[caption id="attachment_112063" align="alignright" width="205"] Image credit to ShutterStock[/caption] You may see a drop in rankings or traffic and immediately panic. Have I been Panda-slapped? Even now, as we look at the two year anniversary of Google's Panda Update, the likelihood is that you have not. Rankings and traffic fluctuate for many reasons, most of which are not related to penalties from search engines. But, how can you tell? Instead of watching rankings overall, watch categories of keywords. If you separate your keyword categories by topic, you can more easily spot trends t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Algorithm Updates | Google: Panda Update | Google: SEO | Keywords & Content | Panda Update Must-Reads | Panda Update Tips | SEO: Duplicate Content

Attend SMX West and get expert insights and real-world-proven tactics that yield results instantly. The multi-track agenda, developed by the editorial team of Search Engine Land, includes 50+ sessions on SEO, PPC, mobile search, social media marketing at more. Learn from faculty of over 120 leading brand marketers, agency experts, Facebook, Google and Bing. Register by March 10 and save with pre-conference rates! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | SMX & DMD Alerts

It seems as if Google is testing hiding the search box completely from the Google search results page. A post in a Google+ Community by Tom Johns spotted this first. He said he was using a beta version of Chrome, and when he searched, the only way to submit a search query at Google was to do so in the Omnibox built into Chrome. Here is a picture of how Google's search results page looks without the search box: You can replicate this yourself by adding some URL parameters to the Google search URL. For example, here is how you can search for [google] on Google without the search box [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search

We just came upon the two year anniversary of what came to be known as the Google Panda Update. Between then and now, a seismic shift has seemingly taken place in the link building and SEO industry. Many of you reading this know the gory details, but if you don't, I recommend reading Vanessa Fox's excellent post, Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Panda Update. Now What? [caption id="attachment_149681" align="aligncenter" width="320"] The answer is usually no[/caption] I've read many Panda recovery stories, read about sites that claim to have fully recovered, partial [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Week

Looking back at 2012 statistics for smartphone usage & tablet sales figures paints a picture of significant multinational SEO opportunity in 2013. Here are three key SEO opportunities for 2013 and how to take advantage of them.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Mobile | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Multinational Search

(Editor's Note: This is the final article in a 3-part series looking at the aftermath of Google's Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011. To catch up, please see the first two articles in the series: Google Panda Two Years Later: Losers Still Losing & One Real Recovery and Google Panda Two Years Later: The Real Impact Beyond Rankings & SEO Visibility.) In the two years since Google rolled out the Panda update, many of the "losers" are still losing, and several others have been impacted beyond rankings and SEO. HubPages.com fits both descriptions. Launched in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: 5 Questions With | Google: SEO | Panda Update Must-Reads | Panda Update Winners & Losers | Top News

If you're an in-house SEO, you probably work with another in-house team that manages paid search campaigns, or vice-versa. Because you're working for the same company you know these people are "on your side," but at times tension can arise when "competing" for similar keywords, or budget, or even when it comes to properly giving credit to the efforts that make your overall search marketing campaign successful. Sometimes the other guys are your friend, sometimes your "enemy." In the best of all worlds, the ideal relationship is glued together with "co-opetition" with your "frenemy." At S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX

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 Panda Two Years Later: The Real Impact Beyond Rankings & SEO Visibility (Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011. To catch up, please see the first article in the series: Google Panda Two Years Later: Losers Still Losing & One Real Recovery.) Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched two [...] Will Google Penalize [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Just two months into 2013, and Facebook has introduced Graph Search and Google enhanced AdWords to improve multi-channel campaign management. These are just a couple of the developments we’ll be covering in-depth at Search Engine Land's SMX West in San Jose, March 11-13. You’ll hear firsthand about Facebook Graph Search and other paid advertising options in a Keynote Conversation with Grady Burnett, VP of Global Marketing Solutions. We’ll follow that up with Meet Facebook Graph Search, a deep dive into the opportunity for internet marketers. Hear directly from Google about the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | SMX & DMD Alerts

Many of the large enterprises we work with have a significant brand. They can mount advertising campaigns to create leverage for all of their marketing efforts. Sometimes, this comes out a bit sideways from an SEO perspective. What I mean is that some of these brands view SEO solely as a means to harvest the benefits of their other marketing efforts, rather than a marketing effort on its own. For example, one brand we work with is only concerned about ranking for its brand names (both the company and individual products). To them, that is the sole purpose of their SEO. This is not quite as [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Enterprise SEO

