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  Daily Search Forum Recap: October 16, 2009

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick

  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.

  
  

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  Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 16, 2009

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 8:45pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

  This week was pretty busy over at the Search Engine Roundtable. We broke the news Google has dropped PageRank data from Webmaster Tools and we hope from more places. Yahoo was wrong about the meta keywords tag, they still use it. Yahoo dropped the controversial paid inclusion program. Microsoft Bing has major bugs preventing people from using their Webmaster Tools for over 3 days. Google launched a labs area for Webmaster Tools, adding Fetch as Googlebot and Malware Details. Did Google Suggest just get smarter and start figuring out abbreviations? Google Maps dropped Tele Atlas for their own data in the U.S. Google now only shows 7 of 10 local results in the "ten pack" on web search. Beware of a Google AdSense "account disabled" phishing email that is going around. AVG has labeled some of the Google search results as a security threat. Google thinks Ireland is New Zealand. Google reported earnings, revenue up 7 percent, clicks up 14 percent and cost per click was down 6 percent. A person lost their unemployment check of $405 per week for earning a dollar a day with Google AdSense. A site is conning convicts into paying $50 to remove their name from their web site, which ranks high for their names in Google. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

  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:

  
  For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

  Some Of The Topics Discussed:
  

  • Google Removes PageRank Data From Webmaster Tools
  • Yahoo's Senior Director of Search Got It Wrong, Yahoo Uses Meta Keywords Still
  • Yahoo Dropping Controversial Paid Inclusion Program, Finally
  • Bing Webmaster Tools Unexpected Errors
  • 3 Days Later, Bing Finally Fixes Webmaster Tools Bug
  • Google Labs For Webmaster Tools Launches: Fetch as Googlebot & Malware Details
  • Fetch As Googlebot Shows Only 100Kb But Real Googlebot Gets More
  • Google Search Suggestions Smarter? Abbreviations Working?
  • Google Maps Drops Tele Atlas For Google Data in US
  • Google Showing Only 7 of 10 Local Results Now
  • Beware: Google AdSense "Account Disabled" Phishing Scam
  • AVG Calls Some Google Search Pages A "Threat"
  • Google, Heads Up, Ireland Is Not New Zealand
  • Google Clicks Up 14% & CPC Drops 6%, Overall GOOG Up 7%
  • Woman Loses Unemployment Checks Due To $1 Per Day Google AdSense Income
  • Get Out Of Google Jail For $50, Web Site Captures Mug Shots

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

  
  

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  Google Search Suggestions Smarter? Abbreviations Working?

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:51pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Optimization  

  Let me start off by saying I rarely use Google's search suggestions, so I am going by hearsay in the forums (which I mostly do anyway). A WebmasterWorld thread is of the general consensus that Google's search suggestions are getting smarter and figuring out abbreviations.

  For example, if you type in glgle, Google thinks you mean Google:

  Same with aho and other forums of "fat fingered" typos.

  WebmasterWorld admin, Tedster said:

  I noticed something like this just today when I missed typing two internal letters in a company name. Yes, very fat fingered typing on my part, but Google's suggestions stuck out at me as something I'd never noticed before.

  So maybe this is new, again, I have no idea. If it is, it is something SEOs and SEMs should be on the look out for.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  Google Clicks Up 14% & CPC Drops 6%, Overall GOOG Up 7%

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Search Engine  

  Google released third-quarter earnings last night and it was a very good earnings release. Overall, Google's earnings are up 7% this past quarter compared to last years Q3. They earned $5.94 billion in revenue with operating income at $2.07 billion, or 35% of revenues. Greg Sterling has more of the business news at Search Engine Land.

  Pulling out two snippets from the release, we see that search marketings are more spend conscious because the cost per click went down by 6%. But to make up for it, Google saw an increase in the actual number of clicks on their ads by 14%. Here is that part of the earnings release:

  Paid Clicks - Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 14% over the third quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 4% over the second quarter of 2009.

