http://www.searchconcepts.com
On May 19, 2010, In SEO, by Search Concepts - Search and Internet News, Updates, and Trends
Just recently, search engines like Google and Yahoo partnered with Live Search to introduce a breakthrough improvement in the search engine playing field: the Canonical Link Element. The Canonical Link Element enables web developers and search engines alike to eliminate the confusion in searches caused by different links that basically point to the same web site. Over the past few years, search engines have been focused on making … Read the Rest
Just recently, search engines like Google and Yahoo partnered with Live Search to introduce a breakthrough improvement in the search engine playing field: the Canonical Link Element. The Canonical Link Element enables web developers and search engines alike to eliminate the confusion in searches caused by different links that basically point to the same web site. Over the past few years, search engines have been focused on making ... Read the Rest
On May 9, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick
Happy Mother’s Day Moms! Today is Mother’s Day in the U.S. and we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and others. For the past Mother’s Day logos see our 2009, <a href="2008 and 2007 and 2004 collections, yes, I am missing 2005 and 2006.
Here are this year’s logos:
Google also had this logo in other locations:
Yahoo (animated):
Yahoo (static):
Bing:
Ask.com:
Baidu:
Orkut:
Sogou:
Cre8asite:
Search Engine Roundtable:
Also, Google today on some international properties has a logo for J.M. Barrie’s 150th birthday:
Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
Happy Mother's Day Moms! Today is Mother's Day in the U.S. and we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and others. For the past Mother's Day logos see our 2009, 2008 and 2007 and 2004 collections, yes, I am missing 2005 and 2006.
Here are this year's logos:
Google also had this logo in other locations:
Yahoo (animated):
Yahoo (static):
Bing:
Ask.com:
Baidu:
Orkut:
Sogou:
Cre8asite:
Search Engine Roundtable:
Also, Google today on some international properties has a logo for J.M. Barrie's 150th birthday:
Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
http://www.seroundtable.com/
On April 11, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
Yahoo and Bing have been hoping and praying that everything with their recent partnership would go through as smoothly as possible with no hang ups. Recently everything was approved for these two giants to be allowed to put their heads together and change things for the future of both businesses. With Bing really increasing in [...]
Yahoo and Bing have been hoping and praying that everything with their recent partnership would go through as smoothly as possible with no hang ups. Recently everything was approved for these two giants to be allowed to put their heads together and change things for the future of both businesses. With Bing really increasing in market share and Yahoo decreasing, it was an obvious marriage that had to happen. Don’t forget that Yahoo is still a very powerful website and one of the most trafficked websites in the world. How is this going to change things for SEO professionals who have been focusing on just Google for so many years?
The united pay per click advertising platforms of Bing and Yahoo will surely be a new force in the industry. As reported by the Associated Press they will be sharing ad revenues which is really going to change the way businesses market their websites outside the walls of Google. Bing is also working on a unique partnership with Facebook allowing almost everything in the social network to be completely searchable in the search engines. Pretty soon if you want to find something on a specific person you will be able to search in Bing and it will filter not just for their name but through their profile for items as well. It seems like many people are very excited to see this go through. According to a poll done by Search Engine Journal , 62% of voters think that this partnership is going to give Google a real run for its money. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Don’t be surprised if you see Bing making some serious moves that involve sacrificing revenues just for market share increase. I think these massive search giants want to do anything to just pull users away from Google and they are ready to use anything within their grips to make it happen. There has already been chatter in the industry how there will be a massive forward step to outperform Google’s algorithm in the newly combined search engine.
I think eventually we will see a shift as to how search engine marketing professionals approach their focus. Over time we will see an importance for businesses to be visible in Bing as well as Google. Everything that comes up must come down sooner or later and I don’t think Bing will take out Google but they might pull some of the focus off of it for quite a while if they play their cards right.
http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com
On January 27, 2010, In SEO, by Administrator
The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.
Thank you for the feedback, letting us know the community still finds these Weather Reports [...]
The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.
