The Week’s Industry News
Compiled By Rocket Clicks
New Search Results Page Design For Google Is Coming Soon
Google has been testing several different layouts in an effort to make search results easier to read. Barry Scharