Now that everyone’s done making their predictions for 2012 (more flying inflatable sharks is mine), it’s time to get back to business. Over the past 18 months, the display industry has seen the dawning of the golden age of search retargeting. The question went from “What is search retargeting?” to “Where can I get it?” […]
As promised earlier, Google has voiced its opposition to two bills currently being discussed in Congress that the company says — and countless critics around the world agree — would censor the web and hurt U.S. businesses. While some sites like Wikipedia are going black for the day on Wednesday, Google has instead chosen to cover its logo […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns Yahoo announced its co-founder Jerry Yang has formally resigned after 17 years on the job. Yang co-founded the company in March 1995, and has been on […]
Yahoo announced its co-founder Jerry Yang has formally resigned after 17 years on the job. Yang co-founded the company in March 1995, and has been on the Board of Directors since. 17 years later, he has officially stepped down from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company. And he has done so […]
Google has confirmed to several media outlets (initially CNET) that it will join other prominent websites tomorrow, including Wikipedia, in protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills. While Wikipedia has said it will go dark, Google will link to anti-SOPA information on its homepage. Still, that information will be […]
Google is releasing new functionality for AdWords that is aimed at helping them better allocate their budgets. The new feature will give advertisers impression share metrics down to the Ad Group level. Previously, impression share metrics were available only at the campaign level, which didn’t help when advertisers were trying to determine which particular ad […]
#1 rankings have a hallowed place in the minds of most SEOs. Many of us use #1 rankings as bragging rights (I’m guilty) or as one of the key metrics for campaign success (guilty again). But long-term trends in the way search engines rank pages and display results are both changing that. Now, it’s entirely […]
With all the hoopla and hundreds of columns and posts about the launch of Google’s “Search Plus Your World”, you are likely already quite aware of what has taken place over the past week. If not, Danny Sullivan eloquently covers it in detail in his post Google’s Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your […]
As we kick off the new year with replenished budgets, many of you are using your pot of gold to kick off new markets. Over the past few months I have surveyed over 150 companies on how they manage their keywords. The research will be presented in a forthcoming article. In the process, I received […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO A number of websites are (or were) planning to “go black” this week while the U.S. Congress discusses issues related to […]
A number of websites are (or were) planning to “go black” this week while the U.S. Congress discusses issues related to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The website blackouts are part of a larger social media effort against the bills that our Greg Finn wrote about this morning […]
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., and Google is marking the day with a special logo that includes a couple lines from his famous “I have a dream” speech. King’s birthday was yesterday — he would’ve been 83 years old — but the U.S. celebrates his holiday on the third Monday […]
As more local consumers turn to search engines and IYPs to locate good businesses in their area, it’s surprising how many local businesses have not updated their websites or, worse still, don’t have a website at all! The majority of local SEO activities focus on reaching new, potential customers via Google Places, local directories, social […]
There are plenty of good reasons to advertise on your brand name. Advertising on your brand allows you to: Control the message. The text of the message can be kept fresh, highlighting promotions, shipping cut-off dates, whatever makes sense for the brand. Direct traffic. Site-links provide an opportunity for users to navigate to the next […]
Happy (belated) New Year. Let’s face it, 2012 isn’t the first year someone has christened the “year of mobile.” But it is the first time consumers have done so – and continue to. Still in the market for resolutions? Let me suggest 10 that’ll charge-up your brand to set pace – and lead – with […]
Response codes impact every page, image and file on your website. A visiting search engine bot figures out what to do based on those codes. Incorrect response codes can cause: Indexation problems; Duplicate content; Site performance problems; All manner of other site higgledy-piggledy. Enterprise SEO is all about big, site-wide wins. Response codes are just […]
Our next Search Engine Land conference, SMX West 2012, comes to San Jose from February 28-March 1. This is my preview of what we’ve got on the agenda, over 50 sessions covering all aspects of search marketing. Consider it a personal invite of why you should come. SMX: All Search, All The Time SMX West […]
DuckDuckGo has just relaunched with a new visual design across its home page and search results pages. Founder Gabriel Weinberg has been taking feedback and tweaking the design for at least three-plus weeks in the site’s community forum, where he announced the new look and layout early Friday. The home page (shown above) is clean […]
The wide-ranging Federal Trade Commission investigation into Google’s potential anti-competitive practices has been expanded to include its Google+ social networking service, according to a Bloomberg report citing “people familiar with the situation.” The news is likely to please critics like the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which earlier this week called for the FTC to […]
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 SPYW, Kenya Imbroglios An “Ink Blot” Test For Google As Good Or Evil? I woke up this morning to discover some fairly outrageous allegations against Google in Kenya. Local search/directory […]
