Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 31, 2012

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 Loses Australian Defamation Case, Awaiting Decision On Damages Google is awaiting a judge’s decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its search […]

Google

Google Loses Australian Defamation Case, Awaiting Decision On Damages

Google is awaiting a judge’s decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its search results in Australia. A jury in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria, ruled Tuesday that Google is liable for defamation because its search results connected the plaintiff, 62-year-old Milorad Trkulja, to […]

Google

Google Updates Earth With “Tour Guide” & More 3D Imagery

Google has released a new desktop version of Google Earth (version 7) that includes features previously released in its mobile version. The new desktop features include what Google calls a “tour guide” for more than 11,000 locations in over 110 countries and regions, and more 3D imagery for several cities around the world. The tour […]

Google

Google Adds AMBER Alerts Atop U.S. Search Results

Google has started showing active AMBER Alerts for missing U.S. children above its search results on both regular Google Search and on Google Maps. And that includes both desktop and mobile searches. Here’s what one that’s currently showing up on a search for “amber alerts boston” looks like. Here’s Google’s explanation of what might prompt […]

Analytics & conversion

Making The Case For Native Mobile Landing Pages

At SMX East in October 2012, I presented on mobile landing pages at the popular iConvert session. Given the surge of interest in mobile marketing, and in particular, mobile landing pages, I thought it would be a good time to cover some of the key points from that presentation here. Slideshare: The Quest for Awesome Mobile […]

PPC

Boo! Are You Unintentionally Scaring Your Customers?

Targeting in online marketing has gotten really good – scary good, in fact. Think for a moment about the level of granularity that AdWords now provides SEMs. If I wanted to, I could create a targeted campaign that only shows ads to people: In San Mateo, CA Using their iPhone Using WiFi On AT&T Online […]

Ecommerce

For Halloween, Google Makes Bats Appear For Horror Movie Searches

Not happy with just running an interactive Halloween logo today, Google also has an “easter egg” surprise. Searches for some horror movies bring up sleeping bats that fly away with a click. For example, here’s what appears in a search for “Nightmare On Elm Street,” over the knowledge graph box about the movie: Click on the bats, […]

Ecommerce

Google’s Interactive “Happy Halloween” Logo For 2012

It’s Halloween, and Google’s got a special logo to celebrate the day. Click away to reveal ghosts of the not-so-scary kind to spell out Google! At first the logo looks kind of sad, just a deserted street scene:  But as you click on the various doors, ghosts are revealed that begin to spell the Google […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 30, 2012

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yelp Adds Restaurant Menus (And Images) Following on the heels of Foursquare, YP and a few others in the local segment Yelp is adding restaurant menu information and pricing. With the […]

Local

Yelp Adds Restaurant Menus (And Images)

Following on the heels of Foursquare, YP and a few others in the local segment Yelp is adding restaurant menu information and pricing. With the unfortunate headline “Yelp Menus: Connecting People with Great Local Food Porn,” the Yelp blog explains that menus will be paired with users’ uploaded food images: Now you can not only […]

Google

Google May Go Public With Its Human Search Quality Rater Guidelines

Google is considering offering its search quality rating guidelines to the public. The news comes near the end of the latest webmaster video just posted today on YouTube. In it, Google’s Matt Cutts answers a question about how Google uses the data it collects from its human search evaluators — in short, “those folks don’t […]

SEO

What Is The Secret Sauce In Good Content?

One of the things I really like about the field of SEO is how so many professionals are willing to help others in their free time. They volunteer to help non-profits, write blog posts for free (ahem!), and attend public SEO meet-ups. In the Puget Sound area of Washington State, the Seattle SEO Network holds […]

Google

6 Things To Think About Before Disavowing Links

Earlier this month, Christmas came early for many in the SEO industry. Google launched its wildly anticipated disavow links tool bringing with it a way for you to remove some of those shady things you your former SEO company have done. The biggest problem with disavowing your links is that at first glance, it looks […]

PPC

Conductor Lands $20 Million Financing Round

Conductor has announced what it says is the biggest financing round ever in the SEO industry: a $20 million Series C investment led by Investor Growth Capital. In a news release, Conductor says it’ll use the money to continue development of its Searchlight SEO platform and to scale the company’s operations internationally. Conductor launched its […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 29, 2012

