SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 19, 2011

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 Wallet Now Live, But In Very Limited Availability

  As expected, Google has formally announced the first rollout of Google Wallet — the company’s first official entry into the growing mobile payments space. But Wallet is only taking a baby step today. Google says the app is only being made available to Sprint Nexus S 4G phones, and users will be able to pay […]

• 3 Great Questions That Can Improve Your PPC Campaigns

  I hate people who claim to have all the answers. Well, okay, hate is a pretty strong word, so let me rephrase. People who are smarty-pants know-it-alls are ‘not my preference.’ On the other hand, I love people who ask great questions. Great questions are those deceptively simple questions that stop you in your tracks, […]

• Marketing Personas on Wed, Facebook Advertising on Thursday – Webcasts this week

  Search Marketing Now, our sister site, will host two webcasts this week. On Wednesday, September 21, Vanessa Fox and Erezk Barak of Optify will deliver a presentation on “Using Personas to Boost Online Marketing and SEO Success.” This webcast will explore just how to build and manage search personas to optimize your search marketing campaigns. […]

• Hot At Sphinn: How To Attract New Followers, Impact Of Twitter’s t.co & More

  Sphinn saw one of its busiest discussion weeks in a long time last week, with exactly half of the articles published attracting comments from Sphinn members. The busiest conversation happened around our “Discussion of the Week,” which touched on ideas for attracting new followers/fans on social networking sites: What Do You Look For When Deciding […]

• 4 Tips For Taking Ownership Of Your Local Business’ Online Presence

  David Segal’s story in The New York Times earlier this month about the virtual closing of local businesses on Google Places and the significant and negative impact it has had on some real-world businesses – is the latest warning that losing control of your business’ online presence can have a detrimental effect on your ability to […]

• Consider Mobile Content Carefully For Users & Better SEO

  I’ve spoken a lot in these columns about the differences between mobile SEO and desktop SEO, often warning webmasters to do more than just reformat their desktop content for smaller screens. But if you’re in the process of creating a mobile site, you may be wondering what to put on your mobile site that’s different […]

• How To Maximize The Value Of SEO Client On-Boarding

  What is the correct process for on-boarding new clients at the enterprise level? How do you get the most value out of the on-boarding process, for all participants? I often hear questions about the brass tacks of search marketing campaigns: how is reporting handled? What happens when we engage, how does the on-boarding process work? […]

• Facebook Plays Nice With Twitter, Will Allow Users To Turn Wall Posts Into Tweets

  It has been reported by the BBC, that Facebook will soon be allowing users to sync Twitter accounts with their Facebook updates. Previously only Facebook pages or the use of third party applications had this type of linking ability. Of course, the odd man out in this revelation is Google+. Facebook and Google+ haven’t been […]

• Google Wallet Launch Largely Symbolic But Important

  According to documents seen by TechCrunch, Google Wallet is launching later today a bit behind schedule. As we discussed when the announcement was initially made in May, only a small number of people will initially have access to Google Wallet. There are only a handful of merchant and retail partners and only one handset currently […]

• Google Angers AdWords API Developers By Revoking Access, Then Begins To “Provisionally” Allow Access Again

  In a move that Google says was designed to “ensure quality, improve Google products and services and compliance with AdWords API Terms and Conditions,” the company earlier this week revoked access to the AdWords API to a large number of developers, raising the ire of many who complained about a lack of warning and communication, […]

• Google, Yelp, Others To Appear At Antitrust Hearing Wednesday

  Next week on Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will hold antitrust-related hearings on Google. This is a proceeding separate from but broadly related to the wide-ranging FTC antitrust investigation. The title of the hearing is “The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?” This title perfectly anticipates the two […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Wallet now live, at least in one San Francisco coffee shop, Computerworld

Business Issues

• Google Girds for a Grilling, Wall Street Journal
• Bada Bing, Bada Boom, The World As Best As I Remember It
• Google 21st Century Robber Baron, Forbes
• Google buys European Groupon clone, snaps up German website DailyDeal, thenextweb.com
• Google’s Schmidt Urges Support for Jobs Bill, Stimulus, BusinessWeek
• Twitter Adding More Data Center Space (Again), datacenterknowledge.com
• Will Schmidt Show Restraint at Senate Hearing — Or Will He Need One?, allthingsd.com

Link Building

• 99 Ways to Build Links by Giving Stuff Away (and Improve Your Brand Too), SEOmoz
• Incoming! These Links Build Popularity and Relevance, MediaWhiz
• Link Profile Tool to Discover Paid Links or Other Anomalous Linking Activity, SEOmoz

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Earth measurements ‘wrong’, speeding court hears, Telegraph
• Local Roundup: Recently Released Databases/Maps from Chicago, Ohio, Virginia, and Great Lakes Region, infodocket.com
• Problem with Areas Served and Hiding Address Google Places, OptiLocal

Paid Search & Contextual

• Huge Google AdWords Ad Unit With 10 Clickable Links, SEO Book
• 9 Ways to Sharpen Up Your Paid Search, www.seoptimise.com
• PPC Task Checklist, PPC Hero

Searching

• How Fresh is their Index? Actually?, Majestic SEO Blog
• New Article: “MapRank: Geographical Search for Cartographic Materials in Libraries”, infodocket.com

SEM Industry

• “Scholarships” Now Available for Local University Western New York!, blog.getlisted.org

SEO & SEM

• Everything you need to know about rel="author", Search Engine People
• Reminder: Google Product Search Data Feed Changes This Week, Google Commerce
• SEO Strategy: Consistently Employing Effective Tactics, Daily SEO Tip
• Yahoo Slurp Disobeying Robots.txt File?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• A practical guide to international social media marketing, LEWIS PR
• Facebook Is Expected to Unveil Media-Sharing Service, New York Times
• Google+ In-depth Webcast Transcription in text and pdf, SageRock
• Nielsen: Social Media Reaches 80% of US Internet Users, Small Business SEM

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• ImportXML Cookbook – A collection of ImportXML functions that can make your life as a search professional a lot easier.
• Nielsen's State of Social Media Report for Q3 2011 – 13 pages of juicy infographic stats convering social media demographics, geographics, and trends.
• 50 Google Analytics Resources – The 2011 Edition – Google Analytics is one of the most valuable resources for webmasters, marketers, business owners, bloggers, and anyone who does practically anything online. The best part is that Google Analytics is free! The following are 50 resources to help you get to know Google Analytics inside and out, from the new version, latest updates, social engagement tracking, advanced hacks, and much more!
• New Discovery In AdWords: Subscribe Form Ad Format – An interesting screenshot from Pauline Jakober who spotted what seems to be a new Adwords test allowing people to subscribe right from the ad itself.
• Google Provides New Options for Paginated Content – Vanessa Fox outlines some new pagination options attributes rel=”next” and rel=”prev” to cluster all of the component pages into a single series.
• A Guide to Long Tail Link Building – Rishil offers a great blog post focusing on the value of long tail link building.
• Hard Thoughts About SEO & Link Bait – Tom Schmitz writes about what link bait is, what makes it work and why does it fail?
• How to Select a Domain for SEO and Branding – A great article about selecting a domain thats beneficial for SEO but doesn't harm potential branding opportunities.