Google

Welcome Back CO.CC To Google

Six months ago, Google delisted all sites on a co.cc domain name. Today, they seem to have all returned. A search for [site:co.cc] currently returns 105,000,000 results. Google originally delisted the co.cc subdomains because Google saw a “very large fraction of sites” on that subdomain to be “spammy or low-quality” and felt it was warranted, […]

Content

More People Now Using Mobile Apps Than Browser — comScore

Traffic measurement firm comScore released its latest mobile subscriber market share report for November. What it shows is that Android continued to gain (3.1 share points vs. August). But so did the iPhone, likely powered by sales of the iPhone 4S. All other platforms lost ground. Android handsets now represent nearly 47 percent of the […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 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: Google Instant Costs Google $65,000 In France The Local, a French newspaper, reports Google France was ordered to pay €50,000 ($64,670) to Lyonnaise de Garantie, a French insurance company over a […]

Google

Google Instant Costs Google $65,000 In France

The Local, a French newspaper, reports Google France was ordered to pay €50,000 ($64,670) to Lyonnaise de Garantie, a French insurance company over a search suggestion that had them labeled as being a “crook.” In the case of this French company, when you typed in their company name, Lyonnaise de Garantie it suggested at the […]

Content

Where To Get Citations For Local SEO

If you haven’t heard, local SEO is taking over. More than 20 percent of Google searches are for a local business. That number doubles on mobile devices, and it’s starting to show in the SERPs. When was the last time you searched and got only the traditional 10 organic listings? SERPs are being inundated with […]

SEO

How To Get A 30% Increase In CTR With Structured Markup

As documented by case studies in the U.S. and abroad, retail firms can get up to a 30 percent increase in organic traffic by using structured markup like Schema Microdata, GoodRelations and Google Rich Snippets, etc. This begs the question: why aren’t more retailers using structured markup? Implementing structured data requires the skill of adding […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 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: Do Your 2012 Resolutions Include Increasing Conversion Rates? That’s a trick question. Of course the answer should always be yes. Hopefully your website conversions in 2011 have already resulted in a […]

Content

5 B2B Search Engine Marketing Resolutions For 2012

With the holiday season winding down and 2012 just around the corner, it’s time to take a deep breath and get ready to plunge into the new year. When marketing teams get back from the New Year’s weekend, you can be sure that new found vigor and excitement will be in the air. For B2B […]

Google

Google Sued By buySAFE Over Trusted Stores Program

TechCrunch reports a company named buySafe is suing Google over their Trusted Stores program, which Google launched in October. buySafe claims several strong things in this law suit: (1) Patent Infringement (2) Stealing proprietary business information (3) Pushing buySafe customers to switch to Google Trusted Stores (4) Google is trying to squash the company from […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 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: The Most ‘Liked’ Search & Social Posts Of 2011 The social media experts who write for this column week in and week out don’t just talk – they walk the walk […]

LinkedIn

The Most ‘Liked’ Search & Social Posts Of 2011

The social media experts who write for this column week in and week out don’t just talk – they walk the walk in social media and search marketing. In 2011, we saw interest spike in our Let’s Get Social* column as social media became a significant ranking factor in organic search results, following Danny Sullivan’s […]

Apple

9 New Year’s Resolutions For Link Building In 2012

Wow, it seems like only yesterday we were all obsessed with the first (of what became many) Panda updates (which was initially called the Farmer Update) from Google and the New York Times story on JC Penney’s Holiday 2010 foray into buying paid links. Oh, yeah, good times. But 2012 is now staring us in […]

PPC

Digital Marketing Trends To Watch Out For In 2012

As you put the finishing touches on 2012 budgets and plans, it’s important to build a point of view on the future. While it’s impossible to predict what will happen or when, running through a few what-if scenarios makes you more prepared for changes as they come. In this column, we’ll highlight some of the […]

Apple

SEO Considerations For Google Mobile Search In 2012

Mobile search has never been just one result type. It  provides different results and presentation formats, depending on whether the search query is from a feature phone, smartphone or tablet. Google has just announced a specially designated crawler for smartphones apart from what it uses currently for feature phones, which foreshadows a deeper divergence of […]

Advertising

Canonical Form: The Hidden Keywords In Paid Search

In this post, let’s look at the Canonical Form that Search Engines use behind the scenes when matching our paid keywords to actual user queries. What is it? Why do they do it? So what? Or, more importantly, how can we use it to our advantage? We will answer each of those in turn. First […]

Local

Mobile: The Ghost Of Future Local SMB Marketing

“If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Local Online Marketing” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!” – Ebenezer Scrooge Tis the season to contemplate the future of the local Web marketing for small businesses […]

Apple

The 2011 Santa Tracker Review, From NORAD To Your Phone!