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search Week: October 29, 2012 Search Week is an exclusive weekly newsletter for Search Engine Land premium members that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past week. Below […]

Apple

Google Now Gains More Content Categories & Info Cards

Google has beefed up its Google Now feature. In addition to the existing content (Calendar, Sports, Traffic, Weather, Places) the company has added a range of new cards/categories to Now: Flights Hotels Restaurant reservations Events Packages/shipping Stocks Movies Breaking news Nearby attractions Nearby photo spots Google Now is in a way Google’s answer to Apple’s […]

Apple

The Building Blocks Of Good Local SEO

It’s been a few months since I have written for SEL. I had to take a short ‘sabbatical’ to hunker down and focus on a major phase of development and updates on our own site. It’s nice to get back to blogging but I have to admit that I feel a bit off the pace. […]

Ecommerce

Hurricane Sandy Superstorm Resources

Trying to keep up with Hurricane Sandy? Below are a variety of resources which may help. Storm Tracking Google Super Storm Sandy Map Google Super Storm Sandy Maps: NYC Close-up ESRI’s Hurricane Information Map Weather.com Hurricane Tracker Local TV Live Stream Boston: CBS NYC: NBC Philadelphia: CBS Washington DC: Fox Washington DC: NBC Radio A […]

Content

How To Easily Manage & Test Millions Of Ads

You must test ads to make your paid search account grow and thrive. That fact is no longer debatable – it is just a best practice fact. Ad testing in small accounts is very easy as there are not thousands of ad group or hundreds of thousands of ads to track. However, in large accounts, […]

Local

Google Has Launched A Hurricane Sandy Crisis Map

For those of you in the path of Hurricane Sandy, like me, knowing certain information about the storm can be vital to those stuck at home and preparing for the storm. Google announced a new crisis map for Hurricane Sandy at google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy and they have an additional more detailed map for New York City at […]

SEO

7 Tricks To Take The Scary Out Of SEO

Does your company use SEO for online marketing guidance? If you are a regular Search Engine Land reader, I suspect you will answer with something like, “Of course we do. We’re enlightened marketers, not Neanderthals.” And, you probably are. Actually, I would not ask you this question without reason. Being an inbound marketing consultant, I […]

Google

Q&A With Google’s Matt Cutts On How To Use The Link Disavow Tool

It’s been almost two weeks since Google launched its link disavowal tool. Some have been busy diving in and using it, but others have had more detailed questions about it. We’ve got some answers, from the head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts. Question: How do people know what links they should remove? Answer: When […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 26, 2012

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Verisign Blames Google For Drop In Domain Registration & Renewal Rates The number of new domains being registered, and existing domains being renewed, is slowing down and Verisign — the company […]

Google

Verisign Blames Google For Drop In Domain Registration & Renewal Rates

The number of new domains being registered, and existing domains being renewed, is slowing down and Verisign — the company that operates the .com and .net domain registries — says Google is a main reason why. On the company’s Q3 earnings call yesterday, Verisign shared the following data related to domain registrations and renewals: total […]

Apple

Sorry, Microsoft Surface Users: No Google Search App For You

Got a shiny new Microsoft Surface with Windows RT and want to search with Google? No can do. The Google Search app is only for Windows 8, and it seems like — amazingly enough — that’s because Google hasn’t gotten around to making one. Postscript (Nov. 13): This is now finally available. See our story, Google […]

Advertising

Bing Intros Unique Landing Pages By Match Type

Again following rival Google’s lead, Bing Advertising is introducing the capability to specify different landing pages depending on the match type chosen. The idea is that the change will enable more effective bid management, tracking and changes (pausing and resuming) of keywords at the match type level. This is the latest announcement of efforts aimed […]

Analytics & conversion

Keys To Projecting Latent Value In Visitors

One of the most difficult and valuable exercises in quarterly planning is forecasting. Many companies require budgets to be set well in advance, and as a result, analysts often prepare conservative projections in order to remain cautious and not setup their marketing colleagues to under-deliver. The byproduct of conservative projections is more difficult forecasting mid […]

Bing

Video: Searching Bing On Windows 8

Microsoft released a video showing how you can use Bing on a Windows 8 powered device. They call the video, “Search Reimagined” and show off the touch aspects to search, as opposed to how search works currently on Bing.com. Here is the video: Bing on Windows 8: Search Reimagined from Bing on Vimeo. You can […]

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