Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Nokia Partners With Xyo To Power “Replacement App” Search For Windows Phones One of the persistent criticisms of Windows tablets and Windows Phones is that they just don’t have the app […]
It’s been about two months since Google launched a “news keywords” meta tag for news publishers. How’s it going? Why didn’t Google the standard meta keywords tag? The company’s not saying, but it did shed a little more light on how to use the tag. Google launched the news keywords tag in September, designed 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: iPhone 5 Won’t Change Mobile Search, But Can Nokia? With the launch of the iPhone 5, perhaps the most eagerly awaited electronics launch ever, speculation has been rampant on the impact […]
Grab your flux capacitor and fire up the Delorean, folks. We’re going back to the future: Meta keywords are back. Well, technically, it’s not the same meta keywords tag that died years ago for traditional SEO purposes. No, it’s a new news_keywords metatag that Google just announced today and only works for news publishers that […]
Google’s about to make a change to how it reports referrer information for those using its Chrome browser. As a result, some analytics programs may begin listing search visitors as if they instead came directly from Google without doing a search, though major packages will probably adjust OK. The change was posted on the Google […]
Schema.org, Rel=Author & Meta Tagging For 2012 Presentations from SMX East – NYC, NY, September 2011 The search engines have been kind to SEOs recently, adding a number of new tools that when used properly promise to improve visibility and rankings for certain types of content. Schema.org, a joint alliance between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo […]
I was happy. I was joyful. I thought the meta keywords tag had finally died last year. But Bing recently said that it does use it. After some back-and-forth, I can confirm further that it does, but as a signal for finding spammers, not for improving rank. Meta Keywords Tag 101 If you want 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’s “Gold Standard” Search Results Take Big Hit In New York Times Story The New York Times has a great, detailed story out today about a merchant with an unusual 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: How The New Facebook Messages & Email System Works At one end of the spectrum, Facebook says it’s “simple” and “fun.” On the other end, some are saying it’s Facebook’s version […]
At last, Google has finally gained a page preview feature. Called “Instant Previews,” this is a way for you to see what’s on a page that’s listed in Google’s search results without having to leave Google. The new feature seems promising, another way to save time in the searching process, because there’s less need for […]
A new eye tracking study done in Spanish by Mari-Carmen Marcos and Cristina González-Caro at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and published July 2010 (Spanish PDF over here) was translated by Ani López reveals some new insights into searcher behavior. The study shows that the search snippet, often the meta description from the site, is […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Liveblog: SMX West 2010 Keynote – An Insider’s Look At Google Research It’s day two of SMX West 2010 in a rainy Santa Clara, California, and we’ll be liveblogging today’s keynote […]
I was pointed to a filed affidavit (PDF) between Jenzabar & Robert Maginn as the plaintiffs versus Long Bow Group as the defendants. In short, it seems like the plaintiff is suing the defendants over trademark infringement within a site’s keyword meta tags. What is interesting is not that there is a lawsuit about this, […]
In the battle between search engines and some mainstream news publishers, ACAP has been lurking for several years. ACAP — the Automated Content Access Protocol — has constantly been positioned by some news executives as a cornerstone to reestablishing the control they feel has been lost over their content. However, the reality is that publishers […]
Oh, that this weren’t true. Last week, Yahoo made news by disclosing that it had quietly dropped support for the meta keywords tag. As a long time hater of that tag and the insane questions it has produced, I was thrilled! But today, I see conclusively that Yahoo still supports the tag. The test was […]
And then there were none. Yahoo has long been the only major search engine that supported the meta keywords tag. However, the search engine revealed today that like the other majors, it no longer supports it. The news came during the Ask The Search Engines session at SMX East in New York today. The search […]
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 Now Showing Ads On iPhone Map We got a tip from Anthony Avolio yesterday, who pointed out that Google was showing ads on Maps on the iPhone. Until then I […]
The Google Webmaster Central Blog announced they have updated the verification tool to make it easier for webmasters to verify their sites. There are three main changes: (1) New look for HTML file verification process: (2) If you use the META Tag verification option and you change your email address tied to that Google account, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Shashi Seth, Another Ex-Googler, Lands At AOL AOL announced today that it’s hired former Google employee Shashi Seth as its Senior VP of Global Advertising Products. While with Google, Seth was […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Measure The Value Of A Fan Or Follower In Social Media It’s hard to justify the time spent on social media account management. But there are ways to measure […]
Google is telling the world what every seasoned webmaster and search marketer should already know: The keywords meta tag has no impact whatsoever on how Google’s search engine ranks pages. None. Zilch. Nada. And while Google often needs to be somewhat ambiguous when talking about how it ranks pages, the message in today’s blog post […]
In the same month that Rupert Murdoch has said he’ll charge for all his news sites because “quality journalism is not cheap,” I find it ironic to read the rubbish about search engine optimization that Murdoch-owned Fox News “reported” this week. SEO equals scamming, we’re told. If I have to pay for this type of […]
The economic Grinch is threatening to steal Christmas this year, but there are some things local businesses can do to avoid getting coal in their stockings this holiday season. Here are three tips for punching up your online local marketing presence, just in time for Black Friday and the Cyber Mondays to follow.
