Author: Virginia Nussey
The name recalls the mythic creature rising from ashes. Bing Webmaster Tools Phoenix Update is surely meant to rouse the SEO community from any lingering complacency regarding the number two search engine.
Several new tools allow webmasters to see in-depth data directly from a search engine, including specific SEO recommendations and a backlink tool to replace the shuttered Yahoo! Site Explorer.
Bing Webmaster Tools manager Duane Forrester led the up-close-and-personal session introducing the tools at this month's SMX Advanced. He's been evangelizing Bing's tools to the SEO community and answered some questions from us about what's going on behind the curtain of Bing's new Webmaster Tools. Read More
Author: Jessica Lee
Many of our readers here at the SEO Newsletter are also avid users of our tools in the SEOToolSet®. Even if you’re a die-hard user, you may not have noticed improvements we’ve made or new features we’ve added since you started using the tools. This is one of the reasons we’ve added developer notes to our newsletter on a monthly basis.
But there’s also some great ways to use our tools that maybe aren’t so apparent, so in this Back to Basics article, we’d like to get you reacquainted with some of the features in a few of our favorite tools in the SEOToolSet: the Single Page Analyzer, the Domain Ranking Report and the Keyword Report.
We outline each tool and its reports and highlight our favorite features, giving SEOs a view of how we use the SEOToolSet® in our work with clients each day. Read More
Author: Chee Chun Foo
It is an ongoing topic of discussion — how best to optimise mobile sites for SEO. There have been many views, including having a sub-domain, using a sub-directory or generating your mobile site from the desktop with CSS for example.
This article will be split into two sections. The first section discusses the recent announcements by Google around recommended configurations for mobile sites.
The second section focuses on how to optimise a mobile site, including linking, keywords and structure, once the recommendation configuration has been decided upon. Read More
Local search is evolving. Both Google and Bing announced big moves for their local search offerings.
Bing announced a partnership with Yelp to power its local results. Yelp will provide business reviews, photos and business attributes which will feature prominently in Bing Local pages.
Google merged its Plus and Places properties to offer local businesses a single property to manage their Google local listing: Google+ Local. Google Places has been phased out and all business listings converted to Google+ Local pages.
Elements of the new platform include a local tab in Google+, integration of Google+ Local pages across Google properties, Zagat reviews. The integration of Circles to filter and find reviews makes the local business presence more social, as users can see if connections have visited or reviewed a business. Google+ Local pages are more visually interesting than Places pages and allow a greater variety of information types.
Local SEO thoughtleader David Mihm analyzed Google+ Local capabilities, and suspects that the Google+ Local ranking algorithm is the same as Google Maps. His recommendations for local search optimization for Google+ Local profiles include:
- Link persistently from the business website to the Google+ Local page, similar to NAP info.
- Search your customer database for all @gmail.com addresses and send them a message that you'd appreciate a follow on Google+.
- Start activity on Google+ immediately and plan for activity on the network going forward.
June's SMX Advanced demonstrated the value of continuing education by SEOs and marketers, as even veteran practitioners heralded the tactics and information shared by search engine representatives and conference presenters.
A question-and-answer sit-down with Google's Matt Cutts, head of web spam, clarified any uncertainties in the SEO community about the search engine's ranking objectives, including the difference between manual actions and algorithm-based penalties.
A presentation by Bing's Duane Forrester gave attendees a walk through of the new SEO-focused feature set of Bing Webmaster Tools, including a Link Explorer providing external link data.
And at sessions on everything from mobile web design to microformats for enhanced SERP listings to search results personalization, attendees took away advanced strategies and tactics.
Bruce Clay leads the official SEO training workshop at SMX conferences and the SMX Advanced group gave rave reviews of the day-long intensive event on Twitter.
Ryan DeShazer (@ryandeshazer) said:
"Great SEO training session yesterday, gang. I really enjoyed it. :)"
The ZaneRay Group (@zaneraygroup) said:
"A big thanks to @BruceClayInc - thoroughly enjoyed the class yesterday and learning from Bruce. Such a stand up guy! #smx"
Jamie Berger (@JamieHBerger) said: "Thanks for the day of education. You're the SEO Yoda and I hope you enjoy the much deserved Lego Yoda pen! :-) #smx"
SEO training with Bruce Clay is underway June 20 and 21 in Milan, Italy. If you're in Europe and think your business could benefit from the power of Internet marketing, contact Bruce Clay Europe to sign up for the next event.
