Last week, Microsoft issued a second announcement that it would be transitioning Bing Ads account logins to Microsoft accounts — currently used to access Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, Windows Phone, Xbox LIVE, or Outlook.com services. Today, some users who clicked “Remind me later” and opted to login with their existing credentials got “Login Fail Error” notices […]
Russian search engine Yandex announced third quarter revenues this morning. The company saw strong growth for its overall business as well as for search-based advertising. Yandex said that total revenues grew roughly 40 percent vs. 2012. The vast major of the company’s revenue comes from paid-search advertising (92 percent). Display ad revenue was the bulk […]
Yesterday, Search Engine Land broke the news that Google is running a test to show banner ads on branded search results. While the search giant has introduced images to its ad formats, including product listing ads and image extensions, the introduction of banner ads is a noticeable change for the company. Here’s what we know […]
As the local search industry evolves and becomes more complex, the role of local search consultants and agencies becomes more critical. Complexity is increasing across most areas of our fast-growing industry, which makes “local search” all the more confusing for local business owners. This complexity is driving increased demand for local search services. SMB owners […]
There are two ways to try and understand the future. One is to gaze into the misty depths of a magic crystal ball and guess what might happen. The other is to view facts from a coldly logical standpoint and draw verifiable conclusions from them. To make sense of rapid shifts in the SEO landscape, […]
Consumers are increasingly engaging with businesses while they’re on the go. In fact, of the 94 percent of smartphone owners searching for local information, 84 percent of them take action based on their search results. This shift in consumer behavior is redefining the approach advertisers take when engaging with their mobile customers. Not only are […]
In June, Google announced it would be adjusting search rankings appearing on smartphones based on how well the site in question handled the mobile user experience. The company didn’t say exactly when these changes would be rolling out, but only said it planned “to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that […]
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-Microsoft Search Tensions On Public Display In Court Ruling Microsoft has essentially had to sue Yahoo to get the company to fully comply with the terms of their 2010 “Search Alliance” […]
Microsoft has essentially had to sue Yahoo to get the company to fully comply with the terms of their 2010 “Search Alliance” agreement. Yahoo under Marissa Mayer had sought to delay rollouts of Bing search results in Taiwan and Hong Kong, awaiting a new Microsoft CEO. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer resigned ahead of schedule under […]
This morning, the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts gave a keynote speech at Pubcon in Las Vegas. The keynote comes on the heels of a scathing day — 1 keynote from Jason Calacanis, who said that Google rules everything, that they were essentially evil. On Twitter yesterday, Matt asked if Jason wanted the […]
We already knew Google wasn’t likely to update the PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar this year. The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, reiterated today that this will stay the case and explained why. Google’s ability to update the toolbar is broken, and it’s not a priority to fix it. Speaking at […]
Google has confirmed that they are testing incredibly large banner ads for specific branded queries. @SynrgyHQ posted an image on Twitter showing for the query [southwest airlines a huge “sponsored” ad at the top of the search results. A Google spokesperson confirmed this is a “small experiment” running currently in the U.S. market. The ad […]
In its continuing bid to become more useful and to differentiate from competitors such as Yelp and Google, Foursquare introduced a redesigned homepage this week. There’s a signed-in and signed-out experience. The major difference between the two is friend activity and personalization. The new homepage shows recommended or popular nearby businesses, as well as places […]
Part of Google’s big birthday event & Hummingbird announcement was that Google has made some serious strides to the knowledge graph. One such example was visible a week or so after the announcement, which was a major improvement and user interface change for musician-related search terms. For example, when you search for [neil young] you […]
Schema.org was launched on June 2, 2011, providing a structured data markup supported by major search engines. Since then, we have seen schema.org markup implemented on many websites; however, you usually only see it on the tech-savvy and gung-ho webmasters’ sites (or being generated by a CMS). This structured markup can be tedious to implement, […]
Want to measure organic traffic? Just take the number of Google Webmaster Tools clicks, average out the CTR by position across all of them, then take the broad match volume of all those terms (because that’s the only volume Google will give you), and then take your position and divide it by CTR and volume. […]
Many B2B companies use social media plugins on their websites to increase engagement and sharing of their content. According to AddThis, 14 million domains use the AddThis social plugin; another 2 million publisher sites use the ShareThis plugin. In fact, one of the three largest B2B companies in the United States (in terms of revenue) […]
Moz announced the launch of a new link and SEO tool feature called Fresh Alerts. Fresh Alerts is kind of like Google Alerts but specifically designed for SEOs and marketers to keep track of not just new web mentions but also new links pointing to your site or a competitor’s site. Moz’s Cyrus Shepard said […]
Google is quietly disabling the saved searches feature within Google+. For example, I have saved searches in Google+ for pictures that match the term [google] but now when you access it via the Google+ Circles drop down menu, Google returns a notice that reads: Saved searches are going away. Bookmark this page on your browser […]
The United Nations is continuing its admirable and proper work of highlighting discrimination against women around the world; but, is using Google’s autocomplete feature the best way to do it? UN Women, a UN entity formed in July 2010 that focuses on gender equality and women’s rights, revealed a new ad campaign this week that […]
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 Changes AdWords Ad Rank Calculation, Now Factors In Ad Extensions And Formats Today, Google announced a change to Ad Rank, its ad serving calculation in AdWords that determines where your […]
Today, Google announced a change to Ad Rank, its ad serving calculation in AdWords that determines where your ad shows and how much you’ll pay per click. In addition to max CPC bid and quality score, Ad Rank will now factor in the expected impact from ad extensions and formats. Ad Rank is also becoming […]
The search engines double serving policies aren't so straightforward.
