New Google Antitrust Offer A “Significant Improvement” Says EU
After Google’s competitors loudly complained about the company’s antitrust settlement proposal, which displayed three “rival links” to alternative’ search results, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said it would take new “concessions” for…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Do Second Screen Campaigns Have Marketing Potential on Twitter?
This small experiment shows that social media managers who engage in short bursts of live tweeting and curating conversations on second screen hashtags can bet on a good response. There will be tweets worth retweeting and new hashtags emerging.
Fine Tuning Your Local Keyword Research Using Google Trends
Local keyword research is often tricky due to low query volumes. And if you’re just starting out, you may not have analytics data to pull from. Here’s how to leverage data from Google Trends to help you make better decisions about your keywords.
Google Faces $400K Fine in France Over Privacy Policy
Google has not responded in a timely manner to the French data protection authority’s demand that it make changes, and will now face sanctions in the form of a fine of more than $400,000. Google maintains their policy respects European laws.
Video: Expanding your site to more languages
Webmaster Level: Intermediate to Advanced
We filmed a video providing more details about expanding your site to more languages or country-based language variations. The video covers details about rel=”alternate” hreflang and potential implementation on your multilingual and/or multinational site.
You can watch the entire video or skip to the relevant sections:
- Potential search issues with international sites
- Questions to ask within your company before beginning international expansion
- International site use cases
- rel=”alternate” hreflang and hreflang=”x-default”: details and implementation
- Best practices
Additional resources on hreflang include:
- Webmaster Help Center article on rel=”alternate” hreflang and hreflang=”x-default”
- More blog posts
- Working with multilingual sites
- Working with multiregional sites
- New markup for multilingual content
- Introducing “x-default hreflang” for international landing pages”
- Webmaster discussion forum FAQ on internationalization
- Webmaster discussion forum for internationalization (review answers or post your own question!)
Good luck as you expand your site to more languages!
Written by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead
After Blocking Keywords In Referrers, Now Google Stops Sharing Through Google Webmaster Tools
Last week, Google moved to send all searches through Google SSL Search, setting up the ultimate end of keyword data passed along via referrers non-advertisers. Now, Google’s official alternative channel for this information — Google Webmaster Tools — has also stopped sharing the…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Keyword Data Goes Missing Again, This Time From Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools is missing keywords data. It appears as though search query data from the Search Traffic section hasn’t been recorded since last Monday, September 23, the same day Google launched secure search for all searches.
PR is where the Money Is
A shout out to all of you disenfranchised ex-SEO people out there: Public Relations is where the Money Is!
PR is a solid career with very little formal credentialing required. Even better, the consumers of PR services have less knowledge about PR than …
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 30, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Now Let’s You Search Your Posts & Status Updates In Graph Search Facebook announced the launch of searching your posts and status updates…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Facebook Now Let’s You Search Your Posts & Status Updates In Graph Search
Facebook announced the launch of searching your posts and status updates within graph search. Facebook said, “Today, Graph Search will include posts and status updates.” With this, you “will be able to search for status updates, photo captions, check-ins and comments to find…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
YouTube’s New Comment System: 7 Things Video Marketers Should Do
In addition to creating videos that are unique, compelling, and entertaining or informative, make sure you’re also dedicating time to interact with your audience, developing relationships with top contributors, responding to comments, and much more.
Google’s Matt Cutts: NoFollow Attributes On Internal Links Don’t Hurt But Generally Don’t Do It
In a video, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts published today Matt answered the question, “Should I use rel=”nofollow” on internal links to a login page?” Matt Cutts basically said you shouldn’t but said it won’t hurt you if you did. Matt said,…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Facebook Tries to Make News Feed Ads More Relevant With Algorithm Update
Facebook has announced that it is updating its ad algorithm in an attempt to improve the relevance and quality of ads shown to users. The social network will put more emphasis on feedback, such as how often users hide or report an ad.
The Local Marketer’s Guide To Apple Maps for iOS7
While the launch of iOS7 has received a ton of press and blogger nitpicking about every last detail, little has been said about how the new version of Apple Maps affects local marketers. I feel like most marketers are still ignoring Apple Maps because …
Google ‘(Not Provided)’ Keywords: 10 Ways to Get Organic Search Data
Secure search is here, taking away valuable analytics data on keywords. But there are some workarounds you can use in order to capture that data. Here are some ways you can look at replacing organic search data now that Google isn’t providing it.
How to Build Your First Content Marketing Strategy
Any successful business online produces high-quality content that’s both engaging and informative on a regular basis. Here’s how to tell if you’re producing effective content and then create an effective future content strategy in five steps.
Japan Tells Webmasters Not To Use Google Maps Over Disputed Territory
Fox News reports Japan has instructed their government authorities and state-run universities to not use Google Maps on their web sites because of a conflict over disputed territories. The territory is Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea and Ap…
Reporting Delay In Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries
The forums are getting restless over a Google Webmaster Tools reporting delay, specifically with the search queries report…
Old Google Image Search Interface Returns To Mobile Version?
Google Image Search on iOS 7 seems to have reverted back to the legacy interface.
Instead of showing a full screen preview of the image…
Google’s Card Interface Now Live
After months and months of testing, Google has finally went live with their new mobile interface. It first went live this Sunday.
Here is what the new mobile interface looks on tablets and smartphones…