I woke up this morning to discover some fairly outrageous allegations against Google in Kenya. Local search/directory startup Mocality says that Google crawled its site for local business sales leads and then falsely claimed in cold calls to those businesses it had a partnership with the publisher to sign them up. Mocality founder Stefan Magdalinski […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
One of the opportunities we have as Paid Search Marketing professionals is to help business people communicate their marketing ideas without burdening them with the details of Paid Search. A few months back, I came across a tool that helped tremendously. We adopted it in-house, and tested it with a few client engagements. It is […]
Microsoft adCenter ads are soon coming to Yahoo pages in France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Microsoft announced today. The first testing for the roll-out will commence mid-January and may involve up to 10% of Yahoo’s traffic in these geographies. Microsoft suggests advertisers closely monitor campaigns and be prepared to increase budgets if they’re more […]
If you’re working in online marketing in some function, you’ve battled this – the need to justify your marketing budget to the bean counters in the office 10 floors up, or even next door. Those not “in the know” about the truly trackable benefits of online marketing are generally skeptical at best when told “I […]
Four reports released this month by paid search giants Efficient Frontier, IgnitionOne, Marin Software and Covario all pointed to an overwhelmingly successful fourth quarter in 2011 for major search advertisers in a number of verticals. Across the board, overall search spend increased, as advertisers on the whole enjoyed an increase in impressions and click-through rates, while achieving a lower […]
The ability to block web sites from search results disappeared when Google’s new Search Plus personalized results format launched this week. Blocking was a feature added with great fanfare last year. Google says it will return, but the timing is uncertain. How Blocking Worked Previously, search results had a “Block All” link that appeared below them: Selecting […]
Paul from WebRanking noticed that Bing is testing a new bottom bar with more graphically interesting information and media. The new bar replaces the existing bar by adding a Popular Now, Weather, Image and Video boxes. Here is a picture of the new box from Paul: Here is a picture of the old box: Related […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: To Understand Google Favoritism, Think “If Google+ Were YouTube” Google’s favoritism of Google+ in its new Search Plus results is just the latest in the line of favoritism it has done […]
Google’s favoritism of Google+ in its new Search Plus results is just the latest in the line of favoritism it has done with vertical search? It’s not, because Google hasn’t really favored itself with vertical search. It is favoring itself with Google+, and that’s why things are so disturbing. Vertical Search Is What Search Engines […]
Foursquare is introducing what it calls “personalized search for the real world” on its recently redesigned website. What that means as a practical matter is the introduction of the “Explore” feature, better keyword search and several new filters that enable users to drill down in search results. We can now, without hesitation, now call Foursquare […]
Google has had a tumultuous and ambivalent relationship with China, reflecting an internal debate about the importance of the vast market to Google’s future revenues and the compromises involved in operating there. Yet the literal and figurative bottom line is that it’s all but impossible for a US public company to resist the lure of […]
Several major hotel chains have launched what might be described as “Hulu for hotels,” a new travel search site called Roomkey. According to Tnooz, the consortium includes Choice Hotels, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott and Wyndham Hotels. Starwood, operator of Sheraton and W hotels, is not among them. Hotels have been struggling for years to get […]
Google announced on the Google Mobile Blog that they have updated the Google Search App for Android. The new update makes it easier and faster for searchers to use. The new additions include: New color scheme and simplified UI Faster Enhanced suggestions and query editing Better localized suggestions and search results for more countries Long […]
It’s probably a sign of the times, but lately I have been fielding a lot of questions regarding SEO for mobile websites. Because there are so many ways to build a mobile site and because there are such a variety of mobile devices, one area that really piques my interest is mobile site indexing. There […]
Amid all the controversy that has erupted over Google’s new search personalization (Search Plus Your World), I’ve been doing local searches to see what if any impact it’s having on that arena. So far, in my unscientific query survey, the impact seems to be minor. Below are some examples where I toggle between personalized and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Two webcasts next week: “The Buyers’ Journey,” and “Content, Freshness and SEO for Large Sites” Search Marketing Now will host two webcasts next week. On Tuesday, January 17, Christine Crandell and […]
You can imagine my surprise when I saw my local airport — Pasco (PSC) — showing up in Google’s flight search feature. Don’t get me wrong; I love this airport … from car to gate in less than 10 minutes just can’t be beat. But that’s the point: It’s a pretty small airport and Google’s […]
A couple of Q4 2011 reports released this week from Marin Software and IgnitionOne show, among other things, the dramatic growth of mobile paid search advertising. According to the IgnitionOne document, the “mobile [paid] search ad spend is up 269% YoY and impressions are up 317%.” IgnitionOne said that among its retail clients, “Mobile search […]
The new Google “Search Plus Your World” feature — which I’m now simply calling “Search Plus” — has just gone live for me. Huge debate erupted yesterday over whether it somehow favors Google+. I can see now that it clearly does, even more than I thought. Here’s a closer look at the changes, including how […]