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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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 1, 2010
Posted: September 1st, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
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The Big Paid Search Merge Begins: Yahoo to Microsoft adCenter
Posted: September 1st, 2010, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Yahoo Search Marketing
So Yahoo web search, the organic results, are now powered by Bing, Microsoft search. The next to fall is the paid search side of things.
Yahoo announced yesterday that the beginning of the end for Panama, Yahoo's Search Marketing platform. It is the beginning end of Yahoo powering their own search ads on their own search interface.
Folks at WebmasterWorld are calling it a "merge." The big paid search merge? Well, not really, more like the "big dig" for Yahoo. Yahoo isn't necessarily merging their technology with Microsoft, they are telling their advertisers to get their campaigns set up in Microsoft adCenter because Yahoo is burying their software likely by the end of October (in the US and Canada).
Yahoo laid out the three stages to this transition:
There are three stages to completing your transition:
1) Prepare your account for transition to adCenter
When you log into your Yahoo! Search Marketing account, you’ll automatically be taken to a new tab labeled “adCenter.” We recommend that you review your Compatibility Report, and fix incompatibilities between your current Yahoo! campaigns and the adCenter platform before starting the transition to adCenter.2) Transition your account to adCenter
When you begin your transition, you’ll be able to create a new adCenter account, or indicate that you have an existing adCenter account that you want to continue to use. If you choose, you can use the transition tool to copy your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns over to adCenter. Please note that your campaigns will retain the same status (active or paused) as they have within your Yahoo! account, so you may start incurring click charges for Bing traffic right away.3) Continue to manage your Yahoo! Search Marketing account
The last stage in the transition process will occur when Yahoo! Search ad serving moves to adCenter, which we expect to begin in mid-October and be completed by the end of October. During this period, you should expect traffic from your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to decrease, and increase in your adCenter account. But until this process is complete, you’ll still need to actively manage your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to have your ads displayed on Yahoo! and our partner sites.Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google Map In Web Search Can Drop Your CTR Up to 65%
Posted: September 1st, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Google showing maps and local listings in the pure organic web search results is nothing new. For example, the image below shows a search for [plumber 10010], NYC plumbers. Now, if you are not in that local listing and you are in the web search results, what are the chances of you getting clicked on? Slim, no?
A WebmasterWorld thread is asking webmasters and SEOs to estimate the degradation of having the local listings mixed into the web search results. The estimates of the loss range anywhere from 10% to 65% depending on who you ask and where the map location is. I'd assume the example above would be closer to 65% but when the maps show up in the middle of the page, maybe closer to 20%?
Tedster of WebmasterWorld said, "I've seen more like 35% to 60% loss." The site references some studies done in the past as well.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Setting Google Geographic Target To "Unlisted"
Posted: September 1st, 2010, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Honestly, this is one topic I really don't know too much about. Google lets your Geographic target for your web site in Google Webmaster Tools. But what if you have a ccTLD, a country specific top level domain such as .fr (France), and you want to not target a specific country?
The Google help document on this topic says:
You can only use this feature for sites with a generic top-level domain, such as .com or .org. Sites with country-coded top-level domains (such as .ie) are already associated with a geographic region, in this case Ireland.
I checked one site I have in my Webmaster Tools account, the only site with a ccTLD and it didn't let me specify a different country. So I assume only certain ccTLDs or TLDs can set "unlisted" as an option to target all countries? Or am I missing something?
Google said, "If you want to ensure that your site is not associated with any country or region, select Unlisted."
It does appear that only certain ccTLDs let you change the geographic target, like a .co TLD. And you can change it to unlisted in order to not set a geographic target.
There are a couple threads asking how long does it take once you set the "unlisted" marker. The threads are at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.
The WebmasterWorld thread has Tedster saying:
I've only heard one practical report about this and the recovery took many months for them, but they say it did happen eventually.
I am not sure if anyone else has experience here, but I'd love to know how quickly Google picks up the geographic target change, specifically for using "unlisted" as an option.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.
Update: Google's JohnMu did point out a solid distinction between setting unlisted or not:
There's actually a subtle difference between not activating Webmaster Tools owner-specified geotargeting and selecting "Unlisted". Not selecting to do geotargeting through Webmaster Tools results in Google doing geotargeting automatically (generally based on the server location), activating geotargeting and selecting "Unlisted" in Webmaster Tools results in Google not doing geotargeting.
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Google Cache Broken For Home Pages
Posted: September 1st, 2010, 2:43pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
There is a weird Google bug with the cache feature. It seems to only impact home pages. For example, a search for this site in Google returns a Google search result of the home page (we aren't penalized yet):
But when you click on the cache link, it takes you to a dead page:
This does not appear to impact inside pages, but rather only the root page (aka home page). Why?
I have been receiving emails reporting this, as well as spotted several threads in the forums about this. Threads come from Google Webmaster Help and WebmasterWorld.
I should note that this isn't uncommon and I wouldn't worry about this impacting your Google rankings.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and WebmasterWorld& HighRanking Forums.
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Taking Over a Business With Bad Google Maps Reviews?
Posted: September 1st, 2010, 2:35pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
A Google Places Help thread has a story of a person who bought a business from someone else.
The issue is, that business has pretty bad reviews in Google Maps and since there will be new management, he wants to know how to remove the bad reviews.
A fair question, that is why you often see the "under new management" signs outside of businesses. People want to know when new businesses have new owners and thus maybe better customer service (or maybe not).
The business owner said:
I am buying a local small buisness in a few weeks. The current owner has some pretty nasty reviews about him that currently come up when people search the biz name. I want to know if there is a way to have those reviews removed once I take ownership - I don't want people avoiding me because of his past mistakes.
Andrew in the forums suggested he request that the current owner to delete his Google Places account. Then the reviews should go as well. He also suggests renaming the business, just because of the possible bad karma associated with the business.
Do you agree?
Forum discussion at Google Places Help.