Over the past year, I've seen many people report that Twitter can send tons of traffic to a web site. Certainly I've seen first-hand how Twitter has become one of the top non-search referrer sources for Search Engine Land and for some other sites I oversee. But as much as you think Twitter is driving traffic, it might be sending even more that you're unable to measure. One key culprit may be that a large number people view web pages using mobile Twitter applications such as Tweetie. Click on a link from a tweet in some of these applications, and they load web pages using their own br [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Features: Analysis | SEM Tools: URL Shorteners | SEM Tools: Web Analytics | Top News | Twitter

Google had been testing AdSense on mobile apps for the iPhone and Android in a kind of private beta with roughly 10 partners, including Pandora, Shazam and Urbanspoon. Now the program is opening up to apps developers and publishers who meet some criteria (among them, a 3 month commitment, 100K+ page views). Google said that trial publishers/developers had been very pleased with the program and the revenues they've seen, and Google felt that it was time to open up the program to more participants. Publisher-developers can apply here. On the advertiser side, if you're already in the conte [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: AdSense | Google: Mobile | Top News

Matt Cutts of Google has been producing daily videos answering questions from the SEO community. Many of these videos have useful information for all levels of SEO. I wanted to share Matt's most recent video and then point you to his other videos. The latest video is on "over optimization" where Matt answers the question "Is over optimization bad for a website?" You can see all of the Webmaster Central team videos at YouTube, there is a wealth of information there, so eat it up. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Top News

The display URL is the part of your ad copy text that tells consumers where they will go if they click on your ad. Therefore, it is a very important tool for branding yourself, as it is how consumers will recognize you in list of sponsored results. Each of the major search providers typically enforces the following rules with regard to the format of display URLs: The top level domain of the display URL must match the top level domain of the ultimate landing page (excluding redirections e.g. for tracking URLs). The display url can be a sub-domain e.g. 'something.topleveldomain.com' T [...]

Related Topics: Brand Aid | Channel: Strategy

Google wants to make the internet faster. By speeding up the "most important computing platform of our time," Google believes that consumers and businesses will experience a wide range of benefits, many of which we can imagine, some of which might be revealed over time. There's no product or specific consumer offering here. Rather Google is trying to advocate multiple initiatives in parallel that the company believes are important to usher in a better, faster internet (including for mobile devices). This Google Code Blog post lays out the arguments and suggestions as does the video below: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: Docs & Spreadsheets | Google: General | Google: Internet Access | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Link Builder’s Guide To Analyzing SERP Dominators For Link OpportunitiesThis article walks you through the tools, processes and strategies for identifying the most powerful players in your keyword space and then analyzing their link sources and link building tactics. Wired: Facebook Trying To Dominate Web, Marginalize Google (Run For Your Lives!)The coverage of the competition among the big internet companies is not unlike the classic Japa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

This article walks you through the tools, processes and strategies for identifying the most powerful players in your keyword space and then analyzing their link sources and link building tactics.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To: Links | Link Week

The coverage of the competition among the big internet companies is not unlike the classic Japanese monster movies of the 1960s (e.g., King Kong vs. Godzilla): titanic struggles for control of everything as we know it with only one possible winner. A more thoughtful but still sensational installment of that saga is the Wired piece: Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out. (Selling magazines is a tougher business these days.) The article tells of Google's early desire to potentially buy Facebook, Microsoft becoming the preferred inv [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: Critics | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Partnerships

The Google News blog announced it is now easier to find other articles by authors. They have now hyperlinked the author's name, when available, in the Google News search results. Here is a screen shot that shows it in action: I believe you have been able to search by author for a while now, but this addition makes searching by author a lot more obvious. If you want to find a specific author in Google News, just search Google News in the syntax of author:"John Doe" and it should return matches. Here is a screen shot of the syntax: Also, in Google News advanced search, you can [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: News

This Thursday, June 25 at 1 PM Eastern, Search Marketing Now hosts a free webcast "Online Holiday Retail 2009: Tips, Tactics & Timelines for Success," sponsored by Performics. Eli Goodman of comScore will provide an overview of the current state of online retail. With Q1 e-commerce revenues flat—vs. down in Q4 2008—can we expect growth by the end of this year? And in which sectors? Goodman will look at how certain vertical sectors are faring compared to others in this down economy. Matt Miller of Performics will demonstrate how online retailers can best plan for the holiday [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

