Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Black Friday – A Cautionary Tale From An Online Retailer Back in 2010, I wrote a post entitled,“Black Friday? Bah! Cyber Monday? Humbug!” in which I did a fair amount of […]
Editors’ note: This column has been removed because retailer Harry & David apparently threatened legal action against a former employee quoted in the article. The company apparently claimed that, despite her having been given permission to speak about these issues at a public gathering, in hindsight, the company doesn’t want them discussed. We like that […]
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.
It is that time of the year again, if you search for [Festivus] in Google, you will see a Festivus pole show up on the left hand side rail. Here is a picture: Google adds the Festivus pole every year but it seems this year it went live a bit early. That being said, you […]
This year, U.S. shoppers now have more opportunities than ever to join the throngs scrambling to secure holiday bargains, thanks to many brick and mortar stores opening ever earlier and staying open ever longer. Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales lollapalooza, has become a 24-hour slog for many retailers. And some retailers, impatient to lure […]
While’s Google’s Thanksgiving Day logo may have the best music, it’s not the only site to celebrate the holiday. Here’s a quick round up of Thanksgiving themed homepages and logos from a few popular search engines: Bing’s Homepage: Yahoo Thanksgiving Logo: Ask.com: Dogpile: Google’s Homepage and Video of Its Thanksgiving Day Song: [youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGspoOoK69s#t=40[/youtube]
It’s official. NORAD Tracks Santa, the annual Santa tracking effort run by the joint US-Canadian air defense organization, will be using Microsoft’s Bing for the second year to map Santa’s route. But will Google be mapping Santa on a different route, as happened when it ran its own breakaway tracking service last year? There’s hope […]
To celebrate the holiday, today’s Google homepage includes a Thanksgiving themed logo complete with a banjo-playing fox, a dancing turkey and slew of forest animals building their very own vegetarian holiday meal. Clicking the play button in the middle of the logo starts a brief interactive image of forest creatures scrambling through the woods, each […]
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 Keyword Planner Now Shows Trademarked Terms At some point recently, Google started to indicate terms that are trademarked in the Keyword Planner with the TM mark. Dan Shure of Evolving […]
At some point recently, Google started to indicate terms that are trademarked in the Keyword Planner with the TM mark. Dan Shure of Evolving SEO tweeted about the new feature, noting that McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” tagline is not marked as trademarked while Staples’ “The Easy Button” is marked as such. (Burger King’s “Have It […]
We hear it regularly — the death knell tolling for SEO. In the past several years, we’ve been bombarded by a barrage of change in organic search, from Penguin to Panda to Hummingbird, from inbound link penalties to [not provided]. Let’s face it: the only constant in search is change. But I propose that SEO isn’t […]
The holidays are officially upon us, and if you’re reading this, I must give thanks to you for your time. When I still worked at Google, this was the time of year when new product launches came to a crawl since most advertisers were too busy to deal with change, and only the most persistent […]
Many marketers think of social media in the context of B2C companies: after all, 4 in 10 consumers buy products that they’ve favorited, liked, tweeted or pinned on various social networks. Yet, according to a recent study from MarketingProfs, 87% of B2B marketers use social media platforms in their content marketing efforts. In fact, of […]
In a significant move, Google rolled out CPM bidding by viewable impression in AdWords this week. Advertisers will only be charged for ad impressions that can actually be viewed in-screen by users, rather than on the traditional served impression basis. New reporting metrics are also available, all powered by Google’s viewability measurement solution, Active View, […]
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 Enables “OK Google” Hands-Free Voice Search On PCs Through a Chrome browser extension users can now invoke the hotword (or hot phrase) “OK Google” to initiate hands-free searches on the […]
Through a Chrome browser extension users can now invoke the hotword (or hot phrase) “OK Google” to initiate hands-free searches on the PC. Voice search on Chrome was possible before but you needed to manually select the microphone. After the browser extension is installed you simply need to say “OK Google,” pause briefly and speak […]
Sarah Perez at TechCrunch reports Apple has updated their App Store search engine to help with misspellings, typos and other “fat-fingered” searching mistakes. Sarah said she has “sources” that have confirmed these “App Store search engine changes went into effect a few weeks ago.” One example I can personally attest to is when someone searches […]
If you search on Google for [hanukkah], [dreidel] or similar Hanukkah themed searches, you will see the holiday bar at the top of the search results. This year, Google uses a bluish bar with dreidels, a four-sided spinning top used by Jewish children during the holiday. Last year, Google had Jewish stars for the holiday, […]
Taking action after a completing a test in Google AdWords may just have become a whole lot easier. An new “undo” button was spotted last night in the Change History reporting by Heather Cooan, director of client services at Clix Marketing. Here’s a screenshot from Heather’s account after she clicked on the “undo” button next […]
In time for the holiday travel season, Google Maps now includes street views for a number of transit locations across the globe. Yesterday, a post on the Google Maps blog claimed the site has added street views for 16 international airports, more than 50 train and subway stations, as well as a Hong Kong cable […]
