Search experts dissect the latest search marketing trends with detailed analysis and opinions, review search engine products and technologies, and provide insight on search engine usage data.

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“OK Google” — Hands-Free, Conversational Search Coming From Google

May 15, 2013 at 2:35pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Google has allowed you to speak your search to it on the desktop and mobile devices for some time, but now it’s going to get smarter — talking back to you and continuing the conversation you started. Google shared details at its Google I/O 2013 developer event today and also in a blog post that’s [...]

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Google: Nearly 2 Million AdWords Campaigns Are Now Enhanced, Early Results Are In

May 15, 2013 at 10:32am ET by Ginny Marvin   

In an update on the early progress of the transition to enhanced campaigns last night, Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP, Ads and Commerce at Google — and the lead on enhanced campaigns — said that close to two million campaigns have been set to enhanced. That’s up from 1.5 million Google quoted on the first quarter earnings call on [...]

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Google Zaps Another Link Network, ‘Several Thousand’ Link Sellers Hit

May 15, 2013 at 3:45am ET by Matt McGee   

What a week it’s been where Google and SEO are concerned. The company, via Matt Cutts, has issued several warnings about things to come — and, late Tuesday night, also revealed that it’s just acted against another link network. In a pair of tweets, Cutts — the head of Google’s webspam team — said that [...]

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German Court Says Google Must Block Libelous Words Added Via Autocomplete Function

May 14, 2013 at 1:33pm ET by Amy Gesenhues   

In a surprising turn of events, Germany’s top civil court overturned two lower court rulings on a case involving Google’s autocomplete function. According to the ruling, it is Google’s responsibility to block libelous words that appear next to a name via the autocomplete function if Google has been alerted to the defamatory words. The plaintiff [...]

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Google Authority Boost: Google’s Algorithm To Determine Which Site Is A Subject Authority

May 14, 2013 at 9:38am ET by Barry Schwartz   

Yesterday, we covered and summarized the ten future Google SEO changes coming to Google’s search results by the end of this summer. But today, I wanted to pull out one point where Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said Google is working on an algorithm to give authorities in a particular subject a ranking [...]

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Google’s Matt Cutts: Black Hat & Link Spammers Less Likely To Show Up In Search Results After Summer

May 13, 2013 at 12:26pm ET by Barry Schwartz   

A video from Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, today answers some of the questions about what webmasters and SEOs should expect in the near future in regards to SEO. The primary question Matt asked and answered was, “What should we expect in the next few months in terms of SEO for Google?” Matt [...]

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If That Was A Google Update You Felt, Google’s Not Confirming It

May 10, 2013 at 8:59am ET by Barry Schwartz   

Over the past few days, the Webmaster and SEO community have been discussing significant shifts, fluctuations and updates in both the Google rankings and traffic patterns they have seen from Google’s organic search. I’ve asked Google if there was, indeed, an update, and Google would not confirm. Instead, they gave me the boilerplate response, “We [...]

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Even If Yahoo Wants To Leave Microsoft, Here’s Why It Can’t

May 7, 2013 at 7:52pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Despite effectively renewing its search deal with Microsoft recently, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo wants a way to break that deal. Why didn’t Yahoo take the opportunity it just had? I suspect that technically and financially, it couldn’t. Yahoo’s “Get Out Of Microsoft Free” Card The WSJ story says that Yahoo has [...]

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Google Wins Vertical Search Antitrust Case In Germany

May 7, 2013 at 2:36pm ET by Greg Sterling   

In a German case that could have broader antitrust implications in Europe, Google defeated a petition for an injunction brought by a German online weather trade group, Verband Deutscher Wetterdienstleister. The case is interesting because it involves a private antitrust action against Google and directly addresses the “search bias” argument made by Google critics. The [...]

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Yahoo Extends Microsoft Search Deal & Revenue Guarantees

May 7, 2013 at 1:14pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Yahoo is giving Microsoft a further chance to prove that its search ads really can make Yahoo as much money as promised — at a price. Microsoft has agreed to extend “search revenue guarantees” that it has continually paid since the two companies signed a deal in 2009. Yahoo Declares An Extension Reuters spotted the [...]

