Google announced they have now migrated the Panda algorithm to Japanese and Korean languages. Google also added that this is likely to affect about 5% of queries for those languages. No other Asian or other languages were affected by this update. This comes over 16 months after Google released the original Panda update for English […]
A Tweet this morning from @BerianReed, head of search marketing of AutoTrader UK, uncovered some potentially deeper integration between Google Search and Google+. Reed spotted a new option in the results that showed up next to the URL, a “Share” link. Upon hitting the button, users are prompted to share directly to Google+ from the results pages. […]
Clicks on paid search listings on Google were nearly double the number of organic clicks — but only on keywords with “high commercial intent” in the US, according to a Wordstream analysis released today. Sponsored results, the research from the software company found, represented 64.6% of clicks on SERPs for commercial searches, while organic clicks […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Firefox 14 Now Encrypts Google Searches, But Search Terms Still Will “Leak” Out Firefox 14 has officially launched today, which means all Google searches are encrypted by default. However, due to […]
Firefox 14 has officially launched today, which means all Google searches are encrypted by default. However, due to a Google loophole, the encryption will not prevent things you search for from “leaking” out to Google’s advertisers nor potentially showing up as search suggestions or in data reported to web sites through Google Webmaster Central. The Firefox […]
Wow. Wow. Wow. That’s all that keeps running through my head as I digest the news that long-time Google executive Marissa Mayer is to take over as president and CEO of Yahoo. Smart move for Mayer. Smart move for Yahoo. And as I’ll explain more, perhaps a move that finally takes Yahoo out of 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: Confirmed: Marissa Mayer Leaving Google For Yahoo CEO Role CNBC is reporting that Marissa Mayer is leaving Google today, and will take over as Yahoo’s President and CEO as of tomorrow. […]
Marissa Mayer is leaving Google today, and will take over as Yahoo’s President and CEO as of tomorrow. The 37-year-old Mayer was Google’s 20th employee and has been responsible for a number of Google products over the years. Most recently, she oversaw development of Google’s local products and services. Yahoo has struggled to find a leader […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Making The Case For Adding Keyword Segmentation To Your SEO Repertoire Last month in The Forgotten SEO Strategy: Targeting Striking Distance Keywords we talked about how search professionals could approach their […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: A Google Marketplace? New Google Shopping Is One Indicator Imagine if Mall of America had unlimited space and let all merchants setup shop for free. Now imagine if Mall of America […]
Search engines seem to be inexorably drawn to social platforms. There’s Google+ and there was Google Buzz. Yahoo has Flickr and Yahoo Answers, and had Yahoo Buzz and Yahoo Meme (among others). Microsoft/Bing has So.cl. And now Blekko has a social content platform of its own: ROCKZi, where the tagline is “Read. Vote. Rock.” It’s […]
Paid search’s growth rate slowed a bit in the second quarter of 2012, but it still increased 29% year-over-year — down from a 32% year-over-year growth rate in Q1. That’s according to the RimmKaufman Group’s latest report on digital marketing, released this week. Generally speaking, CPC’s were down (6%) as compared to the same period […]
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, Bing Hit All-Time Highs In June Search Market Share [comScore] Google and Bing have reached all-time high levels, while Yahoo reached an all-time low in the latest comScore search market […]
Google and Bing have reached all-time high levels, while Yahoo reached an all-time low in the latest comScore search market share numbers. They’re due to be released publicly later today or tomorrow, but financial analysts have seen and are sharing their copies of the data. According to comScore’s explicit search market share report for June […]
A month ago, I sent a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission asking it to review how search engines are complying with its guidelines on disclosing listings where payment is involved. The silence since then, as the saying goes, has been deafening. That’s a pity given how important that review is to the on-going antitrust […]
Against what could be considered great odds, Yahoo Answers has reached a pretty stunning milestone: 300 million questions have been asked since the service launched in 2005. But despite that figure, activity on Yahoo Answers is on the decline. The company’s announcement today includes these additional statistics: On average, 2 questions are being asked 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: It’s Not WHAT You Need to Go Viral – It’s WHO Everyone dreams of going viral. Think of the traffic! The links! The search signal boosts, the audience growth, the brand […]
Usually, when I’m asked if “international” search or SEO is really different, the person asking the question has made up their mind that it’s actually not. Usually, they have a view that international SEO is all about infrastructure, domains and local domains and not much else. But is this true? You’ll probably not expect me, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Cutts: Infographic Links Might Get Discounted In The Future In an in-depth interview between Eric Enge and Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts – Cutts said that Google may discount […]
In an in-depth interview between Eric Enge and Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts – Cutts said that Google may discount the value of links generated by infographics. Matt Cutts told Eric: This is similar to what people do with widgets as you and I have talked about in the past. I would 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: Twitter Upgrades Search With Autocomplete & New Filters Twitter’s search tool has just undergone a slight makeover with a number of new features that should help get users to the information […]
Keyword classification is often the missing ingredient in SEO plans. Without understanding the reasons why people search, search engine optimizers will often misinterpret or improperly classify keyword phrases. How do we understand the "why" part of the optimization process?
