Webmasters Corner
-
Far too often I see brands migrating over to a new web design or new domain name without considering their current SEO standing, and therefore completely undermining all their previous efforts which helped them become an authority figure in their industry. There is a lot of pre-planning and execution needed from an SEO perspective to ensure a website retains the keyword rankings and organic traffic you have built up in the past. Using the SearchMetrics compare tool, you can see over time how successful a redesign or rebrand is, an example of a poorly executed domain switch, would look like this: (brand name excluded, as I don’t want to name & shame!) T…
-
- 0 replies
- 72 views
-
-
Building a search presence globally might seem like fighting through mobile and laptop screens one at a time, but it’s actually much easier than that. Around the world, in the realms of a number of search engines are billions of internet users, across 201 potential markets. http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users-by-country/ Businesses with global aspirations will have plenty of options for growth, but wildly hammering duplicate pages across numerous websites and changing the page title obviously isn’t going to work, so what is? 1) Cross country research tactics Use every SEO tool at your disposal to build up an image of how a website is performi…
-
- 0 replies
- 62 views
-
-
We all know Q4 is the biggest time of the year when it comes to ecommerce. Google Shopping tends to be a strong revenue driver for businesses investing in digital marketing. So how do you make sure you are being as efficient and effective as possible on Google shopping? Below are some key tips to make sure you are capitalizing on the holiday opportunity: 1) Optimize the product titles in your feed Titles in the feed make the biggest difference in capturing more traffic. When optimizing your feed, remember that the titles play a significantly larger role in capturing traffic than descriptions. You still want to have a proper description, but you absolutely mu…
-
- 0 replies
- 64 views
-
-
Keywords are often misunderstood in SEO, so it’s time to debunk the most popular myths around them. Laura Hogan, Head of Search in Ricemedia, focused on keyword myths in her presentation at Brighton SEO last week, and it was a useful reminder on all the misconceptions around keywords in the SEO industry. Popular misconceptions about keywords Myth 1: on-site exact match anchor text no longer works Laura Hogan shared an example on how anchor text can still work, leading to an increased rank, even without link building. In this particular case, there was 24% CTR from the specific anchor text, reminding us that we can still apply anchor text optimisation in our con…
-
- 0 replies
- 62 views
-
-
According to Deloitte’s annual retail holiday sales forecast, retailers should expect to see an uptick in both in-store and online sales this coming holiday. With a stable economy, low unemployment and more disposable income, sales are expected to exceed $1 trillion, or a 3.6%-4% increase in sales over the same period last year (November-January). That’s good news for many retailers who have been forced to close some stores, streamline SKUs and reduce expenses, but it’s no time to sit back and rest on the innovation front. While most retailers have finalized their holiday plans by now, use the next few weeks to test, pilot and innovate to yield new learnings, ins…
-
- 0 replies
- 91 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have possible bad news for AMP users and good news for AdWords customers who are tired of its UI. Facebook begins thwarting ad blockers As Al Roberts reported this week, Facebook has announced that it’s changing its desktop ads to thwart ad blocking software. For those who wish to complain about the amount of ads on Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s Ads & Business Platform VP, had this to say, “Facebook is ad-supported. Ads are a part of the Facebook experience; they’re not a tack on.” So, nyah. However Bosworth make…
-
- 0 replies
- 47 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have new updates from Bing Ads and AdWords, plus a glimpse into the automated future where robots can write these search news round-ups instead of me. *kicks coffee machine for not pulling its weight* Upgraded URLs now available in Bing Ads According to a Bing Ads blog post this week, it has launched Upgraded URLs to simplify tracking campaign performance. With Upgraded URLs, you can quickly make updates to your tracking codes and keep your ads running. According to the post, the major benefits are: More efficient tracking …
-
- 0 replies
- 99 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have a couple of potential upheavals to Google SERPs and the core algorithm, as well as updates to Knowledge Panel and a warning on spammy widgets. Google experiments with new desktop SERP layout As I reported earlier this week, in among Google’s 1,000s of minor experiments a few users were served with a rather fundamental change: a new desktop SERP layout featuring mobile-style cards. The number of results on the card-based SERP is exactly the same as the ’standard’ layout and the snippet width is significantly longer (roughl…
-
- 0 replies
- 53 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have news from the depths of the irony-well, a few Google product updates and the social network everyone forgot about adds some pretty good ecommerce functions. Adblock Plus launches its own ad service Oh the irony of ironies. Well maybe it’s not ironic, maybe it’s just hilariously predictable. Adblock Plus is getting into the ad business with launch of its own RTB platform. Yes apparently there are ads that should be allowed, you know, the ‘good kind’ – and they’re the ones provided by Adblock Plus itself As Al Roberts report…
-
- 0 replies
- 79 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week we have news about Google’s latest acquisition, the progress of AMP and some spooky Halloween search data. Google acquires FameBit to cash in on YouTube branded content As reported by Al Roberts, Google has announced that it is acquiring FameBit, an influencer marketing platform. The startup, which was founded in 2013, helps brands connect with more than 45,000 content creators for branded content opportunities, including product placements, promotions and sponsorships. This acquisition signals that Google sees influencer marketing a…
