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Our Weekly News is Changing - What Do You Want?
2009-02-27 04:08:00
That's right... we think our Weekly News newsletter is looking a little dated, so it's about time for a refresh.The re-vamped newsletter will be launched in the next month... so look out!Here's where you can help! We want to hear your thoughts and ideas - after all, you're the ones who read it each and every week.We already have some great new features and articles up our sleeve (not to mention the fact that it's going to look super cool), but we would really like to know what you want from the newsletter.Is there something missing in our newsletter you would like to see included? Or do you not like the color scheme we have going on currently? (Don't worry it's on our list of changes too!)Leave any ideas in the comments section below and we will be sure to add it to the list of improvements.
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Google Boosts the Coverage of Local Listings
2009-02-24 01:36:00
Google have expanded their local business listings on Google Maps to boost the number of clickable search results from ten to hundreds of businesses. Instead of just plotting the first ten search results on the map, Google now includes hundreds of other businesses across the map using small red circles.For example, the search for "coffee in Seattle" now returns the following map showing hundreds of businesses across the local area:You can click on any of the circles to get more information about the business they represent, essentially giving many more local businesses first page exposure on Google maps. It should be noted that the top 10 listings will still appear as pins on the left hand side of the map.This is great news for businesses with local listings as it now gives you even more exposure across Google maps and in local search results. It should make it easier for local customers to find your business and also see specific areas where related businesses are grouped together....
More About: Google , Listings , Local

Tired of Your AdSense Font? Now You Can Change It
2009-02-24 01:26:00
Until now, there has been a lot of discussion about how to change your AdSense font type to better match the layout of your site. In response to this feedback, Google are now allowing all advertisers to change the font face of the text in their ad units.This move makes sense for Google as they have previously recommended advertisers match the color scheme and layout of ads to their site for the best results. Google are only providing three options for the choice of font (Arial, Times New Roman and Verdana) but this should cover the font style used across a large majority of pages.To customize the font face across all your AdSense units, visit the 'Ad Display Preferences' page and select a new account-wide font face. Alternatively, if you wish to change the font on only some of your ad blocks, you can change this while editing or creating new ads:If you've seen increased click-through or revenue from your site since changing the font, let us know in the blog comments below!
More About: Adsense , Change , Font

Yahoo! Gets Moving Again with Yahoo! Mobile
2009-02-20 08:42:00
Although its name lacks creativity, Yahoo has announced an exciting new mobile experienced called Yahoo! Mobile .It will be available on the mobile Web, as an application developed for the Apple iPhone and for smartphones from Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola as well as those powered by Windows Mobile."We believe the new Yahoo! Mobile will transform the way millions of mobile users around the world will interact with the Internet," explains Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Yahoo! Inc. "Yahoo! Mobile will enable users to create their own Internet starting point on their mobile device so they can better discover, connect to and stay informed about the people and things that are important to them."There are a variety of new features for Yahoo! Mobile including:Yahoo! oneSearch - Yahoo!'s award-winning mobile search service providing the most current, relevant answers you need.Today - The most interesting stories buzzing on the Internet right now, selected by Yah...
More About: Moving

Google Now Tracks Phone Calls & Live Chat!
2009-02-20 08:34:00
Tracking the clicks and conversions on your website just doesn't seem enough these days for the team from Google Analytics (GA).They have released two new add-ons to GA which allow you to track your phone leads and live chats.Teaming up with Mongoose Metrics, Google Analytics will now track the phone number called, the duration and date of the call, by using one of the defined toll free numbers.Geoff Gillis from the Google Analytics Team explains more:The service works by provisioning a trackable number and assigning that number to a hidden web page on your site containing your Google Analytics tracking code. When a phone call to the tracking number is connected, the technology will place a web browser visit to your hidden tracking web page and in this way insert the phone call event back into your Google Analytics account. Each phone call generates a unique visit which is clearly labeled inside of Analytics.In order to track live chat interaction, Google Analytics has implemented ...
More About: Chat , Phone , Calls , Live

