After reporting yesterday that the Google Knowledge Graph Carousel was showing up more frequently and for a wider variety of searches, a Google+ post today announced the official launch of Carousel for local search results. According to the announcement, when a user searches for “restaurants, bars or other local places” from their desktop, they will […]
This morning, Blekko announced that its tablet search app, izik, is now available for the iPhone and Android devices. Currently there isn’t a Blekko mobile app, but the mobile Web version of the site is optimized for smartphones. Izik for iPad became available in January. Blekko has moved closer to izik in terms of look and […]
As we move closer to the 20th anniversary of the launch of public search engines, a key industry trend in search marketing is the long called-for move to placing transparent, objective & measurable KPIs at the heart of search marketing, social & content campaigns. What KPIs give you an objective measure of your agency?
Remember back in the day when search results were just ten blue text links on a page? Back then, the search results were so simple that reputation management was pretty straightforward. You could clearly see if those blue links connected to positive content — if so, your reputation was great. Unfortunately, things aren’t so easy […]
Last week, we began seeing complaints of the Google Webmaster Tools “Links To Your Site” report showing 80% or less of the number of links that should be displayed. Yesterday, I noticed the issue myself, and today, Google confirmed this is a reporting bug. In short, tons of webmasters who analyze their links using Google […]
“We’ve detected that some of the links pointing to your site are using techniques outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines….” For enterprise SEOs, receipt of this notification is usually followed by a deep, sinking feeling in your chest. You check your keyword head-terms in the SERPs and realize that you can’t find your website anywhere. A lump […]
Last week, I attended the SMX Advanced session, “From Microdata & Schema To Rich Snippets: Markup For The Advanced SEO,” moderated by Elisabeth Osmeloski with speakers Marcus Tober, founder of Searchmetrics Inc., Julia Gause, Director of SEM for Scripps Network and Stephan Spencer, CEO of Koshkonong LLC. Just prior to the session starting, Bruce Clay, […]
One of the popular PPC sessions at SMX Advanced in Seattle was the Pro-level Tips to Succeeding at Retargeting. While many advertisers have plunged into the remarketing world via Google’s basic remarketing program, there are many varieties and programs available beyond Google. This session covered pro retargeting tips, Google remarketing programs, and explored non-Google channel […]
With the July 22nd mandatory migration to Google AdWords enhanced campaigns looming, we will be checking in with marketers over the next several weeks to get their perspective on the transition process, hear what they’ve learned so far and what advice they have to share. Today, Sid Shah, Adobe’s Director of Business Analytics for Advertising […]
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 Matt Cutts: Stock Images Do Not Impact Search Engine Rankings Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said in a recent video that using stock images from a stock image […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said in a recent video that using stock images from a stock image website has no impact on rankings. The question was, “Does using stock photos on your pages have a negative effect on rankings?” Matt’s answer was very short, he said “no.” There is no positive or […]
What happens when you combine big data with some big math? Good things, bad things and things we have yet to truly comprehend. Big Data is the most talked about, misunderstood and nebulously defined component of online marketing. Big data can mean anything from large scale consumer behavioral analysis to a relatively simple study of […]
While the Google Knowledge Graph Carousel was launched nearly a year ago, more reports are confirming Carousel image displays appearing more often and for a wider variety of categories in SERPs. The Carousel display shows results in an image-focused fashion, listed horizontally at the top of the SERP. The new reports show an updated design, […]
As the summer weather haltingly makes its appearance in my neck of the woods, thoughts turn to on-base averages, fielding percentages and all of that Moneyball stuff. My theme for this column is the woeful underperformance of the team known as the Toronto Blue Jays. Despite a wave of off-season signings and by far the […]
The Google Webmaster Central blog announced you can now use a new method to verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools. Now, you can use Google Tag Manager‘s container snippet code to verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools. To verify your unverified site with Google Tag Manager, go to the Webmaster Tools home page. […]
Since Google rolled out the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, numerous sites have been impacted or penalized. Often, companies that incur penalties or experience a drop in rankings don’t have a clue as to what they’ve done wrong — especially small, local businesses. This leads me to a novel proposal: perhaps for local businesses, the best […]
Google appears to have quietly put an end to a long-running trial that added a “quick view” option next to mobile (smartphone only) search results from select websites. The feature offered searchers a fast way to see a lightweight version of a webpage without having to fully click through and load the page. We first […]
Up Close Coverage From SMX Advanced 2013 Recently, I attended the SMX Advanced session, “Authorship: The Deep Dive“, moderated by Elisabeth Osmeloski, and featuring speakers: John Carcutt, Advance Digital, Janet Driscoll Miller, Search Mojo, Mitul Gandhi, seoClarity, and Mark Traphagen, Virante, Inc. There were a number of interesting takeaways. Mitul Gandhi is up first. He […]
Happy Father’s Day, everyone! Google has a special Google logo, aka Doodle, for the day. It is an interactive slot-machine type of Doodle that matches up the diverse set of fathers around the world. Here is a video of the logo: Here is a static image of the 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: Spurred By PRISM Scandal, StartPage & Ixquick Surpass 3 Million Daily Searches Alternative search engines are having a good week, likely thanks to public awareness and concern over data and privacy […]
Alternative search engines are having a good week, likely thanks to public awareness and concern over data and privacy issues being raised by the PRISM scandal. StartPage and Ixquick, two small search engines from the same company, announced this week that they surpassed three million daily searches for the first time. More specifically, they hit […]
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.