Stateside, the full SEO training course, a five-day class covering both standard SEO methodology and advanced tool use and tactics, will be held in Simi Valley, Calif., July 16 to 20.
And this year a number of upcoming one-day SEO training events will be presented by Bruce Clay Australia in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland. For a complete list of locations and dates, see the Shindigs section below.
Facebook’s chief technology officer Bret Taylor departs the company to pursue a new business venture.
In other Facebook news, the company recently announced it was acquiring Face.com, an Israeli company that will offer Facebook improved technology for recognizing users’ photos. Along with the technology, the team at Face.com will join Facebook.
Facebook also recently approved the expansion of its campus in Menlo Park to accommodate more than 4,000 new employees. Reports state Facebook will pay Menlo Park more than $8 million over the next 10 years for the expansion.
Ex-Microsoft exec Nitin Bhatia shares thoughts on his 19 years with the company as he moves into a new role as vice president of global products at NextDocs, a Sharepoint-based compliance software company.
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Bruce Clay Europe created an infographic that visualizes Facebook's initial valuation and compares it to other major corporations as well as the annual GDP of several companies.
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Chicago hosts the two-day CRO-focused Conversion Conference June 25 and 26.
SES San Francisco takes place August 13 to 16 with an SEO training workshop with Bruce Clay on August 17. Use code 20BRU when registering for a 20 percent discount on your conference pass.
The newly updated SEOToolSet® standard and advanced training and certification course will take place in Simi Valley, Calif., from July 16 to 20.
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Bruce Clay Australia presents the following one-day SEO training courses in Australia:
- Sydney: July 31, 2012
- Perth: August 21, 2012
- Melbourne: September 18, 2012
- Brisbane: October 23, 2012
- Sydney: November 6, 2012
- Auckland: October 11, 2012
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Google and Bing added features this month that offer additional information in the SERPs to help you better find the information you’re looking for. Bing calls it “Snapshot” while Google has named it the “Knowledge Graph.”
Facebook announced that app developers will now be able to track more detailed analytics. Facebook states this new functionality can help app developers create better apps to be included in the company’s App Center.
Twitter’s engineering team announced improvements to site speed, citing the updates will cut Twitter page load time by 80 percent.
Google, Twitter, Facebook and many others join forces for the nonprofit Ads Integrity Alliance, with a goal to fight online trust issues, including malware and bad ads.
Since Google's Penguin update shook up the SERP space, companies have been publicly acknowledging the effect of the spam punishment. Internet marketing agency iAcquire announced it was undertaking a large-scale link removal campaign and swearing off link buying.
One company provided an example of successfully petitioning Google to adjust the Penguin algorithm based on real-world feedback. With that and the removal of a large number of blog footer links, WPMU.org saw a ranking recovery with the Penguin 1.1 refresh that occurred in early June.
Facebook has rolled out Promoted Posts, allowing Page owners to pay to have posts shown to more fans. The social network also plans to add real-time bidding for advertisers via third-party partners. The service called Facebook Exchange will debut within weeks, allowing advertisers to target users based on browsing history.
Share holders filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook and lead underwriter of the company's recent IPO, Morgan Stanley. The lawsuit claims that the disclosures of Facebook's business risks were inadequate and that handling of orders for Facebook shares was negligent.
Bing Visual Search, not to be confused with image search, was quietly turned off by Microsoft. Visual Search let searchers view sets of images and data in a visual interface powered by Silverlight technology.
Each month, our developers make improvements to SEOToolSet V5 to ensure users have a more efficient experience. The following updates were made this month.
- Changed our Keyword data provider from Microsoft KSP API Beta to Microsoft AdCenter API V8. This gives us:
- Faster and more reliable access to keyword data.
- More accurate and complete data sets for keywords.
- SQL optimization on certain tools to speed up their loading time.
- Fixed several language translations in reports.
