From Search Engine Land Plus: Matt McGee with the latest on the Panda. Google hints at significant changes, but leaves search marketers guessing.
Category Archives: Search
Video: Google SEO tips for news publishers
If you’ve ever wondered how to help your news stories rank higher in Google News, this video offers some ideas. Things like: using large images, not breaking up story text or running stories onto multiple pages, providing Google-friendly URLs and making sure you have a site map. It all sounds good, but even Google’s clever […]
Microsoft’s new search engine better than its marketing
While Microsoft’s new search engine bing has been getting a number of positive reviews since its launch a few days ago, the TV commercial is being lambasted. Just read the comments on this Advertising Age story. Comments such as this one from Robert in New York: Noise and nonsense. Particularly unimpressive—its set up is too […]
Blow your mind with Wolfram Alpha
I’ve been playing with the new Wolfram Alpha “computational knowledge engine” and I think one of the best terms to describe it is straight out of the 1960s: “mind blowing”. Wolfram Alpha is not about searching for web pages (Google is still pretty good at that) but, rather, about getting answers to numerical questions, computed […]
Search marketer slams Canadian advertisers
Some harsh words for Canadian advertisers regarding their use — or non-use — of paid search: Toronto seems to be the epicenter of the orifice that Canadian advertisers have lodged their collective heads in. The city doesn’t get it, the province doesn’t get it, the country doesn’t get it. When it comes to search, Canada […]
Search, and you’ll find one ugly website
Next week’s Search Engine Strategies conference in Toronto looks interesting, particularly the keynote by Seth Godin, author of The Dip. But why is the conference website so utterly awful in its design? I’m not talking about its SEO performance (which I haven’t checked), but its actual appearance. Some of the worst elements: The floating width front […]
CanWest unveils local search and directories
CanWest Mediaworks has announced plans to publish local directories, in print and online, in three cities. Ottawa is first on the schedule, with a directory to be launched this summer. Similar products will appear in Regina and Saskatoon early next year. According to the announcement: The Ottawa directory will offer consumers complete business listings, glossy print maps, […]
Optimizing baby’s name
Selecting a baby’s name was seldom easy. You had to please the parents, and the grandparents, and make sure it wasn’t going to be an invitation to playground taunts. But nowadays savvy parents also have to be sure their child’s name is search-engine optimized. The Wall Street Journal looks at the occurrence [I’m not sure we […]
Search drives update of Yellow Pages online — and in print
The Yellow Pages print edition is being reshaped by the way people search in the Yellow Pages online edition. As Grant Robertson wrote yesterday at reportonbusiness.com, online search behaviour revealed deficiences in the Yellow Pages’ information structure: When people went to its website to find a sushi restaurant, they typed the word “sushi,” not “restaurants – […]
Comparing top sites: US and NZ
It’s always fun (well, I think so, at least) to compare web traffic stats. Today I was having a look at the top sites identified by Hitwise for the United States and New Zealand. (Unfortunately Hitwise doesn’t report Canadian data.) First off, it’s important to note that the data refer to market share (expressed as […]