I can’t count the number of times I’ve been challenged by advertisers on the topic of trademark search. The question is simple: why "waste" money buying traffic on trademark keywords when it is clear that the user intends to get to their site? Researching the topic, there have been a number of studies all concluding that it is worthwhile to advertise on trademarked search terms. A selection of notable articles include: Think Insights with Google: Search Ads Pause ChannelAdvisor: The Value of Bidding on Brand Terms in Paid Search SearchEngineLand: Should You Bid on a Keyword if y [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

The search marketing agency, iAcquire, that was allegedly responsible for buying links for clients was just banned from Google's search results. iAcquire was cited as the agency behind Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation's link buy request emails. For more on that see our story named What Can We Learn From The Latest Brand To Be Called Out For Paid Links? A site command search for [site:www.iacquire.com] returns no results. Here is a screen shot: iAcquire's robots.txt file and source code has no signs of them manually requesting to be deindexed from Google. So this seems [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Link Building: Paid Links | SEM Industry: General | Top News

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 Asked To Take Down Over 1.2 Million URLs Last Month From Search ResultsGoogle announced they have enhanced the Google Transparency Report to include the removal requests to take down individual search results from showing up in Google. In fact, Google has told us in the past month they have received 1,246,713 removal requests from 24,129 different target domains of 1,296 copyright owners by 1,087 reporting organizations. So [...] Why Googl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google announced they have enhanced the Google Transparency Report to include the removal requests to take down individual search results from showing up in Google. In fact, Google has told us in the past month they have received 1,246,713 removal requests from 24,129 different target domains of 1,296 copyright owners by 1,087 reporting organizations. So only just over a thousand copyright owners submitted removal requests and top five include Microsoft with over a half a million URL removal requests last month followed by British Recorded Music Industry, NBC Universal, Elegant Angel and R [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Web Search | Legal: Copyright

Google’s Venice update has caused surprisingly few ripples in the search engine marketing industry given the scale of its impact on search: it’s easily as important as Big Daddy from 2006, itself the most significant update made by Google up to that point.

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Google: Maps & Local | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube best practices This white paper discusses: Three strategies for maximizing Twitter’s impact on SEO Tips for Facebook ads, events, groups and places Common principles between social and search marketing Download now [...]

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Google's Knowledge Graph has claimed its first "victim," if you will: The content box that showed "People and Pages On Google+" is gone. In its place? A variety of Knowledge Graph-related content that will show up differently depending on the search query. In making the changes to this prime real estate on a search results page, Google is lessening somewhat the visibility of Google+. But it's still using the space in the upper right of its search results to keep searchers on Google -- something well within its rights, but something that may attract criticism in the same way that the Google+ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Knowledge Graph | Google: Search Plus Your World | Google: Web Search | Top News

Imagine you own a restaurant and one day, a couple of big guys in nice suits come through your front door. One of the men introduces himself: "Good evening. My name is Gino, and this my colleague, Salvatore. We’re helping local businesses with their marketing and wanted to see if we could help you." "Nice to meet you," you reply. "Of course I’m always interested in getting new customers. Tell me more about what you do and how much it costs." "Gladly," says Gino. "It’s really quite simple. When someone approaches your restaurant, we open the door for them. For every person that comes i [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

Search launches seem to come in threes. A couple of weeks ago we had Bing Social, then came Google with Knowledge Graph and now Yahoo introduces Axis. When I met with Yahoo earlier this week to hear about it I received the now familiar speech that Yahoo is still very much in search and continuing to "innovate" around the UI and UX. There have been some interesting efforts along those lines on the PC in the past (Yahoo Search Direct), but Axis actually is genuinely different and noteworthy. Three screen experience Axis is available for all three screens: PC (as a browser plug-in), the i [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Top News | Yahoo | Yahoo Search Direct | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: User Interface

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 Turns Off Streetside Imagery In Germany Over Photo Blurring ConcernsHere’s a shocker*: Microsoft’s Streetside service has hit a bumpy road in Germany. The company says it’s shut down Streetside imagery in Germany after complaints about the way the company was handling blurring requests. Microsoft spokesperson Thomas Baumgartner tells PCWorld that he’s not sure if or when Streetside will be reinstated in Germany. A Mic [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Here's a shocker*: Microsoft's Streetside service has hit a bumpy road in Germany. The company says it's shut down Streetside imagery in Germany after complaints about the way the company was handling blurring requests. Microsoft spokesperson Thomas Baumgartner tells PCWorld that he's not sure if or when Streetside will be reinstated in Germany. A Microsoft statement says that the complaints are from "customers," not from any government data protection-related agencies. We have learned that there are a limited number of customers in Germany who raised concerns about the way we are pur [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Streetside | Microsoft: Outside US

