Google: Improving News Search with Expandable Results - Google just announced some new features to its news search according to its blog: “”Last year we updated Google News to make it easier for you to scan for stories that are interesting to you and let you dig deeper when you find them. Today we’re announcing an update that brings some of those same ideas to news search. Over the next few days we’ll be rolling out the following features: Click-to-expand news results clusters: Each news results cluster is collapsed down to one result with the ... read more ...

Guest Post: The Future of Exact Match Domains In Search - This is a guest post by Mark Collier who describes himself as  an SEO expert turned domainer. I recently completed a significant correlation study of Google’s algorithm and noticed the continued decline since 2010 of the power of Exact Match Domains (EMDs). After Matt Cutts’ announcement that Google latest algorithm  update would target “low-quality” exact match domains, domainers were left feeling that the last 3 years have been nothing less than a pummeling by the search giant. In 2010 ... read more ...

Google Launches” Better Local Targetting Options For AdWords” - According to a post on Google Adwords site yesterday, Google recently changed its metro targeting areas to Nielsen DMA (Designated Market Areas) regions. “Now your online campaigns and reporting will more precisely match TV-based audience data and campaigns. If you’ve been using metros, you’ll notice that the new geographic shapes look different on a map,”While you might see some increases or decreases in traffic with the new regions, we estimate the impact will be small for most advertisers.” “Today, ... read more ...

UK Study: Paid Search (PPC) Accounts For Only 6% of Total Clicks - According to research from GroupM UK carried out with Nielsen which was published by econsultancy.com,  “paid search only accounts for 6% of total clicks from search engines versus natural search at 94% of clicks”. “The research, based on 28m people in the UK, making a total of 1.4bn search queries during June 2011, is the first in the UK to reveal click through rate (CTR) by natural search position for both brand and non-brand search terms and how these CTRs change by vertical.” This ... read more ...

Google Granted Patent To Modify SEO Results Based On “Spamming Techniques” - According to a post in seobythesea.com, Google was granted a patent last week, which describes several ways how search results might be reordered based upon “rank-modifying spamming techniques,” may involve techniques such as: Keyword stuffing, Invisible text, Tiny text, Page redirects, Meta tags stuffing, and Link-based manipulation. The patent is: Ranking documents Invented by Ross Koningstein Assigned to Google US Patent 8,244,722 Granted August 14, 2012 Filed: January 5, 2010 Abstract “A ... read more ...

Google Makes 86 Algorithm Changes In June/July Including Better Detection of Adult Material - According to a blog post, Google has made 86 changes to its Algorithm in June and July. We placed in black the one we think are the most important. Here they are: Here’s the list for June: uefa-euro1. [project codename “Answers”] Addition of a live result showing schedule and scores of the EURO 2012 games (European championship of national soccer teams). #82293. [project codename “Answers”] Improved dictionary search feature by adding support for more natural language searches. Better HTML5 ... read more ...

Apple Store Changes Search Algorithm in a App Store - According to TechCrunch.com Apple has changed the search algorithm in the App Store, which is now weighting app names and keywords less heavily in its search results “Previously, if you were searching for something like “san francisco parking”, apps whose names included those search terms would rank more highly. Or if you searched for something like “traffic”, you’d get a bunch of games with names like Traffic Rush. Now, you’re more likely to see apps that aren’t just a simple keyword ... read more ...

MediaPost: Advertisers To Spend 15% More On Paid Search This Year With Mobile Driving Growth - According to Media Post,  citing an “Advertising Expenditure Forecast for June 2012 by Publicis Groupe company ZenithOptimedia, advertisers will spend about 15% more in 2012 on paid-search marketing, up 15% in 2013, and 13% in 2014.” “The report points to three growth drivers: new opportunities to create custom experiences, integration of four screens, and an uptick in mobile.” “Mobile paid-search spend sits at 15% of all paid-search spend, up from 5% in April 2011″ “Today, mobile ... read more ...

Searchmetrics Study on SEO: Keyword Domains Attract Top Results & Social Media & Backlinks Are Important - Searchmetrics just released a study today on SEO coming to the conclusion that Keyword Domain names still attract top results and that Social Media and Backlinks are very important in SEO results. “The biggest unknown in SEO is always the algorithm. Many myths and rumors surround the “what” and “how” of Google results. Although SEO experts won’t be able to know the specific algorithm used, by examining the data you can figure out how best to influence results.””At Searchmetrics, ... read more ...

Google Returning Searches For Adult Terms With Non-Adult Results & It May Impact Domain Values - According to a pretty interesting article over at xBiz.com “several seemingly “adult” search terms have recently become dominated by mainstream sites as the Google algorithm now ranks non-adult content sites on the first page for keywords that were historically considered to be profitable adult traffic sources.” “A search for terms like “lesbian,” “Ron Jeremy,” “C*nt” and many others in Google now reveals page one listings for several gay rights groups, mainstream movie credits ... read more ...

Bing Redesign Is On The Way - According to a story in MediaPost.com today, Bing.com has been redesigned and new ad models are on the way “Microsoft introduced a new version of the search engine with a three-column design combining traditional Web search and social. The product will soon roll out in the U.S.” “The combination of search and social signals will produce a clear and clean vision of user intent. Derrick Connell, corporate VP of search program management, said the right rail paid-search ads will remain in place ... read more ...