Thank you for the feedback, letting us know the community still finds these Weather Reports helpful. To share your thoughts on this latest update, please visit the Site Explorer Suggestion Board.
Dan Rampton
Program Manager, Yahoo! Search
http://www.ysearchblog.com
On January 21, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick
Earlier this month, we reported on a rumored Yahoo Search update. Although it appeared to be an update, the consensus was that what people were seeing was the paid inclusion being weeded out of the organic search results.
But the thread at WebmasterWorld has been updated by BillyS, who often tracks Yahoo. Billy thinks that Yahoo is now updating, for real, this time. He said:
Yahoo tweaked something today around 1:30 until 3:00 Eastern time. We had a huge spike in traffic. Anyone else see this?
Yahoo updates typically don’t get as much reaction as a Google update. And over the past year or so, Yahoo updates have received a lot less attention then they have in the past. This is likely due to them losing search market share and giving up to Bing.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Earlier this month, we reported on a rumored Yahoo Search update. Although it appeared to be an update, the consensus was that what people were seeing was the paid inclusion being weeded out of the organic search results.
But the thread at WebmasterWorld has been updated by BillyS, who often tracks Yahoo. Billy thinks that Yahoo is now updating, for real, this time. He said:
Yahoo tweaked something today around 1:30 until 3:00 Eastern time. We had a huge spike in traffic. Anyone else see this?
Yahoo updates typically don't get as much reaction as a Google update. And over the past year or so, Yahoo updates have received a lot less attention then they have in the past. This is likely due to them losing search market share and giving up to Bing.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
http://www.seroundtable.com/
On January 19, 2010, In SEO, by Gil Reich
Posted by Gil Reich
This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
Q&A sites are a great way to get your message across and to build your brand and reputation.
How many people use Q&A sites?
- In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. The 49% doesn’t even include the many who get info from Q&A sites by Googling or Binging.
- Answers.com (where I work) is now ranked (by comScore) as the 17th most visited site in the US. The vast majority of Answers.com’s traffic is to user generated Q&A pages. Yahoo! Answers gets even more traffic. Much of your potential market is already getting their answers from these sites.
Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com, December 14, 2009, http://www.business.com/info/social-media-best-practices-q-and-a
What’s in it for me?
Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help you in the following ways:
- Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
- Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.
- Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.
How do I use these sites?
The general rules of social media apply here too:
- Help others
- Build relationships
- Push your products and services when they answer somebody’s question or request.
Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions. When I blog I hope my posts address questions that my readers want answered, but they may not. In Q&A sites, your starting point is that somebody asked the queston that you’re answering.
Specifically:
- Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
- Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
- Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.
- Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.
In the example below, notice how the user provided a quality answer (much of which follows a template he uses in other answers as well) and adds a relevant link to his site.
What are the leading sites and how do they differ?
- Yahoo! Answers: The biggest site in the industry, with 47 million US visits in November according to comScore (and that’s probably a very conservative estimate). It’s a broad horizontal site. Questions are open for 4 days. Users answer the question, and vote on the best answer. The best answer is selected by either the asker or by the community.
- Answers.com / WikiAnswers: Answers.com has 41 million monthly US visitors according to comScore, making it second to Yahoo! but far larger than the other Q&A sites. It’s also a broad horizontal site. It’s key differentiators are:
- It’s connectd to a reference site, so if you ask "What is the abstention doctrine?" your answer will come from West’s Law and the Oxford University Press.
- It’s a wiki, so instead of multiple users providing multiple answers, users collaborate on one answer.
- In most cases Answers don’t get closed, so you can find questions asked more than 4 days ago and still contribute to the answer.
- LinkedIn Answers & Business.com Answers: These sites are great for more targeted communication, lead generation, and reputation building. Think of Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com as more B2C, and these sites as more B2B. This is Q&A in the context of advanced professional networking sites.
- Stack Overflow and its siblings: Stack Overflow is a great Q&A site for programmers. If you’re a software developer and you want to establish yourself as an expert and to network with your peers, this site’s perfect. The same technology is now powering other niche sites, most notably serverfault.com (for system administrators) and Answers on Startups, which Rand Fishkin just named one of the 10 Sources I’ve Come to Love.
