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.
Topic: Search engine optimization
Search Within A Search: Google Testing New Search Box
Google is trying out a new search box that displays under the first search result. Right now, Google’s first search result often includes a search box that lets users search within that first search result, as shown here for Microsoft.com: According to a report on Google Operating System blog, the new search box is larger […]
Bing Testing More Updates To Its Search Results Page
After this week’s story on possible changes coming to Bing’s navigation bar, it appears the site is also testing how search results are displayed. Along with repositioning its navigation bar, All Google reports Bing is experimenting with Google-like search cards for its results. Here’s a screen shot of what Bing’s new search page interface would […]
Bing On Search Spam Detection Techniques & Filtering
Microsoft’s Igor Rondel, Principal Development Manager of the Bing Index Quality team published a blog post on the Bing Search blog named Web Spam Filtering. In the post, Igor shares how Bing goes about detecting, processing, and filtering out search spam from their index. Bing outlines some ways they use methods of discovering and then […]
Google Tests Different Colors For Stars Ratings In Search Results
Google is testing various colors for their yellow/orange star reviews in the web and local search results. Typically, when you search for local queries, Google may present you with a ratings in the form of five star ratings, with the stars in an orange/gold color. Google is now testing those stars in different colors, including […]
SearchCap: Yahoo Tests New User Interface, 7 Things To Do Before Hiring An SEO & Training Tips
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 Experimenting With A New User Interface The website All Google Testing reported today that Yahoo is experimenting with a new user interface. The report claimed Yahoo’s experimental interface mirrors that […]
SearchCap: Google Image Bug, Bing Search Tests & App Linking
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 Tests New Search Results Design & Top Navigation Bing is testing several new interfaces for their search results. The tests interface includes moving the top navigation below the search box, […]
Bing Tests New Search Results Design & Top Navigation
Bing is testing several new interfaces for their search results. The tests interface includes moving the top navigation below the search box, using yellow lines above or on the left side of the navigation menus and/or gray arrows integrated with the top box above. The current design has a solid black top bar with the […]
Google Image Search Bug Leads To Duplicate Russian Auto Accident Images In Search Results
This morning, for a few hours, searchers looking for images using Google Image search were presented with an image of a Russian automobile accident in the search results. Searching for dogs to cats, screen shots to flowers and diapers to pornography were all presented with the same image of an accident in Russia. The issue […]
Bing Quietly Rolls Out App Linking, Connecting Search Results To App
With Google, Facebook and Twitter heavily promoting ways to promote apps within search and ads, few are taking notice of Bing’s efforts on that front. Bing has offered Bing App Linking since at least March 2014 but no one has really noticed. App Linking works in a similar way to Google App Indexing but specifically […]
SearchCap: Google Wins In Germany, Google Knowledge Vault & Bing Ads Close Variants
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 Close Variants Test In US Earlier this month, Google made waves when it announced it is removing the option to turn off close variants targeting, making true exact […]
SearchCap: AdWords Currency Conversions, Bing Image Widget, & Shopping Campaigns
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Google Shopping Campaigns Countdown Is On: Transition Surprises And Tips From The Experts Tick tock, we’re in the final countdown before the big transition from traditional product listing ad (PLA) […]
SearchCap: Google Multilingual, Bing Ads Editor Update & Google DMCA At New Levels
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 Search App Is Now Truly Multilingual Around the world millions of people are multilingual or partly so. In the US, census data reflect that 20 percent of the population speaks […]
Google DMCA Notices Reach Record High With 7.8 Million Link Removal Requests Filed In One Week
Going on Google’s recent takedown notice numbers, it looks as if the site may be spending as much time on link removal requests as it is algorithm updates. According to TorrentFreak, Google is now processing an average of more than a million takedown requests a day, an enormous increase from five years ago when the […]
