Catherine Kellogg of Direct Brands Inc. is the winner of our prize, a ticket to an upcoming Search Marketing Expo conference. Congratulations Catherine!

Were you counting on winning? Sorry about that, but you can still get the lowest rate on a ticket for our next conference, SMX West. Check out the conference agenda and join us February 28-March 1 in San Jose.

Register by Saturday and you’ll pay only $1295 for an All Access pass that includes 3 days of exceptional conference sessions and invaluable networking. Don’t miss out. Get your ticket to SMX West today!

Some Statistics

Since we opened, Search Engine Land has grown to doing between 1.5 million and 2 million pageviews per month.

From our Google Analytics data, a month-by-month view:

Over the past five years, we’ve had:

• Nearly 50 million pageviews
• Nearly 32 million visits
• Over 22 million unique visitors

Over the past five years, we’ve written:

• 9 million words
• 14,000 posts
• 644 average words per post

Our top five most viewed stories over this period reflect the diversity of coverage we provide about search and search marketing:

1. Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
2. 20 Awesome Images Found In Google Maps
3. What Is A QR Code And Why Do You Need One?
4. Google Kills Bush’s Miserable Failure Search & Other Google Bombs
5. Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives

Our Coverage

Search is such an important part of our daily lives. Search marketing is such a dominant part of digital marketing. Here at Search Engine Land, we feel fortunate to have covered both exciting topics over the past five years.

In our time:

• We’ve broken some news stories
• We’ve noted important stories broken by others
• We’ve done a daily recap called SearchCap of stories from around the web
• We’ve published both tactical in-the-trenches advice and strategic high-level thoughts from our columnists
• We’ve provided How To content
• We’ve created a comprehensive library of search coverage by topic
• We’ve provided great analysis & in-depth coverage of search topics

Expanding Beyond Search

We know that many of our readers are also digital marketers looking for high quality content and coverage about internet marketing beyond search. That’s why, on our fifth birthday, we’re thrilled to formally announced the opening of our new sister-site, Marketing Land.

Rest assured, nothing is changing at Search Engine Land. Everything you’ve liked about the site will continue as before. There will remain a firm focus on search and search marketing issues.

But over at Marketing Land, we’ll have coverage that goes beyond search, including columns that begin this week in these key areas:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Analytics & Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Search Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

If you’ve enjoyed Search Engine Land, please be sure to check out Marketing Land. We think you’ll love it.

Thanks

The Search Engine Land team would like to thank all those who have supported the site over this time, through your links to us, your tweets, your likes, your +1′s but most of all, through your readership. There’s no better reward for a team devoted to content to know that what we’ve written has helped others.

I’d like to personally thank:

• Our Search Engine Land columnists and contributors, who write so many of the great pieces we run each week
• Our advertisers and sponsors, who help us continue to grow and expand content that’s provided for free to so many people
• Our team at Third Door Media, our publisher, who help ensure that our sales, technical and business matters are covered so well

Most of all, my thanks to my fellow Search Engine Land editors, who collectively represent over 100 years of experience covering search and search marketing topics. There’s no other team this large, this experienced, doing daily journalism about search. It’s a privilege to work with you all.

If helping us keep the lights on isn’t enough of an incentive, we’ll include a chance to win a ticket to Search Marketing Expo – SMX West in San Jose, CA February 28-March 1. SMX West will feature a keynote with Susan Wojcicki, Senior VP of Advertising at Google. Susan is responsible for the design, innovation and engineering of all Google’s advertising and measurement platforms including AdWords, AdSense and Google Analytics.

You can find the survey here.

We need the survey results so we know who you are. Not personally who you are, but in general. What jobs do you hold? What products and services do you buy? This information helps us tell potential advertisers who is visiting Search Engine Land.

Completing this survey takes about two minutes. We ask for your email address only so that we can notify the winner of the SMX West ticket. That’s all — promise. We won’t sell your email or send you more stuff because you took the survey.

Everyone who fills out the survey by December 10 at 6PM PDT will be automatically entered in the drawing for the ticket. The winner’s travel and accommodations are not covered, sorry. If you can’t make the conference, you’re free to exchange it for another SMX ticket or give the winning ticket to someone else. We’ll announce the winner December 12th.

