SEO News » Items by Barry Schwartz

Items by Barry Schwartz

Google: One URL With Special Stylesheet Is Easy Mobile SEO

Fetched: February 20th, 2012, 5:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

I love SEO topics where there is no solid firm answer and one of those areas is mobile SEO. Google has no clear guidelines on how you should set up your site properly to handle mobile users and mobile bots. They tell you to treat Googlebot mobile like you would mobile users but not exactly how to structure your site for it.

Do you use mobile URLs, do you use the same URL with a mobile template. Google says, you can do both. But which is better. This is where there is a split in the SEO industry on expert opinion. I think it depends but most of the time, for SEO purposes, use the same URL, with a special mobile template.

Google's John Mueller said yesterday in a Google Webmaster Help that the easy solution is to go the one URL route with a special template. He is specifically replying to an issue with redirects for a mobile SEO strategy gone wrong. He wrote:

An easier solution, if you can do it, is to just serve smartphone and desktop users from the same URLs, using something like special stylesheets or CSS3 media-queries to optimize the content shown on smartphones. The advantage of that is that you don't need special URLs, think about the crawling and indexing of them, nor would you need to consider how you'd redirect smartphone users.

John then links to an article from a year ago, which I personally think confuses things a bit more.

I really want a definitive answer from Google on mobile SEO best practices, but honestly, it is changing so rapidly, it might be too much to ask for.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Users Trusting Google Less & Less

Fetched: February 20th, 2012, 5:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google News Finances

It feels like there is a new story every week, or sometimes a few a week, of how Google is doing something untrustworthy or "evil" in the eyes of the general public.

Be it changing their privacy policy, Google's SPYW in Kenya, Search Plus Your World over the top personalization, and most recently cookiegate - I ask myself, at what point does Google lose that trust given to them by their users?

The more and more users have handed over their most private information, in exchange for convenience, personalization, storage and more - the more users had to trust Google. But with all this bad PR for Google, will users revolt? Not you or I, but real users? I doubt it - which is sad, because users are lazy, uneducated and wouldn't even know how.

Of course Google prides themselves in making it easy to turn off things and take your data with you. But they know very well, most users won't.

The bigger issue is, as Google gets their hands into more and more areas of the web (are they currently not in everything?) - the more this issues will come up.

Google can keep saying that they had best intentions and it was done for the user but at some point they will and have lose the trust of their most important asset, the user.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Cre8asite Forums.

Image credit to ShutterStock for faith blocks.

Dilbert Cartoon Says SEOs Corrupt Industries

Fetched: February 20th, 2012, 5:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

A Dilbert cartoon from Friday has been making its way through the SEO industry. The cartoon is pretty degrading of the SEO industry and the SEO profession. Just take a look at it and what it says:

I hired a pantless weasel to do our search engine optimization.
He'll help us game the system and corrupt the integrity of all the internet search results for our industry.
Your new job title is "accomplice."

The cartoon depicts and calls an SEO a "weasel" and then blames the SEO for corrupting industries and those that hire them as an "accomplice" to a criminal crime.

This is pretty serious stuff.

The thing is, most SEOs find it funny and only some are upset that this is the way the outside world views the SEO industry.

This is not the first time Dilbert featured SEOs, I documented the others at Search Engine Land. But this is the first time it was portrayed in such a dark light.

How do you feel about this cartoon?

Forum discussion at Google+ and Inbound.org.

No Google Logo For President's Day But Bing Has An Awesome Theme

Fetched: February 20th, 2012, 5:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Logos

Today is President's Day in the United States of America. It is the day we honor those individuals who have lead this country. But there is no honor being given out to these leaders by Google or Yahoo. But I think Microsoft Bing makes up for it with their outstanding HTML5 movie home page.

Here is a video of the HTML5 Bing home page:

Here is a static picture:

Ask.com has a nice theme as well:

Dogpile goes animated:

Google and Yahoo hasn't had a President's day logo or theme in years. See our President's Day logo archives in 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Coffee Machines

Fetched: February 20th, 2012, 5:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Google Lego Family

Fetched: February 19th, 2012, 8:43am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

National Car Rental Commercial Features SEO

Fetched: February 19th, 2012, 8:43am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

National Car Rental has this campaign going named "Go Like A Pro."

The campaign has recently features an SEO as the business pro. Nick Roshon posted a poor quality video of the campaign on his Google+ profile, here it is.

If you can't hear it, I think this is what it says:

You are a business pro... Monarch of marking analysisâ¦ With the ability to improve ROI through SEO, all by COB. And you rent from National, because only national lets you take any car in the rowâ¦..
Go National, Go Like A Pro.

The campaign is run on their Facebook page where anyone can try to be included by posting your message and business job description on their wall.

I am still trying to hunt down a better quality version of this commercial and get the name of the person who posted this to the wall.

Here is the video:

Forum discussion at Google+.

Removing A Sitemap File Likely Won't Hurt Your Rankings

Fetched: February 19th, 2012, 8:43am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster who is interested in just removing their XML sitemap completely from Webmaster tools. He is concerned that by doing so, his rankings will be impacted and is having second thoughts about removing the sitemap.

First, his reason for removing the sitemap file seems concerning to me but that is secondary to this topic. He wants to remove the sitemap because he is adding a forum and thus "won't be able to keep up with the sitemap." So he manages his sitemap manually? Really?

Anyway, if he does remove it, will it impact his rankings? Most likely not.

Googler, John Mueller, told us in May 2010 that removing URLs from a sitemap won't hurt your rankings. He said:

We use Sitemap files for discovering new URLs and recognizing when existing ones have changed; we don't remove URLs from the index that aren't in a Sitemap file.

So removing a sitemap won't necessarily hurt pages that are ranking well.

Moderator, GoodROI added:

I have rarely seen adding or removing sitemaps to dramatically impact a website. Just make sure your internal link structure is good and the site has no big technical issues.
You may want to keep the sitemap as a way to gather intelligence on which pages Google has indexed via Webmaster Central.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Indexing Issue With Custom Blogger Domains?

Fetched: February 19th, 2012, 8:43am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A Google Webmaster Help thread has bloggers who run off the Blogger Custom Domain set up that their new blog posts are not being indexed and ranked in the Google search results.

It seems like this is happening to a large number of those on the Blogger platform - although it is not happening to everyone.

The reports date back to the 8th of February and continue almost 10 days later.

John Mueller from Google first thought it might just be normal Google fluctuations but came back in this morning and said maybe something is up. He wrote:

We hear from your posts here that these fluctuations haven't settled down for some of you, so we're definitely still looking into those details.

Of course, this might be nothing and just a delay on crawling for some sites. Or it may be something bigger. John explains in more detail:

Fluctuations in crawling and indexing can be normal, and are to be expected. While we work hard to make the processes as stable as possible, temporary changes can occur over time. In this case, it looks like we may have reduced crawling of some sites temporarily (this should be back to normal since several days though). You can see our crawling activity in your server logs, or in the Webmaster Tools "Crawl stats" section. If you have seen fluctuations like that in this time, keep in mind that it may take a bit of time for things to settle back down again.
Generally speaking, one possible way to make sure that technical fluctuations like these are resolved as quickly as possible is to make sure that you have a fantastic website. While the quality of your website won't keep technical issues away completely, it can help to make sure that our algorithms are happy to spend a significant part of their time/resources on crawling and indexing your content in an optimal way. While I haven't reviewed all of the sites that posted here, some of them do look like they could be somewhat improved. If you're unsure what that could involve, I'd recommend starting a new thread here, listing your site's URL, the goals of your site, and asking for honest & open feedback from the community at large. A good rule of thumb is to try to be the absolute best, by far, website in your niche -- don't focus on other websites that are "just as bad" or "doing the same thing."

Is your custom Blogger domain indexing new posts fine in Google?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 17, 2012

Fetched: February 19th, 2012, 8:43am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Buzz video Round Recap

It was a fairly slow week in search news but we do have some topics I wanted to highlight. I asked can sites that are not socially active with Google+, Facebook and Twitter rank in search in the future. There seems to be a weird bug with search results showing only one search result. Google might have an issue indexing new custom blogger posts. Google is trying to simplify the search query report in Webmaster Tools. AJ Kohn made a convenient bookmarklet for testing rich snippets. I have a fun post on what SEO geeks argue about. Apple drops iAds entry point, is giving more to developers - but I compared the earnings between iAds and Google. Google Maps now shows dates on street view images. National Car Rental has a new commercial featuring an SEO business pro. 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.

Search Topics of Discussion:

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

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 17, 2012

Fetched: February 19th, 2012, 8:43am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 17, 2012
It was a fairly slow week in search news but we do have some topics I wanted to highlight. I asked can sites that are not socially active with Google+...
Google Indexing Issue With Custom Blogger Domains?
A Google Webmaster Help thread has bloggers who run off the Blogger Custom Domain set up that their new blog posts are not being indexed and ranked in the Google search results...
Removing A Sitemap File Likely Won't Hurt Your Rankings
A WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster who is interested in just removing their XML sitemap completely from Webmaster tools. He is concerned that by doing so, his rankings will be impacted and is having second thoughts about removing the sitemap...
National Car Rental Commercial Features SEO
National Car Rental has this campaign going named "Go Like A Pro." The campaign has recently features an SEO as the business pro. Nick Roshon posted a poor quality video of the campaign on his Google+ profile, here it is...
Google Lego Family
I spotted this picture on Jason Morrison's Google+ profile where he is dressed up as a logo, with I think his child and his wife. Yea, the whole family dressed up as lego pieces. How cute and how ge

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Lithuanian ind. Act doodle, Google Blogoscoped Forum
Serbian national day (doodle), Google Blogoscoped Forum
Seing new SERP pages, WebmasterWorld

AdWords Forum Upgraded But To A Newer New Version

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: SEO SEM Forum News

Google forums have begun to slowly migrate to the new Google Groups format. I personally do not like that new format, but Google doesn't always listen to me about my likes and dislikes, even with forums, despite me being of the most active trolls in the forums.

Google AdWords representative, Zee, announced the switch over in the Old Google AdWords Help Forum and the New Google AdWords Help Forum yesterday. The thing is, this is not the new Google Groups format, it is very very different and at first glance, I like it a lot better than the Google Groups version.

Here is a picture (click to enlarge):

I like this format mostly because I can see by profile who said what, Google Groups does not have that feature. Plus, overall, it seems snappier and faster than Google Groups. Google Groups has a pretty significant delay on clicking around the threads, even on my super fast machine.

Congrats on the upgrade AdWords folks!

Forum discussion at Old Google AdWords Help and New Google AdWords Help.

iAds Drops Prices Increases Revenue Share: But Does It Compare To AdMob or Google AdSense?

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Some of you may know that my company is pretty heavy into iPhone development and Android development - but we also have some very popular apps that we sell or give away in the various markets. We have tons of Jewish iPhone apps (and some non Jewish iPhone apps) and also some Android apps.

Many of our apps are free, and some of the free apps are monetized with ad networks. I've been testing some of the larger ad networks for a long time now, including Google AdSense for Mobile Apps, AdMob (which has now taken over for AdSense since Google acquired them) and Apple iAds.

So when I heard Apple dropped the price for advertisers to participate in iAds, I was happy. The volume is not there and the earnings are not there also. Previously, Apple required a minimum ad spend of half a million dollars, Apple dropped that to only $100,000, which is still huge compared to virtually no requirement with Google's AdMob. So I am hoping this is a step in the right direction for Apple and iAds - I'd love to see it more self service and thus yield more ad inventory and hopefully a higher eCPM.

