SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 24, 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 Says SEO Is Not Spam Matt Cutts, head of the Google’s web spam fighting team, has gone on record by saying Google does not consider SEO to be spam. Matt […]
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 Says SEO Is Not Spam
Matt Cutts, head of the Google’s web spam fighting team, has gone on record by saying Google does not consider SEO to be spam. Matt said outright, “We don’t consider SEO to be spam,” and added that SEO is “a valid way to help people find what they’re looking for via search engines.” He did […]
- Hot At Sphinn: Impact Of Google’s Encrypted Search, Using Slideshare For Marketing & More
The search marketing industry was buzzing last week after Google announced plans to begin encrypting all logged-in searches from Google.com. The buzz was strong on our sister site, Sphinn, where that topic was by far the most discussed of all last week. Our “Discussion of the Week” asked users to weigh in on the impact […]
- New Google Music Store Will Have Strong Google+ Integration
Last week speculation arose about a new cloud based Google Music Store that could compete against Amazon and Apple. This week more news broke including the social integration that the Google Music Store may bring. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google Music will tie in closely with the Google+ social network. Users will reportedly be able […]
- Three Steps To SEM Planning Success
Ahh, annual planning season. Nothing quite like it. You can almost smell it in the air. Dozens of spreadsheets packed with endless assumptions, each one more fantastic than the last, combining to ultimately seal a marketer’s fate for the next 12 months. What could be better than that? Well, how about three steps to make […]
- Why Mobile Is Spinning Our New Invisible Web
It’s been about a decade now since marketers woke up to the reality of the deep “invisible Web” – that mass of dynamic content search engines couldn’t see, index, or associate with keyword search. Remember the days when engines bragged about how many pages they indexed? Seems like forever ago. Search was new, the sitemap […]
- Infographic: Local Search Evolved
Local search is big business and big opportunity. How big? The folks at MDG Advertising have produced a “Local Search Evolved” infographic with statistics and info about the subject that you might find interesting: Want the infographic for yourself? You’ll find it here: Infographic: Local Search Evolved.
- Understanding Google’s Latest Landing Page Quality Score Release
As Pamela Parker described at SEL recently, Google has announced that going forward, landing page quality will be a larger factor in an ad’s overall Quality Score. Given that my last post for SEL was on Quality Score and suggested that landing page quality was mostly a hammer used to beat up bad actors and […]
- How Users Search For Local Businesses + 5 Tips To Optimize Local Listings
In a recent staff meeting, it emerged that the most regular question our customer support agents get asked by our customers* is: “When we track our local search rankings, how much should we focus on search terms that include a local term (e.g. town name, ZIP code) vs. generic keywords without the local term?” From […]
- Google Removes The + Search Command
Google has quietly removed one of the older search operators, the + search operator. Now if you try adding a + sign in your query, Google will ignore it. Why did Google remove the old search operator? Kelly from Google said in a forum thread that you can now use the quotation marks operator instead […]
- Yahoo Now A Pawn In Google-Microsoft Proxy War As Both Seek Ownership Stake: Report
According to stories that ran on Friday and Sunday in the Wall Street Journal, both Microsoft and Google are potentially going to bid for Yahoo. Various unnamed sources and “people speaking on condition of anonymity” told the WSJ that Microsoft is planning to act as source of financing for others in exchange for preferred stock […]
- Larry Page Ousts Mark Zuckerberg As Most Popular On Google+
It looks like adding a suggested user list to Google+ has finally paid off in solving its “Mark Zuckerberg problem.” Facebook’s CEO is no longer the most popular person on Google+, having just now been passed by Google CEO Larry Page. Zuckerberg has been the most followed user since the first week that Google+ launched. That’s […]
- Google Puts A Price On Privacy
Earlier this week, Google made a significant change purportedly to better protect the search privacy of users. In reality, it specifically — and deliberately — left a gaping hole open to benefit its bottom line. If you pay-to-play, Google will share its search data with you. Google’s a big company that goes after revenue in […]
- Google News Moves Advanced Options To Search Bar; A Sign Of Things To Come?
