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Search Engine Roundtable

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 17, 2008

Posted: August 17th, 2008, 5:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
Google's search share surpasses 70%. Take our Google penalty poll. What is the deal with Google and ranking software? Google get personal on personalizes results. Google shuts down FeedBurner ads and opens up AdSense for feeds. Google Reader improves sharing feature. Google fixes bugs with 404 reporting and sitemaps pending in webmaster tools. They also fixed bolding of search results for keyword matches. The Gmail outage was painful. Are you the most dependable SEO? SES San Jose is next week, we got you covered. More news at SERoundtable.com.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):

For the original iTunes version, click here

Some Of The Topics Discussed:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

I may not be able to mail schwag outside of the United States.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 15, 2008

Posted: August 16th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Weekly Search Buzz RoundUp - 08/15/08: Google Search Share Tops 70%, Gmail Outage Affects Thousands & Don't Depend on Goldmine Research for Ethics

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 6:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Happy Friday! Hope you all had a great week and are pumped for SES San Jose next week! I know I am and I still don't know if I'm going! :) Here are the noteworthy news for this week:

Google Search Share Tops 70%

Google has had more than 70% of searches according to a Hitwise report. Is Google now a monopoly? It's debatable, but if there's choice involved, most feel that it's not.

Do Hearing About Penalties Worry You?

Google penalizes people for everything lately -- over-optimizing, selling links, whatever. The question we have to ask is: when you read about this stuff, do you feel like you need to make some changes to avoid getting "caught?" We have a poll open and the votes are pretty much split at this time, so vote on whether penalties worry you right now!

Google Doesn't Want You to Use Automated Software

If you're using ranking software to scrape the results of Google, don't be surprised if you get blocked. A few Google reps comment that they'd much rather have the Google TOS followed than ignored and that Google is meant for people and not for bots and applications that attempt to scrape data.

Do You Know that Google Personalizes Your Results?

In case you were living under a rock for the past few months, you should know that Google has personalized your results. In case you were totally clueless, though, Google is being more transparent about it. Just be sure to read the fine print and all.

Google Shuts Down Feedburner Advertising Network, Opens AdSense

This week, Barry spotted the thread where Google announced the end of Feedburner's Advertising Network. Publishers are no longer being accepted. What does this mean for the future of RSS advertising? We already have the answer: Google has opened AdSense for publishers to advertise within RSS. Now it all makes sense.

Google Reader Wants You To Share!

Google Reader is apparently the social RSS reader. It's so social that Google lets you share your feeds with your friends but until yesterday didn't give you a chance to tell Google you weren't ready to learn more. Now that's fixed, though. :)

Google Observations for the Week

After reporting that Google Webmaster Tools encountered 404 errors, we now know that the issue is fixed. JohnMu, our Swiss friend who has lived in the US for a long time and has no accent at all, tells us that the issue is resolved.

Two other issues relating to sitemaps and crawling Blogger have been resolved. Again, it's JohnMu who comes to the rescue... or at least the podium.

With regards to search, forum members observe that Google is not bolding all search results. As for why -- we don't know. My guess is that it's a bug rather than a "feature," but it could be experimental. Still, I don't see how that will encourage people to click.

Gmail Suffers Downtime

It's scary to be dependent on Gmail, but that's the case for millions of users. And when an outage took out Gmail for a large percentage of those users, worry settled in. Can we depend on Google forever? Hopefully, this is an issue that will never recur; I'm just glad that I keep my Gmail tabs open at all time!

You are Not the Most Dependable SEO

Goldmine Research is not a reputable company, even if they tell you that you're the most dependable search engine optimization company for the "feel-good" effect. Guess what? You've just been scammed! If Goldmine Research contacts you, do your research -- they want you to pay $5500 for the publicity. Not cool.

Internet Marketer's Charity Party Kicks off SES San Jose

A bunch of great internet marketers are holding a charity party next Monday, which will occur in San Jose right by the conference center where SES will be held. I'm still not sure if I'll make it but we have some great bloggers who will. Stay tuned for live coverage next week, and to those who will be there, have fun in San Jose! Just don't forget to save me schwag if you don't see me!
How Will the SEO Bubble Pop?

