Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: German Official: Google Should Reveal Its Ranking Algorithm One of the unanswered questions in the ongoing European-Google antitrust saga is what concrete changes or concessions critics want (or will accept) from […]
One of the unanswered questions in the ongoing European-Google antitrust saga is what concrete changes or concessions critics want (or will accept) from Google. One of those things may have just come to light in a Financial Times interview with German justice minister Heiko Maas. Maas asserts in the interview that Google needs to become more “transparent” about its algorithm and […]
Bing is now offering predictions on the outcome of the Scottish Independence Referendum. Search Bing for [scottish independence] or [scottish referendum] and Bing will provide the best mathematical guess based on Bing Predicts. Here is the current prediction, which was last updated yesterday: Bing said it has successfully and accurately provided predictions on reality TV shows, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: On Average, 171 Health Insurance Advertisers Bid On Same Top Keywords In Google Health insurance advertisers spent more than $103 million on Google AdWords in the U.S. in the first half […]
Health insurance advertisers spent more than $103 million on Google AdWords in the U.S. in the first half of 2014. A new report from paid search insights firm, AdGooroo, looked at desktop text ad activity on 6,003 health insurance-related keywords. When analyzing the top 20 keywords by spend, AdGooroo found that an average 171 advertisers […]
Last week, after reporting on BrightLocal’s recent local SEO industry survey, some readers were skeptical about the survey’s findings, specifically that 37 percent of local SEOs were earning less than $30,000 in “revenue turnover.” While some commenters questioned the location of the survey’s participants, BrightLocal clarified in the comments that over 85 percent of the […]
As Google continues to provide quick answers and Knowledge Graph data directly at the top of the search results, publisher concerns continue to rise. Publishers are worried that searchers will have less of a need and desire to click through from Google’s search results page to the publisher’s page, leaving the publishers with very little […]
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 Refreshes The Change History Report Bing Ads has rolled out a new look for its Change History reporting. The new format groups changes made by a user at one […]
In 22 days from now, it will be the year anniversary of the release of the fifth update to Google’s Penguin algorithm, code-named Penguin 2.1. As you can imagine, waiting 11 months and 8 days can be excruciating for those who were negatively impacted by the punitive algorithm. They’ve likely by now cleaned up their […]
Who says rivals can’t work together? If you search on Google for “iPhone 6” or “Apple Watch,” you’ll discover new information boxes about each product that Google created with the help of Apple. Here’s how it looks for search on iPhone 6: And for the iPhone 6 Plus: And for the Apple Watch: These boxes, commonly called […]
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 Watch Brings Local Search To Your Wrist We don’t yet know how popular the Apple Watch will be when it goes on sale early next year. A “flash survey” conducted […]
In today's installment, search industry veterans predict where SEO will be in 2020.
News publishers often want to be listed in Google. News publishers also often want to have paywalls or registration barriers. The good news is Google has rules that allow for this. The bad news is that Google routinely fails to enforce these rules. Below, a case study involving content in a major publication authored by […]
Google has launched a new Knowledge Graph panel on the right side named “In the news.” If you search for [jill duggar], you will see the new box come up on the right hand side. If you click on the link that reads “Headlines & Global News,” you would think Google would take you 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 Analytics Begins To Roll Out New Benchmark Reports Google Analytics announced today its new benchmark reports will be rolling out over the next few weeks, allowing users to compare their […]
Igor Rondel, the Principal Development Manager of the Bing Index Quality, posted on the Bing Search Blog news that they released a spam filter a “few months” ago that impacted about 3% of all search queries. The spam filter was aimed at URL keyword stuffing. Igor Rondel it targeted spammers stuffing keywords in the URL […]
Apple announced the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and announced iOS 8, the new mobile operating system for Apple devices, will be available September 17th, a week from today. Here is a preview of some of the new search features within iOS 8 including Bing results within Spotlight, the new settings for your default […]
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 Brings PLAs To Third-Party Sites Like Walmart.com Today, Google announced it is extending its popular product listing ads (PLAs) to retail and e-commerce sites across the Google Search Network. The […]
I personally spend a lot of time within the SEO space investigating claims of Google algorithm updates; it is a fascinating topic because there are so many variables involved and a lot of secrecy on Google’s end around its search algorithms. Often, Google will not confirm updates or algorithm refreshes. Plus, with manual actions and link […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Industry Survey: 37% Of SEOs Saw Less Than $30,000 In Revenue Turnover Since Last Year According to an industry survey by local search firm BrightLocal, a majority of SEOs experienced less […]
