Google Penalizes Italian & Spanish Link Networks
As promised, Google has taken manual action to penalize link networks in Italy and Spain. It was just four days ago that Google warned webmasters in those two countries about its rules on paid links and willingness to take action against websites that …
Google Penalizes Two German Link Networks; One Being efamous
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German link networks. He mentioned one by name, being efamous. efamous looks like a typical ad network, but I guess they passed PageRank through their link network,…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Shopping Comparison: TheFind Finds Lowest Price More Often Than Google, Bing, Others
In December Danny Sullivan sought to determined which of the major shopping search engines found the best prices for common products. The shopping engines compared in the articles were Nextag, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Google, Bing and TheFind: The Test Begins: Do Google Shopping & Other…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Yes, Google Does Have & Use Author Rank; Specifically Within In-Depth Articles
Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed on stage at Search Marketing Expo today that Google does have a form of “Author Rank” in use today at Google. It is specifically used within the in-depth articles system to determine which articles to show in the In-Depth articles section. This…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Working On A Softer & Gentler Panda Algorithm To Help Small Businesses
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced at Search Marketing Expo that his search team is working the “next generation” Panda update that would appear to many as being softer. Cutts explained that this new Panda update should have a direct impact on helping small…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Up-Close @ SMX West: Experts Weigh In On Mobile SEO Best Practices
What’s your best mobile SEO solution? Responsive design? A mobile dedicated site? An app? Four mobile SEO pros gave their expert insights on how to create successful mobile SEO strategies during the “Best Practices in Mobile SEO” panel yesterday at SMX West. Moderated by Search…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Forecast: Google To Lose $1.4B In PC Revs As Search Shifts To Mobile
A forecast just released by eMarketer argues that Google will lose $1.4 billion in PC search revenue in 2014 as paid clicks partly migrate to mobile devices, where revenue per click has been lower. Some of that PC revenue decline will be offset by grow…
Google Makes It Official: It’s New Search Results Look Live For All
A day after Google said the new look was still an experiment, it has decided that the experiment was good enough to make for an official change. Now everyone should be getting the new design. Jon Wiley, Google’s lead design for Google Search, said on Google+, “you may have noticed that…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Reviewing “Not Provided,” Withholding Keywords From Organic But Not Paid Search Clicks
When Google moved to secure search in October 2011, it was a blow to publishers, who began losing data about the search terms used to reach their sites. It also opened Google up to claims of hypocrisy, in that advertisers continued to receive the terms. Now, Google says it’s reexamining the…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Yahoo Goes Live With Yelp Local Reviews
Last month the Wall Street Journal reported that Yelp reviews were being integrated into Yahoo search results. This morning Yahoo formally announced the partnership: Now when you use Yahoo Search to look up a local business in the U.S. on your smartphone, tablet, or PC, you’ll see user reviews,…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google’s New Look Search Results: Still An Experiment
More and more searchers, SEOs, webmasters and advertisers are seeing the new Google design test we’ve covered here a couple times where the ads blend in more to the search results and the font size is larger and the underlined links are gone. Last night, at Search Marketing Expo West,…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Confirms Giant Banner Ad Test Is Dead
Back in October, Google started experimenting with large banner ads at the top of branded search results on Google.com. If you haven’t noticed them lately, there’s a reason. In his SMX West keynote discussion with Danny Sullivan yesterday, Google’s Amit Singhal said the test…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google To Publishers Concerned Over The Knowledge Graph; Searchers Still Need Your Content
In the keynote session last night at Search Marketing Expo West, Google’s head of search, Amit Singhal tried to address the concern of publishers that their content is being scraped and used by Google’s Knowledge Graph, ending with the user not having to click on the search results to…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Live Blog: Google’s Amit Singhal At SMX West 2014
Good evening/afternoon (or early morning for our European readers!) from sunny San Jose, Calif., where day one of our SMX West conference is almost finished. We’re wrapping up the Marketing Land Digital Marketing Summit with a keynote conversation between Google’s Amit Singhal and Danny…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Survey: Consumers Blame Brands For Bad Location Data
Today at SMX West local data and marketing platform provider Placeable released findings from two related surveys it recently conducted online. The company polled consumers (n=1,000 US adults) and marketers (n=228) to gather data on local search attitu…
Better Data, Public Transit Coming To Apple Maps In iOS 8
According to unnamed sources cited by 9to5mac, Apple’s forthcoming iOS 8 will see a number of improvements to its mapping product across platforms. The site says the next Apple mobile OS will offer: Better and more complete points of interest and business data Public transit information and…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Now Targeting Italian & Spanish Link Spammers
Less than a month after Google targeted Polish link spammers and German link spammers, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced Google is targeting more countries. Google’s Matt Cutts announced warnings to Spanish and Italian webmasters and SEOs not to use unnatural links to…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Debuts AdWords Consumer Ratings Annotations In US, UK & Canada
Today, Google announced the roll out of Consumer Ratings Annotations in AdWords. The annotations spotlight strongly rated aspects of an advertiser’s business such as customer service, a rewards program or shipping practices in search ads. Along with Review Extensions and Seller Ratings,…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Sees Deeper App Content As Key To Mobile Usage
Google is the dominant mobile search engine with nearly 90 percent of the market in the US and an even greater share internationally. The problem is that search engines aren’t used as often in mobile. Large volumes of content are consumed in apps. Google is trying to address that challenge by…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
EU Settlement Nearly Done, Google Antitrust Drama Shifts To India
Although the Google antitrust settlement in Europe isn’t final it appears we’re in the final minutes of the final act. There still may be a surprise or two in store but we mostly know how this story is going to end. Now it appears the Google antitrust drama is shifting to India, where…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.