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Google Local Results Drops “More Results Near…” To “Improve” Local Search Experience

May 7, 2013 at 9:20am ET by Barry Schwartz   

Google has quietly dropped yet another search feature; this one is related to local search results within a search on Google. Google has removed the “more results near…” link on local search results for queries with local intent. For example, if you search for [pizza] on Google.com, Google will show you local businesses selling pizza [...]

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Google Search App With Google Now Breaks Into iTunes Top 10

May 3, 2013 at 10:32pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

When Google first released its updated Google Search app last October, it never made the iTunes top ten and, last week, wasn’t even in the top 100. But the addition of Google Now helped the app make the top ten in less than a week. Google relaunched its app last October with Siri-like voice recognition [...]

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Last Year’s Top 3 U.S. Search Marketing Agencies Continue To Lead In 2013 Report

May 3, 2013 at 12:12pm ET by Amy Gesenhues   

Every year, Ad Age ranks the top performing U.S. search marketing agencies based on the previous year’s U.S. and worldwide revenue. This year, the top three agencies held their 2012 report rankings, with iCrossing, 360i and iProspect coming in at No. 1, 2, and 3 on the list of largest U.S. search marketing agencies. 360i [...]

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How “Not Provided” May Make BuzzFeed Think Google’s Search Traffic To News Sites Is Down

May 1, 2013 at 4:16pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Well look at that! Search traffic to news sites has dropped over the past eight months, according to how BuzzFeed tracks referrals to sites within its network. A change of user behavior? Or perhaps more the result of “Dark Google” and “Not Provided?” Come on, I’ll explain how Google may be making itself look like [...]

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Which Finds The First-Ever Website Better, Google Or Bing?

May 1, 2013 at 12:00am ET by Danny Sullivan   

For the 20th anniversary of CERN making Web technology available to anyone royalty-free, the European science lab has restored the very first website to its original location. Could today’s search engines of Google and Bing, which didn’t exist when the site was first posted, find it now? Time for a test. The answer turns out [...]

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When Google Gets It Wrong By Changing The Titles Of Web Pages

Apr 30, 2013 at 5:55pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Google doesn’t always use the HTML title tag of a web page, choosing instead to make its own title for a page, if it thinks it can do a better job. Here’s an example of it getting this completely wrong. I was searching for Dana Point Jet Ski, which is a real business in Dana [...]

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Take Our Survey & Help Update The Periodic Table Of SEO

Apr 30, 2013 at 9:00am ET by AJ Kohn   

The only constant in search is change. The Periodic Table of SEO was created in 2011 to summarize the major factors that comprise search engine optimization. But, it’s time to update the table to review those ranking factors and make sure we’ve got the right combination. This year, we’re asking the SEO community to provide their [...]

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The Top Five SEO Mistakes According To Google’s Matt Cutts

Apr 29, 2013 at 2:12pm ET by Barry Schwartz   

In a recently published video, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, listed off the top five SEO mistakes webmasters make. Matt said these are not the most devastating mistakes, but rather, the most common mistakes. (1) Not having a website or having a website that is not crawlable is the biggest mistake he sees. [...]

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The Amazing “Google Now” — When Google Searches Before You Think To

Apr 29, 2013 at 10:30am ET by Danny Sullivan   

With Google Now coming to iOS, a whole new audience using iPhones and iPads are about to meet Google’s predictive search service. It’s a feature that’s gone from interesting novelty to being downright amazing, in less than a year. Here’s a look at how the “predictive search” service has evolved and where it may head [...]

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Q&A With Google’s Matt Cutts On What To Do If You Get A Manual Penalty

Apr 26, 2013 at 12:24pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

What to do if Google sends you a penalty notice, and you can’t figure out exactly what it’s for? Turn to Google’s webmaster help forum, says the head of Google’s Web spam team, Matt Cutts. If you’re still confused after that, you can file a reconsideration request where you might be given more details. The [...]

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