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 4:34pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

You can clearly search and find that many people think that SEO is dying a painful death, but do you know exactly how that will happen? Well, Ian Lurie decided to speculate how the SEO bubble will pop and proposes three theories.

In his first theory, bigger agencies will start doing their SEO in-house. In his second, SEO will just not be needed because of cut costs. In the third theory, Ian says that clients are seeking tolerable (not lousy!) results and that the rip-off artists will go away.

Do you agree? At Sphinn, forum members don't feel that Ian's assessment is correct. The need for marketing is much more important now than ever, and talent will always be needed. "Shameless self-promoters," then, will need to be distinguished from real talent.

Additionally, since web sites are not going away anytime soon, most don't foresee the SEO bubble to pop.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
Ranking Software & Google's Opinion

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 3:43pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Tools

A couple weeks ago, Google slightly changed how they show the Google search results, which resulted in several search ranking software packages to not function properly anymore. I reported this under the title of WebPosition Ranking Software Being Blocked by Google? early on and Scott Goodyear from WebPosition commented here and also at WebmasterWorld with his two cents.

Scott took offense to me using the word "blocking" in the title. The truth is, I posed it as a question and Google was not technically blocking them, just yet. But will it happen? It seems like it.

Matt Cutts of Google has commented (once again) at WebmasterWorld on his stance on ranking checking tools, saying:

I wouldn't be surprised if our bot detection continued to get better over time for many types of software that scrape Google. We'd prefer to use that server capacity for real users, not someone who wants to check how they rank for tons of queries going down hundreds of pages.

Does this mean that Google is now going to try really hard to prevent scraper based rank checking software? Seems like it.

Google's JohnMu also commented at our site, explaining some of the history:

I think the information given in the Webmaster Guidelines and the TOS is fairly straight-forward:
"Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."

and

"5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google."

Matt Cutts also commented in a thread Scott started in the Webmaster Help groups.

I am not going to get into the argument, if this should be allowed or not. I would hate it if people wrote scrapers to constantly scrap my pages, oh wait, they do. It is a waste of my bandwidth and can impact the speed of our page loads. At the same time, there are easier ways to get this data that might be more in accordance with the TOS.

There is also a big debate on why SEOs need to bother with ranking reports.

I'll leave the discussion in the air.

Forum discussion at Google Groups, Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 14, 2008

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
404 or 301 Your Old Pages? Which is Best For SEO?

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

There is a very large discussion at Sphinn around a Search Engine Journal post named How to Get Rid of Multiple Subpages & Not Get Penalized. The discussion is around the topics of using different techniques when removing or redirecting pages.

Which is better to do for SEO? Do you want to 301, redirect a page, or 404, return a not found status, a page?

I can tell you that my company does this fairly frequently. We take different approaches for different sites. I try, try hard, to not think only about SEO and think what would also benefit the user.

Here is my guide:

301 redirect everything you possibly can, when it makes sense. If you have a page about big blue pineapple chairs on the old site and you are moving it to the new site, 100% use a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. However, sometimes it is not that easy.

Sometimes you have a site with hundreds, if not thousands of pages, if not more. Manually redirecting each page is a huge chore. When we can, we set up logic based 301 redirects, to redirect the old URL to the new URL dynamically. That can result in thousands of redirects, but Google should handle those fine over time.

For all the pages that do not match that pattern or logic AND for sites where there is no logic (large, old, non-database driven sites), you want to manually redirect the most important pages. So make sure you have analytics installed on the previous site, way before launching the new site - this way you have the 301 redirects in place, on the most important pages, when you launch.

Then, all other pages, I typically set up a 404 page, returning a valid 404 status code, plus it is set up as a custom 404, so users who land on it, have an avenue to find the right page.

But Rae, at the Sphinn, suggests that sometimes you should think about setting up what is called a "soft" 404 page. Basically, a soft 404 page, is a page that looks like a page not found page, but returns a server status of 200, meaning, the page is valid and active and should not be deleted. The only issue I see with that, is that the URL of the page will be different but the content of the page will be very similar, if not exact, to the other soft 404 pages you set up. Of course, if you are a smart coder, you can look at the Google referrer or the old page's data and serve up contextual relevant product or content on that page, which would make the page's content more unique.

