Google posted some tips for building a search engine friendly mobile tablet experience for users and search engines. Google is clear to point out these tips are NOT specific “recommendations for building search engine friendly tablet-optimized websites.” Google does not have guidelines or official recommendations for tablet-optimized web sites but they did want to offer […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: China Blocks Google Search, Gmail, Google+, Maps & More TheNextWeb reports China has decided to block Google services. Currently, Google search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Drive, and […]
When is personalized search not personalized search? A recently discovered shift on how Google may alter your search results based on what you — and others in aggregate — previously have searched for may have you wondering how to answer that question. To understand the latest development, I think it’s helpful to go back and […]
Many search engine optimization professionals have different interpretations of the term search-engine friendly website design. Learn how color affects your SEO efforts and conversions.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Priceline To Buy Travel Search Engine Kayak For $1.8 Billion Priceline is a public company that owns several other travel brands, including Booking.com, Agoda.com, Cheaptickets.com, Rentalcars.com and a few other travel […]
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 Most Frequently Asked Questions In Search Retargeting Since we first brought true Search Retargeting to the market several years ago, we have seen a shift in the questions that prospects […]
The Guardian reports that regulators within the United Kingdom will be reviewing Google’s efforts to remove piracy web sites from their search results because they feel Google has not done enough. In August, Google launched the Pirate Algorithm, which is designed to lower the ranking of sites that are repeatedly reported and found to have […]
Returning quality search results is not easy, Google and Microsoft have teams of people who work on the problem each day. Unfortunately, finding examples of search results that are not ideal is not all that uncommon. To help track these poor search results, Rishabh Singla started a new blog named Failed SERPs. He posts daily […]
By the time this election is over more than $2.6 billion will have been spent by the two US presidential candidates on political advertising. I’ve also seen some estimates that say total political advertising this election cycle will top $6 billion. Yet, remarkably, The Atlantic points to a Google Trends report showing a huge 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: Who Should Win The 2012 Social Media Election? With today being Election Day, I figured it would be appropriate to write a post related to politics. Then I thought better of […]
Did you feel it yesterday? Some did, a slight shaking in the Google results. Yes, it was real. Google’s confirmed to us that a Panda Update happened yesterday. Google said that worldwide, the update will impact about 0.4% of queries that a regular user might notice. For those searching in the United States in English, […]
Tuesday is election day in the U.S. and, by almost all accounts, the presidential race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney will be tight. No doubt many other races across the country will be equally close, and Yahoo will let searchers track results right in its search results pages. Some of Yahoo’s “direct […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Can Blogging Be Your Secret Weapon For Local SEO? I get called frequently by local companies wanting a quick fix for local rankings. In many cases, they discover that local SEO […]
Do a search for “Obama,” and you might find your subsequent queries for things like “medicare” seemingly personalized based on your initial Obama search. Do the same for Romney, it is doesn’t happen. Is Google biased toward Obama, as some are now writing? No. Is it the “filter bubble” of personalization out of control? Perhaps […]
Almost exactly three years ago then Google employee Marissa Mayer described “the perfect search engine” in an interview with IDG News. She said it would be one “that could understand speech, questions, phrases, what entities you’re talking about, concepts. It would be able to search all of the world’s information, [find] different ideas and concepts, […]
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 Advertising To Increase Transparency With “Quality Impact” How valuable would it be to work on improving your paid search keywords’ Quality Score? And which keywords should you focus on first? […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Apple Maps Sees Its First International Territorial Dispute As Korea Protests Island Naming From the it-had-to-happen-sooner-or-later department: Apple is in the midst of its first international territorial dispute over its new […]
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 Loses Australian Defamation Case, Awaiting Decision On Damages Google is awaiting a judge’s decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its 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: Yelp Adds Restaurant Menus (And Images) Following on the heels of Foursquare, YP and a few others in the local segment Yelp is adding restaurant menu information and pricing. With the […]
Google is considering offering its search quality rating guidelines to the public. The news comes near the end of the latest webmaster video just posted today on YouTube. In it, Google’s Matt Cutts answers a question about how Google uses the data it collects from its human search evaluators — in short, “those folks don’t […]
Many SEOs cheered that Google’s new disavow links tool would make it easier to recover from a bad backlink profile. No more worrying about directories charging to remove links or trying to get out of bad link networks. But Google says it does want to see a good faith effort to go along with any disavow […]