Fun Google Search Easter Eggs Work With Query Refinements
Google is a big fan of doing easter eggs, and we’ve covered many of them in the past including ones that mess around with the display of the search results listing page. They include the do a barrel roll and blink HTML examples. But did you know they work with query refinements, as well? Because of […]
Google Sending Invalid Error Notices Of Redirecting Smartphone Users To Homepage
A couple weeks ago, we reported that Google began sending notices to webmasters over faulty mobile redirects. This notice was to inform webmasters of notices being shown to searchers that the searcher may be redirected to the home page as opposed to the specific page they are clicking on within the Google search results. It […]
SearchCap: Google AdWords Conversion Optimization & Bulk Edits, Bing Maps Imagery Update & Google’s Mobile Revenues Hit $8B
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 Maps Adds Hundreds Of Streetside & 3D City Images; Plus New HD Aerial Images Bing announced a large maps update today, where they have added hundreds of Streetside images, 3D […]
SearchCap: 890 Google Search Changes, Knowledge Graph PR Nightmare & New Interfaces
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 Proves To Be (Brief) PR Nightmare For Major UK Brand Greggs Bakery The UK’s Greggs Bakery took a hit recently when its logo was hi-jacked via Google’s knowledge […]
Google Knowledge Graph Proves To Be (Brief) PR Nightmare For Major UK Brand Greggs Bakery
The UK’s Greggs Bakery took a hit recently when its logo was hi-jacked via Google’s knowledge graph, causing a short-lived PR nightmare for the brand. Anyone searching “Greggs” on Google UK would have seen a knowledge graph box that included what appeared to be the brand’s logo, but with the accompanying fake slogan “Providing sh*t […]
Google Made 890 Improvements To Search Over The Past Year
In a Google+ post from Google head of search Amit Singhal, Google shares they have made “more than 890 improvements to Google Search last year alone.” In 2009, Google told us they made between 350 to 400 changes to search and in 2010, they said they made 550 improvements to search in the past year. […]
Google Tests A New Local Knowledge Graph Interface
Google is testing a new interface for their local knowledge graph. Instead of the local carousel interface that launched a year ago in June 2013, Google is testing more of a ‘card’-like approach that is vertical as opposed to horizontal scroll. The folks at Moz captured this in their testing and posted it on their […]
SearchCap: Google Penalty, AdWords Website Call Conversions & Pigeon Fears
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 Ability To Track “Website Call Conversions” In AdWords Today, Google launched a what’s likely to become a popular new feature for many AdWords advertisers. Website call conversions allow advertisers […]
Google Targets Two European Link Networks
Over the weekend, Google has sent out mass link penalty notifications throughout Europe for those sites partaking in specific link networks with the goal of manipulating their rankings in Google. Google’s Johannes Mehlem posted on Twitter that Google has “taken action on one European and one German linking network.” We have taken action on one […]
HubPages Acquires Squidoo: Content Migration To Begin Within A Few Weeks
Seth Godin, the founder and owner of Squidoo, announced the social content platform, has been acquired by HubPages. Squidoo was founded back in 2005, where users can create “lenses” of topics and content. Back in 2007, we did a Q&A with the founder and then in 2011 Panda hit, which reportedly had an impact on […]
SearchCap: AdWords Close Variants, comScore Search Rankings & Google Now Flights
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: ComScore: Yahoo Bounces Back From All-Time Low In Search Share After dropping below a 10% market share for search for the first time in June, Yahoo creeped back above that threshold, […]
Farewell ‘Pure’ Exact Match, AdWords Will Soon Require All Campaigns To Use Close Variants
Today Google has announced that in late September, AdWords advertisers will no longer have the ability to de-select close variants. All campaigns will now include these variants, something that advertisers could previously opt out of. The way close variants will work is completely the same as it has been since 2012. So What Does This […]
SearchCap: Negative SEO Extortion Scam, Apple Maps Dominates Google & Bing Ads Top Movers
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 Responds To Mass Negative SEO Extortion Emails There are widespread reports within the industry of negative SEO extortion emails being sent to website owners, webmasters, SEOs and others. The emails […]
