SEO

Google Releases Alabama Tornado Destruction Images & Maps Of Tornadoes

Google has posted before-and-after images of the terrible devastation left behind by the tornadoes that hit the South and parts of the East Coast of the United States earlier this week, with close-up views particularly of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The easiest way to see the images is through a Picasa album that the company has posted. […]

Content

Another Company Outed for Paid Links: Sequoia-Backed Milanoo

A story on TechCrunch today notes that a Sequoia-backed shopping site called Milanoo appears to be spamming Google with hoards of paid links that are helping them rank for things like [cheap dresses] and [evening gown]. They got news of the situation by way of a site called Digital Due Diligence that checked Milanoo’s backlink profile […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 29, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Maps’ “Game Changer”: Hi-Res Aerial Imagery Coming To Entire US and Western Europe Hot on the heels of last week’s Read/Write World effort, Bing Maps has announced another ambitious project […]

Google

New York Times: Yes, Google’s Panda Update Hit NYT-Owned About.com

The New York Times Company has confirmed recent reports that its About.com property was one of the sites that suffered traffic declines in the wake of Google’s recent Panda/Farmer algorithm change. Speaking during its recent earnings call, CEO Janet Robinson said that About.com “experienced a moderately negative impact on page views from the algorithm changes […]

PPC

Using Social Awareness Streams To Learn What People Care About

It wasn’t long ago that knowledge about our world came from newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and of course, person to person gossip, storytelling and family gatherings. The Internet changed all that. Today, a person wanting to know the latest buzz studies social awareness streams (SAS). In the Just Behave column, we’ve discussed information architecture as […]

Content

Yandex Finally Files For Long-Awaited IPO

Russia’s leading search engine Yandex formally filed for an IPO that has been expected for at least three years but was delayed by the global recession. The company plans to raise roughly $1 billion through its US Nasdaq offering. Founded in 1997, Yandex controls approximately 65 percent of the Russian search market and is valued […]

Ecommerce

Google’s Royal Wedding Logo

Prince William of Wales and Catherine (Kate) Middleton are celebrating their wedding day today – known as the Royal Wedding. YouTube is live streaming the wedding, Google has a special one box result for the keyword, Google Maps has a Royal Pegman, and there is a social media frenzy going on about the Royal Wedding. […]

SEO

Your Guide To The Royal Wedding 2011, Social Media Style

The last time Britain had a big Royal Wedding, one didn’t tweet about it, Facebook about it, Flickr about it and certainly didn’t air it on YouTube. One couldn’t. These things didn’t exist. But the 21st century British Monarchy is hip to the social media channels of today. Here’s how to tune in to the […]

Google algorithm updates

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 28, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft Q3 2011 Earnings: Search & Online Up 14% In Revenue But Still Losing Profits Microsoft announced their 3rd quarter earnings, beating Wall Street expectations. They reported $16.43 billion for the […]

SEO

Performics: Mobile Impressions Cross 10 Percent Threshold

Earlier this year Performics predicted that mobile search would soon reach 10 percent of all the search impressions its clients were seeing. Today the firm said that “mobile impressions accounted for 10.2 percent of all paid search impressions (desktop + mobile).” The company also said that mobile now represents 9.8 percent of paid clicks. It […]

Content

How To Collar Top Rankings: Barking Up The Unique Content Tree

For my last round, I was supposed to share the results from that 300% sales explosion on the leather dog collar with nameplate page, but the folks at Google decided otherwise with the Panda update targeting content farms. Panda bit a few ecommerce sites pretty hard, so I’ve been helping out some new client-folk sort […]

SEO

From Garbage To Gourmet: Fixing SEO Content Strategies

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: Site Owner: I want to rank higher in the search engines! SEO: OK, you’ll need to fix a few things… produces a list SEO: And you’ll need to start a content strategy. That means 10-20 pages of new content per month, minimum, plus work to promote it. […]

Google Ads

Confirmed: Google To Begin Charging For Some Calls From PC Ads

After getting many advertisers hooked on reports on phone calls originating from their AdWords ads, Google will begin charging $1.00 for calls completed using the unique number it provisions, but solely when the call originates from someone using a computer who dials the number themselves from a phone. When the call is from a mobile […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 27, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Baidu Squeezing Google Out On Chinese Android Phones Open source is a double-edged thing. Whereas the free and “open” Android platform has been a boon to Google in most places around […]

Google

Baidu Squeezing Google Out On Chinese Android Phones

Open source is a double-edged thing. Whereas the free and “open” Android platform has been a boon to Google in most places around the globe, in China the story is apparently different. The Next Web reports (based on third party information) that the general manager of Baidu’s wireless unit claimed 80 percent of Android-based handsets […]

SEO

Multinational SEO & Traffic Estimation: Converting from the SERPs

It's now well understood that maximising your conversion rate is critical to compete in the most competitive markets, but what's often missed is how extending your conversion optimisation to the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) can influence your site conversion and increase the total available traffic from each search term.