With Thanksgiving just two days away, I thought it was only fitting to discuss what I think we should all be thankful for this year when it comes to link building. After all, with the surge of updates, algorithm shifts, and keyword reporting changes that have happened in the past year, it’s easy to get […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: 5 Trusted Accounts Every Local SEO Should Have As local marketers, most of us know how to set up a Google Places for Business account or create a Facebook Page. But, […]
As local marketers, most of us know how to set up a Google Places for Business account or create a Facebook Page. But, these are not the only accounts you should be creating in order to get the full benefit of your local SEO campaign. Below are five trusted accounts every local SEO should have […]
Google’s Matt Cutts posted a video explaining why Google no longer has that 100-links-per-page Webmaster guideline. In fact, the guideline was dropped well before 2008, but SEOs and webmasters still think having over 100 links on a page is something that may lead to a penalty. The truth is: no, it won’t. Sites like Techmeme […]
Today, Google formally announced several updates for Google Trusted Stores, the free ratings service Google launched in 2011, just ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. AdWords Seller Ratings Integration Google Trusted Stores is now among the services that help to power seller ratings, which show on AdWords text ads as well as Product Listing Ads. Here […]
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OMMA (Online Media, Marketing and Advertising) Magazine has named Covario the 2013 search agency of the year for the third consecutive year. According to a release posted on the agency’s website, Covario was recognized for, “its ‘smarter approach’ to delivering award-winning paid and organic search programs,” as well as double-digit growth and 60-plus percentile Net […]
Today’s white ribbon on Google’s homepage is in support of the United Nation’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The ribbon image links to the UNWomen.org End Violence Against Women webpage, offering visitors a brief overview of the internationally recognized campaign, along with links to news features and events to observe the […]
Most search experts rely on Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) to analyze the technical aspects of a website. These experts focus on data like crawl stats, page errors and rich snippets. In addition to technical analysis, I recommend using GWT for basic on-page SEO improvements. Here are 6 easy ways to use Webmaster Tools to improve […]
It’s not even Thanksgiving week, but Ask.com has posted its Most Popular Questions and Search Terms for the year, listing 2013’s top ten trending terms for news, celebrity and entertainment, and political searches. According to the site, the Royal Baby ranked No. 1 for the top searched news term of the year, with the corresponding […]
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 Shopping Adds New Consumer Features Ahead Of The Holidays Google is continuing to tweak the Google Shopping experience ahead of the holidays. With its sights set on Amazon, this week, […]
Google is continuing to tweak the Google Shopping experience ahead of the holidays. With its sights set on Amazon, this week, the search engine announced a new set of features for consumers. Whether searching on a desktop, tablet or smartphone, the product previews stay within the main screen for quick access to detail information. After […]
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.
PPC and SEO have always been complementary marketing channels — but have you been using this combination to its full potential? With keyword data now largely gone and Hummingbird making quality content vital to your SEO strategy, it has never been more important to invest in SEO — but you may not have the time […]
Google is celebrating the 50th birthday of the BBC’s Doctor Who series early, with a global release of a Doctor Who-themed Google logo and game on its homepage today. The actual anniversary of the show is tomorrow, November 23, but Google has already started rolling out the tribute logo and video game on a number […]
In Google’s relentless pursuit of organizing the world’s information, the most exciting shift we’ve seen over the last year is about its ability to understand the “meaning” behind content (via the Knowledge Graph) and queries (via its Hummingbird algorithm update). In the past, Google had to rely on the words on the page, matching them […]
I’ve been gathering and analyzing reports and in-the-trenches data from in-house marketers about Google’s Hummingbird, and I believe what I am seeing is on par with finding a dead canary in a coal mine. Pardon the morbid analogy, but the writing is on the wall, folks, and it has been for a while. Change is […]
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 Integrates TripAdvisor Tools, Content Into Search Results Travel site TripAdvisor made two Microsoft-related announcements today. The company announced a Windows 8.1 app. But more significantly TripAdvisor and Bing are now […]
Travel site TripAdvisor made two Microsoft-related announcements today. The company announced a Windows 8.1 app. But more significantly TripAdvisor and Bing are now presenting TripAdvisor content and travel search capabilities within Bing search results pages. Bing will now display TripAdvisor reviews and photos as well as TripAdvisor’s hotel price comparison tool in SERPs. TripAdvisor’s full […]
Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts posted on his personal blog a request for webmasters to provide feedback and feature requests for Google Webmaster Tools. Matt and the Google search quality team is looking for new ideas on what would make Google Webmaster Tools more useful to you. Matt talked about how far Webmaster Tools […]
Here we go, just over a week until Black Friday and Cyber Monday. All hands are on deck, budgets are ready to be unleashed. The big box retailers appear poised to yet again dominate paid search results for queries related to these all-important retail days. Over the last two years, the big box retailers have […]