SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 1, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Catholic Priest Advises Engaged Couples: Don’t Use Google Maps

  You know it’s rough going when even the clergy can’t recommend your service. That’s what’s happening to Google Maps, which is listing a Catholic church/school in Short Hills, NJ, at the wrong location. The church is located at 50 Short Hills Ave., but when you search Google for that address, it instead shows a similar […]
• Hot At Sphinn: Google’s True Market Share, Blogging Tools & More

  Does Google really only have about 65% to 70% of the US search market? Or is it really more like other countries where Google’s market share is closer to 90%? That was the topic of our “Discussion of the Week” last week on Sphinn, which asked What do you think Google’s U.S. market share really […]

• Yahoo UK & Others Switching To Bing Organic Results August 3rd

  Yahoo has sent out an update stating they are migrating the organic results for Yahoo’s European properties to Bing’s search index this Wednesday, August 3, 2011. The organic search on Yahoo UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy will begin transitioning over to Bing powered results this Wednesday. Yahoo has not yet and will not yet […]

• Report: Only 15% of Small Business Facebook Fans Are Actually Local

  A new study released today by Roost, a technology company that helps companies with social media, determined that: “…only 15 percent of the average local business’ fans are actually in the city where the business is located.” This data was uncovered using proprietary scorecards that analyzes audience distributions and other SMB business metrics. The report […]

• Mobile Link Building Issues: How QR Codes Disrupt More Than URLs

  Last month, I introduced the idea that QR codes could disrupt your URL strategy. This led to quite a lively discussion! With dozens of comments, over 850 retweets, and hundreds of QR scans for the mobile article, this is obviously an important topic. Today, I’ll complete the theme with examples, and best-practice methods for optimizing […]

• Diversity Is The Key To SEO Success For Local Businesses

  Google’s recent act of removing 3rd party reviews and citations from Google Places has had many local businesses and SEOs scrambling to review their local search strategies. As the dust settles on these changes, it appears that while the content may have gone from view it is still being captured and used within Google’s local […]

• 8 Thoughts On Cookie Tracking & 3 Ways To Create Cookie Windows

  How should advertisers and their agencies think about cookies? Oft neglected in the discussions of ROI measurement and attribution management is the question: how long after an interaction with an ad should a marketing channel receive credit? Today, I want to pontificate a bit on the subject and then dive into some brass tacks, practical […]

• Share the Experience: Send Your Team to SMX East… and Save 15-25%

  Shared knowledge, experiences, vocabulary…they’re all part of building an effective internet and search engine marketing team. And Search Marketing Expo – SMX East provides an exceptional opportunity for teams to learn and network. Choose from more than 50 sessions covering SEO, PPC, social media marketing, local/mobile, analytics and more. Take a look at the full […]

• Get These Three Things Right In Enterprise SEO

  The other day in URLs café at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, I had a great conversation with our head of SEO. He was telling me about significant recent success SEO has been enjoying at Yahoo! At many large companies, SEO is an uphill battle, so any victory should be fully celebrated. I asked what happened […]

• AdWords Appear At Bottom Of SERPs In New Apparent Test

  Google is apparently testing a new AdWords placement at the bottom of search results pages. At least one Search Engine Land reader, LebSEO Design‘s Wissam Dandan, spotted four AdWords ads at the bottom of some search results pages. We weren’t able to replicate this internally, but the search giant is constantly testing new ad placements […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Chrome becomes UK’s second most popular web browser, The Guardian

Business Issues

• With the Bing Search Engine, Microsoft Plays the Underdog, New York Times
• Deal of the Day: Google Buys The Dealmap, The Dealmap
• Facebook expands UK operation, Telegraph
• Google’s PAC posts big uptick, POLITICO.com
• Growing dot-com Foursquare sets revenue plan, NYPOST.com

Link Building

• Better Understanding Link-based Spam Analysis Techniques, SEOmoz

Searching

• Tips from Google’s User Happiness Researcher, Inside Search

SEO & SEM

• Making the Case For SEO in a Social Media World, Search Engine Guide
• Optimize Your ROI with New adCenter Features, Yahoo! Advertising Blog
• Bing Webmaster Tools Review, SEO Book
• 6 Advanced Ways to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings, quicksprout.com
• What is Caffeine indexing?, YouTube
• Google Bug Causes 60% Traffic Drop, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to write for Google’s Panda update, SEO Copywriting
• Russian Online Video Advertising Market to Reach $36 Million in 2011, Quintura blog
• Small Business Guide to Using Local SEO to Get New Customers, BruceClay.com

Social Media

• Preview the latest +1 button changes, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Missouri Forbids Teachers and Students To Be Facebook Friends, mashable.com
• On Pseudonymity, Privacy and Responsibility on Google+, TechnoSocial
• BREAKING: Twitter Might Have a New York Office!, AllThingsD
• Google Plus Traffic Dropping Drastically, Search Engine Roundtable
• It takes a community to translate Twitter, Twitter Blog
• Your world, more connected, Twitter Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube embraces Google+ Hangouts for live streaming, gigaom.com

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Calling All SEO’s! You Be The Judge and the Jury – An article that was run at SiliconValley.com (which is part of the Mercury News) has opened up the latest can of worms of a website (and in this case a large network of websites) feeling mistreated by Google. Their cause has been picked up by antitrust attorney Gary Reback (hmm, I see a dotted line connection here, what about you?).
• Determining Site Architecture From Keyword Research – As SEOs, we understand the value of keyword research – not only is it used to identify terms and phrases that a site should target, but it could even help to predict market demands and trends.  However, one of the most challenging aspects of keyword research is what happens after thousands of keywords and their search volumes has been collected.  How do you build structure out of all this data?  And also, how do you determine which keywords to optimize the site for?
• The 3 Pillars of Local Search Reviews – In light of the recent changes to Google Place Pages, Mike Ramsey weighs in with a great reminder of the right way to approach reviews for local search/SEO purposes.