Are Google’s search results getting too ad-heavy and leading back to Google’s own content too much? A new blog post suggesting that Google’s non-paid listings make up only a tiny fraction of the entire search results page has sparked some discussion, though the exact percentage actually varies on how you count what’s on the page […]
Since September, people using Safari in iOS 6 and searching on Google have appeared to publishers as if they’ve come directly to their sites, as opposed to having been driving by search. At last, the reason behind the Dark Google cut-off of data has been found: mobile Safari doesn’t support the “meta referrer” tag. I […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Penguin 4, With Penguin 2.0 Generation Spam-Fighting, Is Now Live The fourth release of Google’s spam-fighting “Penguin Update” is now live. But, Penguin 4 has a twist. It contains Penguin 2.0 […]
I’m not sure anyone would notice in all of the Google Penguin news and discussion, but Yahoo appears to be testing a new search results page. I’m able to see the new interface when logged in and using Firefox, but I still see the old/current interface when using Safari and logged in to a different […]
At the Google Developer conference keynote this morning in San Francisco, one of the clear highlights was the introduction of a redesigned Google Maps experience for the PC and mobile. The New Google Maps are available now with an invitation. Already the leading digital and mobile mapping service, the various feature and UI improvements put […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Enterprise SEO Tools 2013: A Buyer’s Guide Are you responsible for SEO in your large organization? Wondering about tools that can help automate and cut the time it takes to manage […]
Have user generated content on your site? Pay attention to what those users are doing. That’s the takeaway from Google hitting Mozilla with a spam penalty this week, along with another takeaway. Despite Google’s saying it’s being more transparent about spam actions, people clearly find it hard to know what they’re in trouble for. Mozilla […]
After over a year of the blocked sites feature not working, Google has officially declared they are discontinuing the feature — two months after Google promised it would return. Google introduced blocked sites in March 2011 after struggling with various ways to allow searchers to block sites from showing in the search results. Google has […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft Shows Off Coming Improvements To Bing App’s Voice Search Microsoft has shared video of what was a confidential, employee-only demonstration of new voice search capabilities in its Bing app for […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a video on YouTube named Why don’t you turn off the PageRank feature in the Google Toolbar? It is a very fair question, given Google has downplayed the importance of PageRank over the years. Google has: Removed PageRank scores from Google Webmaster Tools in October 2009. Google dropped the […]
With the news today that Chrome is moving to secure search, marketers may be wondering about the larger picture of using search data in Web analytics. The searches people do that lead them to a site is valuable data to an organization. What other data source do we have that gives us direct access to […]
On Friday, Windows Phone users supposedly found themselves unable to access Google Maps. But Google said it made no sudden change on its end to cause this. What happened? It seems likely many people simple noticed for the first time long-standing redirection that Google had in place for those not using Android or iOS devices. Windows Phone […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 5 Important Trends Affecting The Local, Social & Mobile Industry On Tuesday last week, London hosted the Local Social Summit 2012, the fourth year this great (and growing) summit has been […]
BrowserFame reports the latest “nightly channel” of the Firefox browser, version 19, is warning browser users when it appears someone is hijacking the search engine results. This is to warn users when they may be “falling victim” to “search hijacking” according to the feature page. The page goes on to explain how the feature works […]
Globally there are arguably four main digital mapping competitors: Google, Apple, Microsoft and Nokia. Google is the clear leader. However Nokia is making a renewed bid to challenge Google’s mapping supremacy with a rebranded platform “Here,” new APIs, a Google Street View-like offering, augmented reality and new apps for third party smartphone operating systems. Apple […]
It is just over a year since Google began encrypting search by default for signed-in users. A new study finds that as a result, 39% search-related traffic from Google to web sites now has search terms withheld. Optify conducted a study over eleven months with 424 web sites, involving 17,143,603 visits and 7,241,093 referring keywords, to see […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing’s Voice Search On Xbox Now Searches The Web, Too Microsoft is expanding Bing’s capabilities in the living room with news today that Xbox users can search the web via their […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Making Your Site Sticky For Both Search & Social Users You are probably well aware of the benefits of making a “sticky” site. Sticky sites — engaging, well-designed sites that visitors […]
A change in iOS 6 made by Apple and not anticipated by Google means that for the past week or so — and likely for some weeks to come — those reaching web sites from Google’s search engine after doing searches from within Safari will be counted as “direct” traffic rather than “search” traffic. As […]
Another source of Google search referrer data appears lost. Searches through Google that happen in Apple’s Safari browser search box in iOS 6, Apple’s latest mobile operating system, no longer pass along search terms to publishers. For those unfamiliar, “referrer” data is information a browser passes along to a publisher about the last page you were […]
