Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Penguin 5, With The Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm, Is Now Live The fifth confirmed release of Google’s “Penguin” spam fighting algorithm is live. That makes it Penguin 5 by our count. […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said on Twitter yesterday that Google won’t be pushing out a new Google Toolbar PageRank update this year. Niels Bosch asked on Twitter if we should expect an update to PageRank before 2014. In response to that, Matt Cutts said, “I would be surprised if that happened.” It […]
On Thursday, Google released yet another algorithm update, no – not the Penguin update, but an algorithm to combat mugshot web sites from showing up highly in their search results. In February, Jonathan Hochman wrote a story here named Why Google Should Crack Down Harder On The Mugshot Extortion Racket. That story, according to Google’s […]
The fifth confirmed release of Google’s “Penguin” spam fighting algorithm is live. That makes it Penguin 5 by our count. But since this Penguin update is using a slightly improved version of Google’s “Penguin 2” second-generation technology, Google itself is calling it “Penguin 2.1.” Don’t worry. We’ll explain the numbering nonsense below, as well 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: Searching For The Voice Of Siri: Voiceover Actor Susan Bennett Says, “It’s Obviously Me” A story on CNN.com claims that Atlanta voiceover professional Susan Bennett is the original voice of Siri, […]
Structured data has become a hot topic over the past year or so, and at SMX East, the room was packed for the Structured Data Superstars session. Evan Sandhaus of the New York Times kicked it off with a very impressive look at how the Times spent the last three years developing and implementing structured […]
The final day of SMX East took place today in New York City. Below is some of the live blog coverage of the final day’s sessions, but make sure to see day one and day two coverage if you missed it. Casie Gillette on Content: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: SMX East 2013, […]
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 Its Own “Express” Program For Local Small Businesses This week, Bing Ads unveiled Bing Ads Express, a pay-per-click program for small local businesses that is clearly modeled on […]
Yesterday, we reported on a study appearing on the “Freakonomics” blog that disputed the “Bing It On” claim that people prefer Bing to Google in a blind comparison of search results. Study author Ian Ayers sought to replicate the Bing It On challenge methodology and argued that Bing’s claims were false and its messaging deceptive. Bing […]
For SEOs, reporting hasn’t exactly been easy over the past few years. How we measure and how we strategize has had to evolve as Google has altered or retired the tools we use or the way search works. We’ve seen five main shifts that have truly changed how we originally measured SEO success, and I […]
SMX East day two took place today in New York City. Today we kicked things off with a keynote session with Twitter, there was a lot of emphasis around structured data, local/geo, paid search, tracking and more. Below are some of the live blog coverage of the day two sessions today from the industry. How […]
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 Launches Within Image Search Today at SMX East, Google’s Pierre Far told the audience Google launched a small update to authorship by adding authorship rich snippets to Google Image […]
Today at SMX East, Google’s Pierre Far told the audience Google launched a small update to authorship by adding authorship rich snippets to Google Image Search. To see it, go to Google Images and search for named of people who may have authorship. Click on the image and if the image has markup on the […]
As part of the US government shut down, many .gov sites have also shut down, replaced by messages like this: “Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available. We sincerely regret this inconvenience.” But one day, the government will start up again and government agencies will once again focus on ensuring […]
If image search is important to your business, this might be another reason to be active on Pinterest: Bing has just added Pinterest boards to its image search results. The boards show up on the far right of Bing’s image search results page. The board name and image count are displayed, along with the Pinterest […]
A new study appearing on the “Freakonomics” blog aggressively disputes the claim that people prefer Bing to Google and especially the statistical contention that they prefer the search engine over Google 2:1. In an article explaining the study, law and economics professor Ian Ayers argues that the Bing television and related media campaigns based on the […]
Moz announced the release of the full 2013 search ranking factors study they have been working on throughout the year. Keep in mind, this is comprised of sending out a survey to 120 SEO experts, asking them to rank each factor on a scale of importance. Moz then uses that data, alongside of their correlation […]
SMX East kicked off today in New York City. We had a nice, diverse set of search-related sessions from paid, organic, mobile, analytics and social covered today. Below are some of the live blog coverage of the day one sessions today from the industry. How To Increase Organic Traffic by Diversifying Your Digital Marketing, BruceClay.com […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Maps Roundup: Google Avoids Waze Antitrust Fight, Scout Social Mapping, deCarta Route Patent Google spent just over $1 billion to take Waze away from Facebook, Apple or Nokia and Microsoft. It […]
Google’s Webmaster Tools search query reports are very delayed right now, but Google tells us that they “expect reporting to return to normal in the coming days.” This is a “bug” in how Google shows webmasters search queries that drive traffic a site. The reporting tool stopped showing data on September 23rd. This came shortly […]