Since we have started with ads in our apps, we used both iAds and Google ads. A few weeks ago, our Google AdSense ads stopped working completely. Google AdSense was paying us well, a eCPM of about $2.50. It was out performing Apple iAds at about $0.70 eCPM and doing much better than my tests with AdMob earning under $0.40 eCPM.

The issue is, now AdSense is not an option and our earnings have dropped.

In any event, Apple said they have increased the revenue share to 70 percent, which is just about what Google AdSense gives, a little higher actually.

Do you monetize your apps with ads? What works for you? Please no spam.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Android Man Skiing

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 15, 2012

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Webmaster Tools Tries To Simplify Search Queries Report
A couple weeks ago, we reported that Google Webmaster Tools added features. But I missed some of the design updates to the web reports...
Google Public DNS Is The Largest Public DNS Service
Google announced that the public DNS service they launched in December 2009 is now the largest public DNS service out there. Google said, "We're the largest public DNS service in the world...
Google Maps Street View Images Now With Dates
I am not sure how new this is, but sometime within the year, Google Maps has begun showing the date the image was taken. Not the exact date but the month and year the image was taken with the street view cars...
Webmaster Google+ Hangout Today At 4pm EDT
Google's John Mueller announced in the Google Webmaster Help forums and on Google+ that Google is running new Google+ hangouts today. One we already missed, it was about an hour or two ago at 6am EDT. But the next one is later this afternoon at 4pm EDT/1pm PDT...
Lego Cake
I spotted a picture of a lego cake on Pinterest, which is sourced from tablespoon.com on building a "building blocks cake." I felt most search geeks would find the picture and directions on how this

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

PageRank Sculpting Revisited, seoworkers.com
An approach to Twitter “How to”, WebmasterWorld
Using GWT data to improve search rankings, WebmasterWorld

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 16, 2012

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Places Bug: We Currently Do Not Support The Location
The Google Places Help forum is filled with complaints about a bug with Google showing the error "We currently do not support this location." The first complaint came in yesterday and read: Our place page has disappeared. We just see the "we currently do not support this location...
Bug Or Feature? One Google Search Results For BBC Football
This comes up every now and then but you rarely see it discussed at WebmasterWorld. A search result that leads to very few or a single search result. A search for [bbc football] in Google UK simply returns one web page result...
AdWords Forum Upgraded But To A Newer New Version
Google forums have begun to slowly migrate to the new Google Groups format. I personally do not like that new format, but Google doesn't always listen to me about my likes and dislikes, even with forums, despite me being of the most active trolls in the forums...
iAds Drops Prices Increases Revenue Share: But Does It Compare To AdMob or Google AdSense?
Some of you may know that my company is pretty heavy into iPhone development and Android development - but we also have some very popular apps that we sell or give away in the various markets. We have tons of Jewish iPhone apps (and some non Jewish iPhone apps) and also some Android apps...
Android Man Skiing
The Google+ page for Android posted a video of Android Guy skiing on a mountain. It was pretty funny, despite the video being taken in portait mode, so I had to share it. Here is a picture and the v

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Anna Pavlova's birthday doodle, Google Blogoscoped Forum
Can a Google +1 increase position?, WebmasterWorld
How important are Sitemaps to Google these days ?, WebmasterWorld

Google Places Bug: We Currently Do Not Support The Location

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The Google Places Help forum is filled with complaints about a bug with Google showing the error "We currently do not support this location."

The first complaint came in yesterday and read:

Our place page has disappeared. We just see the "we currently do not support this location." We had reviews and links on our website to this place page map, now its all jacked up.
I can see the listing that I created and verified years ago in my google places account and it still says "active" but you cant even search on the physical address of our location in google maps.

There are close to a hundred complaints and it seems Google has fixed it early this morning. Joel H from Google wrote:

We've just finished making some changes to restore listings. Sorry for the issue and thanks all for your patience.

The issue still seems to be happening for people, one person wrote about 6 hours after Joel said it was fixed:

Issue is that Google gives the message, that the location isn't found. When searching for the company name, it is indeed not found, unless you look on Maps while logged into the Google account. Can you fix this, Google please.

This is not an uncommon issue, it has happened before.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help.

Bug Or Feature? One Google Search Results For BBC Football

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

This comes up every now and then but you rarely see it discussed at WebmasterWorld. A search result that leads to very few or a single search result.

A search for [bbc football] in Google UK simply returns one web page result, and it is from bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football. It is then followed by two universal results, including a video result from BBC and a news result from BBC. It is interesting to see something like this, here is a picture:

WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, said "Seems to me that Google feels the user intention for this query is VERY strongly oriented toward the BBC's coverage of football. I think it makes sense, taken in that context."

Do you really think this is done on purpose or maybe this is a weird Google bug.

I can see the rational for both, but I really doubt Google will limit their ten search results on a page to one or three on purpose.

Is this a bug or a feature?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to Cross The Breeze.

Notice: I am pretty sure the comments below are not from Matt Cutts and are fake.

Google Public DNS Is The Largest Public DNS Service

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced that the public DNS service they launched in December 2009 is now the largest public DNS service out there.

Google said, "We're the largest public DNS service in the world, handling an average of more than 70 billion requests a day."

So I guess webmasters had a reason to be wary. Those using Google Public DNS no longer have to use Chrome or Google Search or surf sites with AdSense or DoubleClick ads for Google to know what they are doing on the web.

Of course, they have their privacy polices.

In any event, A WebmasterWorld thread has one senior member making a sarcastic remark:

if goog is your DNS it doesn't matter if you using their SE or not.
ya know....cause they just wanna make the web better. *gag*

Do you use Google's Public DNS? I don't but I do use Chrome - so it doesn't matter.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Street View Images Now With Dates

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

I am not sure how new this is, but sometime within the year, Google Maps has begun showing the date the image was taken. Not the exact date but the month and year the image was taken with the street view cars.

For example, here is a street view image of Gramercy Park in New York City, at the bottom left hand corner is the copyright, source of the image and the date it was taken:

So it doesn't give you the exact day and time but it does give you the month and year.

Previously, the only way to see when a street view image was taken was via Google Earth. We wrote about that in November 2010.

Again, I am not sure when Google added dates to the web version of Google Maps Street View images but it is interesting to see there.

Daniel from the Google Maps team wrote in the Google Maps Help forum that you can retrieve the dates of the image on the "bottom left corner of the Street View image."

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: Websonic told me the dates were added a couple months ago.

Webmaster Google+ Hangout Today At 4pm EDT

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

Google's John Mueller announced in the Google Webmaster Help forums and on Google+ that Google is running new Google+ hangouts today.

One we already missed, it was about an hour or two ago at 6am EDT. But the next one is later this afternoon at 4pm EDT/1pm PDT.

At 4pm EDT today, you have your shot to ask John and other Googlers webmaster and SEO related questions live.

To do so, go to either this Google+ post and wait for John to post the URL or just watch John's profile posts for when he puts up the "Join Hangout" button.

I typically try to jump into some of these hangouts but I won't be able to make this one.

For more on these hangouts, see this page.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and Google+.

Lego Cake

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 14, 2012

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google To Understand Entities
A Mashable story has details from Google's head of search, Amit Singhal on where Google search is heading. Here are two excerpts from the article: The future of Google Search, though, could be a very different story...
Google Webmaster Outreach 2011
Kaspar Szymanski, a Googler responsible for webmaster outreach and a downright awesome guy...
Google: Cookieless Domain Have No Direct SEO Effect
A Google Webmaster Help thread asks if there is an SEO benefit to going the cookieless domain route. The simple answer is that no, there is no direct SEO impact on going with the cookieless domain...
Can AdSense Publishers Sell Direct Ads?
A WebmasterWorld thread asks a question that is so obvious and basic that I've never thought of it or even seen it asked before in the forums...
Google's Tony Bennett Valentine Logo & More
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Valentine's Day is one of those days the search engines go all out on their logos, like they do on New Years, July 4th and many other days. Like we do every year, I wanted to share the logos
A Fake Google Store
We know Google has a Google Store in at their headquarters in the GooglePlex. We know they are thinking of adding one also to their Dublin office. But a random Google store somewhere in the Middle E

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Search Engine Click-Through & Bounce Rates as Ranking Metrics, seoworkers.com
The "Search by Images" is killing my game (50,000+ players) please help!, Google Web Search Help
Anyone Noticing a little yellow box when they click in to see a domain?, Google Webmaster Help
It's time to do another Google Webmaster Central…, John Mueller - Google+

Google Webmaster Tools Tries To Simplify Search Queries Report

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A couple weeks ago, we reported that Google Webmaster Tools added features. But I missed some of the design updates to the web reports.

If you go to the search query report, you will see that Google cleaned up those charts by defaulting the report to not show percent (delta) changes in the report. Here is an animated GIF showing me turning on more details and turning them off:

I don't know if this went live the same time we reported the other changes but there are subtle differences here.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one user complaining the reports look unprofessional. But I personally like the look. Here is what he said:

They've changed the graphs and the number of keywords under the search queries from 10 to 25. The graph looks rather unprofessional, especially at the point when a peak is reached as it is cut off.
Functionality in this section has now been dumbed down, as you are required to switch from "Basic" to "With Change" listings to retain functionality. As with other Google services, advanced features have disappeared altogether or been moved.

Tedster, the WebmasterWorld administrator, said despite what you think, it makes the reports "more useful" and I do agree.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google To Understand Entities

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

A Mashable story has details from Google's head of search, Amit Singhal on where Google search is heading.

Here are two excerpts from the article:

The future of Google Search, though, could be a very different story. In an extensive conversation, Singhal, who has been in the search field for 20 years, outlined a developing vision for search that takes it beyond mere words and into the world of entities, attributes and the relationship between those entities. In other words, Googleâs future search engine will not only understand your lake question but know a lake is a body of water and tell you the depth, surface areas, temperatures and even salinities for each lake.

Google now wants to transform words that appear on a page into entities that mean something and have related attributes. Itâs what the human brain does naturally, but for computers, itâs known as Artificial Intelligence.
Itâs a challenging task, but the work has already begun. Google is âbuilding a huge, in-house understanding of what an entity is and a repository of what entities are in the world and what should you know about those entities,â said Singhal.

See that last line?

Amit said, Google is "building a huge, in-house understanding of what an entity is and a repository of what entities are in the world and what should you know about those entities."

For an SEO and search fan, this is a big thrill. Tedster from WebmasterWorld said:

I'd say this is the long-term view of where Google is headed - or really, where search is headed altogether. We left the world of pure text match years ago, but not by a lot so far.
It's definitely something to keep in mind as we try to make sense of the way SERPs are evolving. Right now, experienced searchers might not even formulate a search such as "the ten deepest lakes in the US" but would probably come at this idea from related searches that stand a better chance of finding a text match - and then go on from that initial set of findings.
The article states "while 200 million entities is a lot, the world of knowledge is vast." Indeed. Given all the possibilities that a true AI would need to address, 200 million entities is a mere sneeze.

This is a whole new game.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock.

Google Webmaster Outreach 2011

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Kaspar Szymanski, a Googler responsible for webmaster outreach and a downright awesome guy, posted on Google+ some of the highlights for his team in 2011. He wrote he wanted to share his personal thoughts on the top outreach accomplishments for Google in 2011.