Once again — please take our audience survey!

Here at Search Engine Land, we strive to ensure the stories we do are related back to search in some way. We think that’s important, that people want a site with high-quality editorial content focused on just search.

However, we also know that many search marketers are also digital marketers, looking for news, tips and techniques about internet marketing overall. We want to provide that coverage to them and to digital marketers overall.

Nothing will change with Search Engine Land. The site carries on as it has before. But at Marketing Land, we’ll provide coverage beyond search, as well as integrate top-level search stories, as well.

Our plan is for Marketing Land to launch on December 11, though we’ll do a soft launch on December 1. We’ll start with limited news coverage. For the full launch, our news coverage will expand, we’ll have a daily newsletter similar to our SearchCap, and we’ll have these new columns to start:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Analytics & Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Search Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

Interested in being a columnist in one of these areas? Get in touch here.

Marketing Land will take over from our existing internet marketing news site, Sphinn. We’ve posted more information about the change on the Sphinn blog. We will be archiving content from Sphinn when Marketing Land takes over.

The transition process has already begun with our social media accounts. You can follow Marketing Land now using its accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Until the change, you’ll continue to get updates from what we post through the existing Sphinn system, then from December 1 onward, the new content from Marketing Land will appear.

We also have a new Marketing Land Google+ Page that you can follow now. When the soft launch happens, the page will start showing updates from Marketing Land.

Monica is a long-time search marketer, known to many throughout the industry. Many have met her at our SMX search marketing conferences or other industry events.

Monica’s already been busy with changes to our social media accounts.

If you’re one of the over 50,000 who follow our @sengineland account on Twitter, Monica’s been supplementing the tweet updates we provide with interesting tweets that others have made about our stories.

On Facebook, where we have over 21,000 fans of our Search Engine Land Facebook page, we deactivated our automatic feed several weeks ago to begin more selective posting there. Monica’s continued to pick out the best stories that seem suited for Facebook discussions.

In our Search Engine Land LinkedIn Group, almost 25,000 members have active discussions about all topics related to search and search marketing. Monica is overseeing the moderation that we’ve long provided to that group, which has kept it spam-free and so useful to many. She’s also doing new posts for those who wish to discuss Search Engine Land stories there.

At Google, we long maintained a Google Buzz account, which has transitioned to our Search Engine Land Google+ account. That already has over 2,000 followers, so if you’re in Google+, you can keep up with our news that way and comment about what we report. As with Facebook, Monica does selective posting there.

Beyond our social media accounts, we plan to improve the on-site commenting experience here on Search Engine Land plus look at other ways to support the community.

Monica will also be looking at how we can do an even better job through social media channels. Ideas are welcome; give us your comments, below!

For a rundown on our entire team of editors, see the Search Engine Land staff page.

I’ve known Gary for years, and it’s a pleasure to be working with him again. There is nothing related to search engines or research tools that Gary doesn’t know. Attend any research or library conference, and Gary’s surrounded like the rock star he is.

Gary will be focusing on new search tools, search features and how searchers can get more out of the search engines they use.

Outside of Search Engine Land, Gary’s co-founder and co-editor of INFOdocket and FullTextReports.com, which contain news and new resources of interest to information professionals, journalists, educators, and others.

As for Greg, he has been writing outstanding articles for Search Engine Land about social media and its impact on search marketing. We’ve liked that so much that we wanted more!

Greg will be continuing to cover social media and how how search marketers can tap into it to improve their search performance, as well as how to get more out of social media itself.

Beyond Search Engine Land, Greg is the Chief Marketing Officer for Cypress North, a company that specializes in social media and search marketing services and web-based application development. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn.

For a rundown on our entire team of editors, see the Search Engine Land staff page.

New “Flip Box” For Featured Stories

One of our biggest challenges is that we publish so much content that it can be hard to feature everything. On a busy news day, some great news stories and feature articles could get “pushed down” or “pushed off” our home page. Plus, some fantastic columns might be missed, given they come “below the fold” on the home page.

This is where our new “flip box” comes in. You’ll find it on the home page of the site, just above our news stories:

The box allows you to easily scan through a variety of stories, such as news items that are still important, even if they’re no longer breaking, recent features and analysis pieces, along with recent columns.