Analytics & conversion

How PPC Can Improve Organic Search Conversions

When formulating strategies and tactics for organic search, some of the most difficult questions that arise are related to conversion of organic search traffic. Are you targeting keywords that will bring not only traffic, but converting traffic, to your site? Is your page meta data optimized not only for high rankings, but for high clickthrough […]

SEO

Yahoo-Microsoft Search Deal: A Failure Or Success For In-House Marketers?

After Yahoo’s 1st Quarter 2011 earnings call, quite a bit is being written about whether the Microsoft-Yahoo deal is a failure or success for Yahoo. In my opinion, the more compelling question to ask is:  has the deal been a success for search engine marketers — especially those in-house? The Results Nothing screams marketing success […]

Ecommerce

Google Real Time Search Adds More Sources: Quora, Gowalla & More

A Quora thread noticed that Google Real Time Search is now including more sources beyond Twitter, Google News, Buzz and other sources. The new additions appear to be from Quora.com, Gowolla, Plixi, Me2day, Twitgoo and some others. Public Facebook profiles and fan pages have been included for a while. So to update our Google Real […]

Apple

Search Engine Land’s Gadget Release Calendar

Wondering when that next tablet or smartphone will be coming out? We do, too! To keep track, here’s a rundown of what we know about particular devices. Devices below are listed roughly in order of release date. I’ll add more items over time. This isn’t a complete list of all coming gadgets out there. Far […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 26, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google: 50 Percent Of Those Exposed To Mobile Ads Took Action Google today released findings of a smartphone-user study that the company did with Ipsos OTX at the end of 2010. […]

Google

Google: 50 Percent Of Those Exposed To Mobile Ads Took Action

Google today released findings of a smartphone-user study that the company did with Ipsos OTX at the end of 2010. The sample consisted of 5,000 US adults who owned a smartphone and accessed the mobile internet. Most of the findings reinforce other studies that show how widely people now rely on smartphones across a spectrum […]

Content

How To Use 3 Competitive Intelligence PPC Tools

Want to feel like a super-spy while learning valuable secrets that can help grow your client’s business? Here’s how you do it:  invest your time and money in PPC competitive intelligence and please shhh … don’t tell anyone. As the auction grows more expensive and more complex, it’s critical to have a view into your […]

Apple

Google Challenges Apple, Netflix, Hulu with Video Rentals Service

Google is about to launch a premium video on demand service through YouTube that will directly challenge iTunes, Netflix, Hulu and even cable TV. In the past YouTube tested video rentals (and has continued to do so) but the titles were limited and the results have been muted. The new service appears to be called […]

Content

Proven Ways To Use Content To Attract Links

This article is really part three of our Link Building Foundational Blueprint series and will focus on using content to attract links. Here are parts one and two. There are many ways to generate links using content, you’re probably familiar with article writing, guest blogging, link bait, white papers etc. All of these content tactics […]

Apple

Why Google Latitude’s Check In Deals Is A Few Degrees Off

In the past month, Google’s +1 has been the most hyped Social feature that Google has launched to date, as it has the potential to compete with Twitter and Facebook. A less noticed launch during this same time included social changes to Google’s Latitude product, which have also been launched to help Google compete with Foursquare. […]

Ecommerce

Google Logo Honors John James Audubon’s Birthday

Google is sporting another special logo today, this one honoring the 226th birthday of John James Audubon. Audubon, of course, was a nature-lover who focused on studying and painting/chronicling birds all across North America. In 1905, more than 50 years after his death, the National Audubon Society formed in his honor. Today’s Google logo doesn’t […]

Facebook

Facebook Launches “Social Deals” To Challenge Groupon & LivingSocial

After several months of anticipation Facebook is launching its second deals program: Social Deals. The new effort more closely resembles Groupon-style daily deals, with several twists. The original “Facebook Deals” is now being called “check-in deals” to distinguish it from the new program. Check-in deals are free to users; they’re mobile centric and operate like […]

Google Ads

Google Instant Preview Ads Fully Launched For Search Ads

Google is now showing Instant Previews — small thumbnails that show when a user mouses over an ad — for all search ads, presumably helping to qualify consumers before they actually click-through on an ad. The feature has been in testing for at least a week or so. The company is touting the new functionality […]

Ecommerce

Yahoo Snaps Up Video Check-In Start-Up IntoNow

How badly does Yahoo want to skip ahead to the forefront of media and social check-ins? Badly enough to spend a reported $20 to $30 million to buy TV check-in service IntoNow, which launched its iPhone-based service just 12 weeks ago. IntoNow’s main “secret sauce” is the proprietary “Soundprint” technology that recognizes television shows by […]

Google

Hitwise Data Pegs Panda Impact On Demand Media Sites At 40%

Demand Media sites have suffered an estimated loss of about 40% of overall Google traffic since the Panda/Farmer update took effect. That’s according to new Experian Hitwise statistics measuring outbound traffic from Google to other sites, and reported today by Forbes. The Hitwise numbers suggest that about 0.57% of all outbound Google traffic went to […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 25, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Instant Provides A Hint For Local & Mobile Optimization Undoubtedly, you may have seen Google’s Instant Preview interface which provides glimpses for webpages listed in SERPs. What you may not […]

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