SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 23, 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: Google Buys Sparkbuy: Comparison Shopping Site Now Closes, Team Remains Google has acquired Sparkbuy, a comparison shopping site that has focused on laptops. The site closed today as part of the […]
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 Buys Sparkbuy: Comparison Shopping Site Now Closes, Team Remains
Google has acquired Sparkbuy, a comparison shopping site that has focused on laptops. The site closed today as part of the purchase; the three person team will continue on with Google. Was this a talent acquisition, then? Google wouldn’t comment nor give any details on the purchase price for the year-old company. However, a person […]
- 90 Days Later, J.C. Penney Regains Its Google Rankings
J.C. Penney appears to be back in Google’s good graces after a 90-day penalty that removed the retailer from appearing prominently in Google’s search results for both short- and long-tail phrases. The company has regained first- and second-page rankings on a number of terms that were mentioned in a New York Times exposé of Penney’s […]
- [email protected]: The Search Engine Optimized for Mobile
Tel Aviv-based [email protected] (pronounced “do at”) probably won’t get you to stop using Google on your smartphone (iPhone exclusively right now) but it’s an intriguing new mobile “search engine” that takes a very different approach to delivering content on the go. The company, which also announced $7 million in new funding, doesn’t index pages. Instead […]
- Report: Google Was Repeatedly Warned About Taking Ads From Rogue Pharmacies
It may be difficult for Google to prove it was doing everything it could to avoid taking ads from rogue pharmacies, considering the sheer volume of warnings it received from industry watchdogs over the years. That’s according to a Wall Street Journal report published over the weekend. The piece details warning after warning that illegal […]
- Hot At Sphinn: Links From Panda-Hit Sites, Social Media For Old Folks & More
Sphinn had a super busy week last week with discussion happening on more than a third of the published stories. None of those stories saw more comment activity than the “Discussion of the Week,” which asked Would you want a link from a site that was hit hard by Panda? After a majority of “Yes” […]
- TheFind Catalogue: The Return of Google Catalogs
Way back in 2002 Google launched catalog search. It was ultimately shut down in April, 2009. The product allowed users to browse popular mail-order catalogs or search across catalogs for specific products. In many ways it was crude yet cool and useful. I liked it but it wasn’t enough of a traffic driver to justify […]
- 10 Unorthodox Ideas For Local Citations & Links
Obtaining citations and links for a local business are important components of local search engine optimization. Yet, many businesses struggle with how to get links and mentions of their place. Here are 10 unorthodox ideas that could help you nab a few more valuable links. As you may know, citations can be instances where people mention your […]
- The Coming Tide Of SEO Tattletales
Be ready, because there’s a new wave coming: competitive sabotage through SEO due diligence and outing. Competitive analysis will always be fundamental to search engine optimization. SEO, by nature, is a competitive pursuit: a site climbs the ranks on the backs of other sites, and there’s only room for one URL at the top. Because […]
- Connect With Your Community – Network Free At SMX Advanced Seattle, June 7-8
The most talented marketers in the business will attend Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced Seattle. Conference tickets are sold out, but you can still participate. Attend conference networking events FREE when you register online for an Expo+ Pass before June 6. Sign up today for an Expo+ Pass and attend these networking events: June […]
- 3 Ways Topic Targeting Can Improve Your Display Advertising
Google AdWords has a feature known as topic targeting. This feature allows you to target topics and not necessarily placements or keywords across the Google Display Network. If you just use topic targeting, you will usually receive a lot of impressions; but not necessarily a lot of conversions. It is fantastic for reaching a large […]
- By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites
Earlier this month, I wrote about how the promise of Facebook traffic has enticed millions of sites to use Facebook Like buttons and other Facebook social plugins. But does following Facebook’s socialist agenda really pay off? How about some numbers, courtesy of Facebook? Facebook provided me with the figures below from when I was working […]
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- Google’s Black Navigation Bar, Google Operating System
- WebP in Chrome, Picasa, Gmail With a Slew of New Features and Improvements, Chromium Blog
Business Issues
- Bono helped IDA get Google to Irish shores, Independent.ie
- Google Grabs P&G Exec to Head Video Sales for YouTube, Ad Age
- In Shift at Yahoo, Fewer New Products but More Refinements, New York Times
- Russia’s Yandex Offered at Double Google’s Value, Bloomberg
- Zillow.com selects “Z” for ticker symbol, trims Q1 net loss, GeekWire
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Foursquare and Groupon Planning Distribution Deal, AllThingsD
- hReview Testimonials from SMB Sites Starting to Show in Places, Mike Blumenthal
Link Building
- Disclosing Hidden Links Make It Okay? Not According To Google., Search Engine Roundtable
Searching
- End-to-End Analysis of the Spam Value Chain, Jim Jansen
- Bing’s Facebook-Enhanced Results Now Appear More Frequently on a Wider Range of Searches, Inside Facebook
- 3.7 Million Digitized (and Searchable) Newspaper Pages Now Accessible From "Chronicling America" Database, infodocket.com
- Comparing the Most Profitable Companies in Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
- Google eBooks: By the Numbers, Then and Now, Inside Google Books
- New Online Database: Wall Street Journal Jet Tracker (Past Flights of Non-Commercial Aircraft), infodocket.com
- Quixey: A New and Impressive Search Tool To Find Apps for Many OS, infodocket.com
SEM Industry
- Eric Enge interviews Rand Fishkin, Stone Temple
- Speaking In Madrid, Spain On Search & SEO, Barry Schwartz
SEO & SEM
- Heads Up: Scheduled Maintenance on the adCenter API Sandbox Environment on Monday, May 23rd, adCenter API Blog for Developers
- 5 days, 5 Tips: Get your website basics right, Official Google Australia Blog
- Do The Right SEO Thing… Or Not?, Search Engine Watch
- How does Google handle pages with content that changes on each page load?, YouTube
- How Page Layout Can Affect Link Placement and Search Engine Rankings (SEO), blueglass.com
- iPhone SEO Applications – A Comparison of the Top SEO iPhone Apps, Bruce Clay Australia
- Pay Per Click (PPC) for SMB Part 3 – An Introduction to adCenter, adCenter Blog
- SEO keyword density: lose this relic and adopt best practices, SEO Copywriting
- Technical Site Audit Checklist, SEOmoz
- The Top 10 SEO Myths for 2011, Daily SEO Tip
- WordPress SEO URL / Permalinks considerations, yoast.com
Social Media
Video, Music & Image Search
- Music Album Filtering in Google Video, Google Operating System
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- Panda Pushback Links – While most of the focus about Panda has been on content, Debra Mastaler makes the argument that it was about links: "So yeah, this Panda update is about the role good content plays in your search results but it’s more about the links it takes to make that content sing." Really interesting read.
- Technical Site Audit Checklist – Excellent list of items that must belong in every site audit.
- By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites – In his latest article, Danny Sullivan, talks about the benefits of using social plugins on websites, all based on stats from Facebook! There is a list of great examples! Read through it you can also find some useful tips on making "like" button more likeable and generally making your site more social friendly.
- Hacked Canonical Tags: Coming Soon To A Website Near You? – Google recently alerted website owners of a recent trend involving the hacking of websites to insert acanonical tag and point it to the hacker’s site
- You’re Not Too Old For Social Media, You’re Just Lazy – You're not too old for social media. Now shut up and learn :)
- PPC Management For Large Accounts – Managing large pay per click campaigns can be tricky. This post, video and transcription provide some good info for these enterprise level accounts.
- Comcast Threatened To Pull Nonprofit Funding Over Tweet – Social media is great isn’t it? Never before have more people had more chances to voice opinions and share ideas. While that’s the rose-colored glasses description of the space let’s not forget what might be crawling underneath when you flip the rock over.
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