As we get ready to close the books on 2013, the editorial team that brings you daily news and features on Search Engine Land and MarTech is going to look back at the most popular content we published during these past 12 months. Over the next week couple weeks, we’ll reveal our most popular columns […]
Yesterday, most of the Google search results tracking tools showed major changes in rankings within Google’s search results; but, during my analysis of webmaster communication within the discussion forums and social space, I saw very little discussion around changes in rankings at Google. Then, Google’s Matt Cutts implied there was no update on Twitter saying […]
If there’s ever been any question that SEO marketers need to put user needs first, 2013 was the year the search engines made it clear. Nearly every innovation in search — algorithm updates like Google Hummingbird, SERP enhancements, social integrations — was aimed at creating a better experience for the searcher. These innovations require SEO […]
As we are approaching the end of the year, I thought it would be worth reviewing 2013 from the perspective of a UK based SEO with a diverse range of multinational clients and what opportunities lie ahead for all things SEO.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Social Media Marketing Tactics that Work – Next Week in Las Vegas Learn the latest tactics and best-practices for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Whether you’re managing your brand’s communities, […]
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 AdWords Yellow “Ad” Icon Spotted On Desktop SERPs In UK The bold yellow “Ad” icon that started showing up in Google search results on smartphones in September, now appear to […]
Jill Whalen, one of the first major personalities in the SEO industry, who has been practicing SEO for nearly 20 years, has announced she is moving on from SEO. The reason why, may shock some of you. One of the reasons is that she feels that she no longer needs to be the voice “reason […]
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 [Not Provided] At 87% Of Google Search Traffic To Major News Sites [Report] If you’ve been hoping that the hypocrisy of Google hiding keyword referral data from natural search traffic […]
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 Places Expands To Canada, UK Bing Places is finally available beyond U.S. borders. The company announced today that local businesses in Canada and the United Kingdom — and search marketing […]
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 5, With The Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm, Is Now Live The fifth confirmed release of Google’s “Penguin” spam fighting algorithm is live. That makes it Penguin 5 by our count. […]
The fifth confirmed release of Google’s “Penguin” spam fighting algorithm is live. That makes it Penguin 5 by our count. But since this Penguin update is using a slightly improved version of Google’s “Penguin 2” second-generation technology, Google itself is calling it “Penguin 2.1.” Don’t worry. We’ll explain the numbering nonsense below, as well 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: Bing Ads Launches Its Own “Express” Program For Local Small Businesses This week, Bing Ads unveiled Bing Ads Express, a pay-per-click program for small local businesses that is clearly modeled on […]
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 Debuts Offline Conversion Tracking For Full Sales Cycle Optimization Running lead generation campaigns on Google AdWords? Measuring success and optimizing campaigns for actual sealed-deal conversions, not just lead in-take, just […]
Today, September 4th, and last week, August 21st, there were huge spikes in chatter amongst the SEO and webmasters about the Google search results shifting and changing. In short, many SEOs and webmasters were complaining that their rankings in the Google search results have declined drastically. In addition, many sent me images of their analytics, […]
What do webmasters do when receiving a manual action from Google telling them they have a penalty because of paid or bad links pointing to their site? Google told us back in June that we should use Google’s “links to your site” report within Webmaster Tools to analyze bad links pointing to our sites. In fact, […]
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 Research Says Search Engines Have Little To Do With Promoting Pirated Content A new research paper authored by Matt Schruers and published by the Computer & Communications Industry Association argues […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Two Local & Voice Search Improvements In Latest Google Glass Update Two search-related improvements made their way into the latest Google Glass software update. Google announced the XE7 software update last […]
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 Alerts Drops RSS Delivery Option Google has quietly dropped the support to deliver your Google Alerts via RSS. A warning at the top of the page, for those who had […]
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 Experiments With Social Search By Adding New Bing Boards To Search Results Bing announced today that they are adding a new social element to their search results with the introduction […]
