Increasingly over the years, search engines -- Google in particular -- have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld. Here's what happened, why it matters and how publishers can push back if Google and Bing don't change things. Where We Came From Some might believe that search engines hate SEOs, hate publishers and have done little over the years to help them. They are mistaken, either choosing to deliberately ignore the gains or, more likely, are simply unaware of [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Google: Critics | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | Link Building: General | Microsoft: Bing Webmaster Tools | SEM Industry: General | SEO: General | Top News | Yahoo: Site Explorer

As expected Yahoo will be closing down Yahoo Site Explorer this year. Yahoo has just announced the date for the closure. This coming Monday, November 21, 2011, Site Explorer will cease to exist. The short Yahoo blog post reads: With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. Site Explorer services will not be available from November 21, 2011. Bing Webmaster To [...]

Related Topics: Top News | Yahoo: Site Explorer

Yahoo has announced they are shutting down one of the old and beloved SEO tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, later this year. This isn't unexpected, and I am personally surprised it has been live for so long. That being said, the tool that launched on September 29, 2005 will be closing down "later this year" according to Hemant Minocha, Product Manager, Yahoo Site Explorer. Yahoo recommends that webmasters sign up with Bing Webmaster Tools and use that as Yahoo shuts off Site Explorer. Yahoo makes it sound like that you won't miss the old Site Explorer but I find it hard to believe that Mic [...]

Related Topics: Top News | Yahoo: Site Explorer

In the past week, several SEO related topics are in need of summarizing. Here is a list of quick SEO takes in bullet format, for you busy SEOs and SEMs: Google Webmaster Tools has added "total links" to the revamped link reports. Yahoo seems to have fixed the broken site explorer linkage data. Google has fixed the blogspot indexing bug and now can index new blogspot blog posts. Google Webmaster Tool's fetch as Googlebot is 404ing for some webmasters Google sometimes is using your heading tags for snippets as opposed to your title tags SEOs are noticing major ranking changes since Thu [...]

Related Topics: Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Google: Webmaster Central | Yahoo: SEO | Yahoo: Site Explorer

Earlier this week, site owners noticed that substantial Yahoo Site Explorer link data seemed to be missing. A glitch? Gone for good? The first signs of integration into Bing webmaster tools? I talked to Yahoo and got at least some initial answers. Many site owners regularly use Site Explorer for information on external links to their own sites and competitive sites and since the announcement that Yahoo search results would be powered by Bing, many have wondered if Yahoo would continue to make this data available. On the Yahoo Site Explorer suggestion board, a message from Site Explorer produc [...]

Related Topics: Features: General | Link Building: General | Top News | Yahoo: Site Explorer