a URI
• Outlinks – All pages a URI links out to
• Anchor Text – All link text. Alt text from images with links
• Follow & Nofollow – At link level (true/false)
• Images – All URIs with the image link & all images from a given page. Images over 100kb, missing alt text, alt text over 100 characters

Enough Reading? Download Now

The lite version of the tool is completely free and allows you to crawl up to 500 URIs. The configuration options for crawling and excluding of file paths are not included.

A license for £99 per annum will remove the 500 URI crawl limit and allow access to the spider options menu.

What Is Next For The Screaming Frog SEO Tool?

The tool is a very early version and we have some big plans over the coming months with many new features in the pipeline. If there is anything specific you think we should add, please do leave the feedback below, send an e-mail or tweet it to me @screamingfrog. Although, looking at the list of features to add, it might well already be on there!

Keep Updated

Keep updated with future release of the tool by checking for updates in the interface, subscribing to the PPC Blog RSS, signing up to our e-mail above or following me on Twitter @screamingfrog.

Ever since Google launched the Search Query Report in AdWords, advertisers have been using the data to refine and evaluate their current keyword lists, identifying any potential new keywords that they could add into their accounts.

As those of us who use these reports know all too well, when looking at these reports you do see the dreaded “… Other Unique Queries” quite a bit – This is obviously not a real search query ;-)

(For those who want the actual definition it is when Google aggregates the statistics for all outlying queries – i.e. queries that don’t meet their privacy and volume requirements)

Now I know that there have been countless occasions when people have found examples of advertisers simply copying the data out of the reports and into their live campaigns without looking at what they are adding & I even used it as an example of not what to do when I was training a new employee about how to use the reports.

As I was running a SQR this morning I wondered if people had actually taken on board all the talk and mickey taking that had gone on before about simply taking the data without looking at it first. You can see from the screenshot below that the answer is obviously NO.

Now the fact that advertiser number 2 is using Unicode symbols in their Sitelink ad extensions makes me believe that they are not new to the industry and that they do read all the various PPC blogs out there as this is something that has been discussed at great length recently but this then begs the question- did they ignore all the previous stuff about taking all the data from their Search Query Reports?

The Google Search Query Performance report is a great tool to use when looking at what your keywords are doing and what they are matching against but unless you use it properly you can end up looking very silly and being laughed at by the rest of us… You have been warned!

Google started testing Adwords comparison ads last year and subsequently rolled out credit card comparison adverts in the UK during February this year. Typically the adverts have been within the usual top sponsored ad positions in the usual Adwords format at the expense of an advertiser.

But check out this test I spotted earlier today -

You can see a much bigger screenshot here.

As you can see, it allows Google to continue to have the maximum of three advertisers in the top spots for pay per click while still promoting their credit card comparison product aggressively. All at the expense of the algorithmic results, which get knocked right down the page…

Over the past couple of weeks Google have been testing new background colours for their Adwords ads again. Google changed from their usual blue background to a yellow back in 2007 which is what we see predominantly today in the SERPs.

Now it looks like testing time again, I am connecting to a DC with a pink/purple shade background -

And also a much much brighter quite striking shade of blue -

Are you seeing any other colours?

Since I complained about the geo problems in Googles UK SERPS last year, there have been improvements. Some of the generic phrases which I noted had non UK orientated sites (ie. sites that don’t even sell to the UK) in the results have improved significantly.

However, there is still a geo problem in the Google UK SERPs which is more noticable on the longer tail queries (as you might expect). Higher authority domains that don’t target the UK, still manage to overcome the geo filtering and outrank UK targeted websites with more relevant content which from a user experience perspective is simply put, poor.

As SEOs we find ourselves running search queries a lot for clients, but my experience today was as a normal user wanting to buy a product. I am after a Diesel man bag to replace the one I managed to break recently. Hence, I searched for ‘Diesel messenger bags’ -

So lets look at the results that Google.co.uk gave me (without personalisation) -

1. Ebay.co.uk – Ok, cool. But I want to buy brand new and don’t fancy browsing Ebay to look through reputable dealers.
2. About.com – Not really after a content farm.
3. Zappos.com – Doesn’t deliver to the UK!
4. Ebay.com – US Ebay site. I just decided not to buy from the UK site so…
5. Bizrate.com – Don’t really want to buy from a shopping comparison site but I’ll take a look. Oh wait there, it’s the US version anyway.
6. Nextag.com – Same as above.
7. Shopstyle.com – It has handbags in the url and is the US shop…
8. Askmen.com – A blog post, no help as I want to buy, buy, buy!
9. Shopping.Yahoo.com – Diesel handbags for the US market. Great.
10. Rushfaster.com.au – An Aussie site. Got to have an .com.au ranking in the top 10 of Google UK SERPS these days.
11. Ebay.co.uk – Oh FFS, Ebay and their bloody subdomains.
12. About.com – The content farm AGAIN….!!
13. Purseblog.com – AHHH another blog.
14. Thebaglady.tv – At least this snippet is telling me I can buy them at ASOS but its just a product review with aff link!
15. Nextag.com – Seriously, again?
16. Amazon.co.uk – WA-HEY! Finally a UK site that sells Diesel messenger bags! Oh, it’s out of stock though.

Now at this point you feel like shooting yourself in the face right?

Try and refrain from doing that and run the search again. This time, click on the PPC results. I found what I was looking for with the 1st click. The Adwords team must be loving the revenue right now.