Following up on the new Bing Ads keyword performance visualization tool, Keyword Distribution Graph, Microsoft will soon be rolling out a visualization tool for change history. The Change History Graph will be available in the Web interface and is meant to offer quick visual insight into the effectiveness of your optimization changes. When you hover your mouse […]
In last month’s post about authorship, I shared that Google has been experimenting with inferring authorship for PDF documents in addition to webpages. This piqued my curiosity to see if any other indexable filetypes could also have inferred authorship. Microsoft Office Files PowerPoint files appear to infer authorship similar to PDFs and webpages, looking for […]
New PPC Best Practices In An Enhanced Campaign World was one of SMX Advanced Seattle’s most engaging sessions; and, as a speaker, I have received a great deal of feedback and questions about those bid location modifiers. As it turns out, location bid modifiers are one of the (only) benefits of upgrading to enhanced campaigns, […]
Yesterday, Google announced more changes to the Google mobile search algorithm, which we can expect to roll out shortly. This update is intended to improve the search experience for mobile users by “address[ing] sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users” — presumably by improving mobile rankings for sites that have been optimized according to their […]
Google Maps has added more than 1,000 new destinations, with an expansive collection of street views across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the US and Canada. New Singapore street views have been added for Fullerton Heritage Promenade, the Singapore Zoo, and the Marina Bay Waterfront, letting users can see what it’s like to walk along Singapore’s […]
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 To End Sponsored Search Ads — For Now Facebook has said that it’s getting rid of sponsored search results for the time being. It’s not walking away from “search advertising,” […]
Facebook has said that it’s getting rid of sponsored search results for the time being. It’s not walking away from “search advertising,” however. In the future, there will be ads in Graph Search. But, the company is still in the process of working all that out. Facebook told me this morning that, as a practical […]
Bing commercials have been running rampant on TV lately — they have amped up their service and definitely have something to prove. Among other things, they’re becoming increasingly integrated into Windows 8, possibly increasing public interest in Bing. For many people (online marketers in particular), there is a tendency to forget that Bing even exists […]
When I do PPC webinars, I always like to open with a quick poll. In a recent webinar, I asked attendees to fess up to how much time they spend working on their AdWords account every week. The results were very promising: Almost 9 out of 10 (87%) of respondents said they do at least […]
In my last article, I talked about the importance of unstructured data for optimal performance in display advertising. This time, I’d like to bring that conversation full circle and explore another aspect of what unstructured data provides in spades: insight. While performance is typically the primary way of measuring advertising efforts, insight about your specific […]
Google Operating System noticed that Google Image search added navigational arrows to browse through image search results large thumbnail by large thumbnail. When you load the image results, click on an image to see a larger preview; you will see arrows left and right on each side of the black background of that image thumbnail […]
Our Search Marketing Expo Advanced show out in Seattle is now complete. The two-day advanced search marketing conference had tons of wonderful content, speakers and tips. Below you can find some of the live blogging of the conference, just in case you missed it. Complicated Technical Issues That Sabotage SEO Efforts, Search Marketing Sage Getting […]
On the heels of acquiring Nine By Nine Blue along with its search analytics Blueprint software, digital and search marketing firm RKG announced today a new SEO predictive forecasting tool to be added to the Blueprint software suite. In addition to the newly added SEO solution, RKG is launching a pilot program for companies interested […]
At SMX Advanced tonight, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts explained that if Google’s search results pages were run through the top heavy algorithm it would not be hurt by that algorithm. So if you wanted another guide to whether you’re safe from Top Heavy, perhaps the ratios of ads to content with Google’s […]
After piloting the Keyword Distribution Graph in April, Bing has made its keyword performance visualization tool available to all Bing Ads users. The Keyword Distribution Graph is located under the keywords section in the Bing Ads Web interface. A drop down allows you to view aggregate keyword performance data in trend graphs or by the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: George Bush “Miserable Failure” Google Bomb Back, This Time In Knowledge Graph The Google Bomb is back! Searching for [miserable failure] in Google now returns George W. Bush’s knowledge graph in […]
The Google Bomb is back! Searching for [miserable failure] in Google now returns George W. Bush’s knowledge graph in the search results. The Google Bomb first became popular back in 2004 when Google and some other search engines ranked George W. Bush as the number one result for a search on [miserable failure]. In 2007, […]
Day two of our SMX Advanced event is getting started with our second keynote event: a conversation with Microsoft’s Gurdeep Singh Pall. He’s the VP for the Information Platform & Experience team at Microsoft, and is responsible for vision, product strategy and R&D for Bing. Search Engine Land’s founding editor, Danny Sullivan, is leading the […]