Almost two of every three malicious redirects in major search engines are found on Bing, according to a new report from the web security firm Sophos. Looking at data "from the last couple of weeks," Sophos found that 65 percent of malicious search results that its web appliance blocked were from Bing. Google was responsible for 30 percent of the blocked redirects. Image search is particularly vulnerable to this kind of attack. In a separate chart, Sophos says that 92 percent of the malicious redirects that it found were in image search results. Sophos is using its own technol [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Security | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | SEO: Image Search | SEO: Spamming | Top News

One way to kick up your local search optimization game is through beefing up the local signal through images. There are a few techniques for doing this -- read on for details. Incorporating images as part of your overall content mix is a good idea for search optimization in and of itself. Images can provide additional opportunities for keyword signals on a page, and they represent good opportunities for ranking in search results under Universal Search. But, if they're also associated with places properly, they can convey additional location signals, helping a business and/or its website [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: SEO | Intermediate | Local Search | SEO: Image Search | SEO: Local

UK based SEO firm BrightLocal reported the results of two online surveys about local consumer behavior and local SEO. The surveys were conducted in Q1 2011. There were more than 600 SEO survey respondents and 1,250 US consumer survey respondents respectively. The findings are not a surprise. Google dominates as a traffic source to local business websites, though in this survey not as much as some other surveys. Mobile was not a part of the results reported. Here's how the SEO respondents ranked the top sources of traffic to their clients' sites: That ranking is further unpacked in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Place Pages | Google: Web Search | SEO: Image Search | SEO: Local

My last article about Wikipedia—An Untapped SEO Opportunity: Image Link Love From Wikipedia—prompted an Orwellian mantra: instead of "four legs good, two legs bad," people have started saying "images good, text bad" and wondering why the difference. The short answer is the Wikimedia Foundation created a white hat opportunity for SEO to generate outgoing links via image uploads. The strategy hinges on a copyleft licensing option called CC-by-sa, and the decision isn't accidental. They're glad to trade some link love in return for quality content. Or, as Wikimedia communica [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search & Social | Search Engines: Wikipedia | SEO: Image Search

Suppose I told you about a way to create viral links on Wikipedia without raising objections from the site's volunteers. Would I have your attention? The key is images. Wikipedia suffers from a shortage of images for use as illustrations and the SEO profession has yet to recognize the opportunity this presents. A modest investment of time learning site standards and licensure options can yield substantial benefits in website traffic, brand recognition, and customer loyalty. According to Cary Bass of the Wikimedia Foundation, "The Wikimedia Foundation appreciates good quality, fr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search & Social | SEO: Image Search | Social Media Marketing

With the advent of Google Universal Search, Ask 3D and other "blended" search services, images will increasingly be appearing in search results. If you're not optimizing images on your web site, you're missing out on capturing some of this increasingly valuable real-estate. Not sure how to optimize images for search engines? Today's Search Illustrated shows you how to do it simply and quickly: Graphic by Elliance, an eMarketing firm specializing in results-driven search engine marketing, web site design, and outbound eMarketing campaigns. The firm is the creator of the ennect online mar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Infographics | Search Illustrated | SEO: Image Search

Google's recent deployment of Universal Search resulted in the inclusion of content drawn in from their other search verticals into the main web search results. As this integration trend continues, and as Google further expands upon the 200+ signals they use for ranking, it becomes increasingly important to diversify a site's presence on the web, and to work on ranking well in each of the various areas of vertical search. We might reasonably expect that "diversification of signal" could also help with ranking in each of the individual verticals as well. The lines are blurring and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Local Search | SEO: Image Search | SEO: Local

Vanessa Fox at the Google Webmaster Central Blog posted tips on using images on your site. In short, she explains that: (1) Don't put the bulk of your visible text in images, use real text (2) Use alt tags to describe the images (3) Do not keyword stuff the alt tags (4) Alt tags are more important when your navigation is all images (5) A webmaster should be watchful of the "image-to-text ratio on your page" (6) Vanessa then pitched Google Sitemaps, with "Taking advantage of Image search" [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Images | Google: SEO | SEO: Image Search