Five of the most interesting search marketing news stories of the week

It's Friday once again, and time for a round-up from the world of search marketing.

This week we have App Store search ads, the ability to compare search queries in Search Console, and more ad tests from Google…

Web users think most outbound links are commercial

A study by Dan Petrovic, aka @DejanSEO, looked at the attitudes of 2,000 web users in the US and Australia around the reasons why web publishers link out.

The research found that more than 40% of users think that outbound links another are there because they generate revenue for the publisher.

'Marketing Advertising & Revenue' was seen to be the number one reason why a link exists, with almost a third of users expecting there to be some sort of commercial arrangement behind links.

Apple introduces search ads to the App Store

Apple announced this week that it will allow app developers to pay for a slot at the top of searches on the App Store.

Google tests out 'top-rated' shopping ads

Another week, another Google ad format test. This time a new way of displaying shopping ads according to user ratings. 

Comparison reporting in search analytics

As reported by SEMPost, Google has now added the ability to compare search queries within Search Console.

Here we can see 'seo basics' battling Chuck Norris…

Everything's gone green

We reported back in March that Google had been testing out green labels for PPC ads, and now they've rolled out everywhere.

It seems the tests must have delivered a positive result for Google, and these green labels are delivering more clicks for advertisers.

Could this be because the green 'ad' text blends in, making these ads look less like ads? I'll let you decide…

Graham Charlton is Editor in Chief at ClickZ Global.

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