SEO

Slideshow: Search Engine Land’s Guide To SEO

Earlier this month, we announced the addition of Mobile as a new SEO element in the updated Edition of the Search Engine Land Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors, following a Google announcement that mobile site optimization is a factor in search rankings. The Search Engine Land Guide to SEO explains each of the success factors […]

DuckDuckGo

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 31, 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: Google Reportedly Testing Local News Card For Google Now Google is reportedly testing a local news “card” for its Google Now predictive search product. Quartz first reported on the project, and […]

Google

Google Reportedly Testing Local News Card For Google Now

Google is reportedly testing a local news “card” for its Google Now predictive search product. Quartz first reported on the project, and says it’s currently only being tested internally by Google employees. The revelation came from an interview last week that Quartz did with Google VP Johanna Wright: “One thing we’re testing right now is […]

SEO

Report: Building Contractors Number 1 Local Ad Category

Restaurants is still the most widely searched local business category according to YP’s Q2 Local Insights report. However restaurants doesn’t even show up in the top 10 when it comes to advertising spend. According to YP data, the following list represents the most searched local categories overall. The list is a blended average of both […]

Google Ads

6 Ways To Leverage Merchant Feeds To Optimize Product Listing Ads

Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are the new hipster ads of search marketing, but many retailers aren’t fully capitalizing on this huge opportunity. (I guess many don’t know how cool they are yet.) But, what goes into optimizing your merchant feed for your PLA campaigns, and what best practices can you start implementing today? Merchant feeds […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 30, 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: Google: Links In Press Releases Should Use Nofollow Like Paid Links Friday we broke the news that Google updated their link schemes webmaster guidelines. Now that the dust has settled, I […]

Content

Google: Links In Press Releases Should Use Nofollow Like Paid Links

Friday we broke the news that Google updated their link schemes webmaster guidelines. Now that the dust has settled, I aimed at getting more clarification on what Google meant by the new example around keyword-rich anchor text links within articles or press releases. The specific line in the link schemes document is: Links with optimized […]

Link building

7 Ways To Get Links When Launching A New Website

Launching a new website is one of the hardest things you do. It’s also one of the best ways to get a nice influx of links pointing your way. I know this because for the past 2 1/2 months, I’ve been living it. On Tuesday, July 16 at 3:52 p.m., 352 Media Group officially became […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 29, 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: Google’s Matt Cutts: Websites Using ccTLDs Should Contain Content Relevant To The Specific County Code In his latest video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts addresses whether or not it […]

Google

Google Relaunches Zagat App With Yelp In Mind

Last week, Google killed the Google+ Local mobile app for iOS, saying that all the same content was available in Google Maps for iOS. Today, the company announced the relaunch of the Zagat site and mobile app for Android and iPhone. All the Zagat content is now free and there’s no registration required. And even […]

Local

Keys To Working With New Search Clients: Planning, Communication & Setting Expectations

I recently conducted a series of interviews with four successful and respected local search experts. The interviews focused on the all-important client-agency relationship and examined four key stages, from winning new customers to retention of long-term clients. The objective of the interviews was to understand how each consultant/agency approaches the different relationship stages and to […]

Link building

Link Building Outside The Box: Outreach & Content Refreshing

Link building is a staple of most SEO campaigns. Some methods are scalable and automated, while others are similar to old-school public relations. One thing most can agree on is that methods always need to adapt to keep up with opportunity and algorithm changes. Building Links With Content Google has made it harder to build […]

PPC

Freeloading An SEM Audit Will Cost You

I recently got introduced to the Director of Marketing at a very prominent travel company with an equally impressive SEM budget. The director wrote me an email stating that he was “very interested” in talking and wanted me to come to his office right away with an audit of his campaigns, the people that might […]

Advertising

Bing Ads Goes Live In Australia And New Zealand

After months of planning, today Microsoft announced the launch of Bing Ads in Australia and New Zealand. In a joint partnership with Mi9, joint venture between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Co. The addition of Bing Ads gives Mi9 its first foray into search advertising. Steve Geelan, National Sales Director, MMN & Bing at Mi9 said […]

Google Ads

Google Changes How AdWords Quality Score Is Reported

In a post today, Google announced it is updating the way AdWords quality scores are reported. The changes will roll-out globally over the next few days. The updates are designed to “tie your 1-10 numeric Quality Score more closely to its three key sub factors — expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience”. Google is quick […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 26, 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: Google Warns Against Large-Scale Guest Posting, Advertorials & “Optimized Anchor Text” In Press Releases Google has quietly updated the link schemes document under their Webmaster guidelines to add large-scale guest posting, […]

Content

Google Warns Against Large-Scale Guest Posting, Advertorials & “Optimized Anchor Text” In Press Releases

Google has quietly updated the link schemes document under their Webmaster guidelines to add large-scale guest posting, advertorials and optimized anchor text in articles or press releases to the list of types of links that violate their guidelines. The new guideline examples that were added to this document include: Large-scale article marketing or guest posting […]

Apple

Google To Shutter Its Google+ Local iOS App Next Month

With the newly updated Google Maps app for iOS out, Google has announced its plans to shut down the Google+ Local app for iOS on August 7th. There’s been no official announcement that I’m aware of yet, but both 9to5 Mac and Mark Traphagen posted a Google email detailing the shut down plan and the […]

Apple

Did Google Maps Lose England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland?