Let me sum them up for you:

Authorship markup option is one of his favorites.
Surprisingly he mentions Panda, but he does so for good reason, explaining "I've seen a number of threads from webmasters who claimed their legit, content rich sites have been slammed by Panda. Now, I only have a limited insight into our forums escalations, as I donât speak all the languages we support but from what I've seen the vast majority of sites that have been escalated has not been affected by this algorithmic update. Some were experiencing technical issues, others' performance in #Google #Search was just not living up to the webmasters expectation. Now, I'm not saying our algorithms are always perfect right from the beginning and surely some fine-tuning had to be done but the bottom line is that users seemed to love post-Panda results and that's what counts for me."
A new design for site links
Multilingual content markup
Spam in Google including phishing, malware, paid PageRank passing links with ways to report it.
Transparency and two way communication via Webmaster Tools, forums, Google Hangouts, and more.

What do you think?

Forum discussion on Google+.

Google: Cookieless Domain Have No Direct SEO Effect

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A Google Webmaster Help thread asks if there is an SEO benefit to going the cookieless domain route.

The simple answer is that no, there is no direct SEO impact on going with the cookieless domain. But it can impact site speed, which is now a direct SEO factor, although it likely won't have a serious impact if any on your rankings if you do use cookies, since most of the web pages on the internet that you visit and rank high in Google do have cookies.

Google's John Mueller explains why people use cookieless domain:

The idea behind a cookieless domain is that it can speed up transferring static files by the browser not having to send cookies with every request. This is something that can help to reduce the time needed to render a page, if you have static, shared content.

But does it impact rankings? John said no:

A cookieless domain does not have any direct SEO effect. However, as mentioned there are situations where we may choose to use site speed as a ranking factor, so if you have a site with extremely slow-loading pages, it may make sense to review this as well as the other page-speed recommendations to help speed things up.

For more on cookieless domains, see this page.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Can AdSense Publishers Sell Direct Ads?

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread asks a question that is so obvious and basic that I've never thought of it or even seen it asked before in the forums. The question is, can Google AdSense publishers also sell ads directly to advertisers who contact them?

Like we do on this site, we have ad relationships with advertisers directly and also have some AdSense spots on the site. This is incredibly common, most big web sites have direct ads and supplement the open slots with house ads or AdSense ads. So why would it be an issue?

Well, as pointed to in the thread, the terms of service for AdSense state:

Communications Solely With Google. You agree to direct to Google, and not to any advertiser, any communication regarding any Ad(s) or Link(s) displayed in connection with Your Property(ies).

I am not a lawyer but it seems all your ad deals, if you have any AdSense ads on your site, must go through Google?

One senior member said if it was him doing direct ads, he would first contact Google to see if it is okay. He said:

IMHO, I would notify Google of the contact. It is not worth jeopardizing a long term relationship for a short term gain. Who is to say the advertiser would not bail on you as they are obviously willing to bail on Google. Then what do you do?

I assume 99% of you who sell ads would never contact Google about selling direct ads on your site.

Am I reading the legalize right or is this an non issue?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's Tony Bennett Valentine Logo & More

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Logos

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Valentine's Day is one of those days the search engines go all out on their logos, like they do on New Years, July 4th and many other days.

Like we do every year, I wanted to share the logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile, Baidu and others from our industry.

The most detailed logo is Google's this year, where they do a video with music from Tony Bennett's Cold Cold Heart song. It is a very nice logo but not all searchers are happy with it, more on that later.

For now, here are the logos:

Google Logo (Video):

Google Logo (static):

Yahoo Logo:

Bing Logo:

Ask.com Logo:

Dogpile Logo:

Baidu Logo:

Sogou Logo:

Search Engine Roundtable Logo:

What beautiful logos!

But what is the issue with Google? Nothing really, but some people dislike the couples they have selected for the video, including homosexual couples. Hard to please everyone in America!

For the past year Valentine's Day logos see 2011, 2010, Valentine's 2009, Valentines 2008, Valentines 2007, Valentines 2006 and Valentines 2005.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

A Fake Google Store

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 13, 2012

Fetched: February 14th, 2012, 5:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

What SEO Geeks Argue About
This morning, I spotted a group of SEOs arguing about if a URL can be "indexed" if the page is blocked by a noindex tag or robots.txt file...
Will Socially Awkward Sites Suffer In Google In The Long Run?
A WebmasterWorld thread asks a question probably on the mind of many site owners today. The question asked, "Is my site doomed because I won't go social...
Unicode URLs May Have Issues In Bing
A Bing Webmaster Help thread has some users reporting issues on how Bing handles unicode URLs within Bing Webmaster Center and the robots.txt handling...
Check Your Competitors Rich Snippets Quickly With This Bookmarklet
AJ Kohn posted a new quick tool he put together to allow people to quickly test a page's rich snippets markup. The tool is very basic, it is a bookmarklet that takes you to the Google Rich Snippets testing tool but automatically fills in the URL of the page you are on...
Google Kippah
Martin Gordon took a picture of a street vendor in Israel who is selling Kippahs, male Jewish head coverings, with the logos from our favorite internet companies. The logos include Google, Facebook,

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

ZDNet blogger outs an SEO spammer, Google Webmaster Help
Proposal for a new Google product: Book count, WebmasterWorld
Will changing the ads on my site affect my SERPs?, WebmasterWorld
''Strict'' safe search is not even close to being strict!, Google Webmaster Help
Doodle May Ziade's birthday, Google Blogoscoped Forum
Pipe symbol in page titles can cause odd search results, WebmasterWorld

What SEO Geeks Argue About

Fetched: February 13th, 2012, 6:57pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: SEO Search Engine Optimization

This morning, I spotted a group of SEOs arguing about if a URL can be "indexed" if the page is blocked by a noindex tag or robots.txt file?

It is a valid SEO question but when you ask that in a room of SEO geeks, the responses can get pretty wild.

You've all seen examples of URLs in the search results that just list the URL but not the actual title tag and snippet of the page. That is typically because Google has a copy of the URL in their database as a reference but has not crawled or indexed the content on the web page because it is restricted to do so for one reason or another.

The question is, is that URL considered indexed or not? That depends on the definition of "indexed" and which SEO you ask.

Let me share the tweets about this:

Yep -> RT @rustybrick: @AndyBeard but a page URL can be indexed without being crawled @seosmarty @rishil
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) February 13, 2012

@rustybrick @seosmarty @rishil In google terminology that is just a reference
— Andy Beard (@AndyBeard) February 13, 2012

@AndyBeard but a page URL can be indexed without being crawled @seosmarty @rishil
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 13, 2012

@rishil indexation=appears in search results (index). crawling=going through the page itself - right? cc @AndyBeard
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) February 13, 2012

@seosmarty @rishil A page has to be crawled first to be indexed... a reference link != indexed
— Andy Beard (@AndyBeard) February 13, 2012

@rishil indexation=appears in search results (index). crawling=going through the page itself - right? cc @AndyBeard
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) February 13, 2012

The discussion went on for dozens and dozens of tweets with no one winning.

Matt or John, want to chime in and give the final answer?

Forum discussion at, um, Twitter.

Will Socially Awkward Sites Suffer In Google In The Long Run?

Fetched: February 13th, 2012, 6:57pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A WebmasterWorld thread asks a question probably on the mind of many site owners today. The question asked, "Is my site doomed because I won't go social?"

This is a valid question, some sites for some reasons do not want to get involved in adding social features to their site. Such as adding rich snippets, authorship markup, Facebook and Twitter buttons and maybe more importantly to Google, Google+ buttons and profiles.

Will a site suffer in the long term if they refuse to adapt to the new social space?

Personally, I think so but not everyone agrees.

A senior member put it nicely, it is not just the direct factor of having social factors in the algorithm but the indirect influence social has on other factors, such as links, in the algorithm. He said:

In terms of physical downgrades, I'd say it's unlikely that social signals will ever be factored into the algo to such a degree that it would be an issue.
But in terms of causality - I think increased personalisation of SERPs will have a larger impact on organic SEO via social than traditional links / branding / traffic benefits.

Here is our poll, what do you think?

To Compete, Does Your Site Need To Be Social?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for the nerd.

Unicode URLs May Have Issues In Bing

Fetched: February 13th, 2012, 6:57pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Bing SEO

A Bing Webmaster Help thread has some users reporting issues on how Bing handles unicode URLs within Bing Webmaster Center and the robots.txt handling.

The webmaster in this case tested with both German and Russian URLs and said:

In the index explorer, the URLs are messed up, see attached picture
Excluding pages in robots.txt does not work - the URLs are percentage encoded there, see http://www.richard-fath.de/robots.txt
Blocking the pages mentioned with item 2. in Webmaster Center does not help

So far, a Bing representative has yet to reply. Although other webmasters also chimed in to say they have similar issues.

Forum discussion at Bing Webmaster Help.

Check Your Competitors Rich Snippets Quickly With This Bookmarklet

Fetched: February 13th, 2012, 6:57pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

AJ Kohn posted a new quick tool he put together to allow people to quickly test a page's rich snippets markup.

The tool is very basic, it is a bookmarklet that takes you to the Google Rich Snippets testing tool but automatically fills in the URL of the page you are on, so you can save a step.

Here is the JavaScript for the bookmarlet:

javascript:void(window.open(%27http://www.google.com/ webmasters/tools/richsnippets?url=%27+window.location.href,%27_blank%27));

You can use it by dragging the following link to your browser favorites bar: Rich Snippets Testing Tool

It will save you a lot of time if you are the type of person who goes around the web looking at how your competitors or third party sites implement their rich snippets.

It is fun to see how sites use it, if they have coding errors or if they are using markups that might be worthy of reporting.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Google Kippah

Fetched: February 13th, 2012, 6:57pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 10, 2012

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 10, 2012
Busy week in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. Google provided the 17 search quality changes they made in January...
Google Changes Navigation Bar Again
As expected, Google has now changed back to a similar look for the Google bar from back in November...
Bug? Google Maps Drops Owner Uploaded Photos
This is pretty scary, if you go to your Google Maps business listing...
Google Search Requiring Cookies? Google Says No
There are several reports at WebmasterWorld where users using Firefox are claiming that the only way to search at Google is to turn on their cookies. I've personally tested this in a few Firefox browsers and cannot replicate it...
Google AdSense Causing IE8 Security Warnings
There are reports at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help of users of Internet Explorer 8 having issues viewing pages with Google AdSense on them...
Valentines Day At Yahoo
posted a picture of Yahoo purple rubber ducks on a Yahoo purple chair, surrounded by more Yahoo ducks and a heart pillow. This is for a Yahoo Valentines day, which is coming up this Tuesday.

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Bing's Plans For A Culmination of 'Social' Search Enhancements, WebmasterWorld
Report: Google Close to Launch of Cloud Storage, WebmasterWorld
Craig Silverstein, Google Employee #1, Leaving for Khan Academy, Hacker News
Directories and Social Bookmarks for links?, WebmasterWorld
Google Drive logo?, Google Blogoscoped Forum
What I learned interviewing with Google, Hacker News
WMT Labs Instant Previews - Which one is "batch Instant Preview"?, WebmasterWorld

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 10, 2012

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Buzz video Round Recap

Busy week in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. Google provided the 17 search quality changes they made in January, one being a change to how they pipe in Panda into the overall algorithm. Webmasters are noticing major shifts in the Google rankings and traffic. Google also updated PageRank this week. Google is testing a new navigation bar. Bing has a new design for their search results - it seems to be a test. Users are reporting issues with searching Google without cookies. SEOs are testing image changes to the authorship markup to increase click through rates. Google said SEO isn't good for users or the Internet at large. There is a bug in Google Maps that removed business owner photos from the map results. Google AdSense is causing security errors on some Internet Explorer browsers. WolframAlpha launched a paid pro version, it looks sweet. I am running another Panda poll, which I hope to post the result on Panda's anniversary. Finally, Google had a special logo for Charles Dickens. 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.