So, like I said, it totally depends on the situation.

I am sure you guys have your own thoughts.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Don't Fall For The "Most Dependable" Award

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 2:53pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Back in June, I told you the story I had with and other SEOs had with the Most Dependable awards being given to SEOs and Web Design companies, amongst others.

In short, a company named Goldline Research calls you, telling you that they create an "editorial" page in a popular magazine, like Entrepreneur magazine and others. The page will highlight your company as the most dependable in your niche and region.

The catch? If you are selected, you need to pay a fee. After going through the contracts myself, I noticed the fee was $3,500. I was a bit skeptical about it, but when I spoke to Goldline about that fee, they were honest and told me that it was to cover the costs of printing, research and so on. They said the content was editorial and these magazines would not let them buy an ad if they abused the editorial part.

In any event, I personally decided not to enroll my company. Why? It just felt off for me.

Yesterday, we were told by Miguel Salcido of eVisibility, an SEO company I respect, that they fell for it. Miguel told us and updated the HighRankings Forum thread, saying he just received a bill from Goldline Research for the amount of $5,500! He had no idea he was going to receive a bill for it and was shocked to see it. In fact, he was embarrassed they fell for it. He said:

We were blown away and VERY angry as we never expected the invoice. They never mentioned it to us at all, I confirmed that for the 5th time with our CEO.

I feel so bad for Miguel and company. Miguel added:

We are embarrassed that we were involved in this. We were genuinely excited about it and felt that it was legitimate.

So, please, if this helps one other company learn that there is a fee behind this award, then I am happy. I won't argue that $3,500 or $5,500 might be money well spent for advertising in a popular magazine. But you should know you are spending money and what this is all about.

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 13, 2008

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
"Search Meets Real Life" - Give Danny Advice on What to Speak about at Gnomedex

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 4:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Topics Search

Now that Danny Sullivan is a California resident, he can travel much much more easily. This year, he is stepping outside the typical conference boundaries of Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo, and Pubcon, and will be speaking at the Gnomedex conference on August 21-23. As a result, Danny has posted about the engagement on Search Engine Land and has been looking to Sphinn for discussion that he can integrate into his speech.

The Sphinn discussion has had a lot of real interesting experiences, from people saying that judges are using Google to gain ammunition for court cases (in one case, for child support) to how search makes it easier to form relationships based on a single passion for a topic.

The ability to search online is making us smarter, not stupider, because we're getting results instantaneously.

There's some really great discussion, from Matt Cutts trying to give the background on how policies are implemented, to others feeling that "old news is not news." Overall, the entire thread is a good read.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
Next Week: Attend the IM Charity Party in San Jose

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 4:38pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2008 San

Next week, we have a slew of writers covering Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, and the conference is kicking off with a great charity party, where proceeds are going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and The Children's Hospital of Denver.

Lauren Vacarrello at Search Engine Journal posted why you should attend. The main reason? It's a great networking opportunity for you to meet and greet some of the speakers and attendees of the event.

The cost is $40, and goes toward the charity -- and there are fun times to be had.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 11, 2008

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
SES San Jose '08 Roundtable Coverage Schedule

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 6:37pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2008 San

It is that time of the year, where Search Engine Strategies (SES) comes to San Jose, California. SES San Jose 2008 is just one week away, starting Monday, August 18th. SES is offering up over 70 sessions and we hope to cover many of them.

Tamar and I won't be attending this event, this is the first time in years that I won't be going. We have been covering SEO/SEM conferences in detail since 2003, and we have covered SES San Jose in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. But don't worry, we will have extensive coverage of SES San Jose 2008, thanks to our wonderful volunteers.

The volunteer Roundtable conference coverage team for San Jose 2008 include Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs, Sheara Wilensky & Avi Wilensky of Promedia Corp, Carolyn Shelby aka Cshel, Chris Boggs of Brulant, and Dave Rohrer . Brian Ussery aka Beu, was planning on covering sessions but was unable to make it last minute (he is doing well, thankfully). All the contributors have experience live blogging sessions, so I am very confident their contributions will be excellent. A big thank you to all the contributors! If you want to help with the coverage, please let us know.

