Bing is testing displaying favicons in the search results, next to the title of the search snippet. A reader, Joshua Hedlund, emailed us a screen shot of this test. Bing has confirmed this is not a browser extension modifying the search results, but rather one of Bing’s many tests to the search results user interface. […]
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: I Recommend NoFollowing Links On Widgets Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, posted a video answer this morning strongly recommending that those who place widgets on their […]
Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, posted a video answer this morning strongly recommending that those who place widgets on their sites, or those who distribute widgets, should place a nofollow on the links within the widget code. Matt Cutts said, “I would recommend putting a nofollow, especially on widgets.” The reason is because […]
If you’re not seeing the “Manual Actions” feature in Google Webmaster Tools, you’re not alone. Many webmasters have taken to Twitter and other social networks to say that the link has been removed from their accounts, and Google has updated its original announcement to say that a “snag” will delay full launch for a couple […]
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 Reports They Receive Hundreds Of Thousands Of DMCA Complaints Every Month Because of their share of the search market, Google is most frequently targeted by copyright holders filing DMCA complaints, […]
Google News is now showing the top web search result listing in the news results when the query has navigational intent. For example, if you search Google News for [ask.fm] at the top of the search results page, you will see a search snippet and link to their web site. Clicking on the link takes […]
Earlier today, Google launched manual spam actions to Google Webmaster Tools where you can see if your site currently has a manual spam action. To help those who have received some of these manual action notifications, Google created seven videos for the most common manual action notifications. The videos include user-generated spam, hidden text and/or […]
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 Local Ad View (And AdWords Click Type) Comes To Google Maps App Google is following up on the recent roll-out of its updated Google Maps app for Android and iOS […]
Google is adding a new feature in Webmaster Tools that will leave no doubt when a site’s search rankings are affected by a manual webspam action. It’s called the Manual Actions viewer, and it’s available today under the “Search Traffic” tab. The new tool complements the email notifications that Google already sends when it takes […]
In response to our post yesterday about the often-invisible background shading on ads in the search engine results, Derrick Connel, Corporate Vice President of Bing Program Management at Microsoft, followed up with Danny Sullivan on Facebook to say: As a small comment on Bing — the ads have 2 design elements for mainline ads. We […]
In a recent video answer from Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, Matt said if you have bad links pointing to your site, don’t worry about it; all you need to do is disavow those links. Matt Cutts said, “just go ahead and disavow those links,” even if those linking to you do not […]
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 Research Says Search Engines Have Little To Do With Promoting Pirated Content A new research paper authored by Matt Schruers and published by the Computer & Communications Industry Association argues […]
A new research paper authored by Matt Schruers and published by the Computer & Communications Industry Association argues that search engines have been unfairly targeted in the quest to impede online copyright infringement. According to the paper, the perception is that search engines are the primary culprit in copyright infringement cases, offering visibility to unlawful […]
Despite the annual changes in the local search ecosystem, the ranking factors that Google uses to determine its local search results haven’t changed much over the past year. So say the 35 local search marketers that contributed to the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors — organized again this year by David Mihm, and published this […]
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 Introducing “In-Depth Articles” To Search Results Google is rolling out “in-depth” articles this morning. We previously wrote about the test when it appeared a couple of months ago. In-depth articles […]
Google is rolling out “in-depth” articles this morning. We previously wrote about the test when it appeared a couple of months ago. In-depth articles exist for a wide range of topics (e.g., censorship, secret societies, e-waste, Legos, Taylor Swift) and call out longer-form content from what appear to be recognized and higher quality sources. Google suggests […]
Bing announced a number of new upgrades today for the Windows Phone 8, including search feature design updates, infinite scrolling for images and videos, ten new “Instant Answers” topics, and a new mobile version of Bing’s “Snapshot” feature that offers at-a-glance information. With the new updates, tapping the Search feature on a Windows Phone 8 […]
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: We Fight Search Spam In 40+ Countries & Internationalize Our Spam Algorithms Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced in a video that Google fights search spam […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced in a video that Google fights search spam at an international level but does tend to have a stronger spam fighting sense in the Google.com, English search results. Matt Cutts explained that with most of Google’s spam fighting algorithms, such as the Panda and Penguin algorithms, Google […]
Search Engine Land’s SMX East search marketing conference is returning to New York City on October 1-3. This is our big, once-a-year east coast event, and if you’re involved in marketing, PR, social media or any other customer-facing activity, you owe it to yourself (and your company or clients) to attend the conference. Keep reading […]