Yahoo! and Microsoft Finally Outperform Google - Almost
2009-02-20 03:08:00
It's almost as rare as hen's teeth to hear that Yahoo ! and Microsoft did better than Google at anything - but alas, January's "share of search" results are one of those occasions.Now before anyone gets too carried away, they haven't overtaken Google in terms of search share - they just gained some ground in a month where Google dropped some.According to comScore, Google dropped 0.5 percentage points to sit at 63% of all US searches in January 09. In the scheme of things not exactly the worst result. However given their never ending march towards 100% - it will surprise many.On the other hand, Yahoo! and Microsoft will have surprised many also, by finally regaining some share of the market they've been losing over the last few months.Yahoo! increased its share of the market by 0.5 percentage points, to sit at 21%, while Microsoft grew to 8.5% (up 0.2 percentage points). The trend for Microsoft was also echoed over in France where it was the top growth performer - with an improve...
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Yahoo! Unveils New Rich Ads in Search
2009-02-20 02:33:00
Well you have to give them credit for trying... Yahoo have just released an enhancement to their paid search advertising service - Rich Ads in Search .While the functionality is not exactly groundbreaking, it does push paid search in an interesting direction. Yahoo!'s hoping the enhancement to their paid search advertising will help them more effectively compete with the likes of Google.Yahoo! commenced testing of Rich Ads in Search in the last quarter of 2008 and purport that advertisers "saw click-through rates rise by as much as 25 percent. They've also seen improved brand exposure and conversion rates."At this stage the program is only being offered to a limited number of advertisers (e.g. Pedigree) and agencies such as Razorfish.According to the release post, the program lets advertisers:Post images and video, which can increase the branding impact of search advertising. Pedigree has added video to its campaigns, for instance.Create deep links to relevant pages, which can help...

Targeting Customers in Different Countries: Do it the Right Way!
2009-02-16 04:36:00
Got customers in different countries who you want to specifically target? This can be a difficult task, and one which was also the topic of discussion recently on the HighRanking Forum.Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Roundtable weighed into the discussion advising that it is best to have "two different sites on TLDs (top level domains) that match that country. So if you want to target the US and the UK, have one US site on the .com and one UK site on the co.uk and make sure your content is localized for that market."However HighRanking administrator, Randy takes this concept further by adding:When you're using a .com domain name you're not really targeting the US market. You're targeting the entire world. It's one of those double-edged swords we get/have to deal with. In that .com is a worldwide competition. Not a US one. The good edge of the sword being that since pretty much all US based sites use .com (as opposed to the almost never used .us) you end up with decent wor...
More About: Customers , Countries

Google News Tips: Cleanliness, Explicit Dates & Image Formatting
2009-02-16 04:28:00
We know some of you write great news articles on your business and industry for your site, but there is just one problem - trying to get Google to index your site for your news can be tricky. But news publishers take note, Google have released 8 tips which will help Google News better crawl your site.These tips are some of the more frequent pieces of advice they dish out. So although some might sound familiar, it's always helpful to have a refresher.Here they are:1. Keep the article body cleanIf your article body is broken up by tags, ads, sidebars or other non-article content, we may not be able to detect the actual article body, and reject your article as a result.2. Make sure article URLs are permanent and uniqueIf you reuse article URLs, our system may have difficulty crawling and categorizing your stories. In addition, make sure your article URLs have at least three digits that don't resemble a year (for example, 5232 is ok, but 2008 is not.)3. Take advantage of stock tickers...
More About: Dates , Tips , Google News