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft Adds Ad Rotation Option To adCenter Microsoft announced they are adding a new ad serving feature to adCenter. The new feature is ad rotation and will allow advertisers to either […]
Will social signals replace links as a primary SEO signal affecting Google’s rankings? Have social signals already replaced links in that way? That topic came up last month during the keynote conversation with Google’s Matt Cutts at our SMX Advanced conference in Seattle. Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land’s Editor-In-Chief, asked a series of link-related questions […]
Local publisher and ad network YP (the private-equity owned combination of AT&T Interactive and AT&T Advertising Solutions) has released its US-focused Q2 “Local Insights Report.” The data in the report are derived from searches conducted across the company’s multi-platform network: “563 million searches and nearly 11 billion impressions in Q1 2012 across the YP Local Ad Network’s 300+ online, mobile, […]
The SEO Consult blog noticed Google testing a new Sitelinks format. This new format shows the same number of sitelinks to the search listings but adds tabs above the sitelinks to enable users to see relevant sitelinks for the site by category. For example, here are the sitelinks for SEOBook: Google added tabs for “top […]
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 To Discontinue iGoogle, Once Google’s Fastest Growing Product Google announced they are shutting down several products as part of their “summer spring cleaning” efforts. One of those products is iGoogle, […]
Blekko announced they have made improvements to their crawler and indexer to provide more up to date and fresher results to SEOs looking for SEO related data. Blekko, the Slashtag Search Engine, offers a nice set of free SEO tools. In fact, they pride themselves as being different by offering all these SEO tools for […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Amazon Buys UpNext, Will We Soon See Kindle Maps? Amazon has done a really interesting thing: it just bought mapping app UpNext. UpNext is a 3D mapping company that started on […]
According to an article appearing in Bloomberg this morning, Google has complied with the European Commission’s July 2 deadline and made concessions to address its four antitrust “concerns.” Details of the offer and potential Google concessions weren’t revealed: Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt sent EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia a letter responding to the probe, […]
What the hell is ‘Enterprise SEO’? Most people use the phrase when: Angling for a raise. Selling me their SEO widget. Trying to re-define their now-banned content spinning service. Those aren’t good criteria. So, I’m tackling the question: What is enterprise SEO? Are you an enterprise SEO professional? Here’s a test. Check off each item, […]
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 “Voice Assistant” Not Quite Siri-Smart But Most People Won’t Notice At Google I/O this week Google introduced spoken search results, which mimic Siri’s functionality on the iPhone. Siri had been […]
All the talk today about Bing’s launch of a disavow this link tool is a good reminder that we should go back into our video archives and post the comments that Google’s Matt Cutts made about a tool like that during our SMX Advanced event earlier this month. Cutts was speaking with Search Engine Land’s […]
Google doesn’t always penalize you for bad links, they sometimes and very often, will ignore links completely that they find to be against their guidelines. Back in 2007, Google started penalizing sites for selling paid links and over the years they have penalized many sites for buying links. Recently, Google has stepped up their notifications […]
For years, Google’s webmaster guidelines have noted that attempts to manipulate Google’s algorithms with artificial external link profiles (paid links, link schemes and the like) are violations and that Google may take action (by removing the site from the index or lowering its ranking). This year, Google starting alerting site owners with “unnatural links”, recommending […]
Google continues to hold a death-grip on search market share in the U.S., but Experian Hitwise says that Bing has taken five percent of Google’s market share in the last 12 months. According to Hitwise’s market share stats for May 2012, Google accounted for 65 percent of all U.S. searches — down from 68 percent […]
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 Make Deal With French Anti-Racism Groups Over ‘Jew’ Search Suggestions Google in deal with French groups over ‘Jew’ suggestion via the AFP reports Google has made a deal with several […]
Google in deal with French groups over ‘Jew’ suggestion via the AFP reports Google has made a deal with several French anti-racism groups of Google offering ‘Jew’ to the search suggestions for several prominent names in that country. Our earlier story named Google Queries Reveal Potential “Underground” Anti-Semitism In France explains that the French people […]
SMX Advanced is my favorite conference of the year. Hands down. The sessions are always memorable, and I get to see a lot of the SEO “old timers” – you know…the SEOs who have been in the game for at least 10 years, which is like 70 years in Internet time. In conclusion, SMX Advanced […]
Yahoo has suffered through its fair share of turmoil over the last few years: a revolving door of CEOs, significant layoffs, investor revolts, and a declining share of the search space, both paid and organic. One recent bright spot for Yahoo was their first year over year growth in search revenues after traffic acquisition costs […]