Just under three years ago, we reported that 301 redirects don’t pass full PageRank and that you should try to link through a normal link versus using 301 redirects. The truth is, a 301 redirect and a link pass the same amount of PageRank. There is no more dilution of PageRank with a 301 redirect when compared to using a normal link. Matt Cutts squashed this myth that I believe many SEOs thought to be true, today in a video: He said: The amount of PageRank that dissipates through a 301 is currently identical to the amount of PageRank that dissipates through a link. So t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Link Building: General | Top News

The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at Search Marketing Expo – SMX London 2013. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to have read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your pitch is on target to the show’s audience and the session. Please also be very specific about what you intend to cover. Also, if you do not see a particular session listed, this is because there are no openings for that session. Use this form to submit your request. As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. We literally sif [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX

Last month, I attended a webinar by Tim Ash called “Understanding the Brain’s Need for Novelty & Shortcuts.” This made me think and realize that many of our PPC landing page strategies are “shortcuts” and relate directly to the field of neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is a relatively new field of marketing research that studies consumers' cognitive and emotional responses to marketing stimuli. It seeks to learn why consumers make the decisions they do and what part of the brain our decisions stem from. In this article, I’ll cover several brain “shortcuts” and discuss w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Paid Search

In the past few weeks, I've been confronted multiple times by the question of whether social media is truly worthwhile for local businesses. The question comes from companies feeling the pinch of costs while also desiring to promote themselves adequately. The ROI may not be clear in many cases, so let's examine it. First of all, businesses have been propelled toward being involved in social media because marketers are attracted to any channels or arenas that large swaths of consumers gravitate to. As the usership of various social media services has grown, the rule-of-thumb is that their wo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search

Google's antitrust case in the US concluded in January, much to the dismay of companies that had been agitating for tough action by the FTC. It was seen as a near total victory for Google. Rivals quickly turned their attention to Europe in the hope that, unencumbered by some of the legal issues that inhibited US regulators, it would be willing to impose "meaningful" restraints on Google. There were some signals from EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia that Europe was going to take a firm stand on the vertical search or "search bias" issue. Google's alleged "search bias" towar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Regulation

When the dust settles US mobile ad revenue will probably come in somewhere between $3 and $3.5 billion for 2012. Google is the clear market leader. But which company is number two? Facebook? Millennial Media? Twitter? Not according to a statement released this morning by YP (the former AT&T Interactive). YP said that it had "over $350 million in advertising revenue [in 2012] attributable to mobile, making it the number two company in the US mobile advertising industry." Analyst firm IDC is cited as support for the assertion. Facebook probably would dispute the claim, with over $ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

(Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google's Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011. To catch up, please see the first article in the series: Google Panda Two Years Later: Losers Still Losing & One Real Recovery.) Google's Panda algorithm update, which launched two years ago, had an enormous impact on the SEO industry and online publishing as a whole. As with any Google algo change, there are winners and losers in its search results. In part one of this series, we looked at the current search visibility of some of P [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Panda Update | Google: SEO | Panda Update Must-Reads | Panda Update Winners & Losers | Top News

(Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google's Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011.) Two years ago today, Google sent shockwaves through not only the SEO industry, but also through online publishing in general when it launched the Panda algorithm update. It was originally called the "farmer" update because Google's prime target was "content farms," a name used to describe sites that created high-quantities of low-quality content that sometimes ranked highly in Google's search results. Although Google didn't specifically [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Panda Update Must-Reads | Panda Update Winners & Losers | Top News

A day after warning publishers against advertorials, will Google's search team now have to penalize parts of its own company for running advertorials? Perhaps, and if so, it wouldn't be the first time. It's also another absurd chapter in Google's war on paid links. Google Says: Advertorials, Beware! After news came out yesterday that Google had apparently penalized Interflora for running advertorials -- and also reduced the PageRank values of many UK newspapers that carried these -- Google finally blogged a general warning against such practices. From its post: Please be wary if some [...]

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

As part of its antitrust settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in January, Google agreed to allow ad campaigns to be exported to third party ad networks using its API. Here's what Google said in a blog post at the time of the settlement earlier this year: Advertisers can already export their ad campaigns from Google AdWords. They will now be able to mix and copy ad campaign data within third-party services that use our AdWords API. The following is the relevant language from the FTC statement about the export of AdWords campaigns at the time of the antitrust settlement: Goog [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Antitrust | Google: Legal | Top News