The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation has written to the major US search engines of Google, Yahoo and Bing asking them to examine how some moving services are using "bait-and-switch" tactics on customers who find them through search results. Moving Ripoffs Each search engine received the same letter, covering how a committee investigation found that consumers are doing searches for topics relating to moving services and encountering companies with names that seem similar to large, reputable brands. Consumers pay what they believe to be a moving deposit but [...]

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Often when I complete a keyword research project for a client, they ask me about keywords I may not have included, or they want to know what the relative competition on the keywords looks like. This happens often enough that I thought I would remind everyone that while research for SEO and PPC can go hand in hand, they’re actually very different. First, think about what your goals are with each medium. What are you trying to do, and what constitutes success in that area? Next, think about how the keywords will be used. Where, when, how often? Finally, consider what your margin for erro [...]

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Bing Webmaster Tools now has fully integrated in Yahoo's traffic numbers as well. So if you have seen a spike in your Bing Webmaster Tools traffic charts, this is the reason why. You should see your impressions and clicks data spike up, while the click through rate numbers may fluctuate from the norm as well. Since Bing now fully powering Yahoo search's organic results, virtually in most geographic locations now, Bing has decided to integrate their data in the tool. There are many webmasters who would love an option to filter this data by search provider, i.e. see Bing vs Yahoo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing SEO | Microsoft: Bing Webmaster Tools | Top News | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

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: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Google: Webmaster Central | Yahoo: SEO | Yahoo: Site Explorer

Yahoo just announced the transition from Yahoo Search powered results to Bing powered organic Yahoo search results is now complete. The search ads are still from Yahoo but the free, organic results are now powered by Bing in the U.S. and Canada. Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President of Yahoo! Search Products, said " I am proud to announce that the transition of organic search between Yahoo! and Microsoft is complete." He then told everyone to check out the Bing blog to see what they had to say. Bing said: Today I am happy to share that Bing is powering Yahoo!’s search results in the US a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Partnerships | Top News | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

Yahoo has been investing in news, including original content development. Consistent with its content strategy the company paid roughly $100 million for "content farm" Associated Content just a few months ago. And, according to the New York Times, Yahoo is now planning to use search and search query volume to help drive editorial coverage. Yahoo is going to more systematically pay attention to search queries to help its editorial staff decide what to write about on a forthcoming news blog called "The Upshot." According to the Times: Yahoo software continuously tracks common words, phrases [...]

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On July 6th, you'll be able to purchase a printed book written by Yahoo called The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World. Putting aside for a moment the irony of providing an online style guide as a printed book, what's this style guide all about? The first style guide of its kind? The press release says it's the "first guide of its kind to focus on the specific issues associated with developing content for the online medium". That's not true, of course. I started using the Yale Web Style Guide when it was first publi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | Yahoo: SEO

Yahoo announced a new search index and algorithm update today. The update involves crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms changes over the next few days. Yahoo said, "you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days." The last Yahoo update was on March 11th. I have personally not seen any discussion or webmaster chatter about Yahoo changes, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. [...]

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Yahoo announced a search update to their index. The update includes possible updates to Yahoo's crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Dan Rampton, Yahoo's Product Manager said: The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days. I have not seen much discussion around fluctuations in Yahoo's search index recently, but maybe some significant changes are coming soon? [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

More than a year since the three major search engines united to announce the canonical tag, neither Bing nor Yahoo formally support it. But that could be changing soon. Speaking during the "Ask the Search Engines" session at SMX West on Thursday, reps from both search engines said they're in the process of supporting rel=canonical right now. Bing's Sasi Parthasarathy told attendees that canonical tag support should be in place by the end of March or early April. Arnab Bhattacharjee of Yahoo said they're currently rolling out support of the tag, but cautioned that Yahoo will only use it " [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing SEO | SEO: Duplicate Content | Yahoo: SEO

The Yahoo Search Blog dusts itself off to announce a search update happening right now. The last "weather report" Yahoo announced was in September 2009 - typically, Yahoo would announce these updates monthly. We actually expected this to be announced. I was tracking a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were noticing ranking changes at Yahoo Search. So now we have confirmation. Yahoo said: The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

Oh, that this weren't true. Last week, Yahoo made news by disclosing that it had quietly dropped support for the meta keywords tag. As a long time hater of that tag and the insane questions it has produced, I was thrilled! But today, I see conclusively that Yahoo still supports the tag. The test was simple. I placed a unique word in the meta keywords tag on the home page of Search Engine Land. This word -- xcvteuflsowkldlslkslklsk -- generated no results on Yahoo when I looked earlier this week. Today, when I searched, it brought back the Search Engine Land home page. Thus, Yahoo indeed ind [...]

