SEO — search engine optimization — is one of the most important marketing activities available to companies and publishers, but it’s too often considered some murky “dark art” or a sinful practice that should be avoided. It’s not. To help clear away some of the mystery and fear for those new to SEO, and provide […]
Over the past several months, I’ve been trying to crystal ball what the future of search might look like. I’ve had fascinating discussions with several visionaries in the industry, including Stefan Weitz (Microsoft), Shashi Seth (Yahoo), Hampus Jakobsson (RIM) and John Battelle (Federated Media). In my last column, I started to sum up the overarching […]
Many website owners obsess over organic keyword rankings. Our clients often tell us, “We have to improve our rankings for “keyword X!”. However, focusing on rankings as the primarily goal of SEO will not likely deliver the results most site owners want which is to increase business from their websites. In this example, we will […]
In Marchex’s field research and surveys with small businesses, SEO consistently surfaces as a growing priority for small businesses. When we asked small businesses how important SEO was for their business, 53% said “very important.” Further, considering the ongoing changes to search engine algorithms (e.g., Google’s recent “Panda Update”) and the big impact these changes […]
This morning Microsoft is launching the “Bing Business Portal” (BBP). It replaces the the Bing Local Listing Center, and all listings already there have already been migrated over. The BBP allows local business owners or their agents or designated representatives to claim and enhance listings with additional content including deals. Business owners can also add […]
Five years ago, I wrote a story called “25 Things I Hate About Google.” It went viral, to my surprise. I thought it was worth revisiting that story on its five year anniversary, to see how many of those “hates” have been fixed. So let’s dive in!
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 Tries to Reassure Brand Owners With New Anti-Counterfeiting Measures Counterfeiters seem to love Google AdWords — the company shut down 50,000 AdWords accounts selling counterfeit goods in the last six […]
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 Simplifies Site-Specific Bidding on Display Network Google is eliminating managed placement default bids in an effort to simplify bidding on its Display Network. Now Display Network advertisers who use managed […]
Google’s long created title tags from means other than using the HTML title tag, however, there are reports that it might be increasing the times it does so. A WebmasterWorld thread has dozens of webmasters complaining that Google is not using their HTML title tags. The HTML title tag is often used by Google as […]
In 2004, our family business came off the tracks. Sales growth stopped. Overhead skyrocketed. We took a hard look at how we sold online, and made one simple, but substantial change. The result was an extra $10,354,767 in additional sales above our normal growth. How? In this column, I’m going to show you. We created compelling […]
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 Knol Still Alive & Fixed, But Questions Linger About Its Future Google has fixed a bug that temporarily made Knol look like a ghost town this week. And, without exactly […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Santa Pegman Comes To Google Maps “Pegman” is the little icon in Google Maps that you can drag to enable the Google Street View feature. Tomorrow, he’s getting into the Christmas […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Writing HTML Title Tags For Humans, Google & Bing I generally enjoy John Gruber’s writings, but today he’s dishing out SEO advice about HTML title tags. Some of it is bad […]
I generally enjoy John Gruber’s writings, but today he’s dishing out SEO advice about HTML title tags. Some of it is bad advice. So with respect, here’s how I’d suggest you write page titles in a way that can please search engines and humans alike. What Is An HTML Title Tag? Let me go back […]
Both Google and Bing have added many social search features over the past year. There’s also been talk about using “social signals” to help rank regular search results. But are either of the major search engines actually using those social signals to rank regular search results? A bit, they tell me. In particular, your stature […]
The web is shifting rapidly, again. Search has seen accelerated growth over the last two years, at a quicker clip than any time over the last ten. This has been fueled primarily by innovations at Google. However, Bing is also pushing innovation rapidly and was cited by Google CEO Eric Schmidt as, their “biggest problem” […]
Clickability, or perceived visual affordance, is a key element of search-engine friendly website design. How do searchers and search engines perceive clickable and unclickable elements?