By default, the flip box will automatically “flip” through various stories, and you can use the arrows in the top right corner to go forward or backward on your own. Click on any story previewed in the box, and you’ll be taken to the actual story.

Major News Stories

Immediately below the flip box are our three most recent major news stories. Click on the headline to go to any story or use the “Read Story” link after the story’s summary, as the first set of arrows shows below:

OK, we’re pretty sure that was all self-evident, but we’re covering all the bases! The next arrow in the screenshot above highlights where you’ll be able to tell if there are any comments on a story. If so, the number will be shown.

Want to see more major news stories beyond the latest three shown? Use the “See More News Stories” link that the last arrow points at, or select “News” from the navigation bar at the top of the page. Either will take you to our news page.

News Briefs

Beyond major news articles, Search Engine Land also alerts you to smaller news stories that may be of interest. These news briefs are shown on the home page immediately below the News Stories section.

Want to see more than the latest briefs shown? Choose the “See More News Briefs” link as the arrow points to in the screenshot over there to the right.

Alternatively, select “News” from the navigation bar. Either option takes you to the aforementioned news page, where more major news stories and search news briefs can both be found.

Columns

Search Engine Land has a wide range of columns covering topics ranging from paid search to SEO to link building. You’ll find the latest columns listed further down on the home page:

At the end of the columns listed on the home page, the arrow in the screenshot above points to the “See More Columns” link, where you can view additional ones.

Here’s a tip. All of our columns are available via email. Sign up for a particular column, and you’ll get the full-text when the next edition of that column is posted. Check out the entire list on our Columns page.

Sidebar Says: Search & Subscribe!

There’s a “sidebar” section to the home page and all the individual story pages on the site. Our search box, which lets you search through all the content on the site, has been relocated to the top of the sidebar.

Just below that are our subscription options. Want to keep up with our content via RSS? There’s a button for that, as well as how to follow us on Twitter for updates or to like us on Facebook, so that you’ll get our stories in your news feed. Options to keep up with us on Google Buzz, LinkedIn & YouTube are also shown.

Tab Through Our Stories

Another new feature in the sidebar are two different “tab boxes” for stories.

The first lets you can easily toggle through to see our most recent news stories, briefs, features and how-to content, at-a-glance. It’s shown below, on the left:

The second, on the right, allows you to tab through our stories that are most shared on Facebook, Twitter or getting the most comments recently.

Our Webcasts & Conferences

Also in the sidebar, we’ll continue to keep you updated about Search Engine Land’s upcoming webcasts and conferences.

Our webcasts are done through our SMN: Search Marketing Now web site and are available to anyone for free.

SMX: Search Marketing Expo is our conference series with in-person events that happen around the world.

SearchCap: Your Daily Search News Recap

Feeling swamped by all the search news out there? Our daily email newsletter, SearchCap, remains the perfect solution. Each day, it updates you on all the stories posted to Search Engine Land plus provides comprehensive, search-related headlines from around the web.

You’ll now find a sign-up box at the end of each of our news and feature stories, making it easy to subscribe. You can also subscribe and learn more about the newsletter from the SearchCap page.

Share Our Articles

Also at the end of our articles is a redesigned “Share” section, allowing you to share a story you like with others via Twitter, Facebook or Google Buzz. For the curious, we use buttons powered by ShareThis.

There’s also a generic “Share” button that lets you share a story through email or via a wide number of other services. And for those who prefer to like items on Facebook, there’s a separate option for that.

Enjoyed an article? Please consider sharing and liking it with others. That especially helps new people on Facebook discover our content.

Comments Welcome!

A few months ago, we quietly added a way for people to comment on our stories by logging in through Twitter. That greatly increased the commenting activity here, which we love. Anyone can also comment without a Twitter account, simply by registering with us directly.

Wondering if the new Facebook comments system will be coming to Search Engine Land? We’re considering it, but we’re largely waiting to see if it better integrate so that comments can be recorded within our own database, rather than just being kept on Facebook’s site.

More likely, in the near future, we’ll be looking to let people use our own commenting system with a Facebook account, in the way they can with Twitter — as well as adding support for other systems such as those from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Stay tuned.

