SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 17, 2014
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 10 Key Takeaways From Meet The Search Engines @ SMX West Another SMX is in the books! This show definitely had one of the most engaged attendee groups I have ever […]
Barry Schwartz on March 17, 2014 at 5:00 pm | Reading time: 6 minutes
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- 10 Key Takeaways From Meet The Search Engines @ SMX West
Another SMX is in the books! This show definitely had one of the most engaged attendee groups I have ever seen at any conference in recent memory. The polite, attentive search engine marketers weren’t there to just network and enjoy the San Jose sun. They were interested and looking for answers. And on day three […] - Google’s Matt Cutts Gives SEO Advice For Times When Your Products Go Out Of Stock
Google’s Matt Cutts answered in a video what webmasters and site owners should do about their out of stock products on their e-commerce sites. Matt Cutts basically said it depends on the size of the e-commerce site. He broke it down into three sizes: small sites with tens of pages, medium sites with thousands of […] - Register Now for SMX Advanced – Rates Increase Next Week
Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced is a fast paced, engaging, and intimate experience that emphasizes sharing ideas and networking with peers. The Search Engine Land editorial team creates the agenda, so you’ll be treated to sessions that are Q&A-packed, frequently controversial, always informative…and don’t stop to cover the basics. SMX Advanced has sold out […] - Bing Ads Now Shows Zero-Click Search Queries, Offers 20 To 40X More Data Than Before
Formerly dubbed the Search Query Report, Bing Ads has updated what’s now called the Search Term Report, which houses the data on the terms users actually typed before clicking on an ad. Included in the new release are results on zero-click search queries. These terms had been excluded from the report, but advertisers had been […] - Google Testing New Sponsored Shopping Boxes, With 3D View
Google continues to experiment with Google Shopping displays beyond the traditional thumbnail box panel of Product Listing Ads. This latest version is larger than the sponsored result spotted earlier this month for the book “Don’t Make Me Think”. Found by Twitter user Britney Muller of Pryde Marketing, the sponsored result for “Nest thermostats” — now […] - Study: Researchers Blame Google Flu Trends Inaccuracies On Ongoing Algorithm Updates
Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston claim the regular overestimation of flu cases by Google Flu Trends can be blamed on Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and the inaccurate analysis of big data. Google Flu Trends often has been cited for incorrectly projecting the number of flu cases. In 2010, a University of Washington study claimed Google […] - Matt Cutts: Google Mobile Queries May Surpass PC Search This Year
Speaking at SMX West last week Google’s Matt Cutts said that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if mobile search exceeded desktop queries this year. A similar comment was made by a Google speaker informally during a roundtable discussion at the International Franchising Association conference in New Orleans earlier this year. We asked Google for an official statement […] - Is Search Marketing No Longer Sexy?
I started writing this article about the sexiness of search from the “green room” at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA — so in case you don’t already know me, you can probably surmise that I might be a geek. Why was I at the Museum? That’s where the LiveRamp 2014 conference was […] - Manual Spam Action Revoked! A Case Study
Checklists of how to get out of a Google penalty abound. Five things you should do, five things you shouldn’t do, etc. But the number one thing you shouldn’t do is ignore it. I want to tell you the story of a two-year long penalty, the steps we took and how something we never thought […] - Ranking Benefit To Making Your Site SSL? Not Yet But Google’s Cutts Would Like To Make It Happen.
Google has been migrating all their properties to work over SSL over the past years and they are still working on that migration process. Google would like to see you make your site work over SSL as well. So much so that Matt Cutts said at SMX West that he would personally love to make […] - Holi Google Logo Celebrates India’s Festival Of Colors On Google India’s Homepage
While many will see a St. Patrick’s Day logo on Google’s homepage today, Google India users will see a Holi logo to mark India’s spring festival of colors. Celebrating the arrival of spring, Holi events include a Holika bonfire on the eve of the holiday with singing and dancing. Holi festivals are hosted openly in […] - Saint Patrick’s Day Google Logo Marks The Holiday With Irish Claddagh Symbol
Today’s St. Patrick’s Day Google logo celebrates the patron saint of Ireland with a green stained-glass style illustration featuring a Claddagh symbol – two hands holding a crowned heart. From the village of Claddagh, Ireland the Claddagh, commonly seen on rings, represents love, friendship and loyalty. Never actually canonized by the Catholic Church, St. Patrick […] - Google Penalizes Italian & Spanish Link Networks
As promised, Google has taken manual action to penalize link networks in Italy and Spain. It was just four days ago that Google warned webmasters in those two countries about its rules on paid links and willingness to take action against websites that violate those rules. The penalties were announced separately on Friday by Google […]
Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:
- Yahoo Wants To “Tell Better Stories” With New Motion Ads
- Moderate L.A. Earthquake Provides Good Test Of Social Safety Net
- Register Now for SMX Advanced – Rates Increase Next Week
- American Express CMO John Hayes: Marketers Win By Interpreting Change
- Advertisers Brace As Google Revisits “Not Provided” Policy To Show Keywords For Ad But Not Organic Clicks
- Because She Said So: 13 Content Marketing Lessons From Your Mother
- Google Seeking To Keep Depth Of Gmail Scanning Confidential
- Get To Know: Nanigans Senior Vice President Of Marketing
- Static Assembly Lines Don’t Work In Interactive Marketing
- Facebook Testing Business Manager, A Powerful Tool For Agencies And Large Businesses
Search News From Around The Web:
Industry
- Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter: Google’s copyright stance is bad for artists and consumers., slate.com
- Google DNS servers suffer brief traffic hijack, iTnews.com.au
Local & Maps
Link Building
- Firefox & Chrome Majestic Upgrades, Majestic SEO Blog
- Google Disavow Tool Won’t Flag Your Site As Spammy, Search Engine Roundtable
Searching
- Gone to the Dogs, Yahoo Search
- Revamped Question Page, Yahoo Answers
SEO
- A Startling Case Study of Manual Penalties and Negative SEO, Moz
- Consumer SEO tactics for the B2B world, Internet Retailer
- DIY SEO: How Much Should an SEO Program Cost?, CanuckSEO
- SEO in India 2014: ‘A Hunger to Get to the Right Knowledge’, BruceClay.com
- SEO Is Stone Soup, blindfiveyearold.com
- SEO Website Audits: Everything You Need to Know, Search Engine Watch
- Which Famous SEO Expert Are You?, Luna Metrics
SEM / Paid Search
- PPC Work Hacks: Quickly Analyze AdWords GDN Placements, SEER Interactive
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About the author
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.