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 Display Planner Tool To Replace Ad Planner, Placement Tool & Contextual Targeting Tool Google announced they are migrating three existing AdWords tools directly into a new version of the 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: Five Years Later, Ex-Farecast Founder Asks “What Is Bing Doing?” Oren Etzioni, the founder of Farecast who sold it to Microsoft in 2008, says he’s “disappointed” with Bing’s development and “expected […]
I’m pleased to announce that we’ve made some changes in our columns line-up to better showcase the great work contributed by our talented columnist-practitioners. The biggest change is that we’re moving some of our columns from Search Engine Land to Marketing Land, so we want to let you know where you’ll be able to find […]
Search Engine Land keeps growing our staff! Today, we’re happy to announce that Lauren Litwinka is coming on as our new Community Editor while Monica Wright moves up into a new Director Of Audience Engagement position. Lauren will be directly interacting with our audience on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and many other places where Search […]
Earlier this month, we announced the addition of Mobile as a new SEO element in the updated Edition of the Search Engine Land Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors, following a Google announcement that mobile site optimization is a factor in search rankings. The Search Engine Land Guide to SEO explains each of the success factors […]
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 Reportedly Testing Local News Card For Google Now Google is reportedly testing a local news “card” for its Google Now predictive search product. Quartz first reported on the project, and […]
Google is testing a new design for their organic search results sitelinks. The new sitelinks are showing for some searchers, although I am not able to see them myself. The screen shot above, provided by +Jon Cooper shows the a grid of four main sections of the web site. clicking on a section seems 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: Links In Press Releases Should Use Nofollow Like Paid Links Friday we broke the news that Google updated their link schemes webmaster guidelines. Now that the dust has settled, I […]
Friday we broke the news that Google updated their link schemes webmaster guidelines. Now that the dust has settled, I aimed at getting more clarification on what Google meant by the new example around keyword-rich anchor text links within articles or press releases. The specific line in the link schemes document is: Links with optimized […]
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: Websites Using ccTLDs Should Contain Content Relevant To The Specific County Code In his latest video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts addresses whether or not it […]
In his latest video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts addresses whether or not it is a good idea for a website to use a ccTLD (country code top level domain) as a novelty domain. The video was a response to the question: As memorable .COM domains become more expensive, more developers are choosing […]
Link building is a staple of most SEO campaigns. Some methods are scalable and automated, while others are similar to old-school public relations. One thing most can agree on is that methods always need to adapt to keep up with opportunity and algorithm changes. Building Links With Content Google has made it harder to build […]
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 Warns Against Large-Scale Guest Posting, Advertorials & “Optimized Anchor Text” In Press Releases Google has quietly updated the link schemes document under their Webmaster guidelines to add large-scale guest posting, […]
Google has quietly updated the link schemes document under their Webmaster guidelines to add large-scale guest posting, advertorials and optimized anchor text in articles or press releases to the list of types of links that violate their guidelines. The new guideline examples that were added to this document include: Large-scale article marketing or guest posting […]
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 Q2 2013 Revenue Up 35% From This Time Last Year Russian search engine giant Yandex released its Q2 2013 financial results today, reporting revenues at RUR 9.2 billion or $281.2 […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Adobe First To Announce Support For Bing Product Ads Today, Adobe announced it’s first to market with support for Bing Product Ads. Very similar to Google Product Listing Ads, Bing Product […]
Late last year, many Raven Tools users were surprised to find that Search Engine ranking data had been removed. Under pressure from Google, Raven yanked the SERP data and focused the tool on helping SEOs and Internet Marketers with analytics tools. Well, Raven users that have missed the tracking data can now rejoice, as rank […]
In the latest video answer from Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts, he answers a question about “hiding” text in JavaScript/AJAX-like expandable menus. Matt said that generally this practice is acceptable within Google’s webmaster guidelines, if and only if, it is being done in a non-spammy way. Use of expandable content sections is very […]
TorrentFreak reports Google has added another website to the piracy block list for their instant search suggestions. The site is named Grooveshark, which is a popular free music streaming service. Google would not comment specifically about Grooveshark, but told TorrentFreak, “our algorithms prevent terms closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.” Back in January […]
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 Gets Lowest Score Ever In Customer Satisfaction Survey There’s a mystery surrounding the latest customer satisfaction numbers released by ForeSee Results (for the American Customer Satisfaction Index [ACSI]). Published late […]