Search Week in Review for April 23, 2011
Here’s a recap of this week’s columns and news stories for the week of April 17 to 23, as reported by Search Engine Watch.
Search Engine Optimization
Analytical Measurement & SEO: Ignorance Isn’t Bliss by Josh McCoy
Not establishing SEO goals is bad. Even worse is not knowing how to evaluate your campaign. Here’s how to understand and assess the causation of analytical trends.
How To Hire an In-House SEO by John Lynch
A four-step guide to hiring a good SEO. Marketing managers: consider yourself equipped to make the right hire.
Top Google Result Gets 36.4% of Clicks [Study] by Danny Goodwin
It’s critical for websites to appear on Page 1 of Google, especially in one of the top three organic positions, as these spots receive 58.4 percent of all clicks from users, according to a new study from Optify.
U.S. Google Panda Update, Round 2: Shrinking Demand for eHow by Danny Goodwin
Sistrix, which last week put out a list of early winners and losers in the UK, has also now released a list of websites most affected in the U.S., and Demand Media’s eHow is one of the biggest casualties.
Panda Update (UK): Who Got Two Black Eyes From Google? [Infographic] by Jonathan Allen
We were interested to know what kind of sites saw the biggest ‘visibility’ drops so we categorized the data of the top 100 sites that lost search positions according to data released by SearchMetrics.
Google Webmaster Tools Provides Plugin for Self Hosted WordPress Sites by Brent Rangen
Google has released a new plugin that will help you verify your WordPress site in Webmaster Tools.
Search Advertising
Paid Search Fire Drills: Common Oversights, Harsh Consequences by Ryan Woolley
Make your life a little easier by avoiding these three paid search emergencies associated with keyword insertion, use of broad match, and attribution.
Google Tests Instant Ad Previews by Danny Goodwin
After pushing out Instant Previews for mobile and video, Google is now testing Instant Ad Previews, allowing Google users to preview the landing page before clicking on an ad to visit the site.
WordStream Repackages Toolset As “Keyword Research Suite” by Brent Rangen
WordStream have repackaged all their different tools into a single “Keyword Research Suite” (KRS) and introduced a few tweaks to make it easier to use.
SEM Basics
5 Often-Overlooked PPC Tips for Beginners by Melissa Mackey
If you’re a PPC newbie, here are some basic strategies to get the best results from your PPC campaigns right away.
Analytics & ROI
Google Analytics Brings Conversion, Revenue Attribution to the Masses by Marc Poirier
Google has taken a long awaited step in the direction of clarifying and standardizing the attribution problem by announcing Multi-Channel Funnels. This is arguably the most important Google Analytics improvement in years.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing Basics: Think First by Bas van den Beld
Don’t treat social media marketing as if it’s a completely new ballgame. While there are new elements to social, you’ll find many “old” marketing techniques still apply.
Attention Walmart Shoppers: Social Media Is In Aisle K by Frank Watson
Walmart have announced the purchase of Kosmix, a social media filter aggregating information by topic from websites, Twitter messages, and other sources in real time – a potentially important new way to give shoppers information, and get it from them.
Link Building
You Are the Ultimate Link Building Tool by Jennifer Van Iderstyne
Killer SEO tools can definitely strengthen a link building campaign and help with data collection, organization, and presentation. Ultimately, though, these tools are nothing without the minds and hands controlling them.
Local Search
Improve Your Organic Rankings With Google Places, Part 3 by Dave Davies
Google Places tips and strategies for image optimization, reviews, and geographic targeting.
Group-Buying Meets Local Search by Jeff Beard
The daily deals market continues to grow with new players, as well as established companies weaving deals into their core offerings. At this point, who isn’t trying to capture a piece of the daily deals pie?
Google Map Maker: User Generated Tagging of Live Google Maps by Thom Craver
Google has opened up Google MapMaker to all Google Account users to edit any spot in the United States. With the philosophy of “you know your neighborhood best,” Google wants everyone to jump online to tag their favorite bike paths, coffee shops, college buildings and more.
Mobile Search
Panoramic Images Are Easy With Bing Point-and-Shoot Photo Stitching App by Thom Craver
Today Bing Maps announced their new iOS app called Photosynth, which enables you to snap full-circle, 360 degree panoramic images just using your point-and-click iPhone camera.
Is Best Price Always the Best Offer? iPhone App Finds In-Store Deals Nearby You by Jonathan Allen
SaleLocator.com a site which aggregates local information about shopping sales in your local area have launched an iPhone app that automatically searches for sales nearby you now.
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Blames iPad For US Job Losses by Frank Watson
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr (D-Il.) told Congress Friday iPads were to blame for thousands of US job losses because of its ability to stop book and newspaper printing.
Enterprise SEM
Confidently Projecting ROI for SEO: Can it be Done? by Chris Boggs
To confidently measure ROI for SEO, you have to temper expectations of high accuracy within exact number of visits or conversions, and lean more toward the school of performance growth as measured by trending lines.
International Search
Will Etao Be China’s Answer to Ecommerce Search? by Adaline Lau
Baidu has failed to gain a strong foothold in ecommerce, opening the door for Etao become China’s answer to ecommerce search.