Over the weekend, Bill Hartzer noticed that some Google searches returned Bing search results. As of last night, Google search results are once again Bing-free. What happened? Taking a closer look, the Bing search results weren’t www.bing.com/search URLs, which are correctly blocked by Bing’s robots.txt file. They were coming from www.bing.com/entities/search. This pattern is not […]
While Google’s switch to paid Product Listing Ads for Google Shopping has proven wildly successful, growth has likely been hindered by the fact that setting up and managing Product Listing Ad campaigns for Google Shopping has been plagued with complexity. Today, Google announced a new campaign type called Shopping Campaigns designed to make it easier […]
When we moved to agile marketing for our internal process, it changed the way we think. Instead of finding any resources that were available, we had dedicated teams that worked on a smaller number of clients. Instead of working against a 12-month marketing plan, we worked in 30-day Sprints to reach smaller, more attainable goals […]
Majestic SEO, a popular link explorer tool for SEOs and webmasters, announced the launch of Search Explorer. Search Explorer is a search engine they designed to allow SEOs and webmasters to search by keyword or phrase, and the results would be ranked by Majestic SEO’s own linkage metrics. The purpose is to show which web […]
The Google logo team has been busier than usual this week. After celebrating salsa singer Celia Cruz yesterday, today’s Google logo includes an interactive image to mark the first parachute jump. Performed by Andre-Jacque Garnerin on October 22, 1797, the jump occurred 216 years ago at Parc Monceau in Paris from a descent of approximately […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Ads Accredited? Get Updated Badges And Certificates You may have noticed, Microsoft rolled out new branding for Bing and Bing Ads over the past month. Now, that new look has […]
You may have noticed, Microsoft rolled out new branding for Bing and Bing Ads over the past month. Now, that new look has carried over to the Bing Ads Accredited Professional program. Updated certificates and badges are available for use on your website and other marketing materials. To access the newest certificate, click on “Congratulations! […]
Bing Ads users may start seeing a new screen at login asking them to sign in with a Microsoft account, in much the same way AdWords users are required to have a Google account. Once you make the switch, you’ll need to use your Microsoft account name and password to access Bing Ads and Bing […]
Bing announced on their Webmaster Blog that they have introduced a new feature within Bing Webmaster Tools for managing your Smart Search Previews. The Page Preview tool, under the “Configure My Site” section in Webmaster Tools, enables webmasters manage their page previews. It allows you to request a block of a page preview image from […]
Today’s video from Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts is a 2006 throwback where Matt reassures us that there is no difference between using <strong> or <b> tags when it comes to SEO best practices. The full question asks: In terms of SEO, what is the difference between <strong> tag and <b> tag for […]
Today’s Google logo remembers salsa singer Celia Cruz on what would have been the artist’s 88th birthday. Cruz began her career singing lead vocals for the famous Cuban orchestra Sonora Matancera in 1950. Born in Havanna, Cuba, Cruz and her husband Pedro Knight became a citizen of the United States in 1959 after Castro took […]
Russia’s largest search engine Yandex has released its Yandex Metrica for Apps, a free analytics solution available to mobile developers worldwide. According to the announcement, the new analytics tool has been designed to work on Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms, providing real-time reports on the search engine’s own apps. “We wanted a reliable, as […]
Google is yet again experimenting with the snippet display in the search results. Google Operating System noticed Google bringing back a test from 2011, where they replaced the URL in the snippets with the site name. Here is a picture of how the Google search results look without the URL but with the site names: […]
The nofollow tag is a way publishers can tell search engines not to count some of their links to other pages as “votes” in favor of that content. Why would publishers need to block such votes? Doing so can help them avoid problems with search engines believing they are selling influence or are somehow involved […]
This week, I had planned to write an article entitled, “The Five AdWords Features You Should Be Using Daily But Probably Aren’t.” The post was going to expose some of the hidden, advanced features available in AdWords that were often overlooked by even the most senior AdWords pros. That was the plan… until I did an audit […]
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 Expands International Targeting In AdWords Google has tweaked how location targeting works for international searches. It’s a change that allows ads to be seen across countries, not just within countries, […]
Google has tweaked how location targeting works for international searches. It’s a change that allows ads to be seen across countries, not just within countries, when the search query has local intent. According to today’s announcement, advertisers that use either the “default” or “location of interest” setting will be able to target their ads based […]