The United Kingdom (to use its short name) is a complicated country, actually made up of four countries across two islands. If you were looking to understand it better, forget Google Maps. That’s because the service has lost the constituent countries of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland — as well as the island of […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 25, 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: Yandex Q2 2013 Revenue Up 35% From This Time Last Year Russian search engine giant Yandex released its Q2 2013 financial results today, reporting revenues at RUR 9.2 billion or $281.2 […]

SEO

Yandex Q2 2013 Revenue Up 35% From This Time Last Year

Russian search engine giant Yandex released its Q2 2013 financial results today, reporting revenues at RUR 9.2 billion or $281.2 million, a 35 percent increase compared to their Q2 2012 report. According to the statement, Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh claimed, “Yandex delivered strong financial and operating results.” He went on to note the release of […]

SEO

Ilya Segalovich, Yandex Co-Founder & CTO, Brain Dead & In Coma

Ilya Segalovich, Co-Founder & CTO of Russian search engine Yandex, has lapsed into a coma and is brain dead. Segalovich, 48, had been responding well to cancer treatment before unexpectedly succumbing to complications early this morning, according to a statement released by the company. Yandex listed him as dead; many news reports initially reported that […]

Advertising

Bing Product Ads To Run In Closed Beta Through Holiday Season

Upon hearing the news that Adobe was releasing support for Bing Product Ads through its Media Optimzer platform, I asked Microsoft about the status of the product ads launch. In a new statement to Search Engine Land, David Pann, GM, Microsoft Advertising Search Group, said: “We are on track to release Product Ads in Q3 of this year. […]

Analytics & conversion

“Big Data” Is Not “Big Data” Unless It Gives You Actionable Insight

Occasionally, marketers want something because the media attention around it demands it.  There was a time, not too long ago, when CMOs sent urgent, late-night emails to their teams asking about their “link-shortening strategy.” In some ways, “big data” technology falls into that category. Mainstream tech media and even traditional media outlets write about it […]

PPC

Overthrow The Tyranny Of Paid Search Budgets

Budgets are a fact of life for many paid search program managers. Budgets are essential for some firms, unnecessary but required nevertheless for others; and, on too many occasions, an onerous impediment to success in paid search. I’ve argued in the past that many in the e-commerce space should not budget search at all. If […]

Ecommerce

Google Pays Tribute To Renowned Biophysicist Rosalind Franklin

Today, Google is paying tribute to British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin on what would have been her 93rd birthday. The logo highlights Franklin’s contribution to DNA research with an illustrated image of the biophysicist examining the double helix structure of DNA via an X-ray image. It was Franklin’s X-ray images of DNA that […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 24, 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: Adobe First To Announce Support For Bing Product Ads Today, Adobe announced it’s first to market with support for Bing Product Ads. Very similar to Google Product Listing Ads, Bing Product […]

Advertising

Adobe First To Announce Support For Bing Product Ads

Today, Adobe announced it’s first to market with support for Bing Product Ads. Very similar to Google Product Listing Ads, Bing Product pull from merchant’s product feeds to show product images, prices and other details on search results pages. According to the Adobe release, Adobe Media Optimizer can now support the following functions for Bing […]

Ecommerce

Report: Google PLAs Dominate CSE Channel Like Never Before [CPC Strategy]

CPC Strategy’s latest Shopping Comparison Engine report shows Google’s grip on the market only tightened in Q2. Across performance metrics, Google PLAs (product listing ads) continue to outperform other CSEs by wide margins. For example, in Q1, Shopping.com, Pricegrabber and Amazon Product Ads all drove roughly half the traffic of Google PLAs. In Q2, the […]

Google

Google Adds Enhanced Campaigns Bid Adjustment Reporting To Google Analytics

Google announced today that Bid Adjustments reports for AdWords enhanced campaigns are now included in Google Analytics. The reporting, found in the Advertising section under Traffic Sources in Analytics, are designed to help advertisers analyze the performance of each bid adjustment within a campaign — by device, location and time of day. You’ll notice in […]

Google algorithm updates

Google’s Matt Cutts On Hidden Text Using Expandable Sections: “You’ll Be In Good Shape”

In the latest video answer from Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts, he answers a question about “hiding” text in JavaScript/AJAX-like expandable menus. Matt said that generally this practice is acceptable within Google’s webmaster guidelines, if and only if, it is being done in a non-spammy way. Use of expandable content sections is very […]

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