According to an industry survey by local search firm BrightLocal, a majority of local SEOs experienced less than $30,000 in revenue turnover during the last twelve months, with the average revenue-per-client ranging from $500 to $1,000 for the largest percentage of survey respondents. BrightLocal polled more than 1,700 SEOs, with 31 percent of the survey […]
SearchMetrics announced their 2014 SEO ranking factors study is now ready for download. Every year, SearchMetrics releases the study but this is the largest study they’ve done, with almost 100 pages and by adding dozens of new factors like time of site, bounce rate, fresh links and others. The key take away from here is […]
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt took to the Google Europe Blog this weekend to defend his company against a Europe-wide ad campaign that asserts Google has abused its dominant market position in search. It’s essentially a public appeal on the same terms being argued to the European Commission for why Google needs to be restrained. […]
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 Launches Xiaolce Chinese Chatbot With Cortana Smarts For Windows Phone After taking its Windows Phone 8.1 with Cortana to China last month, Bing announced today the launch of XiaoIce (“little […]
Google has been running several experiments on the way it displays product listing ads (PLAs) in the search results. We’ve seen ads grouped in pricing buckets, PLAs showing in knowledge panels, and now, PLAs segmented by brand. While researching Chromebooks, Samuel Edwards at Tenthwave Digital saw the result below which groups product listing ads by […]
Google announced a few changes to the search box you find within the Google search results. Often, when you search for a brand name, Google will add a search box within the search snippet result for that site. That box allows you to search within that specific site only. The results are similar to 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: Getty Images Sues Microsoft For “Massive Infringement” Of Copyright By Bing Image Widget It didn’t take long for Bing’s new Image Widget to come under fire for alleged copyright infringement. The […]
It didn’t take long for Bing’s new Image Widget to come under fire for alleged copyright infringement. The feature, which enables online publishers to display photos pulled in by the Bing search engine, rolled out Aug. 22. Today, Getty Images filed suit in a New York federal court claiming that it’s a “massive infringement” of […]
The YouTube keyword tool has been shuttered for good. The company announced it would sunset on September 1st in favor of the Display Planner’s AdWords for video keyword suggestions. Users must have an AdWords account to access the Display Planner. Google began alerting users that the tool would be disabled on September 1st. Oddly, instead […]
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 Introduces Bulk Editing In Web UI, Now Review Up To 1 Million Keywords Bing Ads has been building out its capabilities in the Web UI this year so that […]
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 Quick Answer Fail: NSFW Advice On “How To Eat Sushi” Google continues to expand the number of quick answers it offers in its results, as well as the size of […]
Google continues to expand the number of quick answers it offers in its results, as well as the size of those answers themselves. But since Google takes these answers from other sites without any human review, that can lead to goofs. The latest: some advice on eating sushi that might not go down well with […]
In August 2014, Google announced that they would give a small ranking boost to HTTPS with the new HTTPS ranking factor. Now that it is a few weeks later, many are wondering how much of an impact does HTTPS URLs actually have on rankings. The answer according to SearchMetrics is none currently. Marcus Tober of […]
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 Authorship May Be Dead, But Author Rank Is Not Google ended its three-year experiment with Google Authorship yesterday, but the use of Author Rank to improve search results will continue. […]
Google ended its three-year experiment with Google Authorship yesterday, but the use of Author Rank to improve search results will continue. Wait — you can have Author Rank without Google Authorship? And just what is Google Authorship versus Author Rank? Come along, because they are different things — and Author Rank lives on. What Google Authorship […]
Google, Facebook and others are trying to bring the world of internet-style “deep linking” to apps. Google is indexing in-app links from Android in a bid to keep search relevant in a mobile world now dominated by apps. Facebook recently touted gains that its open-source App Link program has made. Now an independent search app […]
Google has quietly disabled the Google Blog Search home page at google.com/blogsearch and redirects it to the Google home page. Now, if you want to filter content based on blog posts, you can do so by going to Google News, clicking on the Search Tools and selecting the “All news” drop down and checking off […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Official: Google Kills Authorship After three years the great Google Authorship experiment has come to an end … at least for now. Today John Mueller of Google Webmaster Tools announced in […]
Anyone who follows Google knows that nothing it creates is immune from elimination. Like so many efforts before it, Authorship is fading into the sunset.
After analyzing “billions of pieces” of content, content marketing firm BrightEdge claims organic search is the primary driver of website traffic to business sites, while social barely generates a blip on the traffic radar. The BrightEdge study found organic search drives 51 percent of all visitors to B2B and B2C websites, trumping all other non-organic […]