Here is the SES San Jose '08 Roundtable Live Blogging Coverage:

Day 1 - Monday, August 18, 2008

9:45am- 11:00am
"Universal & Blended Search" covered by Keri Morgret
"Search Industry Update" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"More Customers, Fewer Costs - Why Marketing to the 'Long Tail' Makes Sense" covered by Avi Wilensky
"Mobile SEO: Death of the ".mobi"" covered by Carolyn Shelby

11:15am-12:30pm
"Non-Profits & Socially Responsible Companies With Global Interests in a 2.0 World" covered by Keri Morgret
"Igniting Viral Campaigns" covered by Avi Wilensky
"Pay Per Conversation" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Semantic Search: How Will It Change Our Lives?" covered by Carolyn Shelby
"The Next Wave for Online Video" covered by Chris Boggs

1:30pm- 2:30pm
"Orion Keynote Panel: How Much Search is Enough?" covered by Chris Boggs

2:45pm- 4:00pm
"Search Around the World - Part 2: The UK & Europe" covered by Chris Boggs
"Storyteller Marketing: How the Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing" covered by Dave Rohrer
"Enterprise Search: Running Your Own Search Engine" covered by Keri Morgret
"Everything But Google: Alternative Search Advertising Options" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO)" covered by Avi Wilensky

Day 2 - Tuesday, August 19, 2008

11:00am- 12:15pm
"Measuring Success in a 2.0 World" covered by Keri Morgret
"Global Search for the B2B SEM" covered by Dave Rohrer
"Landing Page Testing & Tuning" covered by Carolyn Shelby
"Shopping Search Tactics" covered by Sheara Wilensky

2:45pm- 3:45pm
"7 Proven Ways To Get Your Website On Page 1 Organically Then Convert" covered by Avi Wilensky
"5 Things No One Will Tell You About SEM" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"What's new with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer?" covered by Keri Morgret
"Diagnose SEO Issues Using Live Search Webmaster Tools" covered by Chris Boggs

4:00pm- 5:15pm
"Search Advertising 101" covered by Keri Morgret
"Identify, Analyze, Act: SEM by Numbers" covered by Avi Wilensky
"Advanced B2B Marketing" covered by Dave Rohrer

Day 3 - Wednesday, August 20, 2008

10:30am- 11:45am
"Ads in a Quality Score World" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Getting Vertical Search Right" covered by Dave Rohrer
"SEO Through Blogs & Feeds" covered by Avi Wilensky
"Social Media Marketing: What is it and What is it Good For?" covered by Keri Morgret

1:00pm- 2:15pm
"Link Building Basics" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Searcher Behavior Research Update" covered by Keri Morgret
"Successful Tactics for Social Media" covered by Dave Rohrer

2:45pm- 4:00pm
"Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations" covered by Avi Wilensky
"SEO Rehab & Intervention" covered by Keri Morgret
"Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Social Media Analysis and Tracking" covered by Dave Rohrer

4:15pm- 5:30pm
"Maximizing SEO Returns With User Generated Content" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Advanced Paid Search Techniques" covered by Keri Morgret
"Black Hat, White Hat: Playing Dirty With SEO" covered by Carolyn Shelby
"Facebook, Feeds and Micro-Blogging" covered by Avi Wilensky

Day 4 - Thursday, August 21, 2008

10:15am- 11:15am
"The Business Case for SEO Content Development: Turning Words Into Action!" covered by Carolyn Shelby
"How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department To Get Stuff Done" covered by Keri Morgret
"Effective Contextual Search Management" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Local 2.0: The Evolution of Local Search" covered by Avi Wilensky

11:30am- 12:30pm
"Fast, Free & Easy Tools to Get You Going" covered by Keri Morgret
"Trademark Issues: What SEMs Should Know" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"Creating a Cohesive Search Strategy Across Multiple Business Units" covered by Carolyn Shelby
"The 3G iPhone: Local Search Demos" covered by Avi Wilensky

