Search Engine Roundtable

Thanksgiving Greetings 2009 From Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask & Search Industry

rustybrick — 2009-11-26T08:10:27-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, it is my favorite holiday. As you can imagine, the search news (as in all news) will be slow today, so here is a look at today's special logos, themes and designs from our industry. We have logos from Google, Yahoo, AOL, Bing, Ask and others in the search industry. For the past years logos, see 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 logos.

Here are 2009's Thanksgiving Day Logos:

Google:

Yahoo (Flash):

AOL (Flash):

Bing:

Ask.com:

Dogpile:

Cre8asite Forums:

PPC Heros:

Search Engine Roundtable (us):

Again, For the past years logos, see 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 logos.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 25, 2009

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T16:00:00-05:00

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.

What Are Google's 200 Search Engine Ranking Factors?

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T09:25:21-05:00

A neat new WebmasterWorld thread is trying to do the impossible by putting down on paper, what exactly are the 200 or so search engine ranking factors used by Google.

The thread creator put out a few dozen ranking factors, but there is a way to go here. Think this is a possible task?

Even if they do get all the 200 ranking factors down, figuring out the weights assigned to each and how Google scores them based on other factors can be a bit complex. SEOs have been trying to do so since even before Google was born. Back then, it was a lot easier, now - it is virtually impossible. I bet Matt Cutts, who has access to this data, wouldn't be able to get it exact (no offense).

Anyway, trying to come up with the list, in itself, is useful on some level. But understanding where to put your emphasis and time in, is what is most important for SEOs to understand.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Snagging Google Maps Reviews From Your Competitors

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T09:15:55-05:00

A Google Maps Help thread has an interesting report of one business having the reviews of another. If you look at the Thomas French, DC, Chiropractor reviews, they look great, but when you look at Dr Keith Overland, it seems like he has reviews for Dr. French.

Here are the reviews on Dr. Keith Overland's page, which all reference Dr. French:

Two things could of happened here:

(1) It could be a technical glitch with Google Maps where reviews moved from one business listing to another.

(2) The people who left reviews accidentally put it on the wrong business listing?

Both businesses are in Norwalk, Connecticut - so who knows.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Banned Google AdWords Accounts Will Likely Never Be Unsuspended

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T09:02:08-05:00

As you know, Google has stepped up disabling and banning AdWords advertisers. The bans result in the advertiser not being able to set up new accounts and Google is stricter about who they ban. In fact, I am getting phone calls and emails from people complaining to me that their accounts are banned (I cannot get accounts unbanned, so please do not call me).

There should be an appeals process, but does it work? I doubt it.

An old Google AdWords Help thread has been updated by AdWordsPro Bindu. Bindu said, in black and white, plus bolded a sentence:

My answer to that would be almost never will account be unsuspended. Once an account is suspended, its hard to get details on the exact violation (I, for example, have no insight as to why accounts are terminated). That said, it almost doesn't matter, because once an account is suspended, Google reserves the right to terminate all future advertising with AdWords.

Got that? It seems like the appeals process won't make much of a difference. As Bindu said earlier in that thread, "though I would not want to raise your hopes, I recommend you write in to support for a re-evaluation of your account. They will be able to follow through with a final word on your account status." Good luck.

Again, I feel bad for those being banned - but I personally cannot do anything for you, so please do not call or email me.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

A Look at Google AdWords Newish Ads

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T08:56:05-05:00

The Google blog is coming clean on the various ad formats they have, outside the standard text ads. Like I did over at Search Engine Land, I will post the various ad formats below.

Google Video AdWords Ads:

Google AdWords Sitelinks:

Google AdWords Local Ads:

Google AdWords Product Ads:

Google AdWords Comparison Ads:

Forum discussion at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.

Google AdWords Opens Product Ads To All U.S. Advertisers

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T08:47:22-05:00

The day has come where Google has opened the product ads product to all U.S. advertisers.

I believe Google is running two types of product ads, although I am not 100% sure. I believe one is commission based product AdWords ads and the other is normal PPC based product ads. Here is some history:

Back in January 2008, Google began testing product (base) results in ads. They continued the test in October 2008 with expandable links to these ads. Then in February 2009, the ads became very well seen by many searchers. In May they tested one line product links and in August they tested open product ads. In April, I wrote how to get product images in AdWords ads. Keep in mind, some of these campaigns were not CPA driven, like the one I mention above.

Here is a picture of some product ads in the search results:

Forum discussion at Google Merchant Help.

Google Drops "Search within results" Search Box?

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T08:37:44-05:00

Back in March 2008, Google began testing search boxes in the search results, it was later seen more often as Google began to like the tests they have seen from it.

Now, it seems like it is gone for most queries. I still see it for a search on new york times, but it is gone for searches like amazon.com or ebay.

Here is an older picture of how that looked:

Now, this box does not show up.

There are some complaints about this not showing up for most searches at Google Web Search Help.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

85% Required to Pass Google AdWords Professional Exam

rustybrick — 2009-11-25T08:31:01-05:00

A Google AdWords Help thread asks what do you need to score in order to pass the Google AdWords Professional exam?

There are two exams:

(1) Google Advertising Professionals Exam
(2) Fundamentals and Search Exam

The first one, the Google Advertising Professionals exam needs an 85% score to pass. Whereas the second one, the Fundamentals and Search exam needs an 80% to pass.

AdWordsPro Sarah explained in the thread:

I checked with the people in charge of the Google Advertising Professionals Exam and it looks as if the passing score for the Fundamentals and Search exams are 85% and 80% respectively.

