This day in search marketing history: January 4
Rap Genius gets out of Google jail, plus: how Rick Santorum made his Google problem worse, Yahoo's new CEO and more
Topic: Genius
Genius not looking so smart after Google escapes liability for ‘misappropriating’ lyrics
To many this was another example of Google abusing its power. Except it wasn't, court finds.
How verticalization and zero-click will impact local search in 2020
In the coming year it will be interesting to see how Google balances the priority of verticalization against the growing popularity of Google Maps as the first choice among searchers.
Genius sues Google and LyricFind for more than $50 million in damages
The company alleges breach of contract, unfair competition and lost ad revenue.
Change log: Google updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines
Here's what's new, compared side-by-side with the last version.
Google to add attribution to licensed lyrics providers
Google responds to the allegations that it scraped Genius lyrics without paying for that content.
Google allegedly caught scraping lyrics from Genius
Lyrics site Genius used Morse code to catch Google 'red handed.'
Report: 2014 Was A Bad Year For Lyrics Sites In Google
2014 was a bad year for lyrics web sites in Google, with 2015 looking to be even worse for this niche.
Expert Insights On The Future Of SEO, Part 1
Do you have the skills it will take to thrive in the SEO environment of the future? In the first of this 3-part series, search industry veterans weigh in on how things will be different in 2015.
Open Letter: Why Search Engine Land Will & Won’t Cover Someone Being Penalized By Google
It’s been big news recently about major brands and Google penalties, and the floodgates feel open on people spotting even more brands possibly hit out there. Some new crackdown by Google? No. It’s the rise of hyperactive attention in this area, and that’s turning into a problem. Hence this open letter, on how we’re planning […]
Google Is Not Broken
In spite of what many think, Google is not broken. But wait, naysayers will say, Look at this search result, it stinks! This spammer is succeeding in ranking high, they emerged from nowhere and are now in the top three results! It’s true — there are many such examples that you can point to. Making […]
Expedia Lost 25% Of Their Search Visibility In Google Possibly Over Unnatural Links
The major travel website, Expedia, seems to have lost 25% of their search visibility in Google according to Search Metrics. It appears that drop was due to an unnatural link penalty, where Nenad called out Expedia over a month ago for possible paid links on article sites. Expedia.com’s Google Traffic Decline: Patrick Altoft noticed a […]
Rap Genius Back In Google After 10 Day Penalty, Ranks For Its Name But What About Lyrics?
Lyrics site Rap Genius says that it is no longer penalized within Google after taking action to correct “unnatural links” that it helped create. The site was hit with a penalty for 10 days, which meant people seeking it by name couldn’t find it. That’s been fixed, though it’s unclear how much traffic the site […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 30, 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: 2014 SEO Playbook: Off-Page Factors Are you ready for 2014? Today’s column marks the third and final entry in my annual SEO Playbook. Part 1 primarily focused on what Hummingbird will […]
Google’s Rap Genius Penalty Results In Huge Traffic Declines For The Lyrics Site
Before Christmas, Rap Genius was outed for link schemes and then on Christmas, Google penalized the site for those link schemes. The penalty is still on and a couple metrics sites show huge drops in traffic for the site, some as much as losing 90% of their traffic since the penalty. Marcus from Search Metrics […]
How SEO Greed Can Ruin A Perfectly Good Linking Strategy
By now, you are likely aware of the Rap Genius “Tweet In Exchange For Anchor Text” link scheme, hencefore to be known as TieFating. Barry Schwartz reported last week on John Marbach’s exposé of the popular music site, Rap Genius, which had started an “affiliate” program in order to get links pointing to their website. After it was exposed, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 26, 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: AdWords Bid Management And Account Structure Mistakes To Avoid On my one-year anniversary of working as an AdWords practitioner instead of a Googler, Brad Geddes interviewed me about Quality Score for […]
Google Has Officially Penalized Rap Genius For Link Schemes
Google has penalized Rap Genius for link schemes this morning. If you go to Google and search for [rap genius], rapgenius.com will not be found on the first page. Instead you will find links to their Twitter account, Facebook page, Wikipedia profile and stories like this about them being penalized by Google. But you won’t […]
Google Is Looking Into Rap Genius Linking Scheme Masked As Affiliate Program
Yesterday, John Marbach exposed the popular music side, Rap Genuis, for starting an “affiliate” program in order to get unnatural links pointing to their web site. After it was exposed, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, said, “we’re aware and looking into it.” Here is the Facebook post, which is still live, on their […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 17, 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: A Personal Preview Of SMX West – And Why You Should Go! Our annual Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West is less than two months away on March 8-10, and it’s shaping […]
Live From Hollywood: It’s Bing & Ryan Seacrest
Bing’s holding a big press event here tonight in Hollywood, California. We’re live on the red carpet. OK, no red carpet, but we do have Ryan Seacrest hosting the event. Sit back and stay tuned as we live blog what’s to come. NOTE: See our Bing Entertainment, Unwrapped: Music, Movies, Games & TV story which […]