1:30pm- 2:30pm
"Organic Listings Forum" covered by Keri Morgret
"Best Kept Secrets to Search" covered by Sheara Wilensky
"How to Choose a Search Vendor" covered by Avi Wilensky
" Affiliate & Search Marketing Square Off" covered by Carolyn Shelby

2:45pm- 3:45pm
"Net Neutrality is for Online Marketers Too!" covered by Chris Boggs
"In House SEO: Lessons Learned & Victories Won" covered by Carolyn Shelby
"Search Advertising Tools" covered by Avi Wilensky
"Searching for Jobs in Search: Starting & Advancing Your Career in the Industry" covered by Keri Morgret
Google Provides More Information about Personalized Results

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 4:17pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Search Engine

A WebmasterWorld member points out that Google has been a little more open with regards to personalized search results. For example, when you do a search, you might see something like this, where Google says that these are searches based on your web history:

When you click on "More details," Google gives you more information about personalization:

Google announced this transparency at the end of July, and it's been relatively welcome addition. They fear that the results could still be personalized if you're not logged into your account, however.

On a similar note, Pierre Far has written that you can now opt out of this behavioral tracking, and he directs you to the forms you need to fill out on Google and Yahoo (in addition to NAI).

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.
Google Places Product Results In 4th Position : Confuses Searchers

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Google is now placing product results, for some searches, in the middle of the search results. For example, a search on ipod nano returns the Google Shopping results in the fourth listing, as opposed to above the web search results.

Yes, this is Google Universal Search at it's best, but it is confusing some users. A WebmasterWorld member asked why Google was placing AdWords listings within the search results. Yes, you and I know they are not AdWords listings, but does the average searcher? In that case, does the average searcher care if there are product results in the 4th listing, mixed into the search results? Maybe not, maybe that is what Google is testing.

For you, the advertiser, if you have product and you are not in Google Shopping/Product Search, then maybe it is time you submit your products to Google.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 8, 2008

Posted: August 9th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 8, 2008

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 8:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
The Olympics start today and Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and the Search Engine Roundtable have special logos up for the event. Google launched Insights for Search. Google begins to track your web surfing via DoubleClick cookies. Yahoo Search had a major update. Live relaunched Webmaster Tools. SEOs are split on buying nofollowed links and do like blog links. Google blocked ranking software. Performics has been sold off. Do the best SEOs offer consulting? AdWords is performing maintenance this weekend and they are shutting down version 11 of the API on the 26th. More news at SERoundtable.com.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):

For the original iTunes version, click here

Some Of The Topics Discussed:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

I may not be able to mail schwag outside of the United States.
Weekly SearchBuzz RoundUp: 08/08/08 - Google Insights, Performics Dropped & Yahoo Gets Better

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 6:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Today is 08/08/08. You can imagine how precisely Barry planned out this post -- since, well, that only happens once in a century.

The Olympics are Here!

Also occurring almost as infrequently is the Olympics, which started yesterday and are now being celebrated within the search industry and here at Search Engine Roundtable. Speaking of which, the designer of our Olympics logo, Mabe, got engaged last night. Everyone needs to congratulate her!!!

Google Launches Cool Tool

One of the cooler tools that I've seen released by Google is Google Insights, which was unveiled this week. For the statistics junkie, this is HAWT.

Google's DoubleClick Cookie Tracking Arouses Happiness, Fear

To better advertise to the search audience, Google and DoubleClick are going to apply cookie targeting. to utilize some more sophisticated means of advertising, including frequency capping, frequency reporting, improved ads, and better conversion tracking. This is both exciting but also frightening--lots of information from two really powerful companies.

Yahoo Encounters Search Ranking Changes, Gets Better

Yahoo is upping the ante and is apparently becoming closer to Google in terms of how relevant the results are. This may be due to a number of updates and algorithm ranking changes that we reported earlier this week. In any event, it's promising stuff!

Microsoft Updates Webmaster Tools

Earlier this week, Microsoft updated Webmaster Tools with crawl error and backlink reports. Sadly, though, the webmaster community has not been receptive to this tool. I hope they do, though, since the really awesome guys at Microsoft put considerable work into that project and are passionate about what they do.

Polls: Your Favorite Links?