  Cost-Per-Click - Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, decreased approximately 6% over the third quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 5% over the second quarter of 2009.

  GOOG, the stock, is currently up over 3% in pre-market (after hours) trading.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

  
  

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  Yahoo Dropping Controversial Paid Inclusion Program, Finally

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  It is true, Yahoo is dropping paid inclusion by years end, as I reported at Search Engine Land. Yahoo issued a statement, I'll cut out the part where they say they are committed to search and show you the relevant part:

  Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

  There has always been confusion over the paid inclusion program at Yahoo. In fact, it changed names a few times. There were reports that banned sites were able to be included in Yahoo via this program. Like I said at Search Engine Land, accepting money to be included in a free/unbiased search engine, just seems wrong.

  I for one think this is a good move, although I know many SEOs who love this program.

  Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  Beware: Google AdSense "Account Disabled" Phishing Scam

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google AdSense  

  Yesterday, I, along with hundreds (if not thousands) of others received an email that appeared to be from Google. The email's subject line read "Google Adsense Account Disabled" and the email's from to looked to be from Google Adsense . It was actually caught by my spam filter and as I dug into the source code of the email, I noticed it was a scam. Beware, this is a recent phishing scam.

  Here is how the email looked in my mail client:

  There were a few glaring issues with this email:

  (1) The source showed a few things, but here is one item that jumps out at me:

  Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning adsense-adclicks-noreply@google.com does not designate 64.26.60.146 as permitted sender) client-ip=64.26.60.146;

  (2) The email had an attached HTML file, when you open the source of that file (which I don't recommend most people do), it has a redirect to a non Google domain (phishing site):

  (3) I checked if my ads were displaying and if I had any message in my AdSense console and I did not.

  So I trashed the email and went on. Then I noticed other people receiving this phishing email, which is why I am writing about it.

  Do not fall for the scam!

  Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help and WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  Yahoo's Senior Director of Search Got It Wrong, Yahoo Uses Meta Keywords Still

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:18pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Yahoo Search Optimization  

  Last week, I reported that Yahoo dropped the meta keywords tag and stopped using it completely. Remember, I told you that I wasn't convinced when I heard that and I asked the Senior Director of Search at Yahoo if he was sure? Well, he said he was, but in reality, he was mistaken.

  Danny and others have confirmed that Yahoo is still using the meta keywords tag when ranking. People have set up test sites that show this to be the case. Danny received an official statement from Yahoo on how they use this meta keywords tag, which they do use:

  What changed with Yahoo’s ranking algorithms is that while we still index the meta keyword tag, the ranking importance given to meta keyword tags receives the lowest ranking signal in our system.

  Words that appear in any other part of documents, including the body, title, description, anchor text etc., will take priority in ranking the document – the re-occurrence of these words in the meta keyword tag will not help in boosting the signal for these words. Therefore, keyword stuffing in the keyword tag will not help a page’s recall or ranking, it will actually have less effect than introducing those same words in the body of the document, or any other section.

  However, when no other ranking signal is present, unique words that only appear in the meta keyword tag section of documents can still be used to recall these documents.

  I am not sure why I didn't originally believe it. It was not like I had proof at the time. In any event, we are all human and we make mistakes. Search representatives are often seen as the single authority on SEO related questions, but in reality, they cannot know everything and are human, like you and me.

  Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  AVG Calls Some Google Search Pages A "Threat"

  Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:12pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Search Engine  

  A Google Web Search Help thread has several Google users reporting that the AVG Free virus scanner is prompting security alerts on some of the Google search results pages.

  Many are claiming the Google result pages with YouTube results are triggering the security threat. The AVG warning reads:

  Danger: AVG Search-Shield has detected active threats on this page and has blocked access for your protection.

  Several searchers reported this but I doubt there is much Google can do to fix the situation. It seems like this would be on AVG's side.

  Again, it seems to come up only when YouTube or other video results would show up in the search results.

  Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.