Sneak Peek: New Google SearchWiki for AdWords
2009-02-16 02:50:00
Only a few months ago, Google had the SEO industry re-thinking the future of search when it unveiled SearchWiki - user controlled search results.Well now Google are testing SearchWiki for AdWords. Imagine that - user controlled search advertising.At this stage, it appears that the tests are restricted to US users, with early reports of the SearchWiki [x] appearing along side AdWords headlines (see screenshot below).The introduction of SearchWiki for AdWords could open up a can worms for Google advertisers, and with no official report from Google at this stage, the rumor mill has been busy speculating on its impact.Whilst Google will surely respond with a formal announcement in due course, here's some of my musing on the potential consequences of SearchWiki for AdWords:Quality Score: It does beg the question "will changes to ads via SearchWiki impact AdWords quality scores?" If Google can bypass the obvious opportunity for abuse, it is conceivable that it will feature in the qualit...
More About: Sneak Peek , Adwords

Google Japan Caught Buying Reviews; Gets Penalized!
2009-02-16 02:26:00
This has to be one of the more bizarre SEO stories of the year. Google have penalized one of their own sites, Google Japan , after they were caught paying bloggers to write positive reviews about their services.Google have taken the drastic move of dropping the PageRank of Google.co.jp from a 9 to a 5 after reports emerged, and Google Celebrity Matt Cutts stated, "I expect that to remain for a while."So how did this come about? Let's look at the story of Google Japan.Firstly, it should be noted that Japan is one of the few countries where Google is not the dominant search engine. Yahoo! rules in Japan with 51.2% market share compared to around 39% for Google.In order to compete with Yahoo!, Google have been releasing a number of Japan only services, including a recent widget for blogs that displays the top 10 hot keywords from Google Japan searches.To let people know about this service, Google hired internet marketing company CyberBuzz to promote the keyword feature in a pay-per-pos...
More About: Reviews , Buying , Caught

Google Shuts Down Another Service - Google Radio Ads
2009-02-16 02:10:00
Google has decided to pull the plug on Google Radio Ads, a product which allowed AdWords advertisers to promote their business across the radio using the AdWords interface. Google have shutdown the service after it didn't have the impact they hoped for.Google Radio Ads were soft launched back in 2006 as a test by Google to streamline the process of buying radio ads for advertisers. Users simply used their AdWords interface to purchase radio spots, in a similar manner to Google TV ad distribution.The shutdown means Google will be selling their Radio Automation business, the software which automates broadcast radio programming. It also means that around 40 Google staff will no longer be working for the company.Rather than exiting Audio Ads all together, Google have said they will focus their efforts in online streaming audio. Google's Susan Wojcicki explains:Instead we will use our technology to develop Internet-based solutions that will deliver relevant ads for online streaming aud...
More About: Google , Service

Google, Yahoo! & MSN Join Forces on New SEO Tag
2009-02-13 03:42:00
It's rare to see the three big search engines (Google , Yahoo ! and MSN) working together on a SEO standard, but at the SMX conference this week, they announced unanimous support for a new tag to address canonicalization issues.For those of you unfamiliar with canonicalization, here's wikipedia's definition as a quick intro:"canonicalization ... is a process for converting data that has more than one possible representation into a "standard" canonical representation." Let's look at a quick example:The following two URLs point to the same web page:http://www.yourdomain.com/webpage1/ http://www.yourdomain.com/webpage1/?utm_s ource=campaign1Although the second one only has analytics tracking attached to the end; the search engines view the two URLs as different. And accordingly link value is shared across them both, which is undesirable from an SEO point of view.The three big search engines, Google, Yahoo! and MSN have all agreed to the manage canonicalization issue with the use of a ...
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Google Uses Your Eyes to Test the Search Results Page Layout
2009-02-09 05:08:00
Did you know that your eyes are helping Google determine what their search results page should look like?Google's User Experience Research Team has unveiled some new technology that tracked test participants' eyeballs as they scanned search results for the right link.Below is a thermal image of the Google search results page showing the most widely viewed areas. The results suggest that people spend a lot more time evaluating the search results at the top of the page than the ones further down.To me this makes sense, as most people would automatically look at the first option assuming it is the right option.The inclusion of Google's Universal Search in this study was a worry for the research team. Google's Anna Aula and Kerry Rodden explain more:We were concerned that the thumbnail images might be distracting and disrupt the well-established order of result evaluation.We ran a series of eye-tracking studies where we compared how users scan the search results pages with and witho...
More About: Eyes , Results , Page

