SearchCap: Google Webmaster Tools & Guidelines Updates, Bing Ads Opportunities & DuckDuckGo Settings

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Webmaster Guidelines Update Calls “Low Quality Guest Blog Posts” Spam
  Google has updated their webmaster guidelines, specifically in the little or no original content guideline, to add “low-quality guest blog posts” as an example of “scraped content.” Brian Ussery first spotted this change, noting how Google has been fighting the use of guest blogging and posting around link building. Specifically when Google’s head of search […]
• Live @ SMX East: What SEOs Should Be Doing With Mobile
  For years, debates raged about what constituted “best practices” when it came to mobile SEO. Early on, the discussion focused on whether it was important to have a separate site optimized for mobile devices. That proved to be a major challenge, as it required detecting and optimizing for hundreds if not thousands of different devices, […]
• New Bing Ads Opportunities Page Shows How Budget & Keyword Changes Will Impact Campaigns
  Bing Ads has launched a newly redesigned Opportunities Page to show the estimated impact of campaign changes for factors like increased bids, as well as budget and keyword suggestions. Now located at the top of the Bing Ads page on the primary toolbar, the new Opportunities Page displays the estimated impact of account changes using […]
• As PLAs Come To An End, AdWords Rolls Out New Shopping Campaigns Upgrade Tool
  With Product Listing Ad campaigns coming to an end this month, Adwords has launched a new tool to help users upgrade their PLA campaigns to Shopping campaigns in what it claims is just a, “…matter of clicks.” According to the announcement: Google offered the following screen shot of the upgrade tool: While the new tool […]
• The Future Of Content & SEO: How To Stay On Top
  Do you ever look back on SEO and long for the simpler days? SEO has always been content-driven, but the meaning of optimized content has changed drastically over the years. Previously, we usually viewed content as a separate thing from SEO; the two existed in separate silos, only to come together for a brief moment in the […]
• Google Webmaster Tools Notifications For Faulty Redirects & New Color-Coded Fetch As Google
  Google Webmaster Tools has added two new features today, one for notifying webmasters of faulty redirects and the second to show color-coded- HTML syntax within the fetch as Google feature. Stop Redirecting Smartphone Users To Your Home Page Notification Google is now sending notifications to webmasters who are sending their mobile users to their home […]
• DuckDuckGo Revamps Settings Page Design
  DuckDuckGo, the privacy search engine, has announced on Twitter that they have launched a new version of the DuckDuckGo settings page. Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo, told us they “revamped the look & feel of the settings page to match the entire site.” The new look now matches the revamp from this May. Here […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Apple’s iOS Maintains Large Enterprise Lead Over Android
• Christina Aguilera Urges Everyone to #PassTheRedCup For World Hunger
• Lessons Learned From The Evolution Of Spam: Upcoming Live Webcast
• FTC Fines Emailer $350K In Settlement Of Affordable Care Act Spam Suit
• Twitter Launches Promoted Video In Beta, Expands Testing Of Native Video Tools
• Could Your Holiday Plan For Selling On Amazon Use Kindling?
• Twitter Flips Reporting, Claims 3% More Users Saw Ads In Q2 Than Initially Reported
• Interactive Marketers: Let’s Make Case Studies More Valuable
• Filing Shows 8.5% Of Twitter’s Active Users Use Apps That Pull/Push Information Without Initiation

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• The ultimate challenge: Why Microsoft still believes in Bing, Digiday

Local & Maps

• Complete Guide to Google My Business, Tech Function
• Windows Threshold: Cortana takes a step forward, Neowin

Link Building

• Competitive Domain Analysis with LRT, Link Research Tools
• Power User Tips: Shortcuts when using our tools, Majestic SEO Blog
• SEOs Start Selling SSL HTTPS Links, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Google Now suggesting pirated links? This is not good, theandroidsoul.com

SEO

• How To Switch To HTTPS URLs For Optimal SEO, Joe Hall
• 5 SEO Stats That Are Crucial to Monitor, SEMrush Blog
• Experiment: We Removed a Major Website from Google Search, for Science!, Moz
• Google SSL Algorithm Is Not Part Of Panda, Run In Real Time On A Per URL Basis, Search Engine Roundtable
• POLL: Is Google Morally Obligated to Refresh Penguin?, BruceClay.com
• Why Google Dislikes Zombie Sub-Domains, The SEM Post

SEM / Paid Search

• 4 AdWords Automated Rules To Try, PPC Hero
• Building a PPC Community Through Shared Knowledge, SEM Post
• Google AdWords Testing New Local Ad Format?, Search Engine Roundtable
• What’s Your PPC Goal? Find Out Your Ideal Metric, koozai.com