Google is opening wider a beta test of Dynamic Search Ads, an interesting new type of AdWords ad for larger advertisers that eliminates the need for keywords. With this ad type, designed for retailers or other advertisers with large, often-changing inventory, Google automatically generates ad copy — based on the advertiser’s template — by looking […]
Earlier tonight Danny Sullivan discovered that Siri will also search Bing and Yahoo, though it searches Google by default. If you say, “Search the web for . . .” or you ask Siri a question it can’t answer it will search Google (the iPhone’s default search engine). But if you say, “Search Bing for Steve […]
“If you want to swing the bat, why not swing for the fences?” With that statement, MC Hammer — yes, that MC Hammer — announced his new search engine, Wiredoo, during the Web 2.0 Summit today. The website says that Wiredoo is in pre-Beta right now, but there’s a sign-up form for anyone interested in […]
Speaking at Web 2.0 Summit today, Facebook’s chief technical officer Bret Taylor said that people do change their default privacy settings on Facebook — most of them, in fact. “The majority of people on Facebook have modified their privacy settings,” Taylor said. “If you talk to a college student, they know exactly what their parents can see […]
Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a surprise appearance at Web 2.0 Summit today, and in talking about Google Plus, he said despite not being social himself, he found the service compelling. “I’m not a very social person myself,” Brin said to interviewer John Battelle, adding that he tried a number of social services “because I feel […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Taking a Closer Look at the Google’s Panda 2.5 “Flux” On around September 27th, Google launched what’s being called 2.5 of its Panda algorithm. On October 5th, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted: […]
On around September 27th, Google launched what’s being called 2.5 of its Panda algorithm. On October 5th, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted: “Weather report: expect some Panda-related flux in the next few weeks, but will have less impact than previous updates (~2%).” Panda-related flux? Indeed, this seems to be the case, with site owners reporting Panda-related […]
Yesterday Yahoo released Q3 revenues. While they generally met expectations, and operating income came in at the “high end” of Yahoo’s guidance, overall revenues and profit declined: Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (“revenue ex-TAC”) was $1,072 million for the third quarter of 2011, a 5 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2010. Income from operations […]
It was pretty funny – Stephen Colbert started The Colbert Report last night talking to Siri on his iPhone 4S and not feeling particularly happy about the responses, all of which were real. Colbert began by asking Siri to “write the show” since, as he later explained, he’d been playing with it all day and hadn’t […]
Today Google is introducing some new ad formats for mobile and announcing that it will now use location proximity as a scoring factor in deciding which AdWords to show the mobile user. Google’s Surojit Chatterjee also shared some mobile data in the context of announcing the new units and policy: Click to Call is now driving “millions […]
Why oh why do we obsess over our competitors’ SEO strategies and tactics? Business leaders, frequently molded from concentrated Type-A material, can’t help but obsess over performance relative to competitors. They celebrate gains in market share, the thrill of stealing a client and the schadenfreude of a competitor’s stock decline. When introduced to SEO, they […]
Google Analytics announced a new set of reports that should help marketers and website owners to understand how users behave on their websites. The feature was presented this morning during Web 2.0 Summit, on a keynote delivered by Susan Wojcicki (SVP of Google, Advertising) & Phil Mui (Group Product Manager, Google Analytics). This feature is […]
With a wide array of new features and upgrades, Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”) launched last night in Hong Kong. The new version of the operating system unites Android for tablets and smartphones, though there are not yet any Ice Cream tablets. Honeycomb, which proved to be tablet-only, was largely a failure. (Android boss Andy Rubin says […]
In a recent video posted on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel, Matt Cutts answered the question How does Google determine page speed? In his answer, he said approximately 1 out of 100 searches are affected by the site speed ranking factor. Cutts said, 1 out of 100 searches done on Google are affected by […]
Since Google launched the new instant previews just about a month ago, the question we have seen come up from searchers time and time again is “where did the cached page go?” Yes, Google has moved the “cached” and “similar” links from near the display URL in the search results and to the instant preview […]
Twenty months later, Yahoo and Bing have announced the completion of the organic (algorithmic) transition from Yahoo powered search results to Bing powered search results globally, with the exception of Korea. If you do a search on any Yahoo powered site via your desktop or mobile device, with the exception from within Korea, the search […]
A good glass of wine is one of life’s simple pleasures. However, industry “experts” often make it sound complicated. This is the case with online display advertising today. But marketers need to know that display advertising today is a lot simpler than many of them believe. Complexity: Old News Time and again, we are told […]
The conversion rate for your site is the number of conversions divided by visitors. Quality traffic is half of the equation (the bottom half). No matter how well optimized a site is, if the traffic isn’t qualified, conversion rates will falter. I recently commented to Chris Robino* of SearchRanking.net that companies rarely get our conversion […]
It’s perhaps one of the strangest product pitches I’ve heard. Asked on stage at Web 2.0 Summit by John Battelle about his Bing search engine, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer encouraged the audience to try Bing because, well, it’s pretty much the same as Google. The Ballmer 70/15/15 Challenge “I would issue you all a kind […]