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And then there were none. Yahoo has long been the only major search engine that supported the meta keywords tag. However, the search engine revealed today that like the other majors, it no longer supports it. The news came during the Ask The Search Engines session at SMX East in New York today. The search engines were all asked about their support of the tag. Moderator Danny Sullivan noted that only Yahoo provided support of the tag -- prompting Cris Pierry, senior director of search at Yahoo, to announce that support actually had been ended unannounced "several" months ago. Bing doesn't [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: General | SEO: Tagging | SEO: Titles & Descriptions | SEO: Writing & Body Copy | Top News | Yahoo: SEO

The Yahoo Search blog just announced a "weather report" confirming earlier reports of a Yahoo update taking place. Yahoo said they are "rolling out a web index update over the next few days. During this process, you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index." So be on the look out for any major changes. The last confirmed update prior to this one was in June 2009, so it has been a bit longer than the normal monthly updates we expect from Yahoo. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

The Yahoo Search Blog has announced an index and algorithm update, aka a "weather report." Yahoo said, "we’re rolling out some updates to our crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms over the next few days. During this process, you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index." I spotted this update a couple days ago via a WebmasterWorld thread, so now we have official confirmation. The last Yahoo Search update was in early April. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

A little over a week ago we reported on the March '09 Yahoo Search update. Yahoo has finally confirmed the update with a weather report on the Yahoo Search Blog. Dan Rampton from Yahoo Search said: We’ll be rolling out some changes to our crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms over the next few days and expect the update will be completed soon. As you know, throughout this process you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index. I checked the forums this morning and found no new discussion around Yahoo Search. This implies to me that the update is over and I do [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: SEO

SEOs and Webmasters are noticing major shifts in the Yahoo Search results over the weekend. I reported the threads discussing the changes at the Search Engine Roundtable and noted that Yahoo has yet to post a "weather report" on this update at the Yahoo Search Blog. Yahoo promised that they would continue to provide "weather reports" on these algorithm and index updates, when they happen. I would expect to see a post from Yahoo today or tomorrow on this update. The update does seem fairly significant, based on what I see reported in the forums over the weekend. [...]

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I am fairly confident that Yahoo Search is currently updating their index and algorithm now. Dozens of webmasters and SEOs are noticing this update and discussing it at WebmasterWorld, but the Yahoo Search Blog has no mention of it. Typically, Yahoo posts updates -- which they call weather reports -- when Yahoo is updating their index or shifting their algorithm. In fact, Yahoo was proud to grant Danny Sullivan's wish back in 2005 for search engines to provide these weather reports. But Yahoo's last "weather report" was in November 2008, three months ago. Typically, Yahoo does an update [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

The web is full of duplicate content. Search engines try to index and display the original or "canonical" version. Searchers only want to see one version in results. And site owners worry that if search engines find multiple versions of a page, their link credit will be diluted and they'll lose ranking. Today, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft (links are to their separate announcements) have united to offer a way to reduce duplicate content clutter and make things easier for everyone. Webmasters rejoice! Worried about duplicate content on your site? Want to know what "canonical" means? Read on fo [...]

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Many SEOs and SEMs have been noticing updates at Google, Yahoo and Ask.com this past week. I thought I catch you up on what has been noticed at each engine. On the Google front, as reported at the Search Engine Roundtable, many webmasters noticed their PageRank scores drop. After a lot of discussion, concern and debate, Matt Cutts of Google commented explaining that the PageRank scores are fluctuating due to the canonicalization updates Google is pushing through. He said, as long as you are not selling links, "Don't Panic." These things will work themselves out and your rankings should [...]

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