SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 18, 2013

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’s Matt Cutts: Don’t Duplicate Your Meta Descriptions
  Google’s Matt Cutts, the head of search spam, released a video today providing an SEO tip on meta descriptions. Matt said, do not have duplicate meta descriptions on your site. Matt said it is better to have unique meta descriptions and even no meta descriptions at all, then to show duplicate meta descriptions across pages. […]
• After Two Years Of Broken Promises, Does Google Need To Explain More to Maintain Trust In Search?
  For two years running, Google’s broken major promises about search. It began doing paid inclusion in 2012, which it once called “evil.” This year, it’s experimenting with banner ads it said would never be allowed. Both represent major philosophical shifts for the company about search, but shifts it has largely avoided explaining. Does that erode […]
• Google & Microsoft Agree To Block Child Sexual Abuse Material From Search Results
  The Mail Online reports Google and Microsoft Bing have adjusted their search results to block child pornography and other child sexual abuse content from being accessible through their search engines. The news is being widely covered, some claiming that over a 100,000 unique searches and keywords have been blocked from showing up in the search […]
• How & When You Can Turn SEM From A Checkbox To A Core Business Component
  Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is no longer a “nice to have” for businesses, but rather a “must have.” This wasn’t the case 10 years ago, when SEM got dumped into the “test budget” if there was any money left over after TV, radio, print, out-of-home, display, email, SEO, PR and sponsorships. It turns out, however, […]
• In Quality Raters’ Handbook, Google Adds Higher Standards For “Your Money Or Your Life” Websites
  Google’s continuing push toward identifying expertise and authority on the web takes another step in the form of a new type of website/landing page classification: “Your Money or Your Life.” It’s explained in detail in a new version of Google’s “Search Quality Ratings Guidelines” — the document that’s used by the company’s cadre of human […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Nearly $40 Million Later, Google Ends “Cookiegate” Scandal
• Walking In A Winter WonderLab: Google Opens Retail Shops In Time For Holiday Season
• Google Search “Reunion” Video Goes Viral With More Than 4 Million Views In 5 Days
• Tubemogul Partners With Resonate To Offer Motivations-Based Video Ad Targeting
• Get To Know: The Senior Director Of Digital Media For The Boston Celtics
• How To Generate B2B Leads With Content Marketing
• Content Marketing Strategy: How To Create Killer Headlines
• Extra! Extra! New Survey Shows News Consumption Across Social Media Sites
• Google’s Broken Promises & Who’s Running The Search Engine?
• Android Tablets Outship iPads, Usage Still Favors Apple Devices

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Burkhard Bilger: Inside Google’s Driverless Car, The New Yorker
• Interview with the SEO Scientist Branko Rihtman, Hit Reach

Local & Maps

• Categories Count in Google Places, Local University
• Dad says Google Maps shows son’s dead body, CNN.com

Link Building

• Building High Quality Backlinks with Dofollow Relationship, SEO Theory
• Link Reclamation: The Most Important SEO Task You Aren’t Doing, willhanke.com

Searching

• Bing tests removing underlined titles in search results, allgoogletesting.blogspot.com

SEO

• Brands over-dependent on SEO and social for content marketing, Econsultancy
• Google Update On November 15th? I Don’t See It., Search Engine Roundtable
• How Will Google Hummingbird Affect Your Content Strategy?, koozai.com
• Majestic Showing Match Counts in Search Explorer, Majestic SEO Blog
• Schema.org Guide for Beginners (Everyone Can Understand!) + Schema.org Cheatsheet, internetmarketingninjas.com
• Stop Thinking Keywords, Think Topics, Moz

SEM / Paid Search

• 5 Last-Minute Holiday Optimization Tips for your PPC Campaigns, Vertical Measures
• Estimated Total Conversions are now available in the AdWords API, Google Ads Developer Blog

Search Marketing

• Use Bid Modifiers for Mobile Devices to Improve CPA, Search Marketing Sage