Google

Supreme Court Rules Street View “Wiretapping” Class Action Can Proceed Against Google

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Supreme Court will not review a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing a class-action lawsuit that argues Google violated the federal “Wiretap Act” when it intercepted private email and other personal data. The appellate court decision thus stands and Google must confront the lawsuit. The case followed […]

SEO

Innovative Marketers, Transformative Technologies: Attend MarTech in Boston, Register Now & Save

In less than two months, the community of innovators pioneering marketing technology adoption and operations will gather at MarTech: The Marketing Tech Conference in Boston, August 19-20. The MarTech agenda is focused on the rising tide of marketing technology and the people driving implementation – the technologists. Just this week: Harvard Business Review’s July/August issue […]

Google

Mobile Calls Are The New Conversions: 7 Tips For SEMs

Are you seeing depressing plateaus, or even declines, in your year-over-year conversion numbers? The fact is that a huge portion of search activity is moving to mobile. Soon, mobile activity will account for over 50% of searches. The problem is that the mobile conversions don’t follow the mobile searches. For many SEM accounts, this means […]

SEO

Robots.txt Celebrates 20 Years Of Blocking Search Engines

Today is the 20th anniversary of the robots.txt directive being available for webmasters to block search engines from crawling their pages. The robots.txt was created by Martijn Koster in 1994 while he was working at Nexor after having issues with crawlers hitting his sites too hard. All major search engines back then, including WebCrawler, Lycos […]

Apple

SearchCap: Bing + Twitter, Foursquare Fees & Okay Google

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Ups Its Twitter Game: Rolls Out Hashtag & Twitter Handle Search Features Starting this week, Bing users are going to see even more Twitter content in search results. As a […]

Local

VIDEO + SLIDESHOW: Local Search at 60+ MPH

Every business needs to know what’s coming next, whether it’s shifting demographics, supply and demand changes or product pricing predictions. What are some of the near–future changes coming, and what are the systems, brands, and technologies that that will impact businesses on a local level? You’ll see how changes across other industries will drive change […]

Content

Use These Tools To See What Entities Are On A Web Page

Search engines leverage structured data to determine what entities are on your web page. They can also do this using other techniques such as natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. This article will introduce you to various tools that will help you identify entities on a web page. These tools include: Interesting /Chrome plugins/extensions […]

Local

Foursquare To Charge For Local Database — Will Partners Balk?

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Foursquare will soon be charging a small number of partners to use its Venue Database. Recently Microsoft and Foursquare agreed to a $15 million investment/licensing deal that brings Foursquare content to Bing search results and Windows Mobile. According to the WSJ article: The New York startup is […]

Ecommerce

3 Opportunities With Those New Google Shopping Campaigns

For those who are not necessarily familiar with Google Shopping campaigns — let’s clarify things straight away. Product listing ads (PLAs) are remaining the same as an ad format for end users, whether search marketers are using “old PLAs” or new Shopping campaigns. The novelty lies only on the campaign management side of things, including […]

Apple

Google Goes All-In With “OK, Google” Hands-Free Search

The evolution of voice-controlled search into a virtual personal assistant took another step forward with Google’s announcement that all Android-powered devices (KitKat or above) will now respond to the “hotword” OK, Google. Users can initiate a search or control and carry out any function on the device simply by saying “OK, Google” first and then […]

Apple

WATCH: Microsoft’s Cortana Keynote At SMX Advanced 2014

You’re probably pretty familiar already with Siri and Google Now, the personal assistant-type technologies from Apple and Google, respectively. Each has its own approach to the idea of providing information and answering questions without needing a traditional search box and search query. You may be a bit less familiar with Cortana — she’s Microsoft’s upcoming […]

Ecommerce

Larry Page On Right To Be Forgotten: “Could Have Arrived At More Practical Place Than Court Ruling”

Larry Page offered his thoughts on the European court’s “Right To Be Forgotten” ruling during an interview at Google’s I/O conference this week with New York Times reporter Farhad Manjoo. Page claimed it would have been better if there had been more discussion around the matter. “We could have arrived at a more practical place […]

Google

YP Joins Google’s Premier SMB Partner Program

YP is the largest of the major U.S. yellow pages publishers (and local search providers), with roughly 4,000 sales and support reps and 575,000 (mostly small business) advertisers. The company has now joined the ranks of the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program. Also on the list are fellow publishers Dex Media, Hearst and hibu, as well […]

Google Ads

Google Beefs Up AdWords Location Extension Reporting And Targeting

Google has rolled out a couple of enhancements for paid search advertisers with brick-and-mortar locations. A new distance report for ads with location extensions show performance broken out by distance from your businesses, ranging from 0.7 miles to over 40 miles. The distance report is located from the Dimensions tab. Separate Settings For Location Extensions […]

Google

Google Removes Author Photos From Search: Why And What Does It Mean?

The search world was rocked by yesterday’s announcement by Google’s Webmaster trends analyst John Mueller that Google will be removing all author photos and Google+ view counts from search results on both desktop and mobile. This change will roll out to all users over the next few days. The pressing question for most people is […]

Google Analytics

SearchCap: Google Begins Right To Be Forgotten Removals, Google Analytics Branded Segregation & PR Newswire Fights Back

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 Analytics Now Separates Brand And Non-Brand PPC Traffic Brand and non-brand paid search terms typically perform very differently and most paid search teams analyze these sets of keywords separately. To […]

Google

Google Analytics Now Separates Brand And Non-Brand PPC Traffic

Brand and non-brand paid search terms typically perform very differently and most paid search teams analyze these sets of keywords separately. To make this task easier, Google has added a handy feature to Analytics that automatically segments brand and non-brand, or generic, paid search terms into distinct channels. No more building custom segments or filter […]

SEO

MarTech: The Marketing Tech Conference – Special Rates Expire in 2 Weeks!