She then added that Google will adding more practice quizzes about the April or May time.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 24, 2009

rustybrick — 2009-11-24T16:00:00-05:00

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.

Google Bug Removes Web Designers in Local Pack

rustybrick — 2009-11-24T08:22:27-05:00

Now, if you do a search for web design, web development, or most digital agency like queries, with or without a local qualifier (i.e. web design new york), Google won't show the local 7 pack. Mike Blumenthal covered this well, but it needs more attention.

In the past, a search for [web design, suffern, ny] or a search for [web design] when Google knows your location, would trigger a 7 pack that looks something like this:

Now, the same search triggers no local pack, just search results, like the old Google results. Here is a picture:

There are two large threads about this at the Google Maps Help thread. In one of those thread, Googler, Linda said on November 11th, "Thanks for your reports. I will look into this issue and get back to you."

Then Brian B from Google explained on November 18th what is going on. He said:

This looks like it's closely related to the issue going on at the thread I've linked below. We realize there's something going on here, and we initially pushed out a fix a while back. There was a little hiccup with the fix, which is probably why the results in Fresno may have gone back up and then back down as addoctane mentioned above.
The team is working on this issue. Stay tuned to the thread below where I will post an update as soon as I hear one.

Thank you all for your persistence!

Back in late October, there was a bug we covered where Google Maps Help.

Buy a Banned Domain? Should You Ask Google for Forgiveness?

rustybrick — 2009-11-24T08:11:11-05:00

A WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster who allegedly purchased a domain name that was banned by Google. He basically asked, how does he get this domain to be clean and start over.

In the past, I would have said, just submit a reconsideration request and hope that Google trusts that you are starting new. And that is the advice given in the thread.

But after sitting in a site clinic with Matt Cutts at PubCon. At about 10:51 PST, Matt said that when it comes to domains that were banned or severely penalized, it is just easier to start with a fresh new domain. I am not quoting Matt exactly, but he basically said that it is easier to start from ground zero then starting from 100 feet under ground. Yes, a penalized site seems to just have to work its way up from a negative state to get to level starting ground and often, it might not be worth the effort.

At the same time, if Google can press a button to wipe the history of the domain - then maybe you are in luck. I am just not too sure how easy it is to get Google to do that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

SEO Gets a Google Birthday Cake

rustybrick — 2009-11-24T08:04:31-05:00

An SEO from DigitalPoint Forums is celebrating a birth day. What is so special about his birthday? Well, his sister baked him a cake, but not just any kind of cake, a Google cake.

He explained:

Hey, it's my birthday today and I just wanted to share with my DP friends what kind of birthday cake my sister made for me!
I didn't think I was that crazy but I guess she did!

Here is a picture of the cake:

I thought I was bad when I dreamt about Matt Cutts of Google, okay, maybe I am worse?

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

News Corp May De-List Themselves From Google & Partner With Microsoft Bing

rustybrick — 2009-11-24T07:55:05-05:00

Let me summarize some of the news around News Corp, Google and Microsoft Bing over the past couple weeks. Rupert Murdoch of News Corp is upset that Google indexes his news sites content without paying a fee for doing so. Google tells Murdoch, if you don't want in our index and the traffic that it sends to you, just tell us in your robots.txt file and we won't index you. Murdoch then says, he may just do that if Google does pay up.

You see this game?

Now, Microsoft comes in and talks a deal with News Corp to pay for indexing their content, if they de-list themselves from Google. Got it?

Honestly, I don't think there is anyone better to comment on this type of topic then Danny Sullivan. He has years of real newspaper experience and knows search like no one else. He wrote a piece named Thoughts On A "Killer" Bing-News Corp Deal & The Myth Of An "OPEC For News".

I was browsing a WebmasterWorld thread and it seems like there are very strong opinions on both sides. Let me quote a few:

I guess MS has decided that if you can't beat 'em, (try to) sabotage 'em!

Google is so engraved in society today that building a better search engine(not saying Bing is) would not beat Google. Drastic measures are the only way to compete with Google.

It is a PRIVILEGE for a search engine to list a (good) website and Google has been taking it for granted for too long..

Anyway we all loose big time if there ever is a search engine war where sites decide to be listed in one search engine and not in another one.

I think all the perspective has been said already, so I will just end here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Bing on Link Building

rustybrick — 2009-11-24T07:47:37-05:00

The Bing Search blog wrote a blog post on link building for "smart webmasters." A WebmasterWorld thread is currently dissecting that blog post, piece by piece.

Martinibuster, Roger Montti, took the time to pull out the key points of the blog post:

You contact webmasters of other, related websites and let them know your site exists. If the value that you have worked so hard to instill in your site is evident to them, they will assist their own customers by linking back to your site. That, my friend, is the essence of link building.
Relevance is important to end users... We see the content they possess and the content you possess. If there is a clear disconnect, the value of that inbound link is significantly diminished, if not completely disregarded.
If relevance is important, the most highly regarded, relevant sites are best of all. Sites that possess great content, that have a history in their space, that have earned tons of relevant, inbound links - basically, the sites who are authorities in their field - are considered authoritative sites.
When probable manipulation is detected, a spam rank factor is applied to a site, depending upon the type and severity of the infraction. If the spam rating is high, a site can be penalized with a lowered rank. If the violations are egregious, a site can be temporarily or even permanently purged from the index.

There is some great discussion around this blog post at WebmasterWorld, so it is probably worth a look.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.