- Aardvark: Aardvark is more of a closed system where you ask questions to people in your network. This is great for well connected journalists and bloggers to get answers from their network, but may not be ideal for spreading your message beyond your social circle.
How is using them like doing a guest post on SEOmoz?
Answering questions on Q&A sites is exactly like doing a guest post on SEOmoz:
- Find the sites where the people you need are getting their information.
- Give them quality information that will benefit them.
- Get your own message across, with full disclosure of who you are. You can be self-serving, but not too self-serving.
- Build relationships, and establish your expertise.
Ultimately you need a win-win here. You need to serve the needs of the community with whom you’re interacting, in a way that also builds your business and reputation.
Where can I get more information on Q&A sites?
See the following excellent articles:
- Jason Falls: How to drive business leads with Q&A forums
- Using Yahoo! Answers to generate leads. Does it work?
- Lisa Barone: Finding Answers on Business.com
- Business.com’s Study: Social Media best practices: Q&A forums
Or contact me (Answers.com user: Gilr)
Posted by Gil Reich
This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
Q&A sites are a great way to get your message across and to build your brand and reputation.
How many people use Q&A sites?
- In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. The 49% doesn't even include the many who get info from Q&A sites by Googling or Binging.
- Answers.com (where I work) is now ranked (by comScore) as the 17th most visited site in the US. The vast majority of Answers.com's traffic is to user generated Q&A pages. Yahoo! Answers gets even more traffic. Much of your potential market is already getting their answers from these sites.
Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com, December 14, 2009, http://www.business.com/info/social-media-best-practices-q-and-a
What's in it for me?
Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help you in the following ways:
- Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
- Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.
- Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.
How do I use these sites?
The general rules of social media apply here too:
- Help others
- Build relationships
- Push your products and services when they answer somebody's question or request.
Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions. When I blog I hope my posts address questions that my readers want answered, but they may not. In Q&A sites, your starting point is that somebody asked the queston that you're answering.
Specifically:
- Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
- Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
- Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites' message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.
- Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.
In the example below, notice how the user provided a quality answer (much of which follows a template he uses in other answers as well) and adds a relevant link to his site.
What are the leading sites and how do they differ?
- Yahoo! Answers: The biggest site in the industry, with 47 million US visits in November according to comScore (and that's probably a very conservative estimate). It's a broad horizontal site. Questions are open for 4 days. Users answer the question, and vote on the best answer. The best answer is selected by either the asker or by the community.
- Answers.com / WikiAnswers: Answers.com has 41 million monthly US visitors according to comScore, making it second to Yahoo! but far larger than the other Q&A sites. It's also a broad horizontal site. It's key differentiators are:
- It's connectd to a reference site, so if you ask "What is the abstention doctrine?" your answer will come from West's Law and the Oxford University Press.
- It's a wiki, so instead of multiple users providing multiple answers, users collaborate on one answer.
- In most cases Answers don't get closed, so you can find questions asked more than 4 days ago and still contribute to the answer.
- LinkedIn Answers & Business.com Answers: These sites are great for more targeted communication, lead generation, and reputation building. Think of Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com as more B2C, and these sites as more B2B. This is Q&A in the context of advanced professional networking sites.
- Stack Overflow and its siblings: Stack Overflow is a great Q&A site for programmers. If you're a software developer and you want to establish yourself as an expert and to network with your peers, this site's perfect. The same technology is now powering other niche sites, most notably serverfault.com (for system administrators) and Answers on Startups, which Rand Fishkin just named one of the 10 Sources I've Come to Love.
- Aardvark: Aardvark is more of a closed system where you ask questions to people in your network. This is great for well connected journalists and bloggers to get answers from their network, but may not be ideal for spreading your message beyond your social circle.
How is using them like doing a guest post on SEOmoz?
Answering questions on Q&A sites is exactly like doing a guest post on SEOmoz:
- Find the sites where the people you need are getting their information.
- Give them quality information that will benefit them.
