This Week’s Industry Update
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff
Google Social Analytics Feature Backlink URLs, Social Conversations
In addition to general traffic information from social networks, Google Analytics’ Social Reports will soon feature backlink URL reports. The “Activity Stream” tab, accessible through clicking on a specific URL under the Social Pages’ section, shows where the page is being linked, as well as any comments users make on the linking page.
Source: Search Engine Land
Bing Simplifies Search Results, Still Looks Like Google
Bing has been soliciting feedback from users throughout the previous few months, and just recently updated their search results to reflect to give the people what they want: a stripped down, easily scan-able results page. The most notable changes include the lack of a left sidebar, and the exchange of a top nav bar on a white background for the old dark grey navigation panel. Strangely enough, it looks more like Google than their previous design. See for yourself:
Old:
New:
Source: Search Engine Watch
Pinterest Fights Copyright Concerns With New Tool
One of the largest criticisms of Pinterest has been its laissez faire approach to copyright infringement. Thankfully, the Internet’s trendiest social network has found a way to counter those concerns. Partnering with Flickr, Pinterest now features an easy-to-use attribution tool that is attached to each pin from the photo management site. The same principle can be applied to pins from Behance, Vimeo, and YouTube.
Source: The Huffington Post
Congress Addresses The Employer-Facebook Privacy Problem
Facebook is the talk of the town, and by town I mean national government. The U.S. House Of Representatives has just introduced the Social Networking Online Protection Act, which would ban employers from obtaining online login information from prospective employees. This is the first time that the Congress has adopted a bill calling for the illegality of Facebook screenings prior to employment.
Source: Search Engine Journal
AdWords Will Automatically Rotate Ads After 30 Days
Habitual ad testers love the punctually even rotation of AdWords campaigns. However, the “rotate evenly” setting has been updated to automatically default to “optimize for clicks” if ad copy is not changed within 30 days. Previously, ads could be rotated on a regular basis from here to infinity.
Source: Search Engine Land
Google Autocomplete Accused Of Bigotry
Google’s autocomplete feature faces a new lawsuit in French court. The autocomplete result in question relates Rupert Murdoch and a Google suggestion to complete the search as “Rupert Murdoch Jewish.” The suit, filed by SOS Racisme, claims Google is mislabeling celebrities and associating them with a frequently persecuted religion. This isn’t the first time Google has faced legal action due to autocomplete results. Still, the company maintains its autocomplete search feature accurately reflects the diversity of content on the web, both good and bad, without human intervention.
Source: Search Engine Journal
A Blogger Swears Off The Internet For A Year
Paul Miller, a senior editor at technology news site The Verge, has dropped off the Internet grid. Although he will continue writing, Miller stated he will not use the web for the next year, instead relying on phones (gasp!), personal connections (ack!), and flash drives (ew!) to gather sources and write stories. Just like they did in the old timey days of 1992.
Source: CNN
Got $28 to $35? Buy A Share Of Facebook Stock!
Facebook’s IPO is close at hand, and the social network recently set initial per-share prices between $28 and $35. At best, the initial public offering could raise up to $11.8 billion, which would beat Google’s 2004 IPO. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal valued Facebook at somewhere between $85 billion and $95 billion.
Source: The Washington Post
SEOmoz Secures $18 Million In Venture Capital Funding, Posts Hilarious Meme-Based Press Release
In one of the most unique press releases ever conceived, SEOmoz announced they have received $18 million in Series B funding from The Foundry Group and Ignition Partners. Through a series of memes, the release details how the influential SEO company twice failed to raise significant venture capital funds, before reaching this pivotal point in their history as an industry leader.
Source: SEOmoz
(Not Provided) Hits Journalism, Publisher Websites Hard
Google’s (not provided) update has been the bane of SEO keyword researchers since its implementation, and it appears that more than Internet marketing professionals are getting hit by the change. According to the Ponyter Institute, 29% of their April search traffic was (not provided) in nature; this is a 6.5% increase over their 22.5% total in November.
While Google’s underestimated impact of the change is not surprising, it’s clear that Google’s user base is still expanding. Until that growth halts or slows, we can expect to see (not provided) continue to dominate the top of any site’s keyword referrals (often followed by brand names, as in Poynter’s case).
Source: Search Engine Land
Notable Commentary
From Mavens Of The Written Word
A Message From The Very Elated Rand Fishkin
SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin addresses the company’s past, present, and future in the wake of their much-celebrated infusion of cash. Fishkin lays out his expectations, thanks the two VC investors, and outlines how the company plans to use their great responsibility that comes with their increased Internet marketing industry power.
Analysis By: Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz
Here Are Some Deep Linking Tactics To Spice Up Your Link Building
Externals links to your homepage are nice. Links to deeper pages on your site are stupendous. Neil Patel explains why link building to pages other than your home base is vital towards boosting the relevancy and exposure of your website. He also outlines some methods for collection these often hard-to-get links.
Analysis By: Neil Patel, Search Engine Journal
The Limitations Of Google Analytics New Social Reports
Google Analytics’ new social reports offer a wealth a new data on social media, but they’re not the all encompassing data collection and filtering tool many speculated they would be. The reports, which collect data from 400 social media sources, do provide a lot of new information. In Marshall Sponder’s eyes some of it is useful and a lot of it isn’t. The criticism is that the reports provide a lot of information, but fail to interpret it effectively or provide context to make its application to real world scenarios easier.
Source: Marshall Sponder, Search Engine Watch
Using Shareable Content to Improve SEO
Matt Williams, co-founder of No Yelling, an Australian based driving school, recently developed a new linen-inspired background for Google Docs. No Yelling submitted a blog post detailing the new background to 30 high authority sites and Tech Crunch picked up the article within 15 minutes of being alerted. While No Yelling was already ranking number one for their major keywords, the links increased traffic to their site and they believe will boost their minor keyword rankings.
Source: Angela Wilkinson, Web Analytics World
Point/Counterpoint: History Says Google, Facebook May Be Irrelevant In Five Years
On the surface, Google and Facebook seem like Internet entities that are too big to fail. But, Eric Jackson contends they can if they fail to adapt and optimize themselves for the mobile smartphone platform. Conversely, George Anders argues that Eric Jackson is crazy, and both giants are more than prepared to take on the rapid change that often engulfs the technology world.
Analysis By: Eric Jackson, Forbes
Analysis By: George Anders, Forbes
The AdWords 30 Day Rotation Change Is Just The Worst
Some people really didn’t like Google’s changed policy towards ad rotations. Crystal Anderson of Seer Interactive is one of those people, and lays out her argument in a clear, concise manner.
Analysis By: Crystal Anderson, Seer Interactive
Doctor Who Has A Cure For Your Marketing Message Deficiencies
There’s a reason Doctor Who is the world’s longest running science fiction television show. Thanks to creative, timeless storylines, the British phenomenon has lasted over 30 years, and shows no signs of slowing down. There’s a lesson in there about how to craft a marketing message built for the long haul.
Analysis By: Tea Silvestre, CopyBlogger
