Bing: Poor Grammar & Typos May Result In Lower Search Rankings
Duane Forrester from Bing wrote a blog post on the Bing Webmaster Blog suggesting that Bing’s search ranking algorithms do in fact consider poor grammar, typos and poor language to be part of their ranking factors. Duane said, “just as you’re judging others’ writing, so the engines…
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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…
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,…
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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…
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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…
New Google Maps Comes Out Of Preview Today
Roughly last May at Google’s “I/O” developer conference the company introduced an updated version of its desktop Maps experience. Since that time it has been in “preview,” allowing users to go back and forth between the “classic” and new versions. Today…
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Google’s Matt Cutts: Backlink Relevancy Is A Big Win In Terms Of Search Quality
In today’s video from Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam reaffirms the significance of backlinks. The video is in response to the following question: Does the big G have a version of the search engine that totally excludes any backlink relevancy? I’m wondering what search…
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Delivering On Search: Behind The Scenes With An Ad Agency SEO Manager
Today’s full service ad agency services go far beyond building out creative and determining media placement. As Lowe Campbell Ewald’s SEO manager, Hillary Glaser is responsible for managing client search efforts, as well as training agency staff and educating clients on the realities of…
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Google Testing More Ads On Knowledge Graph Panels: Google Play Gets The Spotlight
In December, we reported that Google is testing ads on Knowledge Graph panels. The example then was an ad for local car dealership appearing on the car knowledge graph. We’re now seeing ads on the knowledge graph for movie streaming rentals that give Google Play the VIP treatment. Below is a…
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Aviate Is Yahoo’s Answer To Google Now (And More)
Yahoo has bought nearly 30 companies since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO. A large number of those were talent acquisitions — though not all of them. Among the product or technology acquisitions, Aviate could turn out to be one of the most strategic and important. Emphasis on the word…
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Out of Beta: Google Shopping Campaigns For PLAs Now Available Globally
Google began testing Shopping campaigns with a limited set of advertisers last year with the aim of streamlining the often cumbersome task of Product Listing Ad management. Today, after just over a 3-month beta period, Google is rolling out Shopping ca…
5 Tips For Working With A PR Firm To Build Links
We’ve talked recently about the overlap of SEO and Public Relations, and as companies continue to shift away from old link building tactics toward more outreach-focused tactics, the landscape becomes even blurrier. While SEO isn’t taking over PR any time soon (or ever, for that matter),…
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Starbucks & The Economist Admit To Using Google+ For SEO More Than Social
Last Friday, a New York Times report on Google+ spotlighted Starbucks and The Economist as two brands currently using Google+ to impact search efforts. Alex Wheeler, Starbuck’s vice president of global digital marketing, told The New York Times, “When we think about posting on Google+,…
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Google Adds, Then Pulls, Advice Not To Block Ad Landing Pages From Its Crawler
On Wednesday/Thursday of last week, Google added a new guideline to their Webmaster Guidelines to “not block a destination URL for a Google Ad product” via your robots.txt file. 24-hours later, Google reversed that guideline and put the webmaster guidelines back to exactly how they were…
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Google Publishes Full Text Of EU Antitrust Agreement
This afternoon on its European Blog Google’s General Counsel Kent Walker exposed the full text of the company’s third-proposed and tentatively accepted antitrust settlement agreement with European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. Almunia previously declined to make the full…
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For Robocop, Bing Imagines The Future Of Search In 2028
What will search look like in 2028? That’s a question that the folks at Bing were tasked with answering for the new movie, Robocop. (Well, “new” as in a remake of the 1987 original that just hit theaters this week.) In a blog post this week, the Bing search folks shared a few…
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Googling The Weather: From 20% Project To Sophisticated Query Analysis
Millions of us have asked Google to play weatherperson. In order to get an answer to one of our oldest and most basic questions, we type a variety of words and numbers — city names, neighborhoods and ZIP codes, plus words like “weather,” “forecast” or maybe…
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Open Letter: Why Search Engine Land Will & Won’t Cover Someone Being Penalized By Google
It’s been big news recently about major brands and Google penalties, and the floodgates feel open on people spotting even more brands possibly hit out there. Some new crackdown by Google? No. It’s the rise of hyperactive attention in this area, and that’s turning into a problem….
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Valentine’s Day Google Logo Tells 6 “This American Life” Love Stories With An Intro From Ira Glass
Today, Google is celebrating Valentine’s Day with a heartwarming logo that includes six different stories of love with an introduction from NPR radio personality and host of This American Life Ira Glass. When you go to Google’s homepage, the logo is slightly faded out and the letters…
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Will 11th Hour Objections Derail The Google-EU Antitrust Settlement?
When the European Commission recently announced yet another antitrust settlement with Google the matter appeared to be coming to an end. This was the third proposed settlement from Google but indications from EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia suggested that it was essentially final and…
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