Google caused a major stir in the search marketing community today with the news that it will begin encrypting searches and outbound clicks by default in some situations. The move means that valuable keyword referral data will not be passed to analytics programs (including Google Analytics) when a logged-in Google user searches from Google.com. Although […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Gestures: How Users Could Be Sharing Their Opinion Facebook “Likes” have become a universal way to share or promote a piece of content on a blog or website (or Facebook […]
Facebook “Likes” have become a universal way to share or promote a piece of content on a blog or website (or Facebook itself). There are even T-shirts with the Like button printed on them. The Like button is now a recognizable symbol, and while it is used millions of times each day, the fact remains […]
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Google will now begin encrypting searches that people do by default, if they are logged into Google.com already through a secure connection. The change to SSL search also means that sites people visit after clicking on results at Google will no longer receive “referrer” data that reveals what those people searched for, except in the […]
I recently did the SMX East 2011 Link Clinic with Rae Hoffman-Dolan and beforehand, this being my first time speaking at an event, I wanted some advice. One thing she said really hit home, and that was not to turn the session into an SEO clinic. I would have done just that actually. To me, […]
Google’s recent Quarter 3 2011 financial performance announcements saw a delighted Larry Page extolling the performance of the business, with 33% annual growth compared with the same quarter in 2010. He said the word that sprang to mind for the quarter was “gangbusters.” The income for the quarter was almost $10 billion. Where is this […]
Waze is a somewhat unlikely success story. The social navigation and traffic app has just passed 7 million users globally and also announced another $30 million in funding, bringing its total to nearly $60 million. It also said that one of its new investors is Hong Kong magnate Li Ka Shing, who will help the […]
IRS Auditing How Google Shifted Profits from Bloomberg News reports Google is undergoing a an audit with “more than typical scrutiny.” The audit is reportedly specifically about how Google shifts profits to offshore subsidiaries to possibly avoid taxes in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service, IRS, has requested additional information from Google, specifically on […]
We have been tipped off to a revised Google Quality Rating Guidelines handbook that has been leaked. It has been over three and a half years since we last saw a leaked Google Quality Raters Handbook and that document was from back in April 2007. Pot Pie Girl found a copy of the March 30, 2011 […]
Only 52% of Google users click on an organic search result found on page one, and only 26% of Bing users do the same. Those stats are from A Tale of Two Studies: Establishing Google & BING Click-Through Rates, a new report from search agency Slingshot SEO. And they’re substantially lower than several prior CTR […]
A recent study by InSites Consulting revealed the flourishing global social media scene, how different countries and continents use social networks and the stranglehold that Facebook has in the market. InSites surveyed more than 9,000 respondents about social media usage, tendencies and thoughts. American Social Network Usage The study revealed that 76% of Americans use social network sites, a higher adoption […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Will Google See $6.25 Billion In Mobile Ad Revenue Next Year? During the earnings call last week after Google announced massive quarterly revenues ($9.72 billion), CEO Larry Page casually dropped the […]
During the earnings call last week after Google announced massive quarterly revenues ($9.72 billion), CEO Larry Page casually dropped the following remark about the company’s mobile business: “We’re also seeing a huge positive revenue impact from mobile, which has grown 2.5x in the last 12 months to a run rate of over $2.5 billion.” Claire […]
It was way past quitting time, and though I still was on deadline for a new flight of text and display ads, my creative muse had quit hours earlier and gone home or wherever it is that muses go when they desert you. The phone rang. It was my wife calling to ask me to […]
How does content help with SEO efforts? The folks at Brafton have produced a “Why Content For SEO” infographic with lots of stats and information about the topic that you might find interesting: Want the infographic for yourself? You’ll find it here: Infographic: Why Content for SEO?
Bitly currently is the leader in shortned URLs, minimizing 80 million URLs each day. Not only is Bitly shrinking URLs, but they are now “crawling & classifying” each shortened URL thanks to a a new social search platform. An index has since been created that will allow searchers to view the most distributed, viral and highest clicked links […]
Last month, I had the opportunity to join nearly 400 leaders from major local search companies for the BIA/Kelsey DMS ‘11 conference in Denver. The annual industry event — which this year included speakers and panelists from the likes of AT&T Interactive, Eniro, Facebook, Local Matters, Microsoft Advertising, Telmetrics, Urbanspoon, Yellow Pages Group and Yellowbook […]
If you read this column on a regular basis, you may think that Google is the only game in mobile search. The fact is, SEOs optimize for traffic, and Google is the mobile search market leader, so it is often the focus of our mobile optimization efforts. But it’s not the only game in town. […]
The Telegraph reports in “Google teams up with Citizens Advice Bureau” that Google is running its first non-Google-specific campaign in the U.K. to promote awareness for online safety. The campaign is named “Good To Know” and leads to google.co.uk/goodtoknow, where users can learn more about online safety tips. Google teamed up with the Citizens Advice […]
Successful SEO strategies demand differentiation. In today’s column, I am going to outline a seven-step process for figuring out how to differentiate your website. You may be struggling with how to do this because your product may be boring, and your space is crowded. So, I am going to start by taking a look at […]