Search Topics of Discussion:

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

Google Changes Navigation Bar Again

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

As expected, Google has now changed back to a similar look for the Google bar from back in November. Why?

Google said:

Based on your feedback, we realized there were some elements of the new bar that we could improve, and with that in mind, we're introducing an updated version that we believe will provide a better experience.
The new design retains many of the feature changes we made in November that proved popular, including a unified search box and Google+ sharing and notifications across Google. The biggest change is that we've replaced the drop-down Google menu with a consistent and expanded set of links running across the top of the page.

Here are screen shots....

New Google Bar:

The Big Bar Google is Dropping:

During the switch over, some are seeing issues with the styling, you can always try to shift refresh to fix those issues.

With any major change like this, you have those who hate it and those that like it.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, WebmasterWorld, and Google+.

Bug? Google Maps Drops Owner Uploaded Photos

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

This is pretty scary, if you go to your Google Maps business listing, any photos you may have uploaded seem to have been completely removed! This even happened on my business listing where I had a ton of photos uploaded by yours truly and they are all gone.

Here is the backend where it shows I have zero photos uploaded:

Here is a picture only showing pictures from the web and not pictures I've uploaded:

Vanessa from the Google Maps team said they are looking into the bug. She said:

We're investigating to see if there's a bug going on. Keep posting your examples -- links to Place pages are most helpful.

To submit your issue, go to the Google Places Help forum and give Vanessa your URL.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Search Requiring Cookies? Google Says No

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

There are several reports at Webmaster World where users using Firefox are claiming that the only way to search at Google is to turn on their cookies.

I've personally tested this in a few Firefox browsers and cannot replicate it. I've turned off cookies but Google still lets me conduct my searches. But at this point, there are just too many people complaining about it to not raise an eyebrow. There are tweets, forum posts and so on.

Google told me this is something they are "not testing or rolling out."

So maybe it is a Firefox issue? Maybe it is a bug in Google that Google is not aware of? Or maybe Google is not telling the truth and they are testing something? I am not sure.

Here are some of those reports:

Lately I've been unable to use Google Search without having cookies allowed. Not always, just occasionally. Today it seems to be consistent, no cookies, no clicking thru from the basic G search results page.
Is that new, or just some kind of testing?

This is a new one on me. With Firefox 10 newly installed nothing happens when I click on a Google SERPs link, but I have no problem with Bing, or the Google ads! Switching to other browsers solves the problem too. I re-installed Firefox 8 and still get the same problem! Short of switching permanently to Bing, can anyone offer a possible solution?

Do you have this issue? Can you replicate it?

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Postscript: Google said this was a bug and sent us an official statement:

This was a bug that was flagged and the team quickly resolved on Thursday. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Image credit to Bill Alldredge on Flickr.

Google AdSense Causing IE8 Security Warnings

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There are reports at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help of users of Internet Explorer 8 having issues viewing pages with Google AdSense on them.

On user explained:

Windows XP visitors using IE 8 on several of my Adsense sites see an error message "Internet Explorer has blocked this website from displaying content with security certificate errors."
Without AdSense loaded there is no error. Turns out you have to update the root certificates for your computer at windows update manually if you have an XP computer. Windows doesn't automatically update these certificates for XP users.

This is supposedly only happening on a specific version of Internet Explorer and only happening one web sites that contain Google AdSense.

It might be related to a Google change or maybe a Microsoft change. It is unclear at this point.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Valentines Day At Yahoo

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 9, 2012

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Bing's New Design For Search Results
Yesterday I reported at Search Engine Land that Bing is testing a new user interface and design for their search results. I was able to see the new design yesterday but today, the new design is gone. The new design is much more appealing to me...
A Google Search Results Shuffle Happening
A WebmasterWorld thread where webmasters keep track of every little move at Google is noticing some significant shifts in the Google search results over the past few days. There are webmasters claiming huge traffic swings...
Google Screenwise: Get Paid To Use The Internet With One Catch...
Google has "quietly" launched a new project called Google Screenwise, which is part of the Google Knowledge Networks program. Google will pay you $25 for them to track your every move online.
The M&M's Google Chrome Logo
Andy Barnes posted a picture of his M&M's sorting behaviors on Flickr. In this case, he took the M&M's and sorted them in a bowl to take the form of the Google Chrome logo.

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

"Solve For X" Website, Google Blogoscoped Forum
Is Google's custom search "pure" and unmodified?, WebmasterWorld
[Logo] Doodle 4 Google New Zealand 2011 winner, Google Blogoscoped Forum

Bing's New Design For Search Results

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Bing Search

Yesterday I reported at Search Engine Land that Bing is testing a new user interface and design for their search results. I was able to see the new design yesterday but today, the new design is gone.

The new design is much more appealing to me. Things seem cleaner, more organized, tighter and just more fluid than the older the design.

Luckily I have pictures to show you.

New Design (click on it to enlarge):

Old Design (click on it to enlarge):

I was tipped off on this by Jason Hart who sent a detailed list of the changes:

Vertical tabs removed
Top and bottom search boxes widened
Search button icon changed
Several links removed from header
Location information no longer displayed
Icons used instead of text for rewards and preferences
My smiling face added to the page instead of just my name
Related searches moved from left rail to under the search box

Like it?

Many people think it resembles Google's search results.

Forum discussion at Google+.

A Google Search Results Shuffle Happening

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread where webmasters keep track of every little move at Google is noticing some significant shifts in the Google search results over the past few days.

There are webmasters claiming huge traffic swings, up and down 40% at different times of the day and on different days.

The reports started coming in on February 6th or so and more and more webmasters are complaining of those shifts as of yesterday.

A couple of people even said their rankings are the same but their traffic dropped 40%.

Here are some quotes:

I'm ranking the same and my traffic was cut by 35-40%

I lost about 30% of my traffic over the weekend.

According to GA two of our sites are 35% UP yet sales are near ZERO!

Are you noticing major changes in the Google search results over the past few days?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for shuffle dancer image.

Google AdWords Click To Call Phone Fraud?

Fetched: February 9th, 2012, 2:30pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdWords

A WebmasterWorld thread has an advertiser of Google AdWords claiming his click to call campaign is receiving invalid or fraudulent calls.

He said all of a sudden he is receiving an unusual spike in call activities all with no chance on converting those calls. He is wondering if this is a form of invalid clicks or click fraud.

The advertiser wrote:

I've been happy with bid-to-call. It's super cheap and some of the calls are good. Most are not potential customers, but that is true for clicks, too. That's part of doing business. Overall bid-to-call has been a good thing.
However....a couple of the AdGroups I had it on started getting a bunch of calls. These were low activity AdGroups, and there were most calls than clicks (normally the ratio is about a hundred clicks for every call). The calls were under 30 seconds, so Google does not charge us for them. I am not worried about the cost from Google. I am worried about the labor cost for my client who has to answer the phone. Too many of these low quality calls becomes a nuisance.
To remedy this, I paused the AdGroups that were generating these calls (at least, according to Google these AdGroups were generating a lot of calls.) After pausing, there were zero clicks. But the calls continued to come in! Google still reports under 30-second calls from these two AdGroups!
Is this a new form of spam or fraud? After worrying about fraudulent clicks for years am I now going to have to worry about fraudulent calls.

Have you seen this before? Is it fraud? It is a bug in Google reporting? Is it a bug where your phone number is being listed ion the wrong ad?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld .

Image credit to ShutterStock for phone icon.

Pros & Cons Of Link Building To Pages Linking To You

Fetched: February 9th, 2012, 2:30pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Link Building tips SEO

A WebmasterWorld thread has a nice discussion around the link building strategy of building up the pages that link to you.

When link building, you have the option to build links from 3rd party sites to your pages directly. Or you can build links to pages that are linking to you, in order to boost the power of the links that are already pointing to you.

This is a strategy some link builders use when it might be easier to get a webmaster to link to a 3rd party site versus directly linking to your site.

The pros are that it might be easier, you can use your link power to other sites and not just yours, you will benefit from the link building, plus it isn't a direct link so if Google catches it, it might not directly hurt you.

The cons are that the link building you do to a page you don't own can back fire. Competitors can get links on those pages, the webmaster can eventually drop the link or the page completely, or Google can figure out the pattern and penalize you. Finally, focusing on your own site is easier than focusing on all the 3rd party sites linking to you.

PlanetSEO at WebmasterWorld said if you are going to go about it this way, then "look for a page / site that has great content, links to you naturally, and where it looks like the webmaster of that site has never heard the term SEO."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for links.

Optimize Your Google Authorship Image To Increase CTR

Fetched: February 9th, 2012, 2:30pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

Google is placing the authorship rich snippet author image all over the search results these days. Heck, if you are an SEO and do SEO related searches, you probably see my mug shot all over Google. I am not the prettiest person to look at, which may lead to a lower click through rate on my stories compared to someone like Sarah Perez.

Seriously, which story would you rather click on?

A WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster claiming that when he added the authorship markup, it actually lead to a lower click through rate from the Google search results. So what he did was change the picture and his click through rate spiked!

At first this actually seemed to hurt clickthrough. Apparently people didn't feel that my mug shot was relevant to their searches.
So I changed my profile pic to an image that's relevant to the content of my main site, in particular to a seasonal topic that's important. I saw an immediate, significant boost in clickthrough, mostly on the SERPs that are directly relevant to the pic but also somewhat on more generic SERPs as well.
What really impressed me is that the change in profile pic took effect instantly. I changed the pic, and the SERPs changed right away - so it's pulling the pic directly from my profile.
This opens up a whole new realm of image-based clickthrough enhancement. I'll have to experiment with different images to find out what will work best for the whole site.

Soon enough we are going to have to worry about pornography in these authorship tags. I guess that is why Google released a report rich snippet spam tool.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 8, 2012

Fetched: February 9th, 2012, 2:30pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google AdWords Click To Call Phone Fraud?
A WebmasterWorld thread has an advertiser of Google AdWords claiming his click to call campaign is receiving invalid or fraudulent calls. He said all of a sudden he is receiving an unusual spike in call activities all with no chance on converting those calls...
Pros & Cons Of Link Building To Pages Linking To You
A WebmasterWorld thread has a nice discussion around the link building strategy of building up the pages that link to you. When link building, you have the option to build links from 3rd party sites to your pages directly...
Optimize Your Google Authorship Image To Increase CTR
Google is placing the authorship rich snippet author image all over the search results these days. Heck, if you are an SEO and do SEO related searches, you probably see my mug shot all over Google...
Wolfram|Alpha Adds Pro Services For A Fee
Most people have no clue what Wolfram|Alpha is but it is one of the speciality search engines I use on a daily basis. I use it to look up data...
Google Sugar Daddy
I spotted this picture on Flickr posted by sg_harrison of what he calls is Google Sugar. It is a sugar cube with food coloring in the shape and colors of the Google favicon. Or it is trying to look l

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Can We Trust Facebook's Click Counts?, HighRankings Forums
Entity Associations (Increasingly) Affect Query Returns, Cre8asite Forums
Great Article By Miriam: Gets To The Nuts And Bolts W/ Problems In Google Places, Cre8asite Forums
I'm really happy that I get to share an office with Amit…, Matt Cutts - Google+
Video Manager FAQs, YouTube Help

The M&M's Google Chrome Logo

Fetched: February 9th, 2012, 2:30pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Google Screenwise: Get Paid To Use The Internet With One Catch...

