Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

January 27th, 2012
Bing is reportedly now out of betaphase in Deutschland. According to Microsoft, Bing has 10 million users or 20 percent of active internet users in Germany: Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande....

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 27, 2012

January 27th, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled...

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Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity – SMN Tuesday, Jan. 31

January 27th, 2012
Search Marketing Now will present “Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity,” on Tuesday, January 31 at 1 PM EST. The free webcast features Steven Schuler and Patrick Peters, both from Yahoo!’s mobile division. They’ll give an overview of the current mobile landscape, then...

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Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar

January 27th, 2012
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. David Beckham At Google: Google’s Moscow Brick Desk: Bing Bar at...

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Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

January 27th, 2012
Marketers have had a couple weeks to digest their fourth quarter numbers and assess their successes and failures from a period that can be a whirlwind, particularly in the retail sector. Now, with Google’s Q4 earnings report and Yahoo’s out, we’re getting a chance to compare our...

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Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search

January 26th, 2012
The debate about what should — and shouldn’t — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point. But I’d like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else: how it appears Google is taking its eye off the ball of...

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Google’s “Trusted Photographers” Turns Business Photos Into A Self-Serve Product

January 26th, 2012
Google is hoping to expand its Business Photos product with the launch of a new service called “Trusted Photographers” that essentially makes the process entirely self-service. Local businesses that are interested in having interior photos taken can use the new Business Photos website...

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 26, 2012

January 26th, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content Several major UK entertainment industry groups are accusing Google and Bing...

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Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content

January 26th, 2012
Several major UK entertainment industry groups are accusing Google and Bing of directing searchers to illegal content, and have proposed a “Code of Practice” for how search engines can better encourage consumers to locate legal content on the web. The groups are also calling for the UK...

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SPONSOR MESSAGE: Social Marketing for Search Marketers

January 26th, 2012
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube best practices This white paper discusses: Three strategies for maximizing Twitter’s impact on SEO Tips for Facebook ads, events, groups and places Common principles between social and search marketing Download now »

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Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google

January 26th, 2012
Google has quietly added a feature to Google Webmaster Tools that allows you to test your sitemap files prior to submitting them to Google. Google’s Pierre Far confirmed that this is indeed a brand new feature built to help webmasters debug their sitemap files prior to submitting them. One of...

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3 Keys To Online Retail In 2012: Doing More With Less

January 26th, 2012
We are only a month into 2012, but 2011 already seems like a distant memory. Christmas was over a month ago and Black Friday was approximately 6 months ago by my calculations. But as we reminisce on the year that was 2011, hopefully you were pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. For a year...

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What The Holidays Tell Search Marketers

January 26th, 2012
I realize most of us are already well-focused on 2012, so a look back at the 2011 holiday season may seem a bit dated. However, the holiday season provides search marketers a snapshot of behavior that should prove relevant for the upcoming year, though perhaps on a smaller scale. To gain a more...

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Are You Keeping Secrets From The Search Engines?

January 26th, 2012
Many webmasters are obfuscating the content of their sites’ pages from view of the search engines. They post content that appears differently for human readers than it does for search engine crawlers. And as a result, their sites receive inferior treatment from those search engines in the indexes....

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Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed

January 26th, 2012
Google has confirmed reports of a Panda update with us. Thye company told us they have done a data refresh of the Google Panda algorithm about a week ago, and added that there were no additional signals or algorithm changes. This was only a data refresh. I saw reports over the past week or so [...]

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FairSearch.org Introduces Anti-Google “Good To Know” Ad Campaign

January 26th, 2012
FairSearch.org, a consortium of companies that originally came together to oppose the Google acquisition of ITA and includes Tavelocity, Microsoft and TripAdvisor among others, has added several new members to its ranks and launched an anti-Google print-ad campaign. Entitled “Good to...

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Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position

January 25th, 2012
The Google Webmaster Blog and Google Analytics Blog announced they are changing how they define the average position in the search query report in Google Webmaster Tools and search optimization report in Google Analytics. The new definition will take the average of the top ranking of your site for...

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 25, 2012

January 25th, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Revamps Submit Content Page Google has updated their URL submission tool page and redesigned their Submit Your Content page. The old URL which was at...

