Friday, January 31, 2014

Yahoo Updates Its Local Search Results

Yahoo gives its local search results a facelift with merchant snapshots that offer detailed business information, including a company overview, hours of operation, parking availability and more. The results looks a lot like Google.

AdWords Patent Infringement Costs Google Big Money

The court in Virginia has ordered Google to pay a royalty for all AdWords advertising revenue to Vringo for patent infringement, for infringing upon two patents it owns. Google is appealing the judgment, which could be worth billions of dollars.

Index Your Content Faster With the Fetch as Google Tool

Have new content that you'd like to be discovered and found in Google's search results more quickly? Within Google Webmaster Tools is the Fetch as Google tool, which gives users the opportunity to submit new URLs to Google's index.

Take Your Mobile App Marketing Campaigns to the Next Level With Deep Linking

The benefit of using deep links for mobile apps is the ability for marketers to bring users directly to a specific location within the app. Here are 10 reasons to use mobile deep linking, and how to use mobile deep linking in your app.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Yahoo! Secured Search Rolls Out




Yahoo! is currently rolling out secured search, which prevents sending referrers to unsecured sites. The roll out is ongoing, but currently they do pass data to secured sites. Unlike Google's secured search roll out:



  • rather than showing a referrer without keyword data the traffic will show up as direct site visitors

  • there is no default automated workaround for advertisers


Even though the data is being blocked for both ads & organics right now, advertisers can quickly use Bing Ads Editor to add tracking strings to their URLs passing the relevant keyword data likeso


http://ift.tt/1dPYRnP{Keyword}&utm_content={QueryString}&match={MatchType}


A couple quick questions:



  • Will Yahoo! add a Google-like data flow exemption for advertisers beyond URL tracking parameters?

  • Will Yahoo! make guarantees to secured sites that organic data will flow to justify the cost & significant risks associated with site migrations?

  • How accessible will Yahoo! data remain within Bing?

  • If/when Bing makes secured search a default, how will their solution differ from those of Google & Yahoo!?





How Rich Snippets Work (And Tools to Generate Them)

Google search results are becoming ridiculously competitive. With the introduction of new and flashier ways to be seen, you still have to learn how to creatively and dynamically exploit those offered tools. Being seen with so many others attempting the same feat is just as hard as it was when visibility relied only on ranking.


Rich snippets have become the new keywords. These little details are what causes your listing to “pop” in a search, catching the eye of the user no matter what place on the first page you occupy. Proper use of rich snippets are a requirement for being seen.


What Are Rich Snippets, Really?


rich snippets


“Rich snippets” are search results proving the user with more answers right within SERPs. To qualify for rich snippets your web page should have rich markup (the preferred type is Schema.org)



Here are the supported types of rich snippets:


Google Authorship


These are usually profile or author photos that are connected to Google+ accounts.


Through the Google Authorship program, writers can digitally sign their content by attaching it to that account. With an author snippet, it will show the name, the number of social circles they are a part of in Google+, and the date of the article.


Featured tool: Social media signals tool + Authorship will both find the verified author of the content and collect some information about him / her (Twitter account, circles, followers, etc)


Social media signals tool + Authorship


Recipes


Recipes will have some nutritional and preparation information, like how long it takes to cook and how many calories are in each serving.


Events


Events will show dates and times for quick reference.


Featured tool: Event Rich Snippet Schema Generator


Businesses


Businesses will show addresses, and sometimes hours of operation, phone numbers and customer ratings.


Featured tool:Brand (Organization) Rich Snippet Schema Generator


Movies


Movies and books will also show off a ranking system, and some product pages have a star rating alongside price.


Featured tool:Movie Rich Snippet Schema Generator


Video rich snippet


Video rich snippet will display a video thumbnail and length.


Video rich snippet


Have a tip for people using rich snippets? Let us know in the comments.


Author information



The post How Rich Snippets Work (And Tools to Generate Them) appeared first on SEO Chat.


Matt Cutts: Using Article Directories for Links? Just No

If somehow you're still using article directories as a link building tactic in 2014, just don't. In his latest webmaster help video, Google's Matt Cutts confirms that links from article directories are bad and will give you no ranking benefits.

6 Google Search Changes You May Have Missed

With Google constantly testing new features and making updates to its search product, we thought we'd round up some of the latest changes to Google's search functionality that are being spotted across the web. Some are confirmed updates by Google.

Seahawks Beat Broncos 33-17 in Battle of Bing Search Volume by State

All signs point to a close game Sunday night when the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos meet in Super Bowl 48. Ahead of the big game, Bing looked at U.S. search volume for both teams and found searches for the Seahawks were higher in 33 states.