We held two polls related to links recently and got some interesting feedback. In our first poll, you were asked whether you would buy links with the nofollow attribute. The answer, actually, is undecided. Half of you said yes, and less than half of you said no (with some being "other"). Personally, I think that nofollow paid links, if relevant, would yield clickthroughs, so that's important, right?

What about links from blogs? Most of you like blog links, with 64% of you saying yes. I'm surprised that such a large number (29%) said no -- if blogs are updated, have good content, and again, are relevant, why the hell not?!

Google Blocks WebPosition

The WebPosition application has been blocked by Google for reportedly automatically checking rankings. Apparently, Google never liked the application to begin with, with their SEO guidelines specifically pointing fingers at WebPosition and suggesting that people don't utilize the service.

Google Sheds Itself of Performics

While Google loves acquisitions, there was one they just couldn't keep. We learned mid-week that Google has gotten rid of Performics so as to avoid a conflict of interest with SEM agencies around the world. Now, Publicis, a French company, gets all the good stuff.

Why Don't SEOs Execute their Clients' Ideas?

Following a discussion on one of the forums, Barry wrote about why SEOs don't take on client work. Why aren't SEOs applying some of the ideas presented by clients and using them to boost their own companies? Well, there are a variety of reasons, but notably, the issues remain that it requires a lot of manpower, dedication, and the passion usually lies in helping people, not competing. I've been presented with a fair amount of great ideas in the past, but would it even be ethical to steal it and call it my own? I think you know the answer to that.

Google AdSense and AdWords Downtime Tomorrow

All Google AdSense and AdWords publishers and subscribers should note that there is Google AdWords downtime tomorrow as well as Google AdSense downtime. What happens during these routine maintenance practices? We don't really know; Google went the political route and didn't give us a straight answer. That made a forum member start guessing, and it was pretty informative.

Also, Google AdWords API v11 will be sunsetted on August 26th, so be sure to update to v12 ASAP!

Have a happy weekend!
The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics & The Search Engine Industry

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 4:22pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China start officially today. To celebrate the day, Google, Yahoo and Ask.com all have logos and themes up. We also have our theme up, we hope you like it.

Here is the Google Logo:

Here is Yahoo's animated logo:

Here is the Ask.com theme:

Dogpile and Live Search do not have themes. It would have been nice to see a custom background with Olmypic "hotspots," maybe next year.

Here is our theme:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
Live Search Greatly Improves Webmaster Tools But Webmasters Don't Give a Hoot

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 3:26pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Microsoft has spent a considerable amount of time and resources building out enhanced features to the Live Search Webmaster Tools. They announced releasing the new features this week, but it has gone, pretty much, unnoticed in the SEO and webmaster community forums.

I won't go through all the features of the tool, Vanessa Fox has done that at Search Engine Land, but I will discuss the lack of discussion around this launch.

There has been sufficient buzz about this tool in the past. We heard promises that it was coming in August 2007. Then in September 2007, Live Search began accepting beta testers to the program. In November 2007, Microsoft announced that it would be launched shortly. A few days later, I showed off screen captures of the tool and interface, and was a bit unimpressed, to say the least. Then Microsoft launched a beta version. I then discussed the Live Search rank bars found in their Webmaster Tools.

In any event, now the tool is out of beta, they added a bunch of features and no one cares. All we have is a single post at WebmasterWorld two days later, saying, that Microsoft announced it. But that is it. No feedback, no complaints, no suggestions, nothing. Someone did Sphinn the Search Engine Land post, but it has zero comments and only five sphinns. Hopefully people will have time to review it over the weekend and complain about it next week. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Sphinn.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 7, 2008

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
A Deep Analysis of Google SERP Click Through Rates

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 4:34pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Search Engine

The Searchlight Digital Blog has an interesting post that illustrates the percentage of click-throughs you'd get based on a specific Google ranking. The analysis performed by Searchlight covers over 36 million queries and more than 19 million clicks.

The interesting data comes from the explanation from Pete, the blog post's author:

Where this gets really interesting though is when you look at what can happen if you own most of the real estate on a good SERP. The top four results put together account for over two thirds of all clicks that will happen (68.69% in total). The top ten taken as a whole will give nearly nine tenths! (Actual total figure - 89.69%).
Drop onto page two, and you’re basically stuffed. Unless the term gets huge traffic, you’re not going to.