-
- 0 replies
- 59 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, good news for YouTubers but bad news for Vine stars and anyone who wants a bit of privacy. Twitter kills Vine Sad news for those with short attention spans, Twitter is killing off Vine, the six second video app it purchased a couple of years ago. According to a statement, despite discontinuing the app in the coming months, your Vines will still be available. “You’ll be able to access and download your Vines. We’ll be keeping the website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that…
-
- 0 replies
- 68 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from around the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, mobile internet use takes over desktop across the globe, Instagram introduces yet more shopping options and Bing reveals search habits immediately after a presidential debate. Worldwide mobile internet use surpasses desktop for the first time ever As we reported this week, mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage worldwide in October compared to 48.7% by desktop. Although don’t get to excited, as there is a huge difference from country to country, with the US and UK still lagging behind other territories. …
-
- 0 replies
- 55 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, both LinkedIn and Facebook are beefing up their paid social offerings in different ways, while Google seeks to cut off Adwords revenues for fake news sites. And might Google be favouring desktop over its own AMP in its upcoming mobile-first index? Facebook launches analytics for Messenger chatbots On Monday, Facebook announced that it will be extending its Facebook Analytics for Apps tool to Messenger, so that early adopters of chatbots will be able to track the response to them via analytics. Al Roberts reported for Search Engine Watch’s …
-
- 0 replies
- 59 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, we’ve got key trends in content marketing for 2017; why social media is the preferred channel for product launches; and how to use an Exact Match Domain (EMD) without being penalised for spam by Google. And in probably unsurprising news, John Lewis’ annual heartwarming Christmas ad is this year’s best performing yet. The eight most important content marketing trends in 2017 It’s December already, and you know what that means – every publication you follow will be winding down for the end of the year by reviewing the highlights of 2016, while …
-
- 0 replies
- 53 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the worlds of search, search marketing, and beyond. In this week’s round-up, we have two big changes for mobile on Google, plus some more insight into a change that Google made to its AdSense policy recently. And if you’ve ever thought about switching off from technology altogether, it turns out you’re not alone: more than 30% of internet users have taken a ‘digital detox’ in the past year. Google to penalize annoying mobile interstitials Al Roberts reported for Search Engine Watch this week on how Google is taking aim at sites with annoying mobile interstitials (an item which displays befor…
-
- 0 replies
- 59 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, we’ve got a special on stories about advertising and mobile, with a look at mobile ad viewability from our regular mobile columnist Andy Favell, and the news that Snapchat video ads are generating less than three seconds’ viewing time on average. Over on our sister site ClickZ, Tereza Litsa took a look at how neuroscience can activate brains in a mobile world. And speaking of advertising, take our 10-minute survey to tell us how the events of 2016 affected your advertising spend, and you could win an iPad mini in time for Christmas! What is…
-
- 0 replies
- 57 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, Google has been spotted testing a new user ratings feature in film and television search results; the National Football League has rowed back its heavy-handed social media policy; and a new report has revealed the distance that still remains between the marketing and IT sides of a business in the digital age. Google tests user ratings for films and TV shows Google was spotted testing a new user rating feature in its search results for films and TV shows with a small sample of users this week. Searchers in Google’s test sample found ‘Like’ and…
-
- 0 replies
- 53 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. And a happy 2017 to all of our Search Engine Watch readers! This week, we’ve got a health-conscious New Year’s update from Bing, a new AI-powered search engine which is transforming scientific research, and a look at why the fake information epidemic could be damaging to local search. A new AI powered search engine is changing how neuroscientists do research Google’s work in the realm of artificial intelligence and machine learning has succeeded in making web search more intuitive, effective and useful than it’s ever been before. But until now, the same…
-
- 0 replies
- 73 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, Larry Kim peers into his crystal ball to make some outlandish predictions for SEO in 2017; Facebook is preparing to flip the switch on a mid-roll video ad offering that will share revenue with users; and – here’s a name you probably weren’t expecting to see crop up in the news – AOL is offering up free wireless data as a reward for engaging with ads. Nine crazy predictions for SEO in 2017 It’s January, and as we all know, the arrival of January and the new year heralds the arrival of any number of predictions posts across every website you vi…
-
- 0 replies
- 63 views
-
-
Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, Amazon is wooing Prime subscribers with a new, exclusive credit card, brand interest in Snapchat may not be as high as it seems, and the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo is on the up-and-up, reaching a record of 14 million anonymous searches in one day. Amazon unveils new credit card exclusive to Prime members Since the launch of Amazon Prime as an express shipping service in 2005, Amazon has continued to add benefits to its exclusive subscription service in a bit to retain existing subscribers and lure new ones. The latest of thes…
-
- 0 replies
- 182 views
-