In what may be a sign of things to come across other Google properties, the advanced search search options in Google News have been moved away from their own page and placed right inside the main search bar. Here are before and after screenshots to show what I’m talking about. Before: After: There’s a small […]
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
Business Issues
- Google pays $100 million for offices in Mountain View, extending a property-buying surge, Mercury News
- Apple hires Yahoo’s data center chief, gigaom.com
- Is Google launching an initiative for war veterans? Domains hint at program, fusible.com
- Microsoft collects license fees on 50% of Android devices, tells Google to "wake up", Ars Technica
- Google Will No Longer Offer University Research Program for Google Search, infodocket.com
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Half of all Android devices have entered into patent agreements with Microsoft – Neowin.net, Neowin
- Add local knowledge to the map with Google Map Maker for Canada, Google LatLong
- Bret Taylor: “A Few Years From Now, Most Every Single Person At Facebook Is Going To Be Working On Mobile”, TechCrunch
- Exclusive: Siri Co-founder Kittlaus Departs From Apple, AllThingsD
- Google Builds Music-Download Store, Wall Street Journal
- Powered by foursquare, roadninja is your interstate exit guide, The Next Web
Link Building
- Link Finks And Getting Whacked, LinkSpiel
- Broken Link Building – A Case Study, seoroi.com
Searching
- The “Occupy” Series: Sina Weibo’s New List of Banned Search Terms, China Digital Times
- Campaign Finance: OpenSecrets.org Unveils New Interactive Features To Monitor 2012 Presidential Money Race, infodocket.com
- Federated Search: National Library of New Zealand Beta Launches, infodocket.com
- Local Databases: U.S.: “New Illinois Doctor Database Launches Online” (Physician Profiles), infodocket.com
SEO & SEM
- Paid Search, Mobile Take Front Seat In Holiday Strategies, MediaPost
- Redefining “SEO Copywriting”, SEOptimise
- Google Panda 2.5.3 Minor Update on October 19/20th?, Search Engine Roundtable
- SEO Advice: Learn to Walk Before You Run, outspokenmedia.com
- The Tale Of One Site Owner Who Lost His Business Over Google Panda, Search Engine Roundtable
- 10+ .htaccess snippets to optimize your website, CatsWhoCode.com
- Authority vs. Popularity in Search Engine Rankings, SEO By The Sea
Social Media
- Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas, ScepticGeek
- Facebook Ireland accused of creating ‘shadow profiles’ on users, nonusers, CNET News
- How to Use Facebook to Find Employees, Wall Street Journal
- Something new on the way? Groupon files trademark for ‘Groupon Reserve’, fusible.com
- Please, please, pretty, pretty please! A passionate plea to keep Google Reader’s sharing features, Search Engine People
- Blogger to Integrate With Google+, Google Operating System
- How Google is pushing Google+ in your face, State of Search
Video, Music & Image Search
- Google Builds Music-Download Store, Wall Street Journal
- Steven Levy on Facebook, Spotify and the Future of Music, Wired
Web Analytics
- A Solution For Google’s SSL & Query Destruction Issue, Search Engine Roundtable
- Getting Rankings into GA Using Custom Variables, SEOmoz
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- Discussion: Automatic content generators? – I would like to hear from all webmasters who had any success with automatic content generators. We all keep hearing about his kind of products and they promise to put new content on your pages without having to hire someone to write articles. One part of me says this is too good to be true but the other tells me to research the subject because the things that were not possible five years ago may be possible now. Again, please comment.
- Broken Link Building – A Case Study – This is a case study of my broken link building campaign. These are the steps I took, the successes I had, and the mistakes I made.
- Holiday Marketing Plan – NOW Is The Time – If you haven’t started a holiday campaign yet – now is the time. So what can you do to tap into it?
Start by forgetting about you and what you want. Forget your goals and sales objectives. The key is to think about what holiday shoppers want and to think about what problems they face. Then offer them a solution.
If you can solve their problems and get yourself found so they know you solve their problems – you’ve got them!
So while the list is endless, I’m going to start with just a few of the major problems they face - Getting Rankings into GA Using Custom Variables – An extremely simple way to get ranking to populate into Google Analytics.
- 7 Quick Ways to Turn Your LinkedIn Profile into a Social Media Marketing Workhorse – Your LinkedIn profile says everything about who you are professionally.
And since it tends to rank well on Google for your name, people will read your LinkedIn profile when they want to do research on you, your product, service, or company.
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