Google posted a new article today answering common questions about submitting reconsideration requests and managing your backlink profile. Google Search Quality representatives, Kaspar Szymanski and Uli Lutz, co-authored the article, going through the more common questions on this topic. Google says you should really only submit a reconsideration request when you receive a manual penalty […]
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: Stock Images Do Not Impact Search Engine Rankings Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said in a recent video that using stock images from a stock image […]
Day one of our SMX Advanced show is almost over, but there’s one last session still to come: the traditional “You&A with Matt Cutts” keynote session. Search Engine Land’s founding editor, Danny Sullivan, will be sitting down for a lengthy chat with Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team. The session is due to […]
We’ve updated our Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors that was created in 2011 to add several new elements, drop a few, broaden it to include “success factors” rather than just “ranking factors” and adjusted weightings of several elements on the table. For those curious about the details, here’s the rundown. First, if you’re not […]
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 Image Extensions: Early Reactions & In-The-Wild Examples The PPC world is abuzz over the news that Google opened its beta for image extensions, which allow AdWords advertisers to include images […]
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 Pushes To Build Marketshare Through “Bing It On” For Faster Airport Wifi I got a surprise recently on my trip through Orange County’s John Wayne Airport. When I tapped into […]
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 Ads Will Copycat Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns With New Bid Adjustments It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Microsoft is adjusting the Bing Ads platform to play nicely with AdWords […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Search Your Own “Pins” On Pinterest Pinterest announced a new, useful search feature that allows you to filter your search results to just your own Pins. You can now search for […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Video: Google’s Matt Cutts On Advertorials & Webmaster Guidelines Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a new video today on YouTube clarifying Google’s stance on Advertorials and “native advertising.” […]
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 Glass Diary, Part 4: Local Search & Navigation Remember that first Google Glass video? It was published a little more than a year ago and gave the world its first […]
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 […]
Google’s fourth Penguin update — what the company is calling Penguin 2.0 — hit last night, and less than 24 hours later we’re already getting a first chance to look at what sites might be considered “losers” in terms of search visibility. In a nutshell, the list includes: porn sites, game sites and big brands […]
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 […]
The fourth release of Google’s spam-fighting “Penguin Update” is now live. But, Penguin 4 has a twist. It contains Penguin 2.0 technology under the hood, which Google says is a new generation of tech that should better stop spam. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Web spam team, announced the new Penguin 2.0 update during […]
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 Knowledge Graph Gets More Stats and 4 New Languages At Google I/O today, Amit Singhal, Google VP of Search, announced that statistics and four new languages are being added to […]
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: Next Generation Of The Penguin Update “Few Weeks” Away In March, Google’s chief web spam fighter Matt Cutts promised that the Penguin Update designed to fight spam would […]
A video from Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, today answers some of the questions about what webmasters and SEOs should expect in the near future in regards to SEO. The primary question Matt asked and answered was, “What should we expect in the next few months in terms of SEO for Google?” Matt […]
In March, Google’s chief web spam fighter Matt Cutts promised that the Penguin Update designed to fight spam would get a big refresh later this year. Today, Cutts gave an update — keep waiting. It’s still a few weeks off. Along the way, there’s some confusion about whether the next Penguin Update will be Penguin […]
Over the past few days, the Webmaster and SEO community have been discussing significant shifts, fluctuations and updates in both the Google rankings and traffic patterns they have seen from Google’s organic search. I’ve asked Google if there was, indeed, an update, and Google would not confirm. Instead, they gave me the boilerplate response, “We […]
What to do if Google sends you a penalty notice, and you can’t figure out exactly what it’s for? Turn to Google’s webmaster help forum, says the head of Google’s Web spam team, Matt Cutts. If you’re still confused after that, you can file a reconsideration request where you might be given more details. 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 Pulls Related Searches Filter Due To Lack Of Usage Google has quietly removed the “related searches” option from the search tools menu within the Google search results page. When Google […]