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Google Revamps Submit Content Page

January 25th, 2012
Google has updated their URL submission tool page and redesigned their Submit Your Content page. The old URL which was at google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url/ now returns a page not found (404) error. The issue with that is, Google should really use a 301 redirect because it ranks in the top...

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DuckDuckGo Sets New Traffic Record, But Stats Show How Dominant Google, Others Are

January 25th, 2012
DuckDuckGo, the upstart search engine that’s challenged its bigger competitors on privacy issues, has had a couple straight days of record-setting traffic. But the numbers show just how much the major search engines dominate the search space. First, let’s recognize how cool it is that...

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Emergency In Your Area? “Public Alerts” On Google Maps Shows Warnings

January 25th, 2012
Google announced a new layer of data being added to Google Maps for public alerts. If there are emergency alerts in your area, Google will show them to you on the map, with more details on the alert. You can access it over at google.org/publicalerts. The map will load with a layer of data on [...]

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2012 Is The Year To Cut Your Site Retargeting Budget

January 25th, 2012
Having made the switch from ‘agency guy’ to ‘vendor guy’ a year ago, I have talked to dozens of agencies in the last 12 months and have been completely blown away by the vast quantity of media dollars that are being poured into bad site retargeting programs. Good money is disappearing into...

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4+ Recommendations To Enhance B2B SEO Initiatives

January 25th, 2012
The start of the new year is the ideal time for B2B search engine marketers to reassess website strategy and determine where enhancements could be made to benefit SEO visibility. With budgets still in review and benchmarks being set, focusing on site enhancements first could help maximize the...

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When A/B Testing Prices, Proceed With Caution

January 25th, 2012
I had an interesting A/B testing experience over the holidays. This time, it wasn’t an A/B test that I was running, but rather an A/B test in which I was an (initially) unsuspecting participant. It reminded me of the negative side effects that certain kinds of tests can have on customers —...

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WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads

January 25th, 2012
It’s been a difficult month for Google, and the company is bound to take another hit in the morning as a Wall Street Journal article makes the rounds — an article that offers new details about the government sting that compelled Google to pay $500 million after acknowledging that it...

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Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says

January 24th, 2012
The longest search queries are happening on Ask.com, where users average almost five words per search. That’s according to research from Chitika. The ad network analyzed search referrals on “hundreds of millions” of impressions across sites in its network between January 9th and...

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 24, 2012

January 24th, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost? How much does SEO cost? How much time do you have to discuss the various models and prices out there! However, a new survey...

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SPONSORED MESSAGE: Getting the Most Out of Your Agency

January 24th, 2012
There’s no doubt, a great agency can exponentially increase your marketing success. Whether you are about to issue an RFP or are six months into a year-long engagement with your digital agency, now is the time to ensure you know how to get the most out of your agency partnership. Read on for...

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Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

January 24th, 2012
How much does SEO cost? How much time do you have to discuss the various models and prices out there! However, a new survey sheds some light on the subject. Over 500 people and companies who offer search engine optimization services were asked about how their models. Turns out, it’s most...

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Infographics: Why They Fail For Link Building

January 24th, 2012
We’ve all seen them: too much of them. They filter through our Twitter stream, pop up in our News Feed, and infiltrate our search results. My dear friends, we are in infographic overload, and if we don’t do something now, it may be too late for us all. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not against [...]

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Did International Markets Cause Google’s Loss Of Love On Wall Street?

January 24th, 2012
Wall Street wasn’t terribly impressed with Google’s figures for the last quarter of 2011 announced after the bell last thursday. To a normal person, you would think that generating $2.71 billion profit and significantly beating your own previous quarters would be a cause for...

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A Proposal For Social Network Détente

January 23rd, 2012
For the past two weeks, I feel like I’ve been witnessing some type of Cuban Missile Crisis going on between Google, Twitter and Facebook. I’d like to suggest some ways that social-nuclear war might be averted. Beyond Blame, Believing In Cooperation Let’s set aside blame, because...

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 23, 2012

January 23rd, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Projecting 2012 Google Mobile Revenues: $4 or $6 Billion? On Google’s Q3 2011 earnings call CEO Larry Page casually mentioned that Google had a mobile...

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130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday

January 23rd, 2012
Early bird rates for Search Marketing Expo – SMX West expire this Saturday, January 28. Register now and save! Here’s why you should join us February 28 to March 1 in San Jose, CA: More than 130 of the world’s most knowledgeable search marketers will present at SMX West. They’re selected based on...