Google Responds To Mass Negative SEO Extortion Emails
There are widespread reports within the industry of negative SEO extortion emails being sent to website owners, webmasters, SEOs and others. The emails are claiming that an evil SEO will ruin the site’s ranking in Google and other search engines if they do not come up and wire $1,500 to the evil SEO. Both Dan […]
SearchCap: Microsoft Catapult, Google HTTPS Factors & Bing Conversational 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: BrightLocal Opens Its 2014 Local SEO Industry Survey Local SEO firm BrightLocal has posted its third annual local SEO industry survey, asking SEO professionals to answer 20 questions on SEO business […]
BrightLocal Opens Its 2014 Local SEO Industry Survey
Local SEO firm BrightLocal has posted its third annual local SEO industry survey, asking SEO professionals to answer 20 questions on SEO business related topics like company turnover, services and fees. Anyone interested in taking the survey can do so on BrightLocal’s website up until this Friday, August 15. BrightLocal says it plans on posting […]
Explainer: How Google’s New SSL / HTTPS Ranking Factor Works
Last Thursday, Google launched a new ranking signal to give HTTPS sites a ranking boost, a small ranking boost, to encourage webmasters to migrate their sites from HTTP to HTTPS. In our story from Thursday, we covered why Google is doing this and the concerns some SEOs had with the migration, as well as the […]
Google Investigating Bugs With Structured Data Report In Webmaster Tools
There are hundreds of complaints within the webmaster and SEO community around the Structured Data report within Google Webmaster Tools showing massive drops in structured data elements being shown. The good news is that everyone seems to be affected by the issue and that Google’s John Mueller said on Google+ that Google has “been looking […]
SearchCap: Google Webmaster Tools & Guidelines Updates, Bing Ads Opportunities & DuckDuckGo Settings
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 Webmaster Guidelines Update Calls “Low Quality Guest Blog Posts” Spam Google has updated their webmaster guidelines, specifically in the little or no original content guideline, to add “low-quality guest blog […]
Google Webmaster Guidelines Update Calls “Low Quality Guest Blog Posts” Spam
Google has updated their webmaster guidelines, specifically in the little or no original content guideline, to add “low-quality guest blog posts” as an example of “scraped content.” Brian Ussery first spotted this change, noting how Google has been fighting the use of guest blogging and posting around link building. Specifically when Google’s head of search […]
SearchCap: Google Weekend Update, Rogue Google Ads Settlement & Our New Site
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Indian Govt. Rages At Google Maps Outing Of Secret Bases In 2013, Google imitated a “mapathon” project in India, offering prizes to encourage people to help fill in gaps and improve […]
Google: No Comment On Possible Google Algorithm Update Over The Weekend
On Friday, August 8th, there appears to have been a Google algorithm update that Google said they will not comment on. It may likely be a monthly Google Panda refresh but we cannot confirm if there was an update and if so, if it was Panda or not. I reported the details at the Search […]
Enterprise Local Marketing Automation Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide
Introduction Locally targeted ad spending by U.S. national brands will grow from $54.4 billion in 2014 to $68.9 billion in 2018, according to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast. Local marketing growth is being driven by several important trends, including consumers’ increasing preference for online local information – particularly through social media – and their use […]
Introducing The New Search Engine Land!
Notice anything different today? I sure hope so, because we’ve just launched the new Search Engine Land website! This is Search Engine Land’s first redesign since March, 2011. Our sister site, Marketing Land, has also been relaunched. While both sites obviously look different (more on that below), let me begin by talking about what hasn’t […]
SearchCap: Mobile Search Ad Spend, Mobile PPC & Fun Search Pictures
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Mobile Search Spend Share In UK And Australia Outpaces US Mobile spend and click share in three of the most mature paid search markets – the U.S., UK and Australia – […]
SearchCap: Google HTTPS Algorithm, Bing Tech & Google Management Book
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 Starts Giving A Ranking Boost To Secure HTTPS/SSL Sites Google To Give Secure Sites A Ranking Boost Google has announced that going HTTPS — adding a SSL 2048-bit key certificate […]