If you’re commenting, don’t forget to read our commenting guidelines!

Search Engine Land Premium Memberships

We continue to offer our Search Engine Land Premium Memberships, that provide a range of benefits:

• Access to the complete Search Engine Land Library, where all our stories are organized by topic, including the How To section
• Exclusive Search Week & Search Month newsletters, which give you a weekly & monthly recap of search news
• Discounts on our SMX conferences
• SMX video content. Learn by watching from our huge collection of sessions recorded at our SMX conferences.

Trying a membership is a no-brainer. There’s a 30 day money-back guarantee. There’s also one other key benefit in joining. You help support the site and the content we produce here. So think about becoming a member. Learn more on our member information page.

But Wait, There’s More (To Come)!

Hopefully that gives you a sense of some of the changes we’ve made today. Along with them, we’ve also slightly widened the size of our pages, which allowed us to bring our font size up. We think this makes things easier to read — as do new fonts we’re using for our headlines and story text.

Thanks to our technical director Michelle Robbins, who has worked hard over the past few weeks making the changes, as well as to all our Search Engine Land editors for their suggestions on improvements.

We’ll be making tweaks and changes now that the new site is live, plus we’ll be listening closely to your feedback. Enjoy the new look!

• Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
• New York Times Exposes J.C. Penney Link Scheme That Causes Plummeting Rankings in Google
• Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update
• Google Logo Honors Constantin Brancusi’s 135th Birthday
• Bing: Why Google’s Wrong In Its Accusations
• Obama’s Silicon Valley “Tech Supper” – Who Sat Where? Why Was He There?
• 5 Social Sites You May Not Have Heard About (Yet)
• What Time Does the 2011 Super Bowl Start? A (Continuing) Lesson in Search Visibility
• Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s “Farmer” Algorithm Change?
• Bing Admits Using Customer Search Data, Says Google Pulled ‘Spy-Novelesque Stunt’

1. Google vs. Bing: The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine
2. The New York Times, Demand Media Edition
3. Confirmed: Google Readies “Google Offers” Groupon Clone
4. Internet-To-TV Players Compared: Roku, Apple TV, Boxee & Google TV
5. A To Do List For Google’s New CEO Larry Page
6. The Big List: 168 Marketing Trends, Predictions & Resolutions For 2011
7. Google Testing Display Ads In Gmail
8. A Tale Of Three Android Phones: Droid 2, Samsung Fascinate & Google Nexus S
9. Blekko Launches Spam Clock To Keep Pressure On Google
10. Study: Google “Favors” Itself Only 19% Of The Time

These were our top columns for the month:

1. Googe vs Bing: The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine – Conrad Saam
2. 15 Link Building Predictions for 2011 – Debra Mastaler
3. How To Use Twitter To Boost Your Google Rankings – Kevin Gibbons
4. Bad Google Ads: What Were They Thinking? – Mona Elesseily
5. 11 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions for 2011 – Greg Finn
6. 6 Content Tips: How To Write When You Have Nothing To Write About - Ian Lurie
7. The Top 10 Paid Search Features You May Have Missed in 2010 – Brad Geddes
8. Looking Ahead: What’s Next In The Evolution Of Local Search – Eric Enge
9. Why Google’s New Keyword Data May Actually Make 2011 The Year Of Mobile – Brian Klais
10. 5 Tips To Get Your Small Business Online in 2011 – Stephanie Hobbs

1) Where Is Santa Claus? The 2010 Santa Tracker List, From NORAD To Google Earth

2) 10 Alternatives To Delicious.com Bookmarking

3) NORAD Santa Claus Tracker 2010 Now Open!

4) First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook

5) What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?

6) The Google Rosa Parks Logo

7) DecorMyEyes Merchant Vitaly Borker Arrested After NYT Piece On Google Rankings

8) Why Wikileaks Will Never Be Closed Or Blocked

9) Google Lets You Dumb Down Your Search Results With “Reading Level” Filter

10) When OCR Goes Bad: Google’s Ngram Viewer & The F-Word

To see all of our most popular stories over time, visit our Most Popular Stories page.