Fetched: February 9th, 2012, 2:30pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has "quietly" launched a new project called Google Screenwise, which is part of the Google Knowledge Networks program.

Google will pay you $25 for them to track your every move online. And you thought Google was tracking your every move on the internet already. But no, they want more.

Ars Technica reports that part of this program is not just installing a browser plugin but also installing a black box between your router and your computers. Ars posted a picture of the CISCO based box:

Google says this will make the internet better plus you get "up to $25 in gift cards."

Google sent Search Engine Land an official statement:

Like many other web and media companies, we do panel research to help better serve our users by learning more about people's media use, on the web and elsewhere. This panel is one such small project that started near the beginning of the year. Of course, this is completely optional to join. People can choose to participate if it's of interest (or if the gift appeals) and everyone who does participate has complete transparency and control over what Internet use is being included in the panel. People can stay on the panel as long as theyâd like, or leave at any time.

The folks at WebmasterWorld are insulted that Google is doing this for a few reason. (1) The pay is way too low. (2) The information they collect with this is overboard. (3) Isn't Google tracking everyone anyway?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Wolfram|Alpha Adds Pro Services For A Fee

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 2:51pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Search Engines

Most people have no clue what Wolfram|Alpha is but it is one of the speciality search engines I use on a daily basis. I use it to look up data, facts and do some more advanced calculations.

The thing is - most people have no use for it. It is more for academics or power searchers.

Apple added it to Siri and it has accounted for 25% of Wolfram|Alpha's searches - so they are now getting on the map, thanks to Apple.

Wolfram|Alpha has announced they will be unveiling a "Pro" version of their search service for a $4.99/month fee. Yea, pay to use a search engine - but Wolfram|Alpha is no regular search engine.

What can you do in the paid Pro version of Wolfram|Alpha? Gary Price has those details:

(1) Analyze Your Own Datasets:

(2) 60 file formats can be uploaded from XLS, CSV all the way to images, audio files and more:

(3) Virtual extended keyboards.

(4) Visualized and interactive results using the CDF (computational data format).

"What's happening is you are giving freeform input, and Wolfram Alpha is creating a program on the fly to create the interactivity that you use," Chief executive Stephen Wolfram said.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Sugar Daddy

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 2:51pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Organic Google Bikes

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:26am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

How To Get Reinstated In Google AdSense

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:26am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is constantly banning AdSense publishers - it is nothing new.

What is new is publishers being reinstated into the Google AdSense program.

An article named Regulator helps David beat Goliath Google via theAge tells a story on how after months of being banned, Google reinstated his account but only after the regulators got involved.

First, he appealed directly with Google but was denied. Then he took his case to the NSW Fair Trading, a regulator in Australia. They did their investigation and shortly after, Google told him that after "thoroughly reviewing" his account, they have decided to reinstated it and refunded him the $131 it had withheld when it had suspended his account last September.

These cases are very rare.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

National Rail Lines Now On Google Transit UK

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The Google Maps team has added National train routes to the UK Google Transit options.

They include 2,500 stations, 8,000 bus stops and 250 London Underground routes.

Google partnered with Trainline in order to make 170 000 routes accessible from the Maps base.

This should make it easier to travel across England and is available on Google Maps for England, Scotland and Wales.

Googler, Daniel Mabasa, wants feedback - suggestions, bugs, etc for the new feature at the Google Maps Help forum.

So check it out and give some feedback.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google PageRank Update: February 2012

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There are some early reports that a Google PageRank update is underway.

We have some threads at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and some other forums of people reporting a PageRank update. I haven't checked my sites, but honestly, I wouldn't know if it went up or down.

The previous PageRank update was in November, yea - three months ago. And before that, in August - so Google tries to stick to a 3 month PageRank update cycle, when they remember to push out the update.

As I said then, "Google keeps telling them not to worry about PageRank but SEOs don't hear or listen. They think SEO is all about PageRank, when you and I know it has very little to do with PageRank. Especially Toolbar PageRank which is a fictional character used by Google's marketing department."

Anyway, I hope your PageRank in the Toolbar went up or remained the same. Although it has no immediate impact on rankings and is way out of date, many webmasters and SEOs take pride in their Toolbar PageRank.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google To Complete AdSense Report Migration By End Of Month

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

In November 2009 Google introduced the new AdSense interface and we are now well over two-years into it where I believe all publishers have been migrated but we still have migration issues from the old interface to the new.

One of those issues are old legacy reports from the old interface.

Google AdSense Engineer Guillaume said they hope to wrap up those last issues by the end of this month. He responded to a complaint that there are these old reports in the new interface that are not usable, nor can they be deleted. Guillaume said in a Google AdSense Help thread:

We aware of the issue; it's an unfortunate side-effect of the migration of saved reports from the old to the new interface. The migration is taking longer than initially planned, precisely due to some old reports not having exact equivalents in the new interface. We're hoping to complete the migration soon, hopefully by the end of this month.

Google is known for giving timelines and missing them. One specific example is the Google Apps and Google+ migration issues that was promised months ago and is still lingering on.

So if you have these AdSense issues - hopefully Google will hit this target and your reporting issues will be resolved by the end of this month.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Did Google Just Say Panda Is Now A Rolling Update?

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

We've asked when will Google roll the Panda algorithm more seamlessly into their algorithms - where Google does not have to manually press a button to run the Panda algorithm, but rather where it runs all by itself (I am pretty sure I am oversimplifying it).

Google made an announcement late Friday afternoon with 17 search quality updates. I want to highlight one today and maybe cover the others tomorrow.

High-quality sites algorithm improvements. [launch codenames "PPtl" and "Stitch", project codename "Panda"] In 2011, we launched the Panda algorithm change, targeted at finding more high-quality sites. We improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems, making it more integrated into our pipelines. We also released a minor update to refresh the data for Panda.

We covered the Panda 3.2 update last week. But the whole "pipeline" thing is interesting.

Google said they have "improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems, making it more integrated into our pipelines."

It seems like this means Google has made Panda a bit more integrated into the mainstream algorithm, allowing it to possibly run more frequently and who knows, maybe more real-time?

I am not sure if this would constitute a "rolling" update, where Panda is baked into the core algorithm. But it does seem Google is now able to run Panda updates more frequently with less overhead and less concern.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 6, 2012

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Did Google Just Say Panda Is Now A Rolling Update?
We've asked when will Google roll the Panda algorithm more seamlessly into their algorithms - where Google does not have to manually press a button to run the Panda algorithm...
Google To Complete AdSense Report Migration By End Of Month
In November 2009 Google introduced the new AdSense interface and we are now well over two-years into it where I believe all publishers have been migrated but we still have migration issues from the old interface to the new. One of those issues are old legacy reports from the old...
Google PageRank Update: February 2012
There are some early reports that a Google PageRank update is underway. We have some threads at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.
National Rail Lines Now On Google Transit UK
The Google Maps team has added National train routes to the UK Google Transit options. They include 2,500 stations, 8...
How To Get Reinstated In Google AdSense
Google is constantly banning AdSense publishers - it is nothing new. What is new is publishers being reinstated into the Google AdSense program...
Organic Google Bikes
Chris Chabot posted a picture on Google+ of a Google Bike out in the grass. He wrote "So the bikes in the googleplex aren't actually build but grown?" Organic Google Bikes?

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Am I allowed to run a contest to ask for reviews?, Google Places Help
E.U. Regulator Tells Google To Pause Privacy Changes, WebmasterWorld
Google Discovery Center available in Italian (and Italian…, Sean Carlos - Google+
Inappropriate images appear when searching for our school, Google Webmaster Help
Subdomain spam, WebmasterWorld
[Logo] François Truffaut, Google Blogoscoped Forum
[Logo] Lantern Festival, Google Blogoscoped Forum

Google Gym Geek Fix It Sign

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Google Logo For 200th Birthday Of Charles Dickens

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Logos

Today, 200 years ago, Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England. To celebrate his life, Google has a special worldwide logo picturing some of his famous stories.

When you click on the logo, you are not taken to Google web search, like most Google Doodles (logos). Instead, Google takes you to Google Book Search results for books written by or about Charles Dickens. The search is simply for his last name, [dickens].

Charles Dickens died at the age of 58 on June 9, 1870 at Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England.

He was married to Catherine Thomson Hogarth on April 2, 1836 and they had ten children together. The children's names were Charles Dickens, Jr., Mary Dickens, Kate Perugini, Walter Landor Dickens, Francis Dickens, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens, Henry Fielding Dickens, Dora Annie Dickens, and Edward Dickens.

Google also has a blog post on their Google Book Search Blog where Ariel Levine, Google eBooks Associate wrote about the process of creating the Doodle. The Googler Doodler who made it is named Mike Dutton.

And Mike's doodle is full of characters! We see Nell and her grandfather in the The Old Curiosity Shop, many characters from Little Dorrit, Oliver and his friends from Oliver Twist and Estella and Pip from Great Expectations. Even a certain French aristocrat graces the doodle, sitting inside the uppercase âGâ -- a reference to his eventual death by guillotine. And no tribute to Dickens would be complete without Ebenezer Scrooge and a vivid depiction of London in the background.

For more on Charles Dickens see his Wikipedia page.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google: SEO Isn't Good For Users Or The Internet

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

Jonathan Rockway, a Googler who is active on Hacker News slipped up on a comment he posted on Hacker News. Aaron Wall spotted it and wrote about it.

Let me quote the comment, then the "clarification" from Jon:

Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That's a good thing because SEO can't scale, and SEO isn't good for users or the Internet at large.
If you look at the Google experience from the standpoint of customers, it's pretty good. Users get relevant search results and ads. Advertisers get their content on top of everything else. It's a good compromise between advertising and usability, and it works really well. It's a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads, and Google is trying to fix the bug. Manipulating Google results shouldn't be something you feel entitled to be able to do. If you want to rank highly in Google, be relevant for the user currently searching. Engage him in social media or email, provide relevant information about what you're selling, and, generally, be a "good match" for what the user wants.

Jon then retracts not that SEO isn't good for users but that he meant to write ads versus search results:

Since people are taking what I've said out of context, I thought I'd clarify this statement:
"It's a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads"
I shouldn't have mentioned ads here. Position on the results page should only depend on the quality of your content; if your site has the best content on the Internet for the user's search terms, you should be the top result. You shouldn't be able to change your position in the organic results any other way, like by exploiting bugs in Google's ranking algorithm. The specifics of the ranking algorithm may change, but if your site is the best, you won't have to worry about it.

Okay, so he retracted the buying ads thing and meant buying positions.

But SEO isn't good for users? Really? I thought SEOs helped Google find great content, make it more indexable and provide rich snippets for the markup all over Google's results today?

Forum discussion at Hacker News.

Image credit to ShutterStock for oops moment.

Google New Drop Down Getting Old Again?

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

In November, Google began testing and rolling out their new drop down menu to Google users. Since then, it has been a very very slow roll out. In fact, I personally do not see the new drop down meny unless I go to Google Australia or other Google localized versions - I am not sure why - to be honest.

Lots of Google users see the new drop down that looks like this:

But what I see and have always seen since November is this:

Ruben at Google Blogoscoped Forums has been flipping back and forth between the different drop down menus. He said Google is testing this new, which is old, version again.

I just think Google has not fully rolled it out yet and people are still in limbo.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

February 17: Latest Google Search Quality Updates

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As I said yesterday in our Panda pipelines post, Google announced 17 search quality changes they made in the month of January.