The Search Industry
Social Has Crossed the Marketing Budget Chasm; Will It Drown Search? by Erez Barak
If we use SMBs as a litmus test for change, research shows that more and more SMBs are turning to social media, and in some cases, before they turn to search.
Google & Recyclebank Set Earth Day Challenge to ‘Green’ Your Social Graph by Brianna Kuhl
Google and Recylebank are on a mission to measure the impact of game mechanics on marketing green behavior, in order to learn which factors most effectively trigger sustainable practices and engagement.
Wolfram|Alpha & DuckDuckGo Conspire to Eat Google’s Lunch by Sarah Carling
This afternoon, Wolphram|Alpha announced that DuckDuckGo is an ‘official partner’ and the latter will be fully integrating their open API announced in January.
Feds Go All In Against Online Poker Sites, Seize Domains, Issue Warrants by Frank Watson
If you are an online poker player using PokerStars.com, you would have found the site had been seized and a Department of Justice notice was there in place of your normal access page.
FTC Announces Crackdown On Fake News Sites Selling Weight Loss Products by Frank Watson
The Federal Trade Commission announced a major crackdown against a number of sites using the appearance of a news site to promote acacia berry weight loss products.
Online Only News Site Wins Top Pulitzer Prize For Reporting by Frank Watson
The debate about the legitimacy of news bloggers has been settled. ProPublica, a web-based independent investigative news organization, has received the Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Wall Street leading to the financial crisis.
Google News
Google Autocomplete Offers Suggestions by the Word by Brent Rangen
Google users will soon see a new twist on Google’s autocomplete feature when typing longer queries. Google announced that autocomplete will begin serving up search predictions based on only part of your search.
Google Video Playback Ends This Month by Thom Craver
Over the weekend, Google sent an email to Google Video users announcing that videos will not be available to view after April 29. Content owners won’t be able to access their videos in any way as of May 13.
Google Offers Live in Portland; Coming Soon to NYC, San Francisco by Danny Goodwin
Google Offers, Google’s version of Groupon or LivingSocial, has launched in Portland, Oregon, and will soon offer daily deals from local restaurants and businesses in New York City (Downtown, Midtown, Uptown), Oakland/East Bay, and San Francisco.
Google Loses Linux Patent Suit To The Tune of $5 Million by Thom Craver
A Texas jury recently ruled that Google infringed on an information storage and retrieval patent.
Google’s Eric Schmidt Gets $1.25 Million Raise by Danny Goodwin
When Eric Schmidt handed over the reigns to Larry Page as Google CEO, Schmidt’s token $1 yearly salary ballooned to a $1.25 million base salary per year, with the ability to earn a bonus of 400 percent of his base salary — up to a maximum bonus of $6 million, according to this SEC filing.
Google Launches “News for You” – Personalized News Based on Recommendations by Thom Craver
For the past few months, Google has been testing new news layouts in the wild. Today, they announced those tests are now official.
Earth Day Doodle Foreshadowed By Google With Massive Investments In Solar & Wind Energy by Jonathan Allen
Every year, without fail, Google celebrates Earth Day and SEW has been on the lookout for how Google will honor it. Earth Day is tomorrow, April 22, but the Google Doodle has already been sighted in New Zealand, Australia, and India.
Decade of Earth Day Doodles Get Google Animated in 2011 by Jonathan Allen
Google have raised awareness of Earth Day for the last 10 years with a new Doodle. The doodle designs have got more creative and complex with the years and have touched upon different planetary themes and concerns such as solar energy to polar ice caps.
Will Gmail Be Writing Letters For Us Next? Suggesting Who To Add To Emails Now by Frank Watson
Last week Google started rolling out their new email suggestion feature – put in one recipient and they will make suggestions of others that you may want to include in the email being sent.
Bing News
Bing Rewards Integrated Directly Into Bing Search by Thom Craver
Bing has announced expanded options for earning credits from its Bing Rewards Program. Bing Rewards is now integrated directly into Bing Web search. This opens it up to people using the latest versions of the Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers.
Yahoo News
Privacy Not as Important to Yahoo Anymore, Will Keep Search Logs for 18 Months by Danny Goodwin
Yahoo, which announced plans to anonymize search logs, page views, page clicks, ad views, and ad click data it collected after 90 days in 2008, is reversing course and plans to begin storing search logs for 18 months — as well as potentially storing other types of user information for longer periods of time.
Video Marketing
UK Royal Wedding Will Be Televised Globally via YouTube by Jonathan Allen
Hot on the heels of their latest ‘Live’ landing page, is the news that the BBC’s coverage of the royal wedding will be streamed live on YouTube on The Royal Channel, dubbed “the Official Channel of The British Monarchy.”
Search News & Headlines Around the Web
SES Conference & Expo
Contagious Viral Videos Being Shared on Facebook, Twitter & Blogs by Greg Jarboe
One of the sessions at SES Toronto 2011, Next Gen YouTube Marketing, will address questions like: “Do you really have to blend an iPhone or sit on a horse backwards pitching shower gel to have a successful video marketing campaign?”
Search Week in Review 2011 Archives
April 16 | April 9 | April 2
March 26 | March 19 | March 12 | March 5
Feb. 26 | Feb. 19 | Feb. 12 | Feb. 5
Jan. 29 | Jan. 22 | Jan. 15 | Jan. 8
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