Last week, Google moved to send all searches through Google SSL Search, setting up the ultimate end of keyword data passed along via referrers non-advertisers. Now, Google’s official alternative channel for this information — Google Webmaster Tools — has also stopped sharing the data, most likely due to a bug. A Bug Or An Intentional […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Now Let’s You Search Your Posts & Status Updates In Graph Search Facebook announced the launch of searching your posts and status updates within graph search. Facebook said, “Today, Graph […]
In a video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts published today an answer to the question, “Should I use rel=”nofollow” on internal links to a login page?” Matt Cutts basically said you shouldn’t, but said it won’t hurt you if you did. Matt said, “It doesn’t hurt if you want to put a nofollow […]
On the eve of its 15th birthday last week, Google revealed a new search algorithm named Hummingbird. Designed to be more precise and provide faster query results, the algorithm is based on semantic search, focusing on user intent versus individual search terms. As Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan explained in his FAQ: All About 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: WordStream Launches PPC Landing Page Creator, Lead Management Tool For SMBs Successful PPC lead generation campaigns demand good landing pages. Yet many small business marketers are left without the resources to […]
Earlier this week, Google revealed it would be encrypting all search data, rendering website owners unable to see search term information previously offered through the “referrer” system. While Google had encrypted the data two years ago for searches performed by users signed in to their Google account, and then earlier this year for any searches […]
I’m not sure why I was surprised to see a small army of uniformed Bing reps standing around a big booth before the Seattle Seahawks game this past Sunday at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. After all, Bing has been sponsoring the Seahawks for a few years now. The players wear Bing logos on their practice […]
Google has a new search algorithm, the system it uses to sort through all the information it has when you search and come back with answers. It’s called “Hummingbird” and below, what we know about it so far. What’s a “search algorithm?” That’s a technical term for what you can think of as a recipe […]
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 Knowledge Graph Gets Smarter With Comparisons & Filters Google’s Knowledge Graph is a little smarter today with the addition of filters and a way to compare two Knowledge Graph items […]
Google’s Knowledge Graph is a little smarter today with the addition of filters and a way to compare two Knowledge Graph items side-by-side. These are some of the Google search updates that the company announced today at a media event celebrating its 15th birthday, and explained in more detail on Google’s Inside Search blog. Knowledge […]
At a special event in the garage where Google was born, the company announced a new “Hummingbird” search algorithm is live and especially designed to handle complex queries. Google also announced a new design for tablets and phones, richer direct answers with comparison, a new song exploration feature and notifications of Google Now information for […]
It certainly isn’t the first look at the relationship between paid and organic search, but new a new study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo claims to put an end to the debate over whether paid search campaigns cannibalize organic revenue or add incremental value, even when organic visibility is substantial. Search agency Resolution Media and […]
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 Hashtag Search, Shows Google+ Posts On Search Results Page The integration of Google+ across Google properties continues in a big way today with the launch of hashtag search. Simply […]
The integration of Google+ across Google properties continues in a big way today with the launch of hashtag search. Simply put, if you search Google for a hashtag, you might see Google+ posts using that hashtag to the right of the regular search results. Google’s Zaheed Sabur announced the new feature this morning on Google+, […]
In a video published today by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts – Google confirmed that they do not penalize sites that have broken or invalid HTML. Matt Cutts said, “so Google does not penalize you if you have invalid HTML, because there would be a huge number of web pages like that.” Cutts […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Two Years Later, BitTorrent Now In Google’s Auto Completions Over two years ago, Google removed BitTorrent from the instant search auto-complete search suggestions. Now, it appears that when you begin typing […]
Google has significantly penalized another underground link network over the weekend and we believe that one of the link networks targeted by Google is named Ghost Rank 2.0. A few weeks ago, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, tweeted “Thinking of ghost-related puns for a spam network. “They try to look super natural, but […]
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 Gets Extended Validation SSL Ceritificates & Two-Step Verification Process Bing Ads announced today that it has tightened account security measures by adopting extended validation SSL certificates for its website, […]
Several SEO companies have agreed to stop publishing fake online reviews, and will also pay penalties ranging from $2,500 to almost $100,000 as part of settlement announced today with the New York attorney general’s office. The AG’s year-long investigation ultimately caught 19 companies involved in writing and posting fake online reviews, including numerous small businesses. […]
At the start of August, David Mihm published the findings of the latest installment of the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey. This year, the breakdown & presentation of survey results has been taken to a new level. Ranking factors are grouped by signal type (e.g., Place Page Signals), then further broken down by result type […]