Here is the full list that they announced:

Fresher results. [launch codename ânftcâ] We made several adjustments to the freshness algorithm that we released in November. These are minor updates to make sure we continue to give you the freshest, most relevant results.
Faster autocomplete. [launch codename âSnappy Suggestâ, project codename âSuggestâ] We made improvements to our autocomplete system to deliver your predicted queries much faster.
Autocomplete spelling corrections. [launch codename âTrivialâ, project codename âSuggestâ] This is an improvement to the spelling corrections used in autocomplete, making those corrections more consistent with the spelling corrections used in search. This launch targets corrections where the spelling change is very small.
Better spelling full-page replacement. [launch codenames âOooniâ, âsgapâ, project codename âFull-Page Replacementâ] When weâre confident in a spelling correction we automatically show results for the corrected query and let you know weâre âShowing results for [cheetah]â (rather than, say, âcheettahâ). We made a couple of changes to improve the accuracy of this feature.
Better spelling corrections for rare queries. This change improves one of the models that we use to make spelling corrections. The result is more accurate spell corrections for a number of rare queries.
Improve detection of recurrent event pages. [launch codename ânesedaâ] We made several improvements to how we determine the date of a document. As a result, youâll see fresher, more timely results, particularly for pages discussing recurring events.
High-quality sites algorithm improvements. [launch codenames âPPtlâ and âStitchâ, project codename âPandaâ] In 2011, we launched the Panda algorithm change, targeted at finding more high-quality sites. We improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems, making it more integrated into our pipelines. We also released a minor update to refresh the data for Panda.
Cross-language refinements. [launch codename Xiangfan] Previously, we only generated related searches based on the display language. With this change, we also attempt to auto-detect the language of the original query to generate related search queries. Now, a user typing a query in French might see French query refinements, even if her language is set to English.
English on Google Saudi Arabia. Users in Saudi Arabia can now more easily choose an English interface to search on google.com.sa.
Improved scrolling for Image Search. Previously when you scrolled in Image Search, only the image results would move while the top and side menus were pinned in place. We changed the scrolling behavior to make it consistent with our main search results and the other search modes, where scrolling moves the entire page.
Improved image search quality. [launch codename âendearoâ, project codename âImage Searchâ] This is a small improvement to our image search ranking algorithm. In particular, this change helps images with high-quality landing pages rank higher in our image search results.
More relevant related searches. Sometimes at the bottom of the screen youâll see a section called âSearches related toâ with other queries you may want to try. With this change, weâve updated the model for generating related searches, resulting in more useful query refinements.
Blending of news results. [launch codename âfinal-destinationâ, project codename âUniversal Searchâ] We improved our algorithm that decides which queries should show news results, making it more responsive to realtime trends. We also made an adjustment to how we blend news results in Universal Search. Both of these changes help news articles appear in your search results when they are relevant.
Automatically disable Google Instant based on computer speed. [project codename âPsychic Searchâ] Google Instant has long had the ability to automatically turn itself off if youâre on a slow internet connection. Now Instant can also turn itself off if your computer is slow. If Instant gets automatically disabled, we continue to check your computer speed and will re-enable Instant if your performance improves. Weâve also tweaked search preferences so you can always have Instant on or off, or have it change automatically.

A WebmasterWorld thread is chewing up all of these to learn more. But most of them are not so much about rankings as they are about search results tweaks - which can indirectly impact rankings.

In any event, feel free to discuss.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

2012 Poll: Did Your Site Recover From The Google Panda Update?

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

It is just under a year since Google pushed out the Panda update on February 24th. Since then, we ran a poll back in June asking if anyone recovered. 85% said they did not recover from the Panda update.

Since it is now just about a year later, I wanted to rerun the poll.

The poll is below, please take it and please tell all your friends, coworkers, colleagues and webmasters friends to take the poll. I'd love to release the results on February 24, 2012.

2012 Edition: Did You Recover From Panda?

For more information on the Panda update see our Panda category and here is a list of those updates:

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion continued at Google Webmaster Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock for pandas.

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 7, 2012

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

2012 Poll: Did Your Site Recover From The Google Panda Update?
It is just under a year since Google pushed out the Panda update on February 24th. Since then, we ran a poll back in June asking if anyone recovered. 85% said they did not recover from the Panda update. Since it is now just about a year later, I wanted to rerun the poll...
Google New Drop Down Getting Old Again?
In November, Google began testing and rolling out their new drop down menu to Google users. Since then, it has been a very very slow roll out...
February 17: Latest Google Search Quality Updates
As I said yesterday in our Panda pipelines post, Google announced 17 search quality changes they made in the month of January. Here is the full list that they announced:
Google: SEO Isn't Good For Users Or The Internet
Jonathan Rockway, a Googler who is active on Hacker News slipped up on a comment he posted on Hacker News. Aaron Wall spotted it and wrote about it. Let me quote the comment, then the "clarification" from Jon: Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That's a good thing because SEO can't scale, and SEO isn't good for users or the Internet at large.
Google Logo For 200th Birthday Of Charles Dickens
Today, 200 years ago, Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England. To celebrate his life, Google has a special worldwide logo picturing some of his famous stories. When you click on the logo, you are not taken to Google web search...
Google Gym Geek Fix It Sign
Joseph Smarr posted a picture of a sign posted in the Google gym, G-Fit, where a machine was broken and needed fixing. The sign read, "Aw Snap" with the typical Chrome broken system. Even the gym..,

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Google Docs App For Android Now Works Offline, WebmasterWorld
Important changes coming to subscriber counts, YouTube Help
[Logo] Super Bowl, Google Blogoscoped Forum

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 3, 2012

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 3, 2012
This week at the Search Engine Roundtable I posted the monthly Google webmaster report. Google rich snippets are showing up from...
Several Week Delays For Google News Inclusion
A Google News Help thread has Erik from Google saying it can take several weeks for Google to review your publication for inclusion into Google News. Erik S. said "depending on the volume of inclusion requests we receive...
Wanted: Searches By Tablet Users On Google Keyword Tool
Bryson Meunier, one of the most vocal people on mobile search topics and someone who disagrees with me on mobile SEO techniques in some areas...
Top Contributors Hosting Google+ Hangout
Moritz Tolxdorff announced on Google+ that the top contributors in the forums are hosting a Google+ hangout to answer questions on Google+. He said...
Zuckerberg's IPO Desk Sign
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, snapped a picture of his desk after the IPO announcement. He said, "My desk" and the sign reads "Stay Focused & Keep Shipping Sign." It must be hard for Faceboo

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

SEO Question: Did anyone else notice title tag weightâ¦, Dan Petrovic - Google+
Crazy drops (penalty?), and now ranking for incorrect pages, WebmasterWorld
Targeting specific YouTube videos for overlays with Adwords Placement Tool?, Google AdWords Help

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 3, 2012

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Buzz video Round Recap

This week at the Search Engine Roundtable I posted the monthly Google webmaster report. Google rich snippets are showing up from third-party sites. Google snippets are showing a lot of untitled title tags in the search results. A Google engineer explains why your AdSense earnings may drop. Google said most invalid clicks from from publishers. Poskanzer from ACME.com was banned from AdSense which caused a huge snowball effect. Facebook announced their IPO and outstanding numbers. France fined Google because their maps product is free, I kid you not. Local Paid Inclusion - yea, is that even possible? Turns out no and the ripple effect from it. 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.

Search Topics of Discussion:

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

Several Week Delays For Google News Inclusion

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google News Finances

A Google News Help thread has Erik from Google saying it can take several weeks for Google to review your publication for inclusion into Google News.

Erik S. said "depending on the volume of inclusion requests we receive, it can take up to several weeks to hear back about your site. We do promise to look at it though."

A year ago, Google simply told us to expect significant delays for inclusion into Google News.

So it is nice to have at least a "several weeks" number as opposed to "significant delays."

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Wanted: Searches By Tablet Users On Google Keyword Tool

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdWords

Bryson Meunier, one of the most vocal people on mobile search topics and someone who disagrees with me on mobile SEO techniques in some areas, has posted in the Google AdWords Help a important request.

He wants the Google Keyword Tool to add an option to break out searches conducted on tablet devices versus desktop devices and standard smartphone devices. Right now, you can only see searches by "mobile devices with full internet browsers."

He said:

It stands to reason that tablet searchers will have different keywords and volume than smartphone searchers. Can we get tablet searches broken out separately in the keyword tool? Given how valuable the segment is many marketers are building content specifically for tablet owners, and it would be helpful to know which keywords they use so that we can help them find what they're looking for faster.

Of course I agree.

Bryson has a more detailed write up on this at Search Engine Land.

I should note, Google does allow advertisers to target tablet users versus smartphone users - but just doesn't give the keyword research data to us.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Top Contributors Hosting Google+ Hangout

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Moritz Tolxdorff announced on Google+ that the top contributors in the forums are hosting a Google+ hangout to answer questions on Google+.

He said, "we are going to host the first TC Help Desk hangout this week." They hope to continue to do this hangout weekly. He added that they are volunteers not being paid by Google.

These Hangouts will be exclusively for those who have questions about Google+ Top Contributors from the Google+ Help Forum will be available to answer your questions, and give some advise.
We are not working for Google, we are just volunteering in helping others!

So if you want in, just go to his Google+ page at around 1pm EDT today.

There is a lot more discussion around this topic on John Mueller's page.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Zuckerberg's IPO Desk Sign

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Facebook IPO: Zuckerberg's $499,999 Salary Cut

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Social Search Engines Optimization

As expected, Facebook filed their IPO registration with the SEC.

The numbers are fascinating, and I was tweeting some of it. We posted some nice charts on the numbers and Danny did the S-1 review at Marketing Land.

2011 $3.7 Billion In Revenue
2011 $1 Billion In Net Income
12% Of That Revenue Came From Zynga
Mark Zuckerberg salary for 2012 is $500,000 and for 2013 is $1.00

I am not going to go through all the numbers, there are tons of headlines on Techmeme that cover all of that. But Facebook did some up their user numbers in this nice graphic:

So will you be buying into the IPO?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Students Surprise SEO Teacher With Google Cake

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

February 2012 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

In January, we had Google release a major update to their personalized results with Search Plus Your World. We had a new Panda release, Panda 3.2. We had Google release an algorithm that penalizes sites based on ad layout. So it was a busy month.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has discussion mostly about Panda but some recent chatter about three things:

Google stopped sending traffic at 11am on February 1st to some publishers
"Duplicate Keyword Sites" In search results.
Results on page two and forward are not matching the keyword searched on.

The first might be an issue with some sites and Google Analytics, I am digging deeper.

Overall, here are the most important topics we covered on Google SEO in the past 30 days:

For the January 2012 Google SEO report, click here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

France Fines Google For Not Charging For Google Maps

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google News Finances

Google was fined $660,000 in France over unfair competitive practices with Google Maps.

The AFP has the crazy news:

In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.
The court ordered Google to pay 500,000 euros ($660,000) in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a 15,000 euro fine.
The French company provides the same services for a fee and claimed the Google strategy was aimed at undercutting competitors by temporarily swallowing the full cost until it gains control of the market.

Since Google is offering their mapping service for free, as does Bing Maps, Ask Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapQuest and so on - but because Google is doing it, they have to pay $660,000 in damages.

What am I missing? Is it just that France just really hates Google?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Says Most Invalid Clicks Come From Publishers

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdWords

Google AdWords representative, Laura, said in a Google AdWords Help thread that the main reason there are "invalid clicks" on ads is due to publishers.

Yes - Google said that "usually" invalid clicks come from AdSense publishers. Either the publishers are:

(1) Clicking on their own ads or;

(2) Telling their friends and users to click on their ads.

