SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 20, 2014
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 Reports Revenue Up 37% In Q4, Ad Network Revenue Nearly Doubles Russian search giant Yandex reported a stron…
5 New Features of the New Google Maps
If you’ve used Google Maps lately, you’ve probably noticed a new feature here or a slight change there. Well, now Google is rolling out the complete, revamped version of Maps for all the world to see. Here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks.
Google Places Guideline Update: Now Allowing Descriptors in Business Title
Google has announced an update to their Places Guidelines and now is explicitly allowing owners to add a descriptor, via the Places or Plus Dashboard, that helps people locate the business or describes what the business offers. From the post (bold is mine to highlight the significant change): Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title. In […]
Auto, Health & Life Most Competitive in Insurance Search Marketing [Study]
New Kenshoo data highlights digital marketing activity within the insurance sector, including ad spend and social media activities. Auto, life, and health insurance categories were the most competitive subsectors within the industry.
Yandex Reports Revenue Up 37% In Q4, Ad Network Revenue Nearly Doubles
Russian search giant Yandex reported a strong Q4 2013 today, with overall revenue up 37 percent from Q4 2012 and continued growth in text-based advertising. Take away revenue from its payment platform, Yandex.Money, and the Y-o-Y revenue growth would b…
Matt Cutts: Excluding Links From Google’s Algorithm Would Make Search Results Worse
Backlinks are a huge part of the Google algorithm. Because links are so important, some webmasters resort to link spamming. What would Google really be like without backlinks being factored into the search algorithm? Not good, says Matt Cutts.
Google Maps & MapMaker Exploits – Just for the fun of it
Nyagoslav Zhekov wrote a blog post yesterday detailing a long standing MapMaker abuse in a post yesterday. The person claiming to be responsible, @maptivist, reached out to Darren, Nyagoslav and myself with some more examples of his MapMaker “work” which I present to you here: Super Mega Fun Time Land Suck Balls Kim Jongun Church […]
Only 52% of Facebook Ad Spend is Outside the U.S. [Study]
A new report by Marin Software says that 85 percent of Facebook users reside outside North America, but only 52 percent of ad spend targets regions outside of it. The potential for Facebook ads is strongest in Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions.
Yahoo Gives $10 Million To Help Develop Next-Gen Siri And Better “Contextual Search”
Several years ago Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, as a then Google employee, spoke about the perfect search engine that could anticipate your needs and which wouldn’t require any keywords to deliver results. We’re rapidly moving toward searchless content discovery with Siri, Google Now,…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Expect Labs Offers Free API: Google Now In A Box
Expect Labs, which is behind the MindMeld consumer application, has announced a new developer API. The new API brings the company’s ”anticipatory computing” platform to third parties in the cloud. Use of the API is free. Expect Labs is trying to get it “out there” and…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Metrics to Measure YouTube Marketing
Most marketers don’t know how to quantify the success of YouTube marketing campaigns.
Part of this is down to the (currently sub-par) quality of YouTube analytics data, but a wider problem is that businesses often fail to set KPIs before beginning the process of creating and promoting content on YouTube.
Link Building on a Budget
Have more time than money, but want to beef up your backlink profile? It can be done. These four strategies will help you, over time, become far more resistant to algorithm changes and diversify your traffic sources to increase rankings and traffic.
How To Use AdWords Scripts Efficiently In Agencies And Enterprise SEM
I’m a big fan of all the things you can automate using AdWords Scripts — from calculating account-level Quality Score, to creating ads from a spreadsheet, to optimizing keywords using data from the Search Terms report. When using scripts to manage a single account, it’s well worth…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Shopping Campaigns Now Global
Last october, Google released a new campaign type for Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) named Google Shopping Campaigns. Now, Google Shopping Campaigns is available to all advertisers – worldwide…
9 Months Later: New Google Maps Is Replacing The Old Version
Over 9 months ago, Google previewed the new Google Maps, since then many have opted to use it but if you haven’t and don’t want to…
Google: We May Show Your Redirected URLs In The Search Results
aakk9999, the moderator at the Google forum at WebmasterWorld spotted that Google’s John Mueller said that Google may display the redirect URL in the search results over the destination URL, when they deem it is appropriate…
Bing Updates Webmaster Guidelines: Keyword Stuffing Now Off Limits
Last night, Bing has updated their webmaster guidelines adding a section about “keyword stuffing.” Surprised it wasn’t there from the onset? Yea, me too but truthfully…
Google’s Matt Cutts: We Tested Dropping Backlinks From Algorithm, It Was Much Worse
Google’s Matt Cutts latest video has Google admitting they did and do indeed test their search results by turning off linkage data as part of their algorithm. Matt Cutts said the results would be “much much worse” if they did indeed do that in real li…
Bing Webmaster Guidelines Updated To Include Demotions For Keyword Stuffing
Bing has quietly updated their Webmaster Guidelines to include a stern warning to webmasters who think they can use keyword stuffing techniques to manipulate their rankings and get away with it. The warning says Bing may demote the site or delist the s…
SEO, Demand Generation & Content Marketing: 5 Takeaways From Joe Pulizzi
The founder of Content Marketing Institute shares insights on where should content live, marketing automation, how to develop personas, the importance of telling a different story, and how to get the attention of media to get content picked up.