Microsoft announced that MSNBot 2, which is currently in beta, may be ramped up a lot more and webmasters might begin to notice the new bot in their log files. The new bot has been out there since December 2008, and the useragent is just about the same as the original bot. New Bot: msnbot/2.0b […]
The web has given us the ability to track amazing amounts of data. However, that data is only easy to track when the actions take place online. When you conduct business via the phone, in-store, or other ways that cause the user to go offline, the reliability of data begins to suffer. There are several […]
One of the most common recommendations people make about link building is to find out who links to your competitors (aka backlinking your competitors). This is a great idea, but many people who do this miss the most important point of why you do it. Let’s explore the good things you can do while backlinking, […]
Geotagging, the practice of associating precise geocoordinates with webpages or other content, has been around for a while and has seen some popularity increase as sites such as Flickr and Panoramio have adopted the practice. Is it worthwhile for your locally-oriented site as well?
Earlier I posted that Google Analytics and other JavaScript-based tracking tools might be undercounting visits from Twitter. I’ve done some more digging, which supports the case. In my test, Twitter seems to have sent 500% to 1600% more traffic than log files or hosted stats packages like Google Analytics might show. How Twitter Might Send […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Reports: Yahoo & Microsoft Very Close On Search Deal There are several reports tonight that Yahoo and Microsoft are close to consummating a search and advertising deal. 24/7 Wall Street cites […]
If you wanted to research something—the musician Johnny Cash, for example—would you go to a search engine or a library? There are many studies on search usage. It’s safe to say that at least 50% of people now turn to search engines for information. That number increases for certain types of searches, such as shopping […]
Search Marketing Now, our educational webcast series for search marketers, presents two webcasts this coming week: Tuesday, July 21, Chris Sherman is the featured speaker on How Large Offline Marketers Drive Superior Search Marketing Results; Wednesday, Brad Geddes will deliver a webcast titled Trademarks, Brand Terms and PPC Advertising: Updates You Must Know. Both webcasts […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
We exhibited at the Internet Retailer show in Boston recently. The signage in our booth touted that we had the ability to do attribution management. For that reason, a lot of people came up to us and told us about a situation they are facing that is very common with paid search marketers: their branded […]
There are several reports tonight that Yahoo and Microsoft are close to consummating a search and advertising deal. 24/7 Wall Street cites an investment banker who says a deal is “imminent.” All Things Digital says an agreement is “down to the short strokes,” but also points out that the companies have been down this road […]
In some ways, it’s the Who’s Who of Twitter — the Twitter Suggested Users list. These are the 241 people Twitter currently suggests that new people should follow. Below, a look at who makes it by categories, such as media or sports. Who’s getting Twitter’s love (such as the New York Times) and who’s not […]
A series of private documents reveals Twitter to be a company that’s very careful and detailed about the course it’s plotting, while simultaneously being very nervous and very ambitious about what the future holds. It also reveals previously unknown details of discussions with Google and Microsoft (and possibly Yahoo) that show Twitter considering formal relationships […]
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 Has “Stabilized,” Reports $5.5 Billion In Q2 Revenues Google just reported second quarter earnings of $5.52 billion, representing “an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008.” The […]
Google just reported second quarter earnings of $5.52 billion, representing “an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008.” The first quarter of 2009 was $5.51 billion, by comparison. So growth was flat quarter over quarter. According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google’s business has “stabilized” and has seen growth in certain areas in […]
From marketers to Wall Street analysts to the Department of Justice, everyone (even the general public) recognizes that Google is the 800-pound gorilla in the world of search. And particularly with the introduction of the generic 10-pack to Universal results, this fact largely holds true in Local Search as well. Google Maps has pulled even with […]
Are your landing pages feeling tired? Is your conversion rate stagnant? Not quite sure what to try next? To re-energize your post-click marketing, it can help to step back and evaluate your approach from several different perspectives. Here’s a quick exercise, the Landing Page Wonder Wheel—as in, “I wonder how to improve my landing pages?”—that […]
Once upon a time, my evenings were spent watching the popular British soap opera Coronation Street. And once upon a time, I lived about five miles from Stonehenge. Living back in the US now, Google’s got me covered if I fancy a trip down memory lane. Google Street View is mapping both places — and […]
One of the toughest challenges facing pay-per-click marketers is keyword expansion. Marketers need to be adept at selecting keywords that will not only drive traffic, but more importantly, will drive conversions in a cost-effective manner. As competition intensifies, identifying unique, high quality keywords becomes increasingly important-and difficult. While basic keyword research remains important, search marketers […]
Yahoo’s Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) combine paid search with rich media to further engage consumers within Yahoo search results. These ads provide an effective and clever approach to cross-channel marketing. With these new ads, advertisers are given the opportunity to market their business beyond the typical paid search ad copy. Their Yahoo paid search […]
Gigaom writes that although Yahoo is number two at search, they are still number one at so many other things. That is exactly what Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s CEO, wants to communicate with the world, that Yahoo is not just a search company and does great things also outside of search. Gigaom reached out to comScore […]
When the new iPhone operating system came out, version 3.0, mobile Safari was able to pass your location to the browser. Google recently updated the iPhone version of Google to allow searchers to send Google their location, which should help make the search results more tailored to that searcher. When I first looked at how […]
Yesterday Google held a private event for small businesses (SMBs) at San Francisco City Hall hosted by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom. Private it was. As I searched for the email confirming that I was “on the list” (because I was told I wasn’t on the list when I arrived), I saw the gatekeepers turn many […]
The SEO industry is beset with people who are making unnecessary changes to client websites based on unfounded theories that at best produce the teeniest boost to the site, and at worst "fix" problems that never existed in the first place. Jill Whalen explains why most of SEO is just a boondoggle.