In a way, this information is troubling, however. The discussion on Sphinn concerns individuals. NickWilsdon, for example, is quoted as saying: "That shows the effect of Google pushing up these authority sites into top positions. Eventually they will just leave scraps for everyone else."

I guess we're all hoping that day never comes.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
Is Yahoo Search More Relevant Now? SEOs Claim "More Like Google"

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Yahoo

Yahoo conducted an update to their search engine over the weekend. We reported on the early discussion around the update and it then became official when the Yahoo Search Blog confirmed the update later in the day.

But since then, I have been hearing and reading discussion that the new Yahoo Search results are more like Google. And since Google tends to be the barometer of what is "relevant" and what is not, maybe Yahoo's search results are becoming more "relevant."

Yahoo Search moderator, travelin cat, at WebmasterWorld said:

We have never ranked in the top 100 results in Yahoo since their split with Google. Starting a couple of days ago, our site started showing up in Yahoo serps. Most of our kw phrases are now on either the first or second page.

Plus, we have a whole new DigitalPoint Forums thread on the topic of the Yahoo results being incredibly similar to Google results. Here is a select comment from that thread:

Did anyone noticed changes in Yahoo!' SERP today. Yahoo is following the same way as Google. Frequent change in Google SERP is kind of common now but it's new for Yahoo!. Yahoo! is changing search results very frequently now.

Not only are the results looking a bit similar, in some cases, the frequency of updates seems to be getting similar and the discussion has grown a bit around this update.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.
WebPosition Ranking Software Being Blocked by Google?

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:01pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Tools

The historically popular search engine ranking software, WebPosition, has reportedly been blocked by Google from checking rankings automatically.

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that WebPosition is no longer able to process one's search rankings as of August 5, 2008. Old time WebmasterWorld member, Barbara 'WebMama' Coll, who has been a member of WebmasterWorld since 2002, said:

Has anyone else noticed that after years of threatening it appears that Google has now blocked WP Gold from reporting rankings through their tool? We called the WP support line and they said they are waiting for Google to 'do' something and have NO ETA has to when it will be fixed.

There is no estimated time when the software will begin working again. This software has been around forever and I believe Google has threatened to block it many times. In fact, Google has named WebPosition Gold in their SEO guidelines saying, "Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."

So maybe Google did something about it finally? Or maybe not. Time will tell.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 5, 2008

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Save the Date: SearchCamp Philly on September 6th and 7th

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 5:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Conferences

The Internet Marketers of Delaware Valley are planning a great event on September 6th and 7th: SearchCamp Philly. During the two day event to be held at Temple University in Pennsylvania, there will be many great presentations from numerous notable speakers: Kevin Ryan, Geoff Livingston, Li Evans, Kim Krause Berg, Debbie Weil, Greg Meyers, Eric Herbert, Simon Heseltine, Donna McCarthy, and Wil Reynolds, among others. The event only costs $21, which is a bargain!

As Barry Welford puts it, "The ROI for this must be immense given the value and the cost."

I'd say so. If you're local to the area, you shouldn't miss this.

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums (registered members only) and Sphinn.
Are The Best SEOs Not Taking on Client Work?

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

There is an excellent paid only WebmasterWorld thread on the topic of why would the best SEOs decide to take on client work, as opposed to building out their own ideas and cashing in on those ideas. The rational is, if they are the best, why not make a living doing your own thing then making someone else rich?

This debate really is valid in most "consulting" practices. But many SEOs get a thrill from helping other companies achieve their goals. In addition, not every SEO has the entrepreneurial spirit to run their own thing. Some do both and have client work as a way to reduce financial risk.

I personally run a web development shop named RustyBrick. Sometimes clients ask me, what is stopping you from taking our idea and doing it yourself? I respond, I am in the business of building web sites and software, not in the business of running other businesses. Of course, I have built out our own software and products but at the same time, most applications and software require a whole new business to operate them. In many cases, one doesn't have the means either financially, physically or emotionally to run a separate business.

