Bing Allows Advertisers To Specify Landing Pages Depending On Match Type

Again drawing inspiration from Google, Bing Advertising is giving marketers the ability to specify different landing pages depending on the match type chosen. Bing believes the feature should allow for more effective tracking, bid management and pausing and resuming of keywords.

This is the latest development in Bing’s ongoing effort to bring its advertising platform’s features closer to those offered by Google AdWords. Bing hopes the changes will make it easier for marketers to import their AdWords campaigns into Bing.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google May Go Public With Search Quality Guidelines

Google is considering going public with its search quality guidelines, at least according to Matt Cutts. At the end of his latest webmaster video, Cutts hinted at the possibility of sharing Google’s search quality guidelines with the public, though he also noted that their human search evaluators “don’t influence [Google’s] algorithm in any direct sense.”

Source: Search Engine Land

Disavowing Links Shouldn’t Take The Place Of Also Trying To Get Them Removed

Many in the SEO world were delighted by the release of Google’s new Disavow Links tool, figuring it would make the process of remedying a bad backlink profile much easier. But Google also made clear that it wants to see sites make a good faith attempt to have the links removed, or their disavow requests may not be honored.

Source: Search Engine Land

Microsoft Considering Developing Own Smartphone

Apparently Microsoft isn’t stopping with its foray into hardware at the Surface. Now, Microsoft is experimenting with its own smartphone according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Microsoft is collaborating with Asian component suppliers on its own handset design. However, Microsoft hasn’t made any announcements yet that indicate if or when the handsets will go into mass production.

Source: Tech Crunch

Smartphone Users Perform Average Of 21 Local Searches Per Week

A new local search study by Street Fight provides some more insights into the growing world of local search. According to the survey of 1,100 US adults, 40 percent of survey respondents said they used local search daily and 70 percent said they use location-aware mobile apps.

The study also determined that individuals who own smartphones, tablets and PCs use local search most frequently. Those individuals who only us a PC perform local searches much less frequently.

Source: Search Engine Land

Facebook Employees Can Begin Selling Stock

The first of three lockups for Facebook stock expired on Monday, allowing employees to sell of their stock in the company for the first since the social network’s IPO. 234 million shares of stock were freed up by the lockup’s expiration, but because the stock market was closed Monday and Tuesday employees and shareholders were unable to trade stock until Wednesday.

It will be interesting to see how many Facebook employees decide to dump some or all of their stock. If too many shares hit the market too quickly, it could send a negative message to potential investors and have a harmful effect on the company’s stock price

Source: Mashable

5 Percent Of Search Advertisers Separate PC And Mobile Campaigns

Separating PC and mobile paid search campaigns is a best practice advocated by Google. But, according to new data from Wordstream, only five percent of campaigns are following this advice.

According to the data, 55 percent of paid-search campaigns target mobile devices. With inclusion in mobile paid search results being Google’s default setting, that means that just under half of advertisers are opting out of mobile search in their campaign settings.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google’s Android Platform Powers ¾ Of Smartphones

Google’s Android platform is dominating the world of mobile, reaching record worldwide sales total according to analysts. Research firm IDC indicated that Google’s mobile OS is the first to outpace 100 million shipments in a single quarter.

Some 136 million phones are powered by Android, giving it a 75 percent market share of all shipments. Android’s shipments also increased by 91.5 percent over the same quarter last year, growth rat that almost double that of the entire smartphone market.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Facebook Testing New Layout For Timeline

Facebook is in the process of experimenting with a new layout for Timeline. The new layout includes a single column for posts rather than two.The new Timeline layout still maintains two columns, but all status updates, photos and other items posted on your Timeline are located in a wider column on the left. Modules and any open-graph apps appear in a narrower column on the right.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Notable Commentary

Worth Its Weight In Gold

Image Optimization With Sujan Patel

Image optimization is a quick process that can provide immediate beneficial SEO results. Sujan Patel of Search Engine Journal walks you through the steps and best practices for image optimization.

Source: Sujan Patel, Search Engine Journal

Create Better Content

Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger offers up some interesting insight on improving your content creation.

Source: Demian Farnworth, Copyblogger

Testing Ads For Large Accounts

Brad Geddes examines the most common testing techniques, why they often aren’t successful and offers up solutions for testing ads across large accounts.

Source: Brad Geddes, Search Engine Land