Google’s Penguin Update Has WebMasterWorld’s Forum On Fire - Google’s Penguin update to its algorithm, has a lot of people on the WebmasterWorld.com Forum chatting about its effect Most comments are detecting changes to their own sites and pages. As usually it was one comment that started off the conversation that is currently over 30 pages and here it is: “””After over 10 years of consistently ranking between position #1 and #3 on page one for a single four letter word search term, the month of March (starting on the 10th) has resulted in falling ... read more ...

If Only 20% Of The US Population Has Even Heard Of SEO Why Are We Surprised About There Lack Of Knowledge Of Domains? - According to Matt Cutts of Google only 20% of the US population has ever “heard” of the term SEO. The question wasn’t whether people understand the term SEO, its significance; its importance in the internet community. The question was  just whether they have heard of it, and the answer of 20% is pretty shocking: “”In my world, everyone I talk to has heard of search engine optimization (SEO).” “But I’ve always wondered: do regular people in the U.S. know what SEO is? ” “With Google’s ... read more ...

Cnet: Google Plans to Penalize ‘Overly Optimized’ Sites - According to Cnet.com, Google is planning to penalize sites that overuse search-engine-optimization techniques. Google engineer Matt Cutts discussed the plan at South by Southwest (SXSW) and Search Engine Land posted an audio clip from a panel discussion. “Google wants to “level the playing field” regarding “all those people doing, for lack of a better word, over optimization or overly SEO–versus those making great content and great sites”. “We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, ... read more ...

If Gus is Right Domain Names Maybe In Big Trouble As Google Moves To Location Based Search Results - In the course of the week we at Mostwanteddomains.com, receive 50-100 offers on and occasionally run into some interesting people. Last week I had email conversation with a guy named Gus. So according to Gus, who claims to have some inside knowledge about Google’s algorithm and plans for how it will rank sites in the future, domains are in big trouble. According to Gus, Google will start ranking sites based on the location of the searcher, so that direct match domains will no longer have preference ... read more ...

Matt Cutts: Google Changes Algorithm to Penalize Sites That “Don’t Have Much Content “above-the-fold” - In a blog post today Matt Cutts of Google delivers what appears to be bad news for mini-sites or other sites top-heavy with ads. According to the post, Google is once again changing their algorithm to penalize sites that  “don’t have much content “above-the-fold”. Here is the full post: “”In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we’re launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you ... read more ...

Microsoft’s New Study Showing That Domain Names Are VERY Important - Microsoft has just released a paper (.pdf) on the value of good domains calling it “Domain Bias” which looks like one of the best papers ever written on the subject of domains that prove out the value of a good domain. This paper may become a domainers best friend in helping to sell domains to end users. The authors call this as Domain Bias according to the author is defined as “a user’s propensity to believe that a page is more relevant just because it comes from a particular domain.””We ... read more ...

Google Changes Its Search Algorithm & Actually Talks About It - Google published a post today on its blog “to share the methodology and process behind our search ranking, evaluation and algorithmic changes. ” “Here’s a list of ten improvements from the past couple weeks: Cross-language information retrieval updates: For queries in languages where limited web content is available (Afrikaans, Malay, Slovak, Swahili, Hindi, Norwegian, Serbian, Catalan, Maltese, Macedonian, Albanian, Slovenian, Welsh, Icelandic), we will now translate relevant English web ... read more ...

Google Changes Search Algorithm That Will Impact 35% of Web Searches - According to a new post of Google’s blog today, it announced a change to its search algorithm that the company says will impact 35% of Web searches. The change builds on top of its previous “Caffeine” update in order to deliver more up-to-date and relevant search results, specifically those in areas where freshness matters. This includes things like recent events, breaking news and hot topics. Here is the full blog post: Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing ... read more ...

Google Promises Greater Transparency For Targeted Ads & To Give Users More Control Including Blocking Them - According to Google’s Blog, Google is going to  provide “greater transparency and choice regarding the ads you see on Google search and Gmail”. Basically Google is talking about targeted ads that Users get based on Google’s algorithm which tries to predict what ads you would like to see. “Soon, you’ll be able to learn more about these ads by clicking the “Why these ads” link next to ads on Google search results and Gmail.” “Why these ads” gives you transparency” “The perfect ... read more ...

Guest Post: From 0 To 10,000 Uniques In Less Than 60 Days: A Case Study - This post was written by Sean Sullivan who Director or Tier 1 Development with  DomainHoldings: Not long ago I wrote an article asking if a .US domain could become just as successful as a .Com. The story was about CelebrityGossip.us, a domain that I acquired for my girlfriend Erika  as a side project that I thought would be fun for her. After she showed that she had significant interest in it I thought that I’d help take it to the next level and do some professional development on the project. So ... read more ...

Game Changer? Here Comes Google Voice Search For Desktops (Laptops Too) - The WashingtonPost.com is reporting on the Google search event which was held today in which the big news is that  Google is about to roll out Google Voice Search, like you find on mobile devices, on desktops and laptops. “”Google also revealed a new feature in web search today—voice search for desktop. It’s unclear when this will launch, but basically the feature performs similarly to voice search on mobile. You click an audio microphone button in the search box, and speak your search ... read more ...