Google Stifles Innovation, starts Strangling Itself
I’ve long claimed that Google’s efforts to regulate Internet publishing for it’s own commercial gain stifles innovation. I started this blog 2007 when it became clear that I needed to raise my profile as an SEO or get quietly destroyed via what could fairly be defined as anti-competitive practices. Google was getting big and […]
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 Display Planner. Specifically, the Contextual Targeting Tool, the Placement Tool and the Google Ad Planner are all going to be built into the Dis…
Revealed: The 17 Other Search Engines The FTC Warned Over Paid Ad Disclosures
In June, the US Federal Trade Commission warned seven “general purpose” search engines — including Google, Bing and Yahoo — about the need to ensure they were properly disclosing paid ads. But 17 other “specialty” search engines were also warned. Which ones? The…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Pinterest Adds Price Drop Alerts
Pinterest has always been the place for users to pin a visual wishlist. Now, Pinterest is turning into a true e-commerce player. The social network has added a new feature that alerts users when prices on pinned items drop.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 2, 2013
This week at the Search Engine Roundtable, we covered some important topics on search and marketing. First up, Google updated their links schemes guidelines and called out optimized keyword rich anchor text throughout it. They also made a splash by ca…
Search In Pics: Googlers At Apple & Microsoft Stores, Designer Glass & The Simpsons On Google Street View
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the Web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google Interns At Apple’s Genius Bar: Source: Google+ Google Interns…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Friday Talk: The Future of Marketing by Gerd Leonhard-FODM
We all want to be able to see into the future and make most use of it. And with an ever changing world it would be good to know a little about what’s coming. In this week’s Friday Talk Gerd Leonhard, Futurist & CEO of The Futures Agency talks about the next five years.
Post from Bas van den Beld on State of Search
Friday Talk: The Future of Marketing by Gerd Leonhard-FODM
Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool Updated
Ilya Grigorik, Google’s Developer Advocate for Google Chrome and all things speed on the web…
Google The Stop Watch
I’ve been using Google since I was a teenager and I had no idea it had a stop watch/timer. Maybe it is new…
Google Business Photos Broken?
Yet another Google Local Business Places bug to report to you, this time with your photos that you upload.
There are confirmed reports
Does Your Webmaster Tools Message Mean You’ve Been Penalized?
A WebmasterWorld thread has an SEO asking if all messages sent to webmasters via Google Webmaster Tools necessarily mean the site was indeed penalized.
You know, when you get one of those messages from Google about problems with your site…
Suing Your SEO: Can An Agency Be Held Liable For Poor Results?
It was only a matter of time before a lawsuit was filed against a search engine optimization agency for failing to deliver. Last week, the legal marketing industry was aTwitter (and aFacebook and even aPlus) with news that law firm Seikaly & Stewart had filed a lawsuit against The Rainmaker…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
SEO in the Age of Apps: Diversifying Your Mobile SEO Strategy
To succeed as the app-based search ecosystem evolves, brands need to understand the relevant apps on the market, the value proposition of each, and how to build rank and findability. Here’s an overview of mobile SEO basics and the big engines.
Does Google Helpouts Indicate a New Direction For Local Transactions?
Will Google Helpouts replace the Business Listing Places Page G+Local Page G+ Page for Local as the transaction platform for local commerce? What is Helpouts you ask? It is a (not so) secret Google project that turns Hangouts into a commerce platform/marketplace ”that enables individuals and small and large businesses to buy and sell services […]
Google New Layout
We are seeing some layout changes again today: Old layout for Bronco Ltd : https://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=bronco+ltd New Google layout with bigger fonts: it’s not just Brand either:
Redefining “Unique Content”
During the “Ultimate Q&A” session at MozCon 2013 last month, I was asked the following question: “I work for an enterprise level ecommerce company. I’m looking to scale unique content. What are some of the top strategies you would recommend?” Continue reading »
Google Analytics Announces API for Real-Time Analytics Data
While real-time reporting has made it easy to make adjustments to campaigns on-the-fly, it still requires human interaction to monitor and observe what’s going on. With the real-time API, code can now be written to automate that kind of checking.
Facebook Embedded Posts Let You Share Interactive Status Updates Across the Web
Facebook announced embedded posts yesterday, allowing users to embed public status updates across the web. Embedded posts looks fairly simple, but will install the Facebook SDK for JavaScript code on the page when embedding status updates.
The amazing #MozCon experience: The speaker perspective
Aleyda Solis gives us a MozCon perspective from a speakers point of view
Post from Aleyda Solis on State of Search
The amazing #MozCon experience: The speaker perspective
On-page factors become more important for high search rankings in past year: report
‘Title character length’ is one of only two factors showing a slightly negative correlation, however this can be interpreted positively: the shorter the page title of a document, the better the ranking.
Correlation changes since 2012
The report gives a full run through of the important factors, but here’s a look at a few of the ones that jumped out. The research is based on analysis of 10,000 search terms from Google UK, using the first three pages of results.
It’s important to point out that the findings are a correlation rather than causation, but it does seem to suggest that there’s some relationship between search rankings and the various different factors.
Word count
Looking more closely at word count as a factor, the report shows that pages that rank in top positions have a higher word count than websites positioned at the lower end of SERPs.
The one anomaly is the presence of brand sites, which occupy a hallowed place at the very top of Google search results.
Brand websites seem to have lower word counts on average than search results on the first SERP. Consequently pages ranked first have 407 words on average, which is 120 words less than pages ranked 2nd (529 words).
Internal links
The report shows that pages appearing at the top of search results tend to have a greater number of internal links than pages achieving lower rankings. The anomaly is again brand websites.
However it’s not just about the sheer number of links on each page – internally-linked keywords as a link text play a role in the optimal distribution of the ‘link juice’.
The current rule of thumb suggests using ‘hard’ links internally (i.e. with keywords) and ‘soft’ links externally (i.e. generic/stop words/more words in the anchor, brand links, etc.).
Advertising less negative than before
In last year’s report there was clearly a negative correlation with advertising integration and good search rankings – even for AdSense, Google’s own ad product.
In effect, this meant that well-ranked sites had fewer adverts than those that ranked lower. The situation has now changed somewhat so these correlations are close to neutral.