- Get your own message across, with full disclosure of who you are. You can be self-serving, but not too self-serving.
- Build relationships, and establish your expertise.
Ultimately you need a win-win here. You need to serve the needs of the community with whom you're interacting, in a way that also builds your business and reputation.
Where can I get more information on Q&A sites?
See the following excellent articles:
- Jason Falls: How to drive business leads with Q&A forums
- Using Yahoo! Answers to generate leads. Does it work?
- Lisa Barone: Finding Answers on Business.com
- Business.com's Study: Social Media best practices: Q&A forums
http://www.seomoz.org/blog
On January 18, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick
Every year, the search engines post special logos for Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is no different, we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile and others. MLK, Martin Luther Kind, Jr needs no explanation. It is a legal US holiday today and a day celebrated by many around the world. Here are the logos:
Google’s MLK Logo:
Yahoo’s Flash MLK logo:
Bing’s MLK Theme:
Ask.com’s MLK Theme:
DogPile:
Search Engine Roundtable:
Also see the 2009 MLK logos and 2008 MLK logos for a bit of the history with these logos and doodles.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Every year, the search engines post special logos for Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is no different, we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile and others. MLK, Martin Luther Kind, Jr needs no explanation. It is a legal US holiday today and a day celebrated by many around the world. Here are the logos:
Google's MLK Logo:
Yahoo's Flash MLK logo:
Bing's MLK Theme:
Ask.com's MLK Theme:
DogPile:
Search Engine Roundtable:
Also see the 2008 MLK logos for a bit of the history with these logos and doodles.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
http://www.seroundtable.com/
On January 14, 2010, In SEO, by Administrator
We’d like to welcome Shashi Seth as Senior Vice President of the Yahoo! Search Products team. He’ll be joining us next week, leading all things Search. As we’ve mentioned before, we’re doing lots of things to continue making Yahoo! Search better and incorporate it into all of our wonderful Yahoo! products, and we’re sure Shashi [...]
We’d like to welcome Shashi Seth as Senior Vice President of the Yahoo! Search Products team. He’ll be joining us next week, leading all things Search. As we’ve mentioned before, we’re doing lots of things to continue making Yahoo! Search better and incorporate it into all of our wonderful Yahoo! products, and we’re sure Shashi will help us keep the ideas flowing.
Shashi knows how to bring great products to life for consumers, while enabling big opportunities for advertisers, so expect amazing stuff from him and all of us at Yahoo! Search in 2010.
The Yahoo! Search Team
http://www.ysearchblog.com
On January 14, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there in the paid search ad space. If the Microsoft & Yahoo do end up closing their deal, which seems likely to me, Yahoo Search Marketing will no longer exist.
The Yahoo Search Marketing console and campaigns you currently run will be either automatically imported into Microsoft adCenter or you will have to manually make that change. Microsoft adCenter will power the ads on Yahoo, Yahoo won’t power those ads.
A WebmasterWorld thread seems to have a lot of confusion over this point. Advertisers seem to not want to spend too much time on either adCenter or YSM optimizing their campaigns in fear that the deal will go through and that time would be wasted. I for one think that this is still going to take a really long time, so go ahead and optimize the campaigns. But if the deal does go through and they do begin the migration, the migration will be from Yahoo to Microsoft, not the other way around.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there in the paid search ad space. If the Microsoft & Yahoo do end up closing their deal, which seems likely to me, Yahoo Search Marketing will no longer exist.
The Yahoo Search Marketing console and campaigns you currently run will be either automatically imported into Microsoft adCenter or you will have to manually make that change. Microsoft adCenter will power the ads on Yahoo, Yahoo won't power those ads.
A WebmasterWorld thread seems to have a lot of confusion over this point. Advertisers seem to not want to spend too much time on either adCenter or YSM optimizing their campaigns in fear that the deal will go through and that time would be wasted. I for one think that this is still going to take a really long time, so go ahead and optimize the campaigns. But if the deal does go through and they do begin the migration, the migration will be from Yahoo to Microsoft, not the other way around.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
http://www.seroundtable.com/