There are many reasons why an SEO might do client work. What are some of yours?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld (note, paid access required).
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 3, 2008

Posted: August 3rd, 2008, 4:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
Happy anniversary World Wide Web. I chat a bit more about the Google Yo-Yo. Google processes many links per day, many. Google tests related searches inline with search results. Microsoft does BrowseRank. Google updates AdWords Search. Yahoo adds search marketing features. Cuil launches. Google Maps updates features and fixes the local business center. Webmaster tools has a 404 error reporting issue. Google Analytics has several bugs. Yahoo still needs to fix publisher reports. More at SERoundtable.com.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):

For the original iTunes version, click here

Some Of The Topics Discussed:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

I may not be able to mail schwag outside of the United States.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 1, 2008

Posted: August 2nd, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Weekly SearchBuzz RoundUp - 08/01/2008: WWW's Birthday, Live Search Redesigned, and Cuil Reviewed/Examined

Posted: August 1st, 2008, 7:20pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Can you all believe it's August already? We're almost done with summer! Whoa!

But don't get too disappointed. There is still Search Engine Strategies San Jose (which I sadly won't be able to attend) for your summer festivities. (Be sure to save me a Google Dance T-Shirt! Women's XL please or a Men's M!)

WWW Birthday

Today, if you pulled up Search Engine Roundtable directly (and not from your RSS feed), you'd know that it's the 18th birthday of the WWW. In the event that you're lazy (but we really do like it when you click and interact with us!), here's the screenshot of the theme:

Microsoft Live Gets Redesigned

No more white on Microsoft Live Search. This week, Live Search was redesigned with interactive features that show you how you can use Live Search.

State of Google Search for the Final Week of July

This past week, we've seen suggestions that the Google Yo Yo effect is a result of Universal Search. Google also told us that they now are processing trillions of URLs, more than a trillion links, and that they reprocess the entire web graph many times throughout the day. And finally, this week, a few users were lucky to see Google's new related links search results. Very interesting.

Microsoft Announces Behavioral PageRank

We learned about Microsoft BrowseRank rather recently: it's a metric to see how people interact with web pages. I have to say I agree with Michael Martinez's comment that Microsoft might be burying themselves into a hole here.

Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing Updates

For the advertisers out there: the Google AdWords Search updated its desgin, and new features were added to Yahoo Search Marketing. Cool beans. :)

Cuil Launches

Former Googlers launched Cuil this week. So far, SEOs responded negatively and think that Cuil, pronounced "Cool," is simply not cool at all. In fact, the relevancy of photos is pretty far off for a good percentage of industry figures, as indicated in my research. The only thing that is slightly close is watching Matt Cutts gag Greg Boser. That one was good.

Issues with Google Maps: For Real?

Google made some Google Maps changes earlier this week that removed some features that users started craving. As a result, they reverted to the original design. On a similar note, Google Business Listing users can rejoice, because Google has restored the "fix incorrect marker location" for your biz listing. Now your clients won't get lost on their commute to your office. Sweet!

Google Webmaster Tools May Report 404 Errors that Don't Exist

Be advised that Google Webmaster Tools is misreporting some links as returning 404 status codes.

Google Analytics Has Bugs Too

Some Google Analytics reports have come in that confirm that some people cannot log into their accounts due to redirect issues. Additionally, people have seen errors that the tracking code is not installed on their site (even though it is). Finally, there are reports of duplicate cities in the reporting.

Yahoo Publishers Unconvinced of Fix

This week, there were reports of a Yahoo Publisher Network payout error which Yahoo apparently fixed. But the publishers don't think so. At this time, we're not sure what's up.

Have a happy August!

Web Design News » Tags » Search

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352 items tagged "Search"

Posted: August 17th, 2008, 5:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: August 16th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 6:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 4:34pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 3:43pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Tools

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 2:53pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 4:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Topics Search

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 4:38pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2008 San

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 6:37pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2008 San

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 4:17pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: August 9th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 8:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 6:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 4:22pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 3:26pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 4:34pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Yahoo

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:01pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Tools

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 5:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Conferences

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

Posted: August 3rd, 2008, 4:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: August 2nd, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: August 1st, 2008, 7:20pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp