Google’s Matt Cutts, the head of search spam, released a video today providing an SEO tip on meta descriptions. Matt said, do not have duplicate meta descriptions on your site. Matt said it is better to have unique meta descriptions and even no meta descriptions at all, then to show duplicate meta descriptions across pages. […]
Google’s continuing push toward identifying expertise and authority on the web takes another step in the form of a new type of website/landing page classification: “Your Money or Your Life.” It’s explained in detail in a new version of Google’s “Search Quality Ratings Guidelines” — the document that’s used by the company’s cadre of human […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Report: Search Trends Hint At A Holiday Season Filled With Tech Gadget Gifts Analyzing search data for the four weeks leading up to November 9, Experian Marketing Services claims online product […]
The AdWords Bid Simulator tool now offers conversion estimates in addition to impressions and clicks to show how bid changes may affect conversion volume and values. For each bid option shown in the simulator, the bid simulator provides the number of conversions — both 1-per click and many-per-click — and conversion values if assigned or […]
Google recently released news that it is now moving to encrypt all organic search activity. This means that analytics programs will no longer be able to report on keyword terms that drive organic traffic from Google, instead noting the data as being “not provided.” This could be devastating to marketing managers and webmasters who rely heavily […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Court Finds Google’s Book Scanning Is Fair Use: Highlights From The Ruling Nearly ten years after it began and eight years after Google was sued over it, Google’s program that scans […]
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: When Commenting On Blog Posts, Try To Use Your Real Name In a recent video published by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts talks about are blog […]
In a recent video published by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts talks about are blog comments with links spam? In short, most of the time, commenting and leaving links to your site or resources is not directly spam but like anything, it can be abused. Matt offers some tips on how to make […]
Preliminary October search market share data from comScore are being exposed by financial analysts. We’ll have to wait for the official numbers either later today or tomorrow. However, it appears there is little change from last month: Google is flat, Bing gained a fraction of a point and Yahoo lost two-tenths of a percent. More […]
Google’s John Mueller announced that on this Monday’s Google office-hours, Google will be offering “short website reviews” for webmasters who are looking for advice. To participate, you must add your website to this Google Moderator page. Then, if Google has time and wants to review your site, Google will review it live, this Monday, November […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Social Media Marketing Tactics that Work – Next Week in Las Vegas Learn the latest tactics and best-practices for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Whether you’re managing your brand’s communities, […]
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 Homepage Showcases Art Installment Of 2,000 American Flags To Celebrate Veterans Day Bing is celebrating Veterans Day today by featuring an image on its homepage from the Covina Rotary’s Club […]
Bing is celebrating Veterans Day today by featuring an image on its homepage from the Covina Rotary’s Club Field of Valor, an art installment of 2,000 American flags constructed on the grounds of a Covina, California school. The homepage includes links to: More images of the Covina art installment Bing search results page for Veterans […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Offer Extensions Get Shut Down In Favor Of Google Offers In February, Google announced the limited release of AdWords Offer Extensions, which allowed advertisers to dedicate extra real estate in […]
Search marketing software provider Moz is asking SEO professionals to complete its 2013 Moz Industry Survey. According to the announcement on Moz’s blog, the survey should take only five to ten minutes and the data will be shared publicly once it’s published. This year’s survey is intended to gain insights on industry trends, including SEO […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: SEMPO Asks Search Marketers To Take 9th Annual State Of Search Survey Just after publishing its annual salary survey results, SEMPO is calling for participants to take part in its 9th […]
Published last week, SEMPO’s fourth annual salary survey revealed the average search marketing salary dropped from $75,543 to $68,600. In conjunction with ClickZ, the SEMPO Research Committee surveyed 2,180 participants representing both in-house advertisers and third-party agency personnel. The survey included 20 questions covering a number of topics, including salary levels, job roles and 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: Image Mismatch: The Latest Google Webmaster Tools Manual Action Penalty Google has a new manual action penalty within their guidelines named image mismatch. Image mismatch is when the images on your […]
Google has a new manual action penalty within their guidelines named image mismatch. Image mismatch is when the images on your website do not match what is shown in the Google search results. Google words it as “your site’s images may be displaying differently on Google’s search results pages than they are when viewed on […]
Last month we saw Google testing displaying the site name in place of the URL in the snippets of the search results. Now, Rubén reports Google testing a nicer approach, showing both the site name and the URL in the snippet. So when you search for this site, it will show “Search Engine Land – […]
