Some good news coming from Google is that they have finally updated “Google Related” to show a more complete view of related sites. This is excellent for competitive intelligence. For example, if I do a query for: related:webmarketingnow.com in Google right now, I get about 9 sites returned. However, going to the new datacenter located […]
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Danny Sullivan Announced Resignation
Over at Danny Sullivan’s Blog he has announced he is resigning from the company he built, Search Engine Watch. That also means that the SES (Search Engine Strategies) conferences will no longer have Danny. Danny has been in the industry for a long time and is very well respected. I know I was quite surprised […]
MSN Does Rollback
A continuing story with MSN – they just can’t seem to get it right, no matter how hard they try. Their latest update, which hit Friday was such as disaster that they did a rollback today. While this isn’t the first time – it certainly won’t be the last.
Google Update Pluto …
The latest Google Update has been named “Pluto” and can be seen on two verified datacenters: 64.233.187.104 and 64.233.187.99. Personally, I am against naming “updates” that are just backlink/PageRank updates. Named updates should be for major algorithm updates only. On our test domains, we are seeing a strong rise in backlinks – but of course, […]
Yahoo! Removes Blog Search – Temporarily
Yahoo! has removed the ability to search blogs and the integration of Yahoo! News. According to Brian Nelson of Yahoo! this is only temporary while they retool. There isn’t much buzz on this issue, so it isn’t something that you need to be overly concerned with … unless the “temporary” issue becomes “lengthy”.
MSN Expands on SERPs Display Limit
MSN used to only show the top 250 results of any search query. Now, they match Google by displaying the top 1,000 results.
PageRank Passthrough with JavaScript Behavior
There was a discussion last week over at Search Engine Watch regarding the links at the Washington Post and whether they pass PageRank or not. Matt Cutts and Brian White from Google both posted that these links wouldn’t pass PageRank because of the “onclick” behavior in the JavaScript. I got curious, so I went through […]
MSN Demotes Spam?
MSN Dude had this to say regarding the latest “update” and “spammy looking pages being removed” from the index. No one is talking about a “total ban” here — just some recent changes that tend to demote (but not remove) “spammy-looking” pages. If your site has disappeared completely, it’s not because of any recent update […]
Which Directories to Submit?
Which directories should you submit your site to? Here is my list: Yahoo! – Hands down the best directory out there in terms of potential exposure. Testing shows that 86% of websites experience higher ranking in the SERPs in Yahoo! by also having a directory listing than not having one. While getting a listing in […]
Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) Changes
This is a posting over at Webmaster World. My contact at Yahoo! was out on Friday, so I couldn’t get confirmation / commentary from her, but I wanted to share this with you so you know what is coming. Here’s a quick summary of what to expect from the new Yahoo! Search Marketing capabilities. The […]
A Strange Happening in the Google Index
Last month as the instability of Google occurred, one thing that happened which created great excitement in the community was that domains that had been previously banned by Google came back. However, it didn’t last long as about ten day later, the sites were gone again. I mentioned at the time that I felt something […]
Google Looks to use Video in AdWords
It looks like Google has finally figured out how to many money with Google Video after all. Incorporate it into AdWords. The plan is to roll this new video ad service in the US, Canada and Japan. Based on feedback, Google will roll out to other regions. If you are an advertiser or a publisher […]
Google Notebook
Fresh out of Google Labs is Google Notebook. You can bookmark content either via Google search, or on the open web. All you do is highlight the text and right click. One the content is bookmarked, you can add a note and then categorize it. The bookmarks can be easily organized with the drag and […]
New Text Link Ad Calculator
Patrick Gavin at Text Link Ads has put out a pretty cool Text Link Ad Calculator. How did he do it? Patrick says the following criteria was done: * Traffic of the website (based on Alexa ranking – the lower the number, the higher the price per ad) * Link popularity of the website – […]
AdSense Tips – Better EPC
With Google AdSense, the real key is not the CTR (click-through rate) but the EPC (earnings per 100 clicks). Why? There is a big difference in your check if you are getting 30 cents per click vs. 3 dollars per click. Make sense? Of course it does. Now, how do you do it. First, you […]
SEO/SEMs Continue to Whine
It is hilarious to me that “professional” SEOs and SEMs whine and cry when they lose clients … especially to the host themselves. Recently, bitching occured when Google was contacting their OWN AdWords clients for their direct PPC management service. And Google is the “bad guy” in this? Please. Now Yahoo! is getting blamed for […]
Google Notebook
Fresh out of Google Labs is Google Notebook. You can bookmark content either via Google search, or on the open web. All you do is highlight the text and right click. One the content is bookmarked, you can add a note and then categorize it. The bookmarks can be easily organized with the drag and […]
MSN to Sell Out to Yahoo!?
What a change of events. Just a few years ago in late 2002, there was a serious rumor that Microsoft was close to acquiring Yahoo!. Now, Microsoft, obviously frustrated over MSN Search is looking to dump it. Do you blame them? They have tried for over a year to launch a successful search engine and […]
Google Banning DOMZ Clones
Over at Webmaster World, there has been chatter this month that Google has been banning DMOZ content clones. They have been banning Wikipedia clones for awhile now. The ban rates according to the poster was Google 37%, Yahoo 11%, and MSN 9%. We testing this and more than half of our sites that we tested […]
Google Related Links Goes Live
Even though many projects placed in Google Labs get out – this one is a fun one to play with. Google Related Links. I would only use this to test your theme, as it isn’t tied to AdSense. Why advertise on your site for free? Monetize, monetize, monetize.