Search Engine Land parent company, Third Door Media, Inc., introduces MarTech, a conference for people pioneering the field of technology-powered marketing. View the agenda for session descriptions & the speaker roster. Join us August 19-20 in Boston to learn how technology can transform your marketing operations. Save $150 before special “beta” rates expire – Register now!

Google

PR Newswire’s Answer To Their Google Panda Troubles: Taking Action On Press Release Spammers

When Google released its most recent modification to the Panda algorithm, Panda 4.0, on May 20th, one of the sites reportedly hit hard by the update was the large press release distribution company, PR Newswire. The company’s answer to recover from the algorithmic penalty is to “take action” against press release spammers through new internal […]

SEO

Want To Speak @ SMX East? Here’s How

The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at Search Marketing Expo – SMX East 2014, Oct. 30 – Sept. 1, at the Javitz Convention Center in New York City. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your […]

Google

Remarketing Lists For Search Ads Can Now Use Conversion-Based Automated Bid Strategies In AdWords

Now when you enable AdWords conversion-based automated bid strategies in your Remarketing Lists For Search Ads campaigns, the predicted conversion performance of those remarketing lists will influence the bidding. Google announced on its Google+ page that remarketing list performance is now among the real-time signals such as location, browser, time of day that affect automated […]

SEO

Competitive Analysis: The Most Valuable SEO Tactic You Ignore [Data]

When it comes to getting ahead in search, experts agree that competitive analysis is critical. International search engine optimization (SEO) consultant Aleyda Solis observes: One of the most important activities for any SEO process is the initial competitive analysis. In a nod to how important she thinks it is, she created a sophisticated workflow to […]

Google

Android TV Shows Knowledge Graph Search Results

Google’s just announced Android TV is a significant improvement over the original Google TV. It doesn’t require a game controller or bulky remote to work (though a game controller can be used for Google Play Games). And you can search for content with your voice. The UI is simple and much more intuitive than Google […]

Pinterest

How Hard Should You Press The Gas Pedal In Paid Search?

The following post contains a number of metaphors strained to the breaking point; viewer discretion is advised. An enduring truth in the paid search business is that paid search managers and marketing teams spend far more time thinking about tactical minutia than they do thinking about what are far and away the most important questions […]

PPC

VIDEO + SLIDESHOW: Search Powered Psychographics

In the future, intentional care must be paid to which potential customers are shepherded into the marketing funnel. As we follow them, we can’t miss the opportunity to further refine the first targeting hop with a second. Most marketers don’t know that retargeting can be filtered by either search or psychographics. The good news is […]

Google Analytics

SearchCap: Google Drops Authorship Images, Updated AdWords Auction Video & App Indexing For All

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 Drops, Google+ Circle Count From Authorship In Search Results Google’s John Mueller announced they are making a major change in the search results around authorship. Specifically, Google is dropping the […]

Google

Google Bringing App Indexing To All Android Apps

Among the numerous announcements at the Google I/O developer conference this morning, Google said it was expanding its app indexing program to all Android apps and developers. App indexing allows for deep linking of app content from mobile web search results. Previously, Google had only been indexing selected apps, although the program has been steadily […]

Google

Now You Can Apply AdWords Conversion Settings To Goals Imported From Analytics

The ability to import goals from Google Analytics into AdWords just got even more useful. Now you can tailor them to your paid search objectives by adjusting the conversion settings on each imported Analytics goal and transaction within AdWords. Flexible conversion counting, customized conversion window and editable conversion values can now be applied to any […]

Google Ads

Why AdWords Dynamic Search Ads Work Better Than You Think

I have a confession: I used to hate Dynamic Search Ads. I’m sure some of you still do. For my part, I had used them unsuccessfully in a couple of accounts and decided they were no good. It wasn’t until a few months ago, when I saw this awesome presentation from Matt Umbro at SMX […]

SEO

VIDEO + SLIDESHOW: No, SEO Is Never Dead…It’s Just Trying To Be

Even though Google needs SEOs and SEOs need Google, the search giant continues to make our jobs more challenging. The strategies and tactics that work for search and users has radically changed and yet there are still constants and will continue to be many opportunities for resourceful SEOs. In this presentation, veteran search marketer Marshall […]

Apple

New: Google My Business iOS & Android Apps

Google announced they have released a mobile app for the new Google My Business. In summary, Google My Business is the new unified interface designed to make life easier for local businesses as well as brands to be better found within Google. The apps were released for iOS and Android and enable business owners with […]

Content

13 Reasons Branded PPC Campaigns Are Beneficial For B2B Brands

Branded PPC campaigns are a difficult concept to swallow for many marketers. Why would someone pay for a branded term they already (and will always) rank first for in organic search? In the B2B world, paying for terms surrounding your brand can yield numerous benefits. Here are the top 13 reasons you should consider building […]

Google

VIDEO: How Google AdWords Auctions & Ad Rank Work

Along with a overview on Quality Score factors, this week, Google released an updated video on the AdWords auction and Ad Rank, the scoring system used in each auction that determines the order in which ads appear. Chief Economist at Google, Hal Varian, who has been starring in these videos since at least 2009, is […]

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