Search Engine Watch - Latest

Google’s Project Loon: It's Balloon-Powered Internet Access

Lee Bell — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Google plans to give Internet access to the entire world by sending network-enabled balloons into the stratosphere. Dubbed Project Loon, the new Google venture aims to liberate those 5 billion or so people on Earth without Internet access.

Yahoo Launches Localworks, a Listing Management Tool for Small Business

Mary Lisbeth D'Amico — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:00:00 GMT

The new product, which Yahoo is launching in connection with location software company Yext, is designed to help companies easily update their online listings across more than 40 online platforms designed to reach 150 million local searchers.

Getting Published: The Search Marketer's Guide to PR

Brad Miller — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:30:00 GMT

A public relations strategy is a big part of successful search campaigns. Getting your company's brand and employees exposed through media and social channels is incredibly important and can have a profound impact on links, rankings, and traffic.

Structured Data: Content, Rich Snippets & Authorship vs. Author Rank

Jim Yu — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:30:00 GMT

As we move toward a content-centric approach to marketing, search, and social media, new influence-based metrics become more important. As Google evolves, people and the content they produce are beginning to be prioritized by the search engines.

7 Great Sites To Learn Online Video Skills

Ken McGaffin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Summary: If you know little or nothing about video production, where do you start and how difficult is it likely to be? Let's take a quick look at seven useful video sites that can really help – and even have you making animated videos in hours.

DuckDuckGo Sees Record Traffic After NSA PRISM Scandal

Jennifer Slegg — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:30:00 GMT

Since the PRISM news broke, nearly every day has been a record search day for DuckDuckGo, including Monday, June 17, where it broke 3 million searches for the first time. That is nearly double its pre-PRISM daily search totals.

Facebook Kills Sponsored Search Results

Jessica Lee — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Facebook will soon begin streamlining its advertising options, and sponsored search results are among those that will be cut starting in July. Some wonder why sponsored results are targeted because advertisers experience good ROI.

Google, Bing Both Win More Search Market Share

Jennifer Slegg — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Not surprisingly, Google led the way for search share in May, and grew its U.S. search market share to 66.7 percent. Bing grew to 17.4 percent in May, a significant increase from its 15.4 percent search market share in May 2012.

Do Stock Photos Affect Google Search Rankings? Matt Cutts Says No

Jennifer Slegg — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Using stock photography versus original photography won't cause any negative impact on your site's search engine rankings. However, one caveat Matt Cutts does ponder if Google could somehow used this as a signal in future search quality rankings.

Google AdWords Enhanced Campaign CPCs Grow 6% [Report]

Lisa Raehsler — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Adobe released their findings today on the impact of Google AdWords enhanced campaigns on advertising click costs. To arrive at their conclusions they examined 100 U.S. advertisers spending more than $100 million between March and May of this year.

Google Makes Non-Desktop SEO an Absolute Necessity

Richard Kirk — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:00 GMT

Google has announced that failure to fix annoying mobile experiences will now actively hinder your efforts to rank well within search results. This warning from Google makes the case for brands to look again at mobile SEO even more compelling.

How to Create Great Content: Start by Creating Content for Yourself

Nathan Safran — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:30:00 GMT

Here's why a long-term content strategy rooted in "how do I create content that I myself would genuinely want to consume?" rather than "how do I get people to my website?" will raise the quality of your content and help build an audience.

PPC and SEO: Higher Conversion Rates Fuel the Need for Better Integration

Jason Tabeling — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Both paid and organic search listings are fighting for the same customer and keyword term. This ability to maximize share of voice is critical, especially when you start to understand the multiplication power of having multiple listings.

Google Mobile Ad Revenue Forecast to Hit Record $8.8 Billion in 2013

Shaun Nichols — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Google will take home more than half of all mobile advertising dollars this year as the company is poised to see record revenues for 2013. EMarketer said Google is on pace to set a new record after more than tripling its mobile revenues in 2012.

Google Analytics Admin Panel Gets a Redesign

Thom Craver — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:30:00 GMT

Google Analytics announced a redesign of the administration panel. Not only does the new design have a more consistent look and feel, but it should also go a long way to helping users visualize the settings for an account, property and profile.

#Facebook #Hashtags #FTW?

Jessica Lee — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Facebook announced hashtags last week, giving validation to everyone who used the original Twitter function to drive home their point in a Facebook status update. What was once unnecessary is now helpful in discovering new content in Facebook.

Google Webmaster Tools Warnings to Include Example URLs

Jennifer Slegg — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Good news for webmasters who have been struggling to identify links and pages that have been trigger warnings in Google Webmaster Tools. Google will now include example URLs in their emails warning webmasters about manual spam actions.

How to Report Organic Search Traffic Gains After Filtering 'Bad' Traffic

Mark Jackson — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:30:00 GMT

SEO reporting has little to do with ranking reports. Ensuring strong analytical measurements is key to gain trust with your clients/company executives, because that transparency shows what is truly working, rather than managing based on "feelings."

6 Mobile Marketing Tactics to Nurture Customer Relationships

Jennifer Wong — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Text reminders, polls and surveys, sweepstakes, push notifications, social integration, and loyalty and membership programs are six mobile tactics to help you stay connected with your customers to generate and maintain customer love.

Google Doubletalk and the Three Bears

Adam Stetzer — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Small business owners who want to succeed in SEO should embrace diversity, moderation and consistency to avoid the extremes. The trick is to do real SEO that will last. And they must ignore silver bullets as they represent fairy tale thinking.