It’s no secret that Google — and other search engines — uses a variety of factors to customize search results: your search history, your location, and so forth. If you misspell a word, search engines often guess what you intended to type and show auto-corrected results. But on Google’s search results pages, it’s becoming a […]
Lost in the shuffle of yesterday’s report about Bing’s impact on the search industry was some interesting and, for Microsoft, potentially valuable feedback on its new search engine. The J.P. Morgan report (available to the company’s clients at mm.jpmorgan.com) is based on a survey of 763 U.S. adults and their search behavior during June — […]
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 To Newspapers: Robots.Txt You Newspaper attacks on Google somehow apparently overstepping fair use and stealing their material are just escalating, with a European led “Hamburg Declaration” coming out last week. […]
Newspaper attacks on Google somehow apparently overstepping fair use and stealing their material are just escalating, with a European led “Hamburg Declaration” coming out last week. Now Google’s blogged a response that basically says if you want out of Google, it’s easily done with a robots.txt file. That, of course, is what search engine savvy […]
Now a third major ratings service has released search engine share figures for June 2009, and like the others, they show that Bing made only a tiny gain in the wake of its launch and major ad campaign. The comScore figures have gone out to the financial analyst community, and the comScore press release with […]
Google has created a mobile app for its Google Voice service, right now only for Android and BlackBerry with an iPhone app to come. Think of this as Skype for mobile only more so, because there’s a usable number associated with the service and integration with your phone’s contacts. Effectively what the mobile app allows […]
Microsoft announced a new portal that combines Bing search and Twitter. The new site is named BingTweets and it basically brings together classic web search from Bing, with real-time search elements from Twitter. This service was built by both Microsoft, Twitter and Federated Media. It does not seem like Twitter is doing anything more than […]
A new Columbia Journalism Review opinion piece argues persuasively (in my view) that Google “owes” something to traditional journalism and news organizations. Google, typically, is a stand-in for “the internet” in these discussions. This notion of responsibility to publishers is unpopular among bloggers and Internet denizens more generally. I tend to fault news organizations for […]
Matt Cutts of Google has been posting dozens of videos, mostly on SEO topics, answering previously asked questions by SEOs like yourself. The videos can be seen at the Google Webmaster Help YouTube channel. Matt is now asking you to submit new questions, because he hopes to produce more videos this Thursday to be posted […]
Don’t put the cart before the horse. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Walk before you run. However you say it, it means the same thing: Don’t get ahead of yourself! Yet time and again, I see B2B marketers doing exactly that as they drive traffic to their website without first having the right […]
How much does moment away from "last touch" allocation impact the perception of PPC marketing? Does it help PPC, or hurt? Find out what we've seen in the data.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Report: Google Has Nothing To Fear From Bing Itself The only thing Google has to fear is fear itself. The immortal words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt sum up the findings of […]
The only thing Google has to fear is fear itself. The immortal words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt sum up the findings of a J.P. Morgan report published today and shared with Search Engine Land, “Understanding the Impact of Bing on the Search Industry.” (It’s available to the company’s clients at mm.jpmorgan.com.) The bottom line: Of […]
During a recent conference call, I made one of those bold statements that was half for effect, and half in hopes of quieting an “online strategist” that was also on the call. In my deepest voice, I proclaimed: “In the same way the engines can evaluate the links pointing at your site and rank you […]
As a follow up to Danny’s What Is Real Time Search? Definitions & Players, I wanted to share a video of a panel Danny, Matt Cutts and others spoke on at CrunchUp event that took place a few days ago. Here is the panel, including Gerry Campbell of Collecta, Matt Cutts of Google, Kimbal Musk […]
One of the most interesting aspects of social media is the fact that there really aren’t any rules, anyone can use the platform however they want. When it comes to Twitter, a lot of organizations that aren’t associated with cutting edge marketing tactics are using some creative, outside of the box thinking. In fact, some […]