Google Tip: Testing Keywords for Products with Low Traffic
2009-02-09 04:58:00
The Google AdWords Help Forum, is a great resource for those of you with AdWords campaigns, as Google posts various tips every couple of weeks or so.AdWordsPro Sarah, who is a Google employee, is a regular contributor to the forum. Her latest help came in the form of tips for testing keywords for products with low traffic.Here are the 3 main tips:1) Start Small. The knee jerk reaction is to throw a million keywords at the wall and see what sticks. The problem with this is that it is hard to manage this many keywords. A keyword may have terrible performance, but it gets lost in the crowd and you may never notice. It's fine to use the 'throw and stick' method, but I like to throw small batches of keywords at the wall so I can carefully monitor their performance.2) Delete Delete Delete. If you test a large number of keywords and they don't perform well, they start to drag down your account Quality Score. And, to make matters worse, having a low account Quality Score, makes it harde...
More About: Products , Traffic , Testing , Keywords

Boosting Your AdWords CTR: The PlusBox and Checkout Icon
2009-02-09 02:11:00
Some users are reporting a widespread implementation of the Google AdWords PlusBox which provides certain AdWords advertisers with additional exposure for their listings. The AdWords PlusBox is a limited beta test that allows users to expand certain AdWords listings to see additional products from the advertiser.The PlusBox in search results:Expanding the listing:In order to have your listings show the PlusBox, you'll need to have your products submitted to Google Base and be part of their beta test.Another way to make your Ads stand out is to support the use of Google Checkout across your site. As you can see in the examples above, Google checkout subscribers have an additional Checkout logo displayed next to their listings that help to make them stand out from the rest.Google Blogoscoped has a nice image showing the evolution of the checkout badge over time:If you've had experience with either the PlusBox or checkout badge please let us know what you think in the comments below!
More About: Icon , Adwords

The Latest Video Statistics Are Out - Guess Who's On Top?
2009-02-09 01:44:00
ComScore have released the latest video statistics for December 2008, which shows that Americans watched a record 14.3 billion videos during the month. Nearly 150 million U.S. internet users watched an average of 96 videos each in December.As you might have guessed, Google lead the growth with YouTube.com which accounted for over 41% of overall video views. Fox Interactive (who owns myspace.com) came in second with only 3.1% of overall view views.The stats for December 2008 are below:YouTube has grown from 39.7% of overall views in October 2008, to 41.2% of views in December, but how have the other sites been performing? I've put together a graph to show the performance of each of the smaller sites from Oct - Dec 08:As you can see, almost every site has dropped some percent of market share to YouTube, with the exception of Disney Online and AOL. Hardest hit was Fox Interactive who dropped from 3.8% in October to 3.1% in December.ComScore have also released other notable statistics ...
More About: Video , Statistics

Google Causes a Stir over New AJAX Search Test
2009-02-06 05:02:00
The industry has been busy debating the consequences of a new search results test by Google which could have a serious negative impact on SEO campaign measurement and success.Google has apparently (I'm unable to simulate the test) been trailing an AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) based search results page, which could make rank checking and analytics software useless.Several industry experts have weighed into the discussion, pointing at the idea that Google could be using the AJAX results to force more people across to their analytics service. Peter Da Vanzo, via Aaron Walls SEObook blog, had this to say:"Trouble is, what happens to existing tools? Plugins? Rank checkers? Stats and other referral tracking packages? All tools that rely on Google passing data in order to work... Perhaps the only place you'll be able to get this data is Google Analytics? Is this the next step - a lock-in?"Matt McGee reached out to the team at Google to garner some more insight on the tests, and...
More About: Search , Ajax , Test