Google has announced a new version of the Google Search iPhone app. The new version is version 2.0 and was completely redesigned focusing on speed, usability, new features and making it beautiful. Here are the main new changes you will find in version 2.0: Complete App Redesign Full Screen Mode Option Faster Search Autocompletion Faster Page & Swipe Load Times Image Search Redesigned Adding Full Screen, High Resolution Images & Save Image Feature Swipe Away Web Pages To Return To Results Search Within Web Pages Faster Switching Between Images, Places, News, Web & Other Vertica [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search

Did you know that Google spent $5 million to influence politicians just last quarter? And that was doubled from the quarter before and may double again this quarter. Facebook spent a boatload too, but not as much Google. Microsoft spent even more. Issues like the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA  which received so much attention earlier this year, privacy issues, security issues, patent laws and a myriad of other items keep the Google, Facebook and Microsoft DC teams extremely active on Capitol Hill. In my home state of Texas, over-eager tax collectors are auditing SEO firms for back sal [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Features: Opinion

Congratulations! You've finally convinced the boss-man that attending and covering an industry conference on behalf of your B2B company is fantastically worthwhile for a multitude of reasons. As an attendee, you'll absorb rich information from true thought-leader s-- info you can bring back to the office so the whole team stays on the cutting-edge of technologies, trends, tactics, and techniques specific to your biz. As a blogger, you'll churn out a ton of valuable content sure to beef up your B2B publication (fresh traffic, readers, links, hooray!) and get on the radar of the conferen [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

In a world where lots of search marketers are still reluctant to use broad match type due to its lack of relevance and control, Google has released two features to have more advertisers show their ads on all those very long tail queries: The broad modifier feature was rolled out in July 2010 in the U.S and was mostly aimed at scaling up those accounts not already using regular broad match type. Search marketers have to then build new broad keywords using "+" signs to effectively unlock the broad modifier feature. Because it requires some time and effort, not all advertisers have actually [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: AdWords | Search & Conversion | Search Ads: General

People absolutely love Google Doodles and today Google has went way over the top to pay respect to Bob Moog, the man who is credited for revolutionizing modern day music. He invented the first electrical music device, he named the Moog Synthesizer. The Moog Synthesizer was first introduced at the Audio Engineering Society convention in 1964. Google and others credit Moog for the music of legends such as The Beatles, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk and others. To celebrate Moog's life, he passed away 7 years ago in 2005 at the age of 71, Google has an interactive web based Moo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos

Move over JC Penney. Another brand is getting attention over buying links, this time Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation. Today's news is less news and more a reminder of lessons that SEO companies, clients and publishers all need to keep in mind, to avoid trouble. Josh Davis drew attention to the DBCC situation in his post today, documenting how after receiving three link requests from the same person, he finally followed up, only to be pitched on placing a link from one of his articles to the DBCC site in return for $30 per month. What's Dun & Bradstreet -- the nearly 200 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: SEO | Link Building: Paid Links | Top News

The fact that almost no one noticed might be one reason why Bing has dropped its Visual Search feature ... something that apparently happened months ago. To be clear, this isn't traditional image search that we're talking about; that's still available at bing.com/images. We're talking about the "Visual Search" tool/interface that Bing launched in 2009 with a unique interface that used Silverlight technology to let searchers view a large set of images and data. In our article about the launch, we used this screenshot as a sample of the Visual Search interface: The independent Micr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Image 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: Google Provides Competitive Information In New Auction Insights ReportAdWords marketers’ days of regularly refreshing on all their keywords may be over — or at least that activity may not be quite so necessary. Google is releasing a new report — Auction Insights — that helps marketers understand how their ads stand, compared to others in the same auctions. “For a given keyword, the [...] Just Because Someone Works At [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Noon EDT, 9 AM PDT. Join speakers Austin Bankhead and Mike Fogarty of Adobe Systems as they discuss the latest trends in mobile, best practices and mobile optimization strategies you can implement, plus how to optimize your webpages for mobile devices. Register now! [...]

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