It’s Christmas Eve! Santa Claus is on his annual trip of delivering presents to good little boys and girls around the world. Time also for our annual tradition, telling you how to track Santa using the internet, by smartphone and even through good old-fashioned voice telephone calls. NOTE: If you’re looking for the latest information […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 23, 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’s New Happy Holidays Logo: Dancing Christmas Lights & Jingle Bells For Christmas and the holiday season, Google has a new musical logo out that plays Jingle Bells and ends by […]

Content

Free Speech Battle In India: Google, Facebook Summoned By Court Over “Inflammatory Images”

According to a report from Chinese news agency Xinhua, a judge in India has ordered a broad range of online companies, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, to “delete ‘inflammatory’ images of religious figures” from their sites. Though not identified in news reports the images were deemed offensive or blasphemous under a sweeping law enacted earlier […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 22, 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: Blekko Expands: Bigger Index, More Slashtags & New Design Blekko is closing out 2011 with a round of updates that affect the search engine’s front- and back-end — both how it […]

Google SEO

For “Define An English Person,” Google Suggests The C-Word

I’ve seen some weird Google results in my time, but this one is pretty strange. Search for “define an english person” or some related queries, and Google brings up the Wikipedia page about the C-word in response. As spotted by Search Engine Roundtable, people were asking in Google’s help forums why various searches related to […]

Ecommerce

Blekko Expands: Bigger Index, More Slashtags & New Design

Blekko is closing out 2011 with a round of updates that affect the search engine’s front- and back-end — both how it looks and how it works. The upstart search engine has announced three changes as part of a “major upgrade” to end the year: 1.) “Significant improvements to index quality and relevance” Blekko has […]

Google algorithm updates

The Most Popular SEO Posts Of 2011

If there’s one thing anyone can say about the state of search engine optimization (SEO) in 2011, it’s that this year certainly wasn’t boring. Barely two months in, on February 24, 2011 – we were first introduced to the now infamous Panda Update at Google. That story alone gave our expert SEO columnists and staff […]

Content

Google News Brings Back Search The Web Option

In June, Google dropped the option to search the general web index from the Google News search box. Google redesigned the Google News search box to add the ability to search the general web index. Here is a screen shot: As you can see, you can click on the last result in the suggestions, you […]

SEO

Yahoo’s Bay Bridge Billboard Removed After 12-Year Legacy

Iconic Yahoo billboard taken down via the Associated Press reports that Yahoo’s “iconic” billboard has been taken down after 12 years of standing tall and proud on the highway as you approached the Bay Bridge. The billboard space is managed by Clear Channel and currently is being offered at an extremely low rate of $65,000 […]

SEO

Yelping In The Beemer: Review Site Inks Deal With BMW

Yelp is now established and mainstream enough to be included in BMW’s Online/in-car content. Yelp reviews and related content will shortly be available to BMW owners “who subscribe to the optional BMW Assist Convenience Plan and have a navigation-equipped vehicle capable of receiving the BMW Online service.” This means select BMW vehicles (see below for […]

Google Analytics

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 21, 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 Adds Christmas & Hanukkah Decorations To Search Results If you go to Google and search for variations of either [christmas] or [hanukkah], you will see Google has dressed up the […]

Ecommerce

Google Adds Christmas & Hanukkah Decorations To Search Results

If you go to Google and search for variations of either [christmas] or [hanukkah], you will see Google has dressed up the search results page with holiday decorations. The Christmas version shows Christmas ornaments hanging from the top bar: The Hanukkah version shows Jewish stars across the top bar: In the past they placed these […]

PPC

Fixing The Agency Disconnect Between Search & Display Buyers

It is my sincere hope that at some point during the holiday season, the people who work on search at various digital agencies have had an opportunity to meet the people who work on display ads. Because the likelihood is, whether it was at the company holiday party or even over fruitcake and eggnog at […]

Content

Acquisio Acquires ClickEquations & Partners With Channel Intelligence

Acquisio, provider of automated tools for search, display and social advertising, has acquired the ClickEquations search marketing platform from Channel Intelligence, and announced a partnership with that firm. Acquisio plans to integrate some of the search-focused functionality currently available on the ClickEquations platform. Acquisio’s existing clients will gain access to the Channel Intelligence Shopping Engines […]

Content

Preparing For A New Era Of B2B SEO

The end of the year is always a time for reflection on all of the work and effort of the previous 12 months. There has been a lot of talk in 2011 about the end of SEO as we know it. But the reality is that there will always be a need for strategy when […]

Analytics & conversion

The Infinite Funnel Of Search To Sale

“And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, […]

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.