We know from multiple data sources that more than 90 percent of smartphone owners use maps and local search. We also know from Google that up to 50 percent of mobile search carries a local intent. Now, a new local search study from YP and Street Fight takes a closer look at local search behavior […]
Conductor has announced what it says is the biggest financing round ever in the SEO industry: a $20 million Series C investment led by Investor Growth Capital. In a news release, Conductor says it’ll use the money to continue development of its Searchlight SEO platform and to scale the company’s operations internationally. Conductor launched 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: Search Week: October 29, 2012 Search Week is an exclusive weekly newsletter for Search Engine Land premium members that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past week. Below […]
It’s been almost two weeks since Google launched its link disavowal tool. Some have been busy diving in and using it, but others have had more detailed questions about it. We’ve got some answers, from the head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts. Question: How do people know what links they should remove? Answer: When […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Verisign Blames Google For Drop In Domain Registration & Renewal Rates The number of new domains being registered, and existing domains being renewed, is slowing down and Verisign — the company […]
The number of new domains being registered, and existing domains being renewed, is slowing down and Verisign — the company that operates the .com and .net domain registries — says Google is a main reason why. On the company’s Q3 earnings call yesterday, Verisign shared the following data related to domain registrations and renewals: total […]
What SEO Performance Metrics Are Truly Important? Presentations from SMX East, October 2012 Your boss or client may think top rankings are gold, but most knowledgeable SEOs will tell you those stats are so 20th-century that they’re virtually irrelevant. So how do you measure – and more importantly, prove – the value of your SEO […]
What SEO Technical Metrics Are Truly Important? Presentations from SMX East, October 2012 Google is getting increasingly stringent on its rules about what constitutes “acceptable” SEO. The good news: they’re offering a lot of detail about what is and isn’t acceptable. The bad news? It’s not always clear how to determine when you’re playing nice […]
SEO Beware: Black Hat Tactics To Avoid & Be Wary Of Presentations from SMX East, October 2012 Like drugs, black hat tactics tempt those who want seemingly quick and easy paths to search marketing nirvana. But the highs they offer also never last, and can often lead to permanent disabilities. Nonetheless, all upstanding search marketers […]
Schema 101: Why The New Meta Data Matters Presentations from SMX East, October 2012 Schema.org is a joint alliance between Google, Microsoft and others to provide a common foundation for microdata standards. In other words, provide trusted meta data that allow site owners to express important “facts” about their businesses that both inform searchers and […]
Maximizing Enterprise SEO Presentations from SMX East, October 2012 Large organizations face unique challenges when it comes to SEO. Multiple websites, perhaps running on multiple content management systems, in different countries and languages… the list goes on. And with increasingly strict content guidelines, it’s crucial for organizations to coordinate and integrate their SEO efforts across […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Deconstructing The Google EMD Update Well, it’s official – no more free lunch for EMD, now that the Google EMD Update has launched. It worked well, for a long time. A […]
Conversation: Is There Really "Advanced" Link Building? Presentations from SMX East, October 2012 Despite all the recent changes in search engine algorithms, garnering great links remains one of the single most important components of an effective search marketing campaign. But how can you gain an edge? Are the tools available to analyze competitor links effective? […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 10 Tips To Optimize Conversions On Your Mobile Landing Pages In my last article, I discussed How Location & Small Screen Size Impact Search Behavior On Mobile Devices, and the main […]
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’s Voice Search On Xbox Now Searches The Web, Too Microsoft is expanding Bing’s capabilities in the living room with news today that Xbox users can search the web via their […]
Microsoft is expanding Bing’s capabilities in the living room with news today that Xbox users can search the web via their console. It’s part of the “new entertainment experience” that Microsoft is pushing out this week via the Xbox. Bing Voice Search has been available on the Xbox since June 2011, but it could only […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, a name familiar to most of the readers here, was inducted into University of Kentucky’s Arts and Sciences Hall Of Fame last Friday. This was reported in the Kentucky Kernel. The article explains that Matt Cutts attended the University of Kentucky while working for the Department of Defense […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Election 2012: Searching And Researching The Presidential Debates The final debate between U.S. presidential candidates Obama and Rommney airs tonight. Until the election next month, a lot of attention will continue […]
We recently received an email from a reader who’d made an inquiry with Google AdWords support. Why, this reader had asked, is Ask.com allowed to buy AdWords and rank for certain surprising terms, when its landing page features mostly ads above the fold? Doesn’t that violate Google’s policies on arbitrage? All About Arbitrage Arbitrage, when […]