SEO News

Use the Google Analytics Solutions Gallery to find custom dashboards created by experts to speed up the time to insights. You donât have to be an analytics guru to use these dashboards, but you can monetize the data and make better decisions faster. Source: Search Engine Watch

The time has come to say goodbye to Foursquare mayorships as we know them. Foursquare has revealed some new details about what users can expect when Swarm launches this week, including the future of mayorships, badges, and new features. Source: Search Engine Watch

Earlier this year, Google made a change to its privacy policy that is now drawing criticism from privacy proponents. As detailed by ProPublica, Google “quietly erased [the] last privacy line in the sand” by allowing for data it collects on its services to be combined with DoubleClick. Previously, Google’s privacy policy read: “We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.” That was replaced with: “Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google’s services and the ads deliver…

Brand advertisers and their agencies only want to pay for mobile ads that are seen by a person. They do not want to pay for ads that are not ‘viewable’ i.e. they don’t render or are displayed where they are invisible; or for insufficient time to register the message. With brand advertising a mobile ad does not count as an impression and the advertiser thus should not be charged if: The ad is not seen by a real person; Because it fails to render or is displayed where it is unseen, e.g. below the fold, when the visitor doesn’t scroll; or If there is insufficient time for the visitor to digest its message. • The first factor is an invalid impression, often caused…

DoubleClick Search's Display Remarketing from search ads feature lets you retarget users via display channels after they have shown interest by clicking on the paid search ad managed in your DS account. Here's a walk-through of the feature. Source: Search Engine Watch

In the battle for luxury shoppers, top retailers in 2013 outspent top luxury brands on Google AdWords paid search ads in four of five categories: apparel, beauty and cosmetics, shoes, and watches, according to a new report from AdGooroo. Source: Search Engine Watch

You may be surprised at how common some SEO myths still are in 2016, so it’s definitely time to leave them behind. Whether you’re an expert or a beginner at SEO, it’s always useful to compile all the myths you read about, so you can work out for yourself the ones you actually need to be worried about. What would you add to this list of the most common SEO myths? 1. SEO is dead This is certainly the most popular SEO-related myth and it ended up an urban legend, widely spread among sites and communities. If you happen to believe that SEO is indeed dead, or if you’re just a pessimist, I assume the rest of the myths won’t be much useful to you. If you want to kee…

Following the success of the inaugural ClickZ Live New York digital marketing and advertising conference, we bid a fond farewell to Mike Grehan, group publishing director of ClickZ, Search Engine Watch, and ClickZ Live. Source: Search Engine Watch

Crawling a site isn't necessarily the best first step when auditing a website, because it's hard to quantify and prioritize that data in a way that makes sense to clients. Here's how to use Google site search to identify non-ranking page types. Source: Search Engine Watch

Bing for Schools search, which incorporates both safe search and an ad-free search environment, has been tested in a pilot project since the start of the school year, with more than 5,000 schools and 4.5 million children. Source: Search Engine Watch

Good PPC managers get results, they know their way around the necessary data tools, and they can follow the foundations of PPC well. But great PPC managers donât stop there. These are some characteristics that elevate a PPC manger from good to great. Source: Search Engine Watch

BuzzFeed's impressive growth is mainly due to successfully leveraging social platforms â particularly Facebook â to help drive traffic. While desktop traffic for BuzzFeed has roughly doubled in the past year, mobile traffic is up nearly five times! Source: Search Engine Watch

New and expecting parents do twice as many searches as non-parents. Health is their biggest concern, but believe it or not, college planning is right up there. And they rely heavily on mobile devices for more than you might think. Source: Search Engine Watch

Google has made it clear that a bad mobile user experience will result in poor rankings in their mobile search results. Here's how to establish your own mobile performance benchmarks when compared to desktop so you can identify and fix common issues. Source: Search Engine Watch

Instagram may be among the most popular social platforms, but this doesn’t mean that the interaction rate cannot be affected by the increasing number of brands joining it. How can you maintain your own interaction rate? Instagram has seen an impressive growth in the past years and its recent addition of live stories provided more reasons for a user (and a brand) to try it out. More than 500k advertisers have already joined the platform and users check the app multiple times during the day. However there has been an alarming decrease in interaction rates by 33% from 2015 to 2016. According to Quintly’s report, the interactions per post from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016 hav…

Cheap, easy, automated link spamming is no longer an option for those in it for the long haul. Editorial link building is alive and well and more powerful than ever before. Links still matter a lot and they will continue to matter for many years. Source: Search Engine Watch

The regional press still carries great importance. Wrongly maligned in some quarters, the stats almost speak for themselves. The 1,000 local newspapers and 1,700 associated websites across the UK attract a whopping 97 million users every month. Studies show that regional news outlets are the most trusted and attract the most effective response to adverts too. Yet let’s not beat around the bush, the regional press is also facing up to huge challenges. The fall of classified advertising and the growth of online news – free and convenient to access – has resulted in a dangerous drop in revenues and a significant fall in the number of people reading print editions. …

Since cloud computing first gained mainstream attention around 2009, its popularity has exploded. Promising increased efficiency, flexibility and cost-effectiveness, it was hailed as the ultimate business solution. This year, IDC predicted that CMOs will drive $32.3bn in marketing technology spending by 2018. According to Sean Grimes, Director of IT services for Agilisys, “there is no denying that Cloud Technology is creating as much disruption as the dotcom boom”. But are users seeing the benefits? What is a ‘marketing cloud’? The marketing cloud is made up of a suite of cloud-based marketing tools covering analytics, targeting, social media management, audienc…

Google has introduced new ad formats, AdWords settings and a few high profile tests. This year saw a lot more aggressive monetization by Google, with several high profile changes that increased the real estate for ads at the expense of organic. Source: Search Engine Watch

Want to build your brand authority and trust while helping your SEO efforts? Turn to public relations. With these Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn tips, you and your community manager can easily start building a slew of influential media contacts. Source: Search Engine Watch