SMX Boot Camp: Keyword Research & Copywriting For Search Success Presentations from SMX East, October 2010 The first step to success with any marketing campaign is to know your message. With search marketing, that means knowing the search terms that are being used by your target audience. And though it sounds obvious, it helps to […]
The Google AdWords Blog announced the new version of the AdWords Editor, a desktop based editing tool to manage your AdWords campaigns. Version 8.5 is available for both Mac and PC and adds several features, they include: WAP image ads: Create and manage WAP (mobile) image ads in AdWords Editor. You can: Download and upload […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Time To Think Carefully About Which Country Hosts Your URL Shortener In my “how to choose a URL shortener” article last year, I warned that the country domain that a shortener […]
Dear coders: please write your HTML/XHTML code to be standards-compliant. Yes, I know — we’ve been down this road before. Folks have tested compliant versus non-compliant code, and it doesn’t help with search rankings, so why bother, blah blah blah. Just use the damned standards, OK? Standards compliance does impact rankings, albeit indirectly: Standards compliance […]
Google’s holding a highly anticipated “can’t miss” press event today. The news? Perhaps the new results-as-you-type your search feature that started showing today. Perhaps something else. We’ll know at 9:30am Pacific Time today, when the event gets underway. Stay tuned for live blogging. UPDATE: For more, see our article, Google Instant: The Complete User’s Guide. […]
Google’s announced a special press event for next Wednesday on search that “you won’t want to miss.” What big news could there be? Let’s speculate — but I wouldn’t get too excited. Here’s what the invite says: We invite you to join us on Wednesday, September 8, to share our latest technological innovation and 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 Maps “Sponsored Map Icons” Test Comes To U.S. Google Maps is now testing “sponsored map icons” in the United States. This was first tested back in March in the Australian […]
The Google Webmaster Help blog announced they are now indexing SVG files and documents. SVG is a royalty-free graphics format typically used on the web for fancy font usage. Google said: We index SVG content whether it is in a standalone file or embedded directly in HTML. The web is big, so it may take […]
Do your web pages, graphic images, and videos effectively communicate aboutness to both web searchers and search engines? How do search engines and searchers determine aboutness?
Google has introduced a new method of verifying your web site in Google Webmaster Tools. The new method is to use the Google Analytics asynchronous code to verify your site in Google Webmaster Tools. It must be the newer asynchronous code, but if you use that code, you can quickly gain access to the site […]
Hi. My name is Tom and I have a problem. Actually I have a lot of problems, but none are more pressing or more relevant to you than how SEO has affected my perception of the internet. More specifically, SEO has ruined how I use the internet so I hope that sharing my story will […]
SEO focused videos, slide presentations, and podcasts recorded at various Search Marketing Expo conferences. To see the full presentation, click on either the screenshot, or the session’s title. SMX Advanced – June 11-12, 2013 – Seattle, WA Slides & Speaker Audio: From Microdata & Schema To Rich Snippets: Markup For The Advanced SEO Get your […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Live Matrix Wants To Be Your Guide To The Live Web If you’re looking for something to do, there are several event search engines you might use: Upcoming.org and Zvents are […]
One of the most important online marketing tools is the referrer string. Little known to most web surfers, this is effectively the Caller ID of the internet. It allows web site owners and marketers to know where visitors came from. It’s crucial marketing data, and data that might be going away. What’s The Referrer? When […]
Judging from the tweets I’ve seen, people are loving Google’s version of Pac-Man that’s playable on the Google home page today and tomorrow. They also have questions about it. Has anyone reached the end? Will you be able to play it in the future? Answers to these and more, below. Why’s Google Doing This? 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 Launches Encrypted Web Search Want to keep your searches from being seen when using open WiFi or other networks? Google’s introduced a new “secure” encrypted version of its search. Anyone […]
“Download time” and “speed” are terms that often confuse SEO professionals, web designers/developers, information architects and usability professionals alike because of various interpretations. A number of items influence download time, including but not limited 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: Yahoo Announces Q1 2010 Earnings: Income Up 87% Yahoo announced (PDF) their first quarter 2010 earnings and showed a revenue increase of 1% and income increase of 87% from the first […]
Yahoo announced (PDF) their first quarter 2010 earnings and showed a revenue increase of 1% and income increase of 87% from the first quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter of 2010. Revenues were $1,597 million and income from operations was $188 million for the first quarter of 2010. Part of the revenues came […]
Shortly after my last Multinational Search post (Global Vs. Local: How To Let Google Know How To Treat Your Site) I was taken to task by a few readers complaining that supposed global experts only talk about domains and hosting for international sites and not enough about content. Ok, fair criticism, that article was written […]
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, Google & Yahoo Gear Up For The 2010 Winter Olympic Games With the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada just days away, the engines are unveiling […]
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 Building Instant Translator Companion Google leaps language barrier with translator phone from The Times Online reports Google is working on a new tool that would bring instant translation to people. […]
Today Google is formally launching functionality that enables a “clickable local phone number” to appear in mobile ads. In other words a phone number appears as part of the ad copy and consumer-users can simply tap the number to initiate a call (see image below). It’s a call for the price of a click on […]