Sneak Peak: New Yahoo! Search Pad - Battling Google on a New Front
2009-02-06 04:28:00
The team at Yahoo ! have started testing a new feature in their search engine that aims to help better organize user's web based research.Titled "Search Pad", the new functionality will be seen as a direct play against Google 's recently deceased Notepad service. As the release blog suggests:"If you've ever used a search engine as a tool to help plan a vacation, research a purchase, or find health information on an illness, you know how difficult it is to keep track of the relevant websites and notes you find. Today, we are testing a new feature called Search Pad(TM) to help users effortlessly capture websites that they find on Yahoo! Search and organize that information to complete important tasks."Search Pad sounds like bookmarking, web annotation and content sharing cleverly repackaged and re-branded as something new and ground breaking. I'm not so convinced on its mass appeal.So what are the benefits for Yahoo!? These tools aim to create stickiness around a service. If visitor...
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Wikipedia Makers Launch Q&A Site with a Difference!
2009-02-02 09:22:00
Wikia (the makers of Wikipedia ) have a new notch on their belt due to the launch of Wikianswers, a Q&A site that attempts to create one true, consensus answer for each question, the same philosophy used with Wikipedia.There are a number of Q&A sites out there already (including one very similarly named WikiAnswers), but what Wikia hopes will be the point of difference is that fact that it is open to anyone, just like Wikipedia. This means that anyone can provide answers to questions posted on the site even without registering.Wikia CEO Gil Penchina explains more:Wikia's Q+A service is in keeping with the wiki-way and that’s what makes it different- The content is freely licensed under GFDL unlike other answers sites allowing it to be re-used and re-purposed by others for free- Anyone can contribute (other answers sites require you to register)We believe that a more open, freely licensed community will always do better than a corporate site that takes customers contributio...
More About: Site , Launch , Makers

How Google Broke the Internet!
2009-02-02 09:12:00
Just this past weekend in the space of 1 hour, Google managed to stop all sites being accessed via its search engine.This occurred at about 6.30am PST on Saturday, so if you were one of the unfortunate ones to trying to search this early, then you will know what I am talking about.During this period all search results in Google were being flagged as malware with a message stating "This site may harm your computer". Including Google's own websites as you can see below.If you tried to click on the link it sent you to the following page:How did this error occur?Google explains that human error was the reason a malware update was applied to all sites:We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted th...
More About: Internet , The Internet

Google's Valentines Day Sales Tips
2009-02-02 02:52:00
Last week I wrote about Yahoo's Super Bowl sales tips, but this time it's Google who are offering advice for another seasonal sales event: Valentines Day . They've released a number of AdWords based suggestions on how you can pull in more customers this Valentines Day.From the Google Retail Tips blog:Target key age and gender demographics with unique Valentine's Day ad texts, keywords & landing pagesLaunch your campaigns early to meet increased search trafficAdd both branded & non-branded keywords.Use Google insights for search to investigate your own product categories to see what searchers are interested inExpand keyword lists using the Search-Based Keyword ToolUse the Google Content Network to reach your target demographic and complement your search campaignsConsider placing your Content ads on complementary sites; remember to target gifts for women on men's sites and vice versaUse the Display Ad Builder to easily create image adsSet appropriate CPCs and competitive b...
More About: Sales