In a video released today by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, he said you don’t have to worry about there being a down side, related to SEO, when using a responsive design approach for mobile web sites. The question posed to him was: Is there an SEO disadvantage to using responsive design 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: Google iOS Search App Now Has “OK Google” Voice Activation, New Notifications, Reminders & Cards Google released a new version of its iOS Search App today, with an extensive list of […]
Looking for some help? Providing answers has always been Google’s goal, and now it has a new way to do it. “Helpouts,” a way to pick people offering help via live video, for a price. People that are vetted, checked and backed by Google. Google shared the news of the new program today on its […]
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 AdWords Yellow “Ad” Icon Spotted On Desktop SERPs In UK The bold yellow “Ad” icon that started showing up in Google search results on smartphones in September, now appear to […]
Google shipped out demo versions of the Nexus 5 late last week. People are still receiving them today. I got one on Friday and have been using it on WiFi ever since. (I haven’t tried it on a wireless network and can’t speak to the LTE experience.) The phone immediately sold out of its initial […]
In the past two weeks, both Microsoft and Google began testing display-style ads that appear on search results for select brand queries. Many see the introduction of these ads as a money grab to get brands to pay for traffic they would otherwise get for free, an assault on SEO, and the further “brandification” of […]
Earlier this year, there were questions about where Bing would stand after CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Microsoft’s reorganization plan in July. It turns out the move has been a good one for the search engine. Microsoft chose to give Bing an enterprise-wide embrace. The company is now integrating search into nearly every Microsoft device including […]
Veterans of the SEO space will know the name Trellian, a long-time SEO tools company. Veterans may also remember at some of the early search conferences often seeing the Warmuz brothers walking around, Ren and David. Sad news today that Ren is no longer with us. Pierre Zarokian has a nice In Memoriam post about […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Don’t Want Your Searches Encrypted? Add ?nord=1 To Your URL Parameters Not interested in having Google encrypt and secure your searches? Well, now there is a way to stop Google from […]
Those Internet marketers who work across multiple countries and languages may struggle with accurately tracking campaign performance in foreign countries. Webmasters can login to Webmaster Tools to filter search queries by country, but this doesn’t provide the full picture of what is happening with competition. Using just the Google + country TLD isn’t an accurate […]
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 Testing New AdWords Site Search Extension A new flavor of AdWords form extensions has been spotted. It’s a site search box, and according to Google, this test is related to […]
A new flavor of AdWords form extensions has been spotted. It’s a site search box, and according to Google, this test is related to the drop-down navigation extension seen in August. Users can perform an internal site search of the advertiser’s web site right from the search results. After users types in a search query […]
Digital agency and technology provider SIM Partners released a report (registration required) discussing how use of several basic Local SEO tactics can dramatically improve visibility on Google. The study involved 315 US business locations. These are not independent, small businesses. SIM Partners typically works with national-local businesses that have national brands but local offices, hotels or stores. […]
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 Tools Adds “Security Issues” Section Google has announced the addition of a new section within Webmaster Tools named “Security Issues.” This new section is aimed at better communicating to […]
Today, Microsoft unveiled a new ad unit for branded search called Hero Ads. The new units are appearing on select exact match brand queries in Smart Search on Windows 8.1. Consider these ads as the front window or as David Ku, Microsoft VP of engineering referred to them, “a brand’s effective home page on the […]
Jill Whalen, one of the first major personalities in the SEO industry, who has been practicing SEO for nearly 20 years, has announced she is moving on from SEO. The reason why, may shock some of you. One of the reasons is that she feels that she no longer needs to be the voice “reason […]
As of this week, agencies and resellers can begin offering access to the Bing Ads Express beta to their clients. Launched in early October, Bing Ads Express is an automated platform for small businesses to have a basic presence on Bing Ads. Ads are tied to Bing Places for Business listings, and companies without websites can […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Did Hummingbird Just Kill Your Local SEO? Let’s cut to the chase: no, it didn’t (see Betteridge’s Law of Headlines). But Search Engine Land tells me the Hummingbird stuff really drives […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Dear Google Rivals: Do These New Proposals Solve Your Antitrust Concerns? Love, The EU Three years into its investigation of Google over antitrust issues, the European Union took another step closer […]
In a new video released today by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, we learn that the more pages a web site has, does not necessarily mean you will have better rankings. Matt Cutts said, “I wouldn’t assume that just because you have a large number of indexed pages that you automatically get a […]