Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yandex Reports Revenue Up 37% In Q4, Ad Network Revenue Nearly Doubles Russian search giant Yandex reported a strong Q4 2013 today, with overall revenue up 37 percent from Q4 2012 […]
Bing has quietly updated their Webmaster Guidelines to include a stern warning to webmasters who think they can use keyword stuffing techniques to manipulate their rankings and get away with it. The warning says Bing may demote the site or delist the site that is using keyword stuffing. The new section was added sometime yesterday […]
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 Google Maps Comes Out Of Preview Today Roughly last May at Google’s “I/O” developer conference, the company introduced an updated version of its desktop Maps experience. Since that time, it […]
In today’s video from Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam reaffirms the significance of backlinks. The video is in response to the following question: Does the big G have a version of the search engine that totally excludes any backlink relevancy? I’m wondering what search would look like and am curious to try it […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Delivering On Search: Behind The Scenes With An Ad Agency SEO Manager Today’s full service ad agency services go far beyond building out creative and determining media placement. As Lowe Campbell […]
Today’s full service ad agency services go far beyond building out creative and determining media placement. As Lowe Campbell Ewald’s SEO manager, Hillary Glaser is responsible for managing client search efforts, as well as training agency staff and educating clients on the realities of SEO. At the beginning of every project, Glaser said she meets […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Starbucks & The Economist Admit To Using Google+ For SEO More Than Social Last Friday, a New York Times report on Google+ spotlighted Starbucks and The Economist as two brands currently […]
Last Friday, a New York Times report on Google+ spotlighted Starbucks and The Economist as two brands currently using Google+ to impact search efforts. Alex Wheeler, Starbuck’s vice president of global digital marketing, told The New York Times, “When we think about posting on Google+, we think about how does it relate to our search […]
On Wednesday/Thursday of last week, Google added a new guideline to their Webmaster Guidelines to “not block a destination URL for a Google Ad product” via your robots.txt file. 24-hours later, Google reversed that guideline and put the webmaster guidelines back to exactly how they were Wednesday morning. Here was the addition and then what […]
Duane Forrester, Bing’s Senior Product Manager, posted on the Bing Webmaster Blog that you should not be too crazed over picking an expensive domain name for your new web site. He said, even when you buy old domain names that are pricy, those domain names may have some bad history. Domain names with bad history […]
Friday we covered an SEO computer game named Donkey Cutts, a play off Donkey Kong. Today, I was informed of another SEO computer game launched about a month ago named Madoogle. This game is a play on Angry Birds, where you swap out the birds with SEO personalities and the pigs with black hats. The […]
This afternoon on its European Blog, Google’s General Counsel Kent Walker exposed the full text of the company’s third-proposed and tentatively accepted antitrust settlement agreement with European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. Almunia previously declined to make the full agreement available. The document, dated January 31, 2014, is quite long (embedded below) and contains extensive examples of […]
What will search look like in 2028? That’s a question that the folks at Bing were tasked with answering for the new movie, Robocop. (Well, “new” as in a remake of the 1987 original that just hit theaters this week.) In a blog post this week, the Bing search folks shared a few screenshots showing […]
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 Bing Ads Editor Release Coming Soon, To Include Update To Campaign Conflicts Review Along with news that a new release of Bing Ads Editor is imminent, today the Bing Ads […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, is such a celebrity in the SEO community that one agency built a game for him named Donkey Cutts. The game works like Donkey Kong but replaces the objects based off of Google ranking signals. So you pick your character and then your goal is to reach the […]
Millions of us have asked Google to play weatherperson. In order to get an answer to one of our oldest and most basic questions, we type a variety of words and numbers — city names, neighborhoods and ZIP codes, plus words like “weather,” “forecast” or maybe “temperature” — into the Google search box, and Google […]
It’s been big news recently about major brands and Google penalties, and the floodgates feel open on people spotting even more brands possibly hit out there. Some new crackdown by Google? No. It’s the rise of hyperactive attention in this area, and that’s turning into a problem. Hence this open letter, on how we’re planning […]
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 Expands Mobile Sitelinks Coverage In US, Will Roll Out To EU Markets Bing Ads announced today that it will complete roll out of sitelink extensions on mobile devices in […]
Google has offered up two very technical blog posts on SEO topics covering infinite scroll and faceted navigation search engine friendly techniques. Infinite Scroll Web Pages Infinite scroll is what you see on a lot of newer style web sites such as Pinterest, Google Image search results, many landing pages with a lot of products […]
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 On Being A Spam Fighter: Looking For Patterns & Always New Spam Efforts Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts posted a longer video today answering what it […]
Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts posted a longer video today answering what it is like to fight webspam at Google. The questions posed by Brian Harnish of Westminster, California were: What is a day in the life of a search spam team member like? What is the evolution of decisions in terms of […]
Make no mistake. Plenty of sites — big brands included — willingly do things in an attempt to rank better on Google that go past SEO tactics that Google itself considers acceptable. However, there’s also no better poster child for how complicated and confusing Google’s rules can be than the fact that Google has 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: Google Showing Restaurant Menus In Card-Style Search Result Google has started showing complete restaurant menus in its search results when a query specifically looks for menu information. We think Allie Brown […]
Google has started showing complete restaurant menus in its search results when a query specifically looks for menu information. We think Allie Brown was the first to spot this when she shared the results of a search for “jones brunch menu” on Twitter. For that query, Google begins the search results with a card-style answer […]
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 Updates Its Page Layout Algorithm To Go After Sites “Top Heavy” With Ads Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced that Google has released a refresh of its Page […]
In today’s video from Google’s Matt Cutts, Cutts addresses the concern over having third-party comments with poor grammar on your blog or site. Cutts said that you do not need to worry about the grammar people use on your site. You should worry about your writing style and your grammar but there is no need […]
YouTube and Facebook have long been the favored social accounts promoted by brands in paid search ads. Visa is cracking the mold. In what may be a first for a major brand, the Olympic sponsor is using paid search to drive visitors to its Tumblr account. The ads are appearing on both Google and the […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced that Google has released a refresh of its Page Layout Algorithm. The filter, also known as the Top Heavy algorithm, downgrades the ranking of a web page with too many ads at the top or if the ads are deemed too distracting for users. Cutts said the algorithm […]
Microsoft appears to be testing a new feature for Bing: Bing Saves. According to a Neowin community member who saw the beta, it’s a way to click and bookmark a search result for later retrieval from a personal Microsoft account. Below is a screenshot of the feature from Neowin. The utility of such a feature is […]
Dana Lookadoo is a familiar, warm, embracing and smart personality in the SEO/SEM space, and when she was involved in a major accident, the community she was such a big part of was there for her. Yesterday, Dana posted on her blog Journaling My Cycling Accident And Recovery. She described in detail her accident, the […]
According to a report appearing today in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Yahoo will be incorporating local content and listings from Yelp into its main search results. As the article points out, Yelp has a similar deal with Microsoft-Bing and, of course, with Apple (maps). Yelp has an API that permits third parties to use […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: YP Wants To Compete Directly With Google And Yelp In Local When one looks across the local digital landscape there are many companies and apps but few consumer “brands.” In specific […]
Yesterday online travel giant Expedia announced Q4 2013 and full year results. The company “beat the street,” reporting strong room night and revenue growth across all geographies. So far a suspected penalty from Google hasn’t hurt the company’s bottom line. See our earlier stories: Expedia Lost 25% Of Their Search Visibility In Google Possibly Over […]
Last week, Google officially announced that Glass will be made available for purchase to the general public by the end of the year. The impending launch of Glass is exciting, but it does present some new challenges for search marketers. Given the differences between how Google Glass handles search versus a desktop or traditional mobile device, we […]
Soon after Google has warned Germany SEOs about paid links and link schemes, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted on Twitter that they took action on a German agency and their clients for link schemes. Matt Cutts wrote, “this week we took action on a German agency’s link network/clients.” He added that Google […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Update: “When Do The Olympics Opening Ceremonies Start?” Now You CAN Ask Yahoo Yesterday, I wrote about my search experience in trying to find out when the Olympics Opening Ceremonies will […]
There are two new link tools available for those looking to analysis their own links or their competitor links. The new tools come from OpenLinkProfiler.org & WebMeUp.com. OpenLinkProfiler.org is a free tool, while WebMeUp.com is also currently free but they may charge in the future. This adds to the current tools in the market, including […]
Google’s finally reached a proposed agreement with the European Union over antitrust charges. Judging from screenshots the EU has released, it will give Google rivals unprecedented positioning in Google’s results, sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee. Consider how the EU is saying that shopping results will appear, as part of the agreement. The before: […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: “When Do The Olympics Opening Ceremonies Start?” Whatever You Do, Don’t Ask Yahoo Who knew a simple question would be so hard to answer? Yesterday I searched across all three engines […]
Who knew a simple question would be so hard to answer? Yesterday I searched across all three engines to find out more about the Olympic opening ceremonies and when they start. I quickly discovered that the official website of NBC, which is broadcasting the games in the U.S., had nothing about the ceremonies or when […]