SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 3, 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:

• Introducing: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors

  SEO — search engine optimization — is one of the most important marketing activities available to companies and publishers, but it’s too often considered some murky “dark art” or a sinful practice that should be avoided. It’s not. To help clear away some of the mystery and fear for those new to SEO, and provide […]

• Social Media Is Still A Mystery To Many Businesses

  It is no surprise that the high-level Social Media search traffic is focused on advertising and marketing needs. With a combination of a little over three million searches a month, the Marketing/Advertising search traffic is overshadowed by the ten million informational searches that sometimes ask questions, but are mostly vague in nature. This analysis of AdWords […]

• Search In Pics: GoogleBot Cookies, Yahoo Planking & Wall Of Googlers

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. GoogleBot Cookies: Google Boat: Yahoo Planking: Wall of Googlers: Yahoo Stools:

• Size Does Matter: How, Where & Why People Buy

  In my last post, I had discussed how big retailers with thousands of SKUs are faced with difficult performance management questions relating to their SEM campaigns. I had also analyzed transaction data and shown how small and big ticket items convert differently. Finally, I had also suggested management approaches for effective campaign management of these […]

• Google CEO Larry Page Plays Nice With Investors At Annual Meeting

  Many on Wall Street think that Larry Page hasn’t been visible or accessible enough. In part because of investor uncertainty about the former and current Google CEO (and a number of other factors) Google’s share price has dropped about $100 since Page took over from Eric Schmidt in April. During the company’s first quarterly earnings […]

• Google Gives You More Images, If You Ask Nicely

  The Google Search Blog announced two new user interface changes for image results on the Google web search results. Google has added a larger thumbnail image when you hover your cursor over image and Google will show more images when Google can detect your search intent asks for it. For example, a search for [flowers] […]

• Groupon Files For IPO While Google Offers Could Be Its “Next Billion Dollar Business”

  Google took its first daily deal baby steps yesterday with the launch of its first Google Offer in Portland. It was reportedly a hit for the business owner and a success for Google. According to CNET and ClickZ the first customer hit Floyd’s Coffee Shop within about 10 minutes of the offer going live. Overall, […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• The curious guide to browsers and the web: now in 15 languages and open-sourced, Official Google Blog
• Gmail Hack Targeted White House, Wall Street Journal

Business Issues

• Google Acquires PostRank, An Analytics Service For The Social Web, TechCrunch
• Google “Not Betting the Farm” on Self-Driving Cars, WebProNews
• Google hands millions to ‘independent’ watchdogs, The Register
• Google’s CEO steps into spotlight, Mercury News

Link Building

• How to Find Relevant Link Targets, Search Engine People

SEM Industry

• Why the Search Marketing Industry Is Like an Exclusive Country Club (and How to Break In), BruceClay.com
• Google’s Webmaster Blog Morning "Quirk" Shows Photos, Search Engine Roundtable
• Video: Schema.org, Google Panda Recoveries, Google 1, AdWords & More, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Google On Spelling Mistakes On Community Sites, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Optimize for Google 2011 – Part 3 of 3, StepForth
• Project Management Tips for Marketing Teams – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz

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

• Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web – Today we’re announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Google, Bing and Yahoo! to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. Schema.org aims to be a one stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to their pages to help search engines better understand their websites.
• Introducing: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors – To help clear away some of the mystery and fear for those new to SEO, and provide a 'reset'for those who are experienced, Search Engine Land created 'The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors.'
• Local Google AdWords Ads Campaign Set Up Tips for Small Businesses – A very actionable post that eliminates any excuses preventing a small business from experimenting with paid search.
• An Optimizer’s Guide To Facebook Ads Performance Reports – Facebook Ads, “Advertising Performance Reports” are the primary analytics marketers use to optimize FB Ads campaigns and create reports. Over the last few weeks, and through the May 25th UI update, our aimClear team thoroughly researched available optimization metrics,  what they mean, where they appear, and at what access points they are editable live in various screens.
• 2011 Local SEO Best Practices for Ranking in Google Places – David Mihms 2011 version of local SEO best practices has launched today!  Absolutely fantastic information on all things local!
• Social Analytics: Recording +1 and Twitter button usage in Google Analytics – Tutorial and code for how to integrate the new Twitter Intents and Google +1 with your Google Analytics tracking.
• Twitter Blog: Introducing the Follow Button – Twitter rolls out a handy follow button.
• The Top 10 Things Eric Schmidt Revealed At D9 – Danny Sullivan highlights a number of interesting revelations that came out of Eric Schmidt interviews at the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The most interesting tidbit is that Google aims to deliver more direct answers, admitting that Bing does a better job.