Yahoo! Defends Automatic PPC Account Optimization
2009-02-02 02:49:00
Earlier this month, Yahoo ! incited industry uproar with an apparent change to their PPC advertising terms and conditions which allowed them to optimize a customer's account without their consent.Yes - they can tweak your PPC campaigns (perhaps so you spend more), without asking you first.Some three weeks after the uproar started, the Yahoo! PR team have swung into action in an effort to defend the initiative. A post titled "The truth about Account Optimization s" was released to calm the masses.According to the post, account optimization's aims are:It's designed to make our small to mid-sized advertisers more successful.It's meant to give this group of advertisers a service level and expertise that typically is available only to larger advertisers.It is intended to help raise the performance of accounts that are experiencing issues like low-quality quality scores, low lead volume or low click-through rates.It is reducing the time required to make optimizations by eliminating back...
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Just How Popular is Wikipedia?
2009-02-02 02:45:00
If you've been online in the last month, chances are you've visited Wikipedia . Depending where you look, it's either in the top 10 or top 20 websites in the world. But just how popular is Wikipedia compared to other encyclopedia sites?The answer is extremely popular, if the numbers from Hitwise are anything to go by. According to Heather Hopkins, a senior online analyst from the company, Wikipedia gets a whopping 97% of visits amongst the top 5 encyclopedia websites.Here is a breakdown of visits to the top 5 encyclopedia sites:As you can see, well established encyclopedias like Encarta and Britannica have failed to offer any serious online competition to Wikipedia, taking under 2% market share each. This issue has been recently addressed by Encyclopedia Britannica who announced plans to allow users to submit edits for review in their online encyclopedia.While this is a good move by Britannica, I can't see it trumping Wikipedia anytime soon, especially considering their dominatio...
More About: Popular

Top 5 Search Advertising Budget Savers - Cut PPC Costs and Improve Performa
2009-02-02 02:34:00
So you're relying on your Google and/or Yahoo! search advertising campaigns to get you through the tough times - because we all know they're targeted, accountable, affordable, etc...So how do we take an already successful search advertising program and make it work even harder while saving valuable marketing dollars.Here's the 5 top ways to trim your PPC campaign costs and maintain (or improve) traffic results:Negative Keywords:Adding a negative keyword to your ad group or campaign means that your ads won't show for search queries containing that term. Negative keywords can help you avoid mis-targeted traffic. This will reduce your budget spend, and increase your ROI.Some great ways to uncover the right negative keywords for your campaigns include:- review your search query reports (provided by Google et al.)- look at your analytics - see what other irrelevant queries have sent your traffic- use keyword suggestion tools, and find the recommendations that don’t fitGet Your Keyw...
More About: Advertising , Search , Savers , Budget , Improve

10 Step Guide to Building Your Blog Community
2007-02-27 04:52:00
Blogging, like all things web 2.0, is all about the community. Whether you're blogging for business or just to share your view on the world, as a blogger, you'll be hoping to build a loyal audience of readers and more importantly participants. Joe Whyte down at Search Marketing Standard has posted a 10 step guide for bloggers to build their community. While Joe suggests it's a list to review
More About: Building , Community , Muni , Blog , Your

Cool Free Blog Tools
2007-02-21 01:09:00
One great thing about social, community and user generated content online is the availability of some excellent free sites, widgets, templates, images, icons and the list goes on. Otherwise, undiscovered designers, programmers and writers are now able to share their talent with the online world, and thankfully, we all benefit! Blog Templates Template Panic has a wide range of blog templates to
More About: Tools , Cool , Free , Tool

Statistics Show You Should Blog
2007-02-19 05:57:00
The term blog by definition is an online journal that is updated frequently, and contains information including reviews, thoughts and personal opinions. Blog s generally represent the personality of the author, or a website. Their functionality enables readers to respond to articles with short comments or ideas, thus they generate a community of people reading, writing, responding and sharing with
More About: Show , Statistics , Should , Stat

Blog School - The How To Guide to Better Blogging
2007-02-16 08:05:00
Blog School is your 'how to guide to better blogging'. Our Blog will bring you the latest on bloggers, blogging, vlogging and loads of other interesting blog topics. News and Updates We'll bring the world of blogging to your door with articles on bloggers in the news, the hottest blogging software and styles, who's blogging what and why. You'll also be the first to find out about ineedbloghits'
More About: How To , Blogging , Blog , Guide

Test Post Three
2007-02-15 08:28:00
This is another test post...
More About: Post , Test