SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 1, 2013

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

From Search Engine Land:

• How To Manage PPC Closely To A Budget
  A few weeks ago, at SMX West in San Jose, George Michie of RKG, was talking about the challenges of managing enterprise-level PPC campaigns, and he made the interesting observation that you can either manage to ROI or to budgets, but not both at the same time. The context of George’s remarks was setting expectations […]
• How Common Are SEO Problems With Responsive Web Design?
  It seems people have strong feelings for or against responsive Web design. My thanks to those with open minds who responded to last month’s column on SEO problems with responsive Web design with either praise or reasonable criticism. While I answered the most common criticisms already, one recent comment from Google’s John Mueller stood out to me. […]
• Mobile Growth Highlights Importance Of Comprehensive Local Strategy
  This week, the Local Search Association is releasing our “Local Mobile Search Study,” which overviews the evolving mobile environment in the U.S. and the growing role of smartphones, tablets and other connected devices in the local search experience. The 2013 study, which features 2012 data compiled from several comScore digital and mobile metrics databases, demonstrates a […]
• Bing Ads Redesigns Hub For Ad Manager Resources
  Bing Ads has launched a redesign of its search advertising site. The site is designed to provide a single access point for content and resources about Bing Ads and search advertising on the Yahoo! Bing Network. It consolidates materials from the Bing Ads Community site, the Bing Ads search advertising support center and the help files found within […]
• Bing’s April Fools’ Jokes Include A Slam On Google & A New SEO Tag
  Bing is hopping on the April Fools’ Day joke bandwagon later than Google and even Wolfram Alpha, but it’s taking a swing at Google in one of the two gags that it just announced via separate blog posts. Bing Basic On its main search blog, Bing has an esoteric blog post that talks about “Bing […]
• Wolfram Alpha “Handwrites” Answers For April Fools’ Day
  Move over there just a little bit, Google. Even Wolfram Alpha, the computation knowledge engine (as it calls itself), is getting in on the April Fools’ Day gags. For at least a day, the company has announced that it’s now the “handwritten knowledge engine.” Ask it any question, and Wolfram Alpha shows results that look […]
• Google’s April Fools’ Day 2013 Joke-A-Thon: YouTube Shutdown, Google Nose & More
  April Fool’s Day is pretty much like a national … err, international holiday for everyone that works for Google. It seems that nobody else on the Web takes the tradition of pranks and jokes as seriously as Google does — just see our coverage from the last few April Fool’s Days for proof: Google’s Gags […]
• On Easter Google Honors The Life Of Cesar Chavez With Logo
  If you visit Google today, on Easter Sunday, you will see a logo for Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez, who died in 1993, would have been 86 years old today. He is most well known for his work as a Latino American civil rights activist. He was also co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association and […]
• The Big List Of Google Easter Eggs
  Google is well-known for its lighter side, including things like whimsical logos, april fools’ gags and more. In the spirit of the Easter holiday, here’s a big list of “easter eggs” that Google engineers have hidden for enterprising searchers who take the time to hunt them down. Easter eggs? “A virtual Easter egg is an […]

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

• Google’s New “Rounded Number” Policy For Special Logos
• Leak Reveals “Facebook Phone” Is More Than A Phone It’s Also Homescreen Strategy
• Twitter Relaunches Its Twitter For Business Site With More Content, New Video
• 5 Ways Real-Time Bidding Differs From Direct Buys
• Blurring Online And Offline, Google Tests Same Day Delivery With “Shopping Express”
• All The News That’s Fit To Tweet
• Mobile App Targeting On Facebook Gets Smarter With OS & Wi-Fi Targeting
• EMarketer: Google Takes Back Top Spot In 2012, Out-Selling Facebook In Digital Display Ads
• EMarketer: Yahoo Ad Revenue Is Growing, But Google Still Owns The Marketshare
• Twitter’s April Fools Joke: Consonants-Only In Basic Service, Vowels Cost $5/Month
• The “Who’s Getting Google Glass” List, Including Geordi La Forge & Mythbuster Adam Savage

Search News From Around The Web:

Link Building

• Another March Mozscape Index is Live!, SEOmoz
• Linkgex: Tool to Get Links to Specific Subsets of Pages, Distilled

Local Search & Maps

• Study: Facebook App Used More than Mapquest, Bing for Local Search, screenwerk.com

Other Items

• April Fools Pranks: Google vs. YouTube is an Uneven Contest, www.reelseo.com

Paid Search

• 18 Ways To Use Paid Search Sitelinks, Search Engine People
• 4 Spring Cleaning Tips to Boost Your Return on Investment in Bing Ads, community.bingads.microsoft.com
• Heroview: An In-depth Look At Remarketing, PPC Hero
• Ultimate Visual PPC Guide – Pivot Tables for PPC Data, www.getfoundfirst.com

Searching

• Chrome Omnibox Replaces the Google Search Box in iOS, Google Operating System
• How to Use Facebook’s Graph Search as a PR Tool, www.mediabistro.com

SEM Industry

• SMX West 2013 – A Few Takeaways, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• Releasing New Web Sites and Trying to Manage S.E.O., New York Times
• Semantic Markup Is Virtuous, www.swellpath.com
• Why might a page with bad backlinks links be ranking highly?, YouTube