You could be the next "Will It Blend" but if nobody knows about you, then it doesn't matter how creative and awesomely original you are. One of the most important factors in social media is the promotion of your content, and this often leads to annoyance. There are many annoying social media habits, but perhaps the most annoying come from the promotion of social media. Avoid the following social promotion pitfalls to become a less annoying (and more effective) user: The Impersonal Users. If asking for a favor, make it personal. Social media is supposed to be all about relationships, yet so [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search & Social

In February 2008, when Vanessa Fox wrote that Eytan Seidman, Program Management Director over core relevance at Microsoft Live Search (now Bing.com) was leaving Microsoft (and Seattle) for a start-up, she may not have known that he was jumping into murky waters of travel search. Today, Eytan's start-up site was unveiled - Oyster.com, a site that generates professional, verified hotel reviews. Shortly after that announcement, Oyster Hotel Reviews closed a Series A with Bain Capital and Accelerator Ventures (via TechCrunch) worth $6.4 million, to launch a start-up with his brother (Elie Seidm [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: General | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines

Search Week is an exclusive weekly newsletter for Search Engine Land premium members that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past week. Below are top stories organized by topic that happened over the past week. Each topic (or Search Engine Land column) is also a link, where you can click through and drill into the Search Engine Land members library to find other stories in that area. Because some stories are listed in more than one category, you may see them repeated. Top News Hunch: A Real Decision Engine Hunch: Your "Personal Decision Maker" Yahoo! Announces [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Week

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: It’s Official: Wikipedia Is A Google News SourceGoogle’s “experiment” in using Wikipedia as a news source on Google News is over, at least in the U.S. and Canada. The experiment was obviously a success, because Google has confirmed for us that the idea has been expanded. Says Google spokesperson Gabriel Stricker: “As with many features on Google News, these links were initially launched [...] SEO Tips For Building Your [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google's "experiment" in using Wikipedia as a news source on Google News is over, at least in the U.S. and Canada. The experiment was obviously a success, because Google has confirmed for us that the idea has been expanded. Says Google spokesperson Gabriel Stricker: "As with many features on Google News, these links were initially launched as an experiment. Now they've been rolled out to all English language editions of Google News." As I mentioned just a couple weeks ago in writing about the Wikipedia link test, it's hard to argue that Wikipedia pages don't offer valuable background and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: News

Most firms now recognize the importance of developing a powerful online brand. Now, an increasing number of professionals have started to recognize the benefits of developing a personal brand. Many people recognize that a personal online brand could be as important (possibly more so) than a company brand when looking to win a new client, get a conference speaking pitch approved or be asked for expert opinions from the media. Online reputation management has also become a very important aspect of recruiting. When investigating a person, the first place most people will go is Google. Rathe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To: SEO | Social Media Marketing

Google Blogoscoped reported that Google seems to be testing showing Facebook friends in the Google search results for some Facebook profile URLs. For example, a search for facebook marissa mayer, I see the following search snippet: Why is this showing up? As Philip notes, it doesn't seem like Facebook is using the rich snippets markup for Google to show this richer snippet data. In fact, I doubt Facebook would want to give Google more of their data, to expose in the public Google search database. This does appear to be very similar to how Google showed dates and forum thread det [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search

When most of us travel, we like to visit famous landmarks in the area we're touring. It's easy to find famous landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower or the Great Pyramid, but can be difficult to find lesser known sites. And for armchair travelers, it can take time to search for images of landmarks even with powerful image search tools that use GPS tagged photos or offer virtual tours. A group of researchers from Google and the National University of Singapore have helped solve this problem, by building a "web-scale landmark recognition engine." They're presenting a report on their work today at t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

After an apparently successful limited trial, Yahoo is rolling out a program that targets small businesses (SMBs) for self-service display advertising on its network and through RightMedia, its ad exchange. The DIY portal is a collaboration between Yahoo and AdReady, which supplies the back end and the ad templates. (Google earlier introduced a similar, though less elaborate product.) The templates can be sorted by best performing (CTRs are exposed), most used and newest. Advertisers can use their own ads as well. Ads can be targeted by geo, content category or Yahoo property. They show on [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Publisher Network | Yahoo: Search Ads

This Friday, I was one of the million people to get a new iPhone 3GS. After getting through my activation issues I had some time to test out the new search feature on the iPhone, named Spotlight (from Apple OS). With the new iPhone, you can have an unlimited number of applications, so finding those applications, including finding data in the core Apple iPhone applications, can sometimes be a struggle. Apple hopes that the new iPhone Spotlight search feature will ease the problem of finding things on your iPhone. Here is a quick how to with the iPhone search feature. (1) Accessing S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Top News