Ubergizmo is reporting that Bing (not Google) will be the default search engine for the Amazon browser on the new Kindle tablets. (We were able to confirm this with Microsoft directly earlier this evening.) The original Kindle Fire used Google. Amazon is likely to sell several million of these new devices given their aggressive pricing […]
That annoying thing when you do a Google search on your desktop computer, then you’re searching again on your laptop an hour later, and maybe searching on your iPad an hour after that … and you have to redo your search preferences each time? Or maybe you’re searching in Chrome one minute, but you switch […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Firefox 14 Now Encrypts Google Searches, But Search Terms Still Will “Leak” Out Firefox 14 has officially launched today, which means all Google searches are encrypted by default. However, due to […]
Firefox 14 has officially launched today, which means all Google searches are encrypted by default. However, due to a Google loophole, the encryption will not prevent things you search for from “leaking” out to Google’s advertisers nor potentially showing up as search suggestions or in data reported to web sites through Google Webmaster Central. The Firefox […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Apple Siri To Add Sports, Restaurants, Reservations, Movies & App Search Apple at their World Wide Developer Conference today announced iOS6 with some really nice features to Siri, their voice search […]
Is it a penalty? Or is it just a change to Google’s algorithm? That’s been one of the hot topics in search marketing in recent months thanks to the Panda and Penguin updates, and it was one of the topics of discussion tonight at our SMX Advanced conference in Seattle. During the annual “You & […]
Search launches seem to come in threes. A couple of weeks ago we had Bing Social, then came Google with Knowledge Graph and now Yahoo introduces Axis. When I met with Yahoo earlier this week to hear about it I received the now familiar speech that Yahoo is still very much in search and continuing to “innovate” around […]
Are apps just websites in another form? Are they another way to package and sell software? Are they a successor to the “open web.” Regardless of where you stand on the issue, the app has made its mark and doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. Many have lamented the rise of apps […]
Think that (not provided) is only impacting SEO-related websites? Think again. The Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism school that’s well known in media circles, wrote Wednesday about the growing impact that (not provided) is having on publisher websites. Author Steve Myers shared what he found after checking Poynter.org’s analytics: Keywords were hidden in 29 percent […]
Google has quietly expanded the graphical calculator feature in Google’s search results to be 3D and animated. Now if you search for certain math equations, the graphical display will be 3D and animated. Google shared this news less than an hour ago on their Google+ page and math junkies (mostly Googlers) are eating it up. […]
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 Makes Android Maps Cleaner, More Personal If Siri is the differentiating feature of iPhones, then Google Maps (and Navigation) are that for Android. It’s the most popular Android app as […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Firefox To Use Google Secure Search By Default; Expect More “Not Provided” Keywords To Follow The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by […]
The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by default, a change that will help prevent potential “eavesdropping” of what people are searching for. It will also further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google — except for Google advertisers. A […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: New Ad Status Info Added To AdWords Google is providing AdWords users with a new way to figure out whether their ads are approved, or not, and why. The new feature […]
The US FTC has subpoenaed Apple to provide documentation and information about Google’s presence on iOS as the default search engine. According to Bloomberg the FTC is also seeking similar information from handset makers and carriers. This arises in the context of the US government’s broad anti-trust investigation of Google. These “default search” deals are […]
As we covered last week, Google’s search results for a search on “santorum” have gotten a lot cleaner recently. The change was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show last night, and Search Engine Land’s coverage got a big shout-out. The clip is below, as well as an update on all things Santorum and Google. Santorum […]
Search Engine Friendly Web Design [flv:https://searchengineland.com/video_assets/bootcamp/se-friendly-design.flv 364 264] “I’m not designing my site for search engines,” is a common designer objection to SEO suggestions. But when search engines collectively have more users than either Internet Explorer or Firefox, how can you afford to ignore how they interact with your site? Search engines are like the […]
Get up to speed on the basics of search marketing with our special training videos that cover the fundamentals: Keyword Research and Copywriting Search Engine Friendly Web Design Link Building Fundamentals Paid Search Fundamentals Keyword Research and Copywriting Christine Churchill The first step to success with any marketing campaign is to know your message. With […]
Last week, we saw some reports of people finding they can’t search on Google unless they accept cookies. Google confirmed to us there was a bug causing this that’s now been fixed. Google emailed us: This was a bug that was flagged and the team quickly resolved on Thursday. We apologize for any inconvenience. A […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Now, Mitt Romney Has A Santorum-Like Bing & Google Problem Perhaps Google may finally have to figure out a “fix” for Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem,” now that an anti-Romney site is […]