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Projecting 2012 Google Mobile Revenues: $4 or $6 Billion?

January 23rd, 2012
On Google’s Q3 2011 earnings call CEO Larry Page casually mentioned that Google had a mobile revenue “run rate” of more than $2.5 billion. On the Q4 earnings call, just last week, Google announced a $5 billion annualized “run rate” for display advertising (including...

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10 Form Optimization Tips For Landing Pages

January 23rd, 2012
Over the years, I’ve done a lot of work with form optimization. In this article, I’ll cover some tried and true form optimization tips. I’ve done most of my testing on the PPC side, but obviously, the information can also be used effectively to improve overall form conversions on websites. 1....

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How To Achieve Mobile Search Ranking Clarity

January 23rd, 2012
Mobile search results not only produce different rankings from desktop search but can also vary based on the mobile device type that the query was performed on, as has been written about here at Search Engine from myself and Bryson Meunier among others. You can see mobile results directly from your...

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Google Plus Connections Are The New Link

January 23rd, 2012
A couple of weeks ago, Google caused a big hub-bub when it launched Search Plus Your World (“SPEW” for short), the catchy-titled deep integration of Google Plus and Google’s organic Web results. Naturally as soon as that happened, many of my clients, big and small, called to get...

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Google Search Showing Results For Punctuation Marks

January 23rd, 2012
Alex Chitu reports Google is now showing search results for punctuation marks and other types of symbols. In the past, Google ignored most punctuation marks and didn’t show any results for them that were useful. Now Google is. For example, a search for , returns pages on the topic of usage of...

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“Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

January 23rd, 2012
I’ve written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now, those networks are proving that true, through a new “Don’t Be Evil” tool that lets anyone...

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Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About

January 22nd, 2012
Before Google was formally approved to buy travel software company ITA, the company argued that the acquisition would result in “innovation” for travelers and travel search users. Beyond the appearance of flight times/routes in search results we haven’t seen much...

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“Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results

January 20th, 2012
The invasion of Google+ into Google’s search results continue. The latest Google+ification? Now Google’s encouraging people at the end of its search listings if they “Want to ask your friends about” what they were Googling. Want To Ask Your Friends? Tom Critchlow tipped me...

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 20, 2012

January 20th, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing’s New Ad Campaign: Bing Is For #Doing Bing is set to launch a new ad campaign this weekend that includes a subtle change from its previous messaging....

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Bing’s New Ad Campaign: Bing Is For #Doing

January 20th, 2012
Bing is set to launch a new ad campaign this weekend that includes a subtle change from its previous messaging. Rather than promoting the idea of making decisions, the new campaign is about people doing interesting things and uses the slogan, Bing is for #Doing. More specifically, the new TV...

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Google Webmaster Tools Adds Useful Download Options

January 20th, 2012
Google webmaster tools data is helpful stuff, but has been somewhat tough to download and use. Last month, Google made things a bit easier by providing a Python script for downloading search query data (as this report isn’t available as of yet through the API). Now, they’ve added new...

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Wolfram|Alpha Scores Again With Rich NFL Data

January 20th, 2012
I am a long time admirer of Wolfram|Alpha and I’m happy to report that my admiration continues to grow, as you can now access NFL (National Football League) statistics using Wolfram|Alpha. So, queries like: Tom Brady Joe Flacco Passing Yards 49ers 2011 New York Giants field goal...

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An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater

January 20th, 2012
Since at least 2005, Google has been using a large, worldwide focus group to help review its search results and the quality of the web pages that rank well in its algorithm. The people in this program are called Quality Raters and, as you can imagine, the work they do is important to search...

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Search In Pics: Google Boxers, 90+ Million Google+ & Gundotra Google+ Cadbury Bar

January 20th, 2012
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google Boxers: Google+ Circles T-Shirt: Google Camera Google Graffiti: Vic...

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How America’s Search Trends From 2011 Makes Google+ Stand Out

January 20th, 2012
More than 300 Billion searches were made in the US in 2011, according to ComScore. In December each year, the Big Three search engines publish the most popular searches of the year. In 2011, the top ten searches from the three search engines added up to more than 250 million searches alone. We...

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Website Usability 101 For SEO Professionals

January 20th, 2012
Want to be better at search engine optimization? What all SEO professionals should know about website usability.

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