Google is getting into the SEO consulting business. Well, not quite. But, Google is now formally offering an “SEO Starter Guide” with practical advice for webmasters about improving search engine visibility and increasing traffic to a web site. It comes in the form of a 22-page PDF announced today on the Webmaster Central blog and […]
I was waiting for the day someone would bring an SEO tool to the iPhone. Today is that day, Infindigm released a tool named proSEO – iPhone SEO Content Analyzer. You can download the tool on iTunes or on your iPhone. To see the tool on iTunes, use this link. It does cost $14.99 but […]
The Google Webmaster Central Blog has answered some more questions asked in the Google Groups area at their blog. Remember, Google recently answered questions on image search ranking, Sitelinks, reconsideration requests, redirects and communication. This new post talks about duplicate content, overall site design, meta tags, local results, and more communication topics. Here is a […]
Last week, the three major search engines came together to say how they agree — and disagree — over the Robots Exclusion Protocol. It’s such an important standard, one every webmaster should understand. To help, Vanessa Fox has compiled an extensive and outstanding overview of it at Jane & Robot in her Managing Robot’s Access […]
I know. I know. Seasoned search engine optimization (SEO) professionals might yawn and roll their eyes when the subject of meta-tag optimization comes up, as they might think, "Meta-tag optimization is SO 1990s." Personally, I think meta-tag content gets a bad rap because, in the past, many SEO professionals and website owners exploited meta-tags to […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
Court Says Keyword Metatags Don’t Matter–Standard Process v. Banks by Eric Goldman uncovers a recent case between Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks that shows that the court has ruled that the META keywords tag is “immaterial.” Goldman said this is the first time the courts ruled based on knowledge of how the META keywords impact […]
Eric Goldman reports that an 11th circuit, US Court of Appeals has upheld a district court’s decision that the use of trademarked terms in meta tags can cause confusion and thus can constitute trademark infringement. North American Medical Corp. v. Axiom Worldwide, Inc. docket number 06-01678 CV-JTC-1 (PDF) doesn’t specifically say if the trademarked terms […]
Matt Cutts of Google posted a blog entry asking SEOs how they want Google to handle the NOINDEX meta tag. If you use the NOINDEX meta tag now, Google won’t show the page in any way in the Google index — not even a “link only” listing. Matt asks SEOs if this is what they […]
For years, US President George W. Bush was tops on Google for searches on miserable failure until last year’s Googlebomb "fix" solved his problem on Google. But Bush is back, sort of. People are spotting that Bush’s official White House page is ranking tops for who is a failure on Google. A new Googlebomb? If […]
After a year of discussions, ACAP — Automated Content Access Protocol — was released today as a sort of robots.txt 2.0 system for telling search engines what they can or can’t include in their listings. However, none of the major search engines support ACAP, and its future remains firmly one of "watch and see." Below, […]
The Google Webmaster Central Blog described what makes for a good meta description versus what makes for a bad meta description. Meta descriptions are a special tag that you place within the source code of your html page. They can be used by search engines for ranking purposes as well as for being displayed within […]
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from September 2007:
If there’s anything I particularly hate when it comes to SEO, it’s the meta keywords tag. I so wish it had never been invented. It’s practically useless, yet people still obsess over it. In this article, I’ll explain more about why you shouldn’t worry about it except perhaps for misspellings, as well as which search […]
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from July 2007:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google’s Dan Crow announced today that the unavailable_after META tag is now live and operational. Google To Add “Unavailable After” META Tag from about two weeks ago, explains in detail more about this tag and how it can be used.