Google's Laura said:

I don't think there's any connection between AdWords suspensions and AdSense ones. AdSense "invalid clicks" suspensions are usually just that: publishers clicking on their own ads or encouraging their visitors to do so. If you think you didn't violate that policy, contact AdWords support.

So there you have it - usually those invalid clicks are AdSense publishers fault.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock for the fuzzy click.

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 2, 2012

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Bruce Clay Let's The SEM Industry Down
When you say the name Bruce Clay and you are someone who reads this blog, you know who I am talking about...
February 2012 Google Webmaster Report
In January, we had Google release a major update to their personalized results with Search Plus Your World. We had a new Panda release...
France Fines Google For Not Charging For Google Maps
Google was fined $660,000 in France over unfair competitive practices with Google Maps. The AFP has the crazy news: In a ruling Tuesday...
Google Says Most Invalid Clicks Come From Publishers
Google AdWords representative, Laura, said in a Google AdWords Help thread that the main reason there are "invalid clicks" on ads is due to publishers.
Facebook IPO: Zuckerberg's $499,999 Salary Cut
As expected, Facebook filed their IPO registration with the SEC. The numbers are fascinating...
Students Surprise SEO Teacher With Google Cake
Ori Zilbershtein teaches an SEO course in Israel at the John Bryce computer college. The last day of his SEO course his students surprised him with a Google Cake. Ori sent me a picture of the cake t

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

February 2012 AdSense Earnings & Observations, WebmasterWorld
How to create a Sitemap index xml file for Mobile site?, WebmasterWorld
Mozilla Firefox 10 Released, With Added Developer tools, WebmasterWorld

Bruce Clay Lets The SEM Industry Down

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

When you say the name Bruce Clay and you are someone who reads this blog, you know who I am talking about. Bruce Clay - that name - makes you think of an individual who provides outstanding SEO services, expensive SEO services, but all white hat, ethical, and someone who has a deep deep understanding of search that goes well beyond most others in the industry. You also look at him as one of the older, wiser and definitely more respected individuals in the industry.

So when the news came out that he and his company is somewhat behind a new "Local Paid Inclusion" program that is backed by Google, Yahoo and Bing - I was stunned, shocked and a bit worried for the industry and Bruce's name.

The program launched under localpaidinclusion.com, which now redirects to the official statement from Bruce Clay, Inc. on this topic. It initially read:

Local Paid Inclusion is a Google, Yahoo and Bing contracted service and is offered as an approved official program in cooperation with those search engines. Local Paid Inclusion promotes a local businessâ profile page, like those found in Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local, into a top position on the search result page for up to 30 keywords per profile page.
This is a NEW program offered by Google, Yahoo!, Bing and 18 other major directories and indexes that places a business profile into a premium area above all other local profiles. Combine this with all of your other optimization programs to maximize your traffic.
What this means is local businesses that participate can essentially pay for the top local ranking position!

Both Google and Bing denied having any deal with a paid inclusion program with Bruce or his companies or anything like this with any other company.

Bruce Clay apologized but said they were mislead, while the company that mislead them denied any of this completely.

You can read the whole timeline at Search Engine Land. I won't go through it all - I cover the industry and the industry doesn't feel the same way about Bruce as they did.

I am sad to say I feel Bruce's image has been hurt by this and I feel he has let down the industry with this program. In time, everything will heal but right now, this has to hurt.

Some are giving him credit, claiming this is just one big link bait tactic - but even Bruce wouldn't exchange links for a tarnished name.

Update: There is one more story you should read, one from Chris Silver Smith - a widely respected local SEO expert - who wrote about the view from UBL. See it over here - it is pretty detailed.

I asked my Twitter followers to let me know what they think about it and this is what they had to say:

@rustybrick Those who tout ethics all over their website and marketing are often the ones people need to worry about.
â" Jill Whalen (@jillwhalen) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick Bruce Clay is why Google updated privacy policies, he has an EXCLUSIVE agreement to sell your information-stalker paid inclusion
â" Phil Britton (@localsearchguy) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick what's up with the whole we didn't collect money, only pre registration information bit? As if that's cool. #leadgengonewild
â" Aaron Putnam (@aaronputnam) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick"BCI has ceased to engage in Local Paid Inclusion while we dig into confusing and contradicting statements." #needisaymore
â" gabriel (@gabs) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick "You keep saying Local Paid Inclusion but I don't think you know what it means!" ;-)
â" Matt Keough (@MattKeough) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick When NJ SEO's heard about Clay's play they cried "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!" confusing Springsteen fans everywhere.
â" Frank Reed (@frankreed) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick There used to be a TVC in Australia. The theme song: "one day, one day, one day you're gunna get caught with your pants down"
â" Chris Dimmock (@Cogentis) February 2, 2012

Search fraud LOL RT @rustybrick I might do a post on the BruceClay thing --- Give me a one liner tweet you want me to include in the post.
â" Ezhil Raja (@ezhil) February 2, 2012

@rustybrick Is BC really search marketing authority like @dannysullivan ?With the latest episode has he lost the credibility?
â" Arpit Srivastava(@arpitconsultant) February 2, 2012

Personally, this whole situation makes me very sad for Bruce and the industry.

Forum discussion - well, everywhere in the SEO community.

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 1, 2012

Fetched: February 2nd, 2012, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Bing Now Including Full Articles On Bing Results
Search for [gout] on Bing and you will see a brand new "feature" in the search results. Bing now will show you the full article and content from some partner third-party sites directly on Bing...
Google Title Tag Bug Causing Untitled Snippets?
Yesterday Keri Morgret, a contributor here, SEOmoz associate and owner of Strike Models pinged me asking if I noticed complaints of people noticing Google labeling the title tag in the search results as "untitled...
New Google Blue Favicon Coming Soon?
It has been three years since Google changed their favicon to the multi colored icon we have today. But now we are seeing reports of some users reporting a new all blue favicon being tested by Google. The image to the right show off the new all blue Google Favicon. You can see it at...
Addictive Google Image Labeler Game Gone
Google had a fun and addictive game back in 2006 named Google Image Labeler. It basically had you type what the image was and when you and your opponent matched, you moved on to the next image. But some time in 2011...
+1 On The Crunchie Winner: Google+
Google has won the Crunchie awards for Google+ last night. Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz posted pictures on Google+ while on stage accepting the awards. Vic snapped a picture of the letter and B

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Why Do Some Homepages Get Buried?, WebmasterWorld
Will Google crawl a site with an expired ssl certificate?, Google Webmaster Help
my "mug shot" from 2004 was posted, which the charges were dropped, andnow my employer saw them and fired me. I was inno, Google Webmaster Help
Remember Google's Follow Finder? It looks like it got shut…, Sean Carlos - Google+
Google AdWords Impression Share Updates Rolling Out Globally, WebmasterWorld
Today was my last day full-time at Google, and my last day…, Liz Fong-Jones - Google+

Bing Now Including Full Articles On Bing Results

Fetched: February 1st, 2012, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Bing Search

Search for [gout] on Bing and you will see a brand new "feature" in the search results.

Bing now will show you the full article and content from some partner third-party sites directly on Bing. Bing adds a link to "Read the full article by Mayo Clinic" and links to a Bing Health web page, which is content licensed and paid for by Bing.

Here is a screen shot of the Bing Search Results:

Here is a screen shot of the landing page on Bing Health:

A WebmasterWorld thread has BingDude, an official Microsoft Bing representative explaining the rational for this:

Folks have to keep in mind that Bing is a decision engine, focused on "task completion". We've stated this from the outset, so trying things like these types of tests help us determine if this type of SERP behaviour strikes a positive or non-positive note with searchers.

How can I get Bing to license my content? And do I want them to? At least they aren't just scrapping it and showing it to users without paying for it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: This actually is not new, Matt covered this at SEL back in 2010.

Google Title Tag Bug Causing Untitled Snippets?

Fetched: February 1st, 2012, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

Yesterday Keri Morgret, a contributor here, SEOmoz associate and owner of Strike Models pinged me asking if I noticed complaints of people noticing Google labeling the title tag in the search results as "untitled."

This is not all that uncommon, especially if there is an HTML mess up with the title tag or Google gets confused with the site's true title.

At first, I thought it was a one or two off case and an issue with the site at hand. I looked into the code on one example and something seemed off in that case.

But now I am getting reports of more and more users complaining of this. I received emails and tweets of people showing me that a search for [adwords keyword tool] even shows an untitled blue link in the Google results:

I am not sure if Google tweaked their title tag detection techniques recently, but it is possible something may be up.

Forum discussion at SEOmoz Forums.

Update: John Mueller from Google commented on this on my Google+ post saying:

John Mueller - +Aaron Bradley as far as I know, this is just a quirk with this particular URL, and not something general that has changed.
We are always working on improving how we pull and display titles in search (see http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/01/better-page-titles-in-search-results.html ), but this particular URL is a bit of an edge-case that shouldn't be seen as a representative of any general change in that direction :)

New Google Blue Favicon Coming Soon?

Fetched: February 1st, 2012, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

It has been three years since Google changed their favicon to the multi colored icon we have today. But now we are seeing reports of some users reporting a new all blue favicon being tested by Google.

The image to the right show off the new all blue Google Favicon. You can see it at google.com/images/google_favicon_128.png as well, to prove this is something Google is hosting.

It looks the same structurally as the colored one most of us see today - but this is one is all blue. Here is an enlarged colored favicon:

That launched in January 2009, between May 2008 â" January 2009 we had the blue lowercase G, and from who knows when till May 2008 we had the classic G with colored box. Here is the history of those icons in the URL bar.

I am not sure if Google will go all blue soon or if this is for a specific Google property only.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Addictive Google Image Labeler Game Gone

Fetched: February 1st, 2012, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

Google had a fun and addictive game back in 2006 named Google Image Labeler. It basically had you type what the image was and when you and your opponent matched, you moved on to the next image.

But some time in 2011, the game went offline.

Google actually promoted the game on their home page in 2007.

It was a nice way for Google to get people to tag images but I guess that data harvest is no longer needed. Here is a video of the game from back in 2007:

There is a thread at Google Web Search Help where users are pleading for Google to bring back the game. If you want the game back, join the thread, maybe you can resurrect something Google decided to kill.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

+1 On The Crunchie Winner: Google+

Fetched: February 1st, 2012, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: January 31, 2012

Fetched: February 1st, 2012, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google: Spam Links To 404 Pages Won't Hurt You
Google's John Mueller said in a Google Webmaster Help thread said that if you have bad or spammy links pointing to 404 pages, it should have no negative impact on your overall site's rankings. John said not only should it not happen, he has never seen it happen...
Jef Poskanzer ACME Banned From Google AdSense
Google is constantly banning AdSense publishers but this new ban is very interesting. About two weeks ago, Google banned Jef Poskanzer, a computer programmer, known for being the first person to post a weekly FAQ to Usenet...
Google SPY World: Search Plus Your World
A couple weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World and they are getting a lot of negative feedback on the over personalization, especially after all the privacy policy changes...
Google Engineer Explains Why Your AdSense Earnings May Drop
Guillaume, a outspoken Google AdSense engineer, has spent a lot of time replying to complaints about pricing in a Google AdSense Help thread. He goes through why a site
Behind The Scenes On President Obama's Live Google Hangout
Yesterday, President Obama did this Google Hangout live on Google+ and YouTube. Several people were able to ask President Obama questions via Google+ live and he answered them live. It did seem a bi

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Advertisement for President Obama's You Tube chat is illegal, Google Webmaster Help
Google, Microsoft and Others Team Up To Develop Anti-Phishing System, WebmasterWorld
Analysing Performance > Countries Reports, WebmasterWorld
Is it possible to get DisplayURL from a report generated through the API?, Microsoft Advertising Forum
Paraphrasing To Avoid Duplicate Content, Cre8asite Forums
[Logo] Atahualpa Yupanqui, Google Blogoscoped Forum
[Logo] Discovery of the Iguazu Falls by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Google Blogoscoped Forum

Google: Spam Links To 404 Pages Won't Hurt You

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

Google's John Mueller said in a Google Webmaster Help thread said that if you have bad or spammy links pointing to 404 pages, it should have no negative impact on your overall site's rankings.

John said not only should it not happen, he has never seen it happen. He said:

To be clear, I have never seen a case where bad links pointing to URLs that return 404 have ever caused a website any noticeable problem in web-search. 404s are a part of the internet, they're expected to be seen when a non-existent URL is crawled, there's no reason that I can think of where it would make sense to count 404s against a site.

What if you do find a case? Then John says, let him know.

That said, if you ever feel that you've run across a case where it is really causing a problem, I'd love to take a look at the details. Feel free to send me a note directly on my Google+ profile ( http://johnmu.com/+ ) with the details that you've found. In this particular case (assuming you mean the site mentioned in the original post), those 404s are really not having any negative effect, and any changes in ranking that you're seeing definitely have other causes.

I don't get why a link to a dead URL would have any positive or negative impact anyway, but I guess anything is possible.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock.

Jef Poskanzer ACME Banned From Google AdSense

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is constantly banning AdSense publishers but this new ban is very interesting.

About two weeks ago, Google banned Jef Poskanzer, a computer programmer, known for being the first person to post a weekly FAQ to Usenet, and the owner of acme.com. He is incredibly well known in the Internet world - so this is ban is a big deal.

Yesterday, he informed the world of his AdSense ban and explained how he has no idea how it happened. Google basically told him that his site generates too much invalid clicks and Google needs to protect their AdWords advertisers. But in the 8.5 years of his site running AdSense, he never had an issue before like this.

Even Google's Matt Cutts got wind of the news and posted it on his Google+ page where you can see he is torn. He wrote:

I just saw that we terminated Jef Poskanzer from AdSense, which caused Nelson Minar (former Googler and one of the creators of the Ads API) to give up on defending us. . I can't easily imagine Jef Poskanzer was click-spamming AdSense, while at the same time I trust the judgment and abilities of the AdSense team. +Jef Poskanzer , I hope someone digs into the case to investigate deeply and reaches out if there's any more info we can share.

Yea, read the post by Nelson Minar at somebits.com - he writes "Google is too powerful, too arrogant, too entrenched to be worth our love. Let them defend themselves, I'd rather devote my emotional energy to the upstarts and startups. They deserve our passion." I rarely ever see a former Googler badmouth Google but it is happening more and more these days.

Anyway, I wonder if Google will reverse their decision on this quickly or share more information. This is pretty huge.

Forum discussion at Hacker News and Google+.

Google SPY World: Search Plus Your World

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine

A couple weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World and they are getting a lot of negative feedback on the over personalization, especially after all the privacy policy changes.

That being said, a WebmasterWorld pointed out that the "Search Plus Your World" can be shortened as an acronym that doesn't look too good for Google - SPY World!

WebmasterWorld Moderator, Travelin Cat, said:

Have any of you noticed that Google's new "Search Plus Your World" can be shortened to SPY World?
You would think that a billion dollar company would do a little acronym study before a major brand announcement.

I have not seen the term used elsewhere yet but I assume it is only a matter of time until it catches on.

WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, added, "Now that you bring it up, you may have started a very embarrassing meme for Google."

Google launched SPY World!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to bitchcakes, an image we used in Search Pictures two weeks ago for Google Graffiti.

Google Engineer Explains Why Your AdSense Earnings May Drop

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Guillaume, a outspoken Google AdSense engineer, has spent a lot of time replying to complaints about pricing in a Google AdSense Help thread.

He goes through why a site may see a reduction in the dollars they make per click even after the estimated earnings are a certain price.

Of course he posts the "Smart Pricing" video:

But he also adds a lot of detail about how the AdSense pricing algorithms 'think.'

From a technical point of view, the question is ill defined. Google does not "consider traffic from social media sites" to be anything. Instead, quality is an intrinsic property of the traffic:
1) Invalid clicks. Google examines individual clicks and impressions, and tries to figure out if they are valid or not. A source of traffic is not low or high quality because Google considers it is, but the reverse: Google's algorithms try to reflect the quality of the traffic by detecting invalid clicks accurately.
2) Conversions and smart pricing. Are users genuinely interested in the ads they click? Are they generating conversions to advertisers? Again, Google does not decide in advance that a kind of traffic is high-value. Instead, Google measures the conversion rate, and applies Smart Pricing accordingly.
There might be patterns emerging from this, for instance related to social media sites. As an engineer, I have no idea. Personally, I believe that there is no such general rule, all depends on the specific case of each publisher.
I think that trying to correlate general problems and disconnected symptoms with rumors or the experience of a few other publishers who are probably very different, then extrapolating what could have happened, is not a successful approach in general. Instead, publishers should try to understand their own traffic in isolation. Measuring, gathering facts, looking carefully at reports (like I did with all accounts I looked at so far) works better, because it does not rely on statistics. Most of the time, the questions of the publisher can be answered by a report showing a peak or an anomaly. (Then the problem is often that publishers think or hope that their traffic is high quality, and refuse to admit that it may not be the case all the time, and that the problem is not Google's fault but their's.)

If you have been hit by something like this, I strongly recommend you read the Google engineers posts in the Google AdSense Help thread and see how you can change your content and traffic to drive better quality users to your site.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Behind The Scenes On President Obama's Live Google Hangout

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The

Daily Search Forum Recap: January 30, 2012

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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 Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google: Robots.txt Files Must Be Smaller Than 500KB
Google's John Mueller reminds webmasters on his Google+ page that Google has a limit of only being able to process up to 500KB of your robots.txt file. This is an important point, if you have a super heavy robots.txt file, and it is beyond 500KB...
Did You Get Your Taxes From Google AdSense?
Google has begun sending out the 1099 tax forms to qualifying Google AdSense publishers last and this week. A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers claiming they have received theirs. Not every publisher gets one. You have to be U.S...
Google News Publishers Urged To Use Report An Update Form
A few days ago, Erik from the Google News team posted a thread in the Google News Help forums asking Google News publishers to please use the report an update form when making changes to their site...
Google Rich Snippets Showing 3rd Party Results
A WebmasterWorld thread has someone noticing that Google is showing rich snippets under a site but those rich snippets are coming from a different set of sites, not from the listed site's source code. The search result is for [coldplay]...
Yahoo Images Busts Your Framebusters Also
We know Google Images deploys framebuster busting techniques to prevent sites that use framebusters from sending the user directly to the site. Yahoo does something similar. For example, this picture of a flower on Yahoo Images is from flowershopsflowers...
Bubbly Bing Drink
We had shown cans of the Bing energy drink, no relation to the Microsoft search engine, before. But we never showed what it looks like when it is poured into a glass. TheFoodJunk snapped a picture o
Largest Snowflake World Record As A Google Logo
This is a bit weird for a Google logo but weird does not surprise me for Google. Today's Google logo celebrates the day of the sighting of the largest snowflake every spotted. Google says it is the world record for the largest observed snowflake...

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Facebook Files Clickjacking Lawsuit, WebmasterWorld
Has the "Download Data for All Sites" Option Within Site Configuration Been Removed Completely?, Google Webmaster Help
Report: Facebook May File For IPO As Early As Next Week, WebmasterWorld
AdSense Contextual Targeting Has Changed, WebmasterWorld

Google: Robots.txt Files Must Be Smaller Than 500KB

Fetched: January 30th, 2012, 6:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

Google's John Mueller reminds webmasters on his Google+ page that Google has a limit of only being able to process up to 500KB of your robots.txt file.

This is an important point, if you have a super heavy robots.txt file, and it is beyond 500KB, then GoogleBot can get confused. If GoogleBot gets confused with your robots.txt it can cause serious issues with your site's health in the Google results.

Google's John Mueller said:

#102 of the things to keep in mind when working on a big website: If you have a giant robots.txt file, remember that Googlebot will only read the first 500kb. If your robots.txt is longer, it can result in a line being truncated in an unwanted way. The simple solution is to limit your robots.txt files to a reasonable size :-).

John links to this Google document on the robots.txt controls for more information.

If you have any questions on Google's robots.txt handeling, John is answering questions on his Google+ page.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Did You Get Your Taxes From Google AdSense?

Fetched: January 30th, 2012, 6:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has begun sending out the 1099 tax forms to qualifying Google AdSense publishers last and this week.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers claiming they have received theirs. Not every publisher gets one. You have to be U.S. resident, the income has to be paid to an individual and you have to earn over a certain threshold I believe.

Google has some of their AdSense tax information over here, if you are curious on the details.

Here is a sample 1099, and yea, I wish, of my earnings. :)

I mocked this up myself.

In any event, I hope your 1099 looks excellent for 2011!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google News Publishers Urged To Use Report An Update Form

Fetched: January 30th, 2012, 6:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A few days ago, Erik from the Google News team posted a thread in the Google News Help forums asking Google News publishers to please use the report an update form when making changes to their site.

Erik said that if you make any changes to your site including but not limited to your site's name, domain, URL structure, site layout, and whether you've set up a News Sitemap - let them know via that form.

This is a great way to communicate the changes to Google News and help any transitionary time go smoothly with Google News.

Erik said:

Just a quick reminder: whenever you've made any update to your site, be sure to check whether the change will affect how Google News crawls the site. This includes changes to: your site's name, domain, URL structure, site layout, and whether you've set up a News Sitemap (and whether you'd like us to exclusively crawl the sitemap rather than sections of your site that you've submitted to us.) If you've made an update that we should know about, please contact us through the link below.

You only have to gain if you inform Google News of your changes. Well, unless you are doing things you don't want them to find out about.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google Rich Snippets Showing 3rd Party Results

Fetched: January 30th, 2012, 6:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization

A WebmasterWorld thread has someone noticing that Google is showing rich snippets under a site but those rich snippets are coming from a different set of sites, not from the listed site's source code.

The search result is for [coldplay], a popular band. The result loads their home page and then what appears to be event rich snippets below the search listing. Here is a picture:

As you can see, the event information is coming from third party sites such as ticketmaster.com, vividseats.com, and others. How did they manage to get listed under a web page for such a popular brand? Is this specifically being pulled from these third party site's rich snippets data? I guess these sites are more trusted than others?

I assume this happens with other rich snippets?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Yahoo Images Busts Your Framebusters Also

Fetched: January 30th, 2012, 6:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Yahoo Search Engine SEO

We know Google Images deploys framebuster busting techniques to prevent sites that use framebusters from sending the user directly to the site.

Yahoo does something similar.

For example, this picture of a flower on Yahoo Images is from flowershopsflowers.com/nature-flowers, which has framebusting JavaScript on the site.

Yahoo breaks the framebuster and places in the window below the image a message that reads:

Loading the page might take you away from Yahoo! Image Search (Not recommended). Continue Anyway

This message really upsets those who use the framebusting script. These are webmasters who specifically dislike that the search engine is showing a higher resolution version of their image on the search engine as opposed to sending the user to the site to view and download the image.

Here is a picture:

A WebmasterWorld thread has some users calling this out right stealing:

I can't believe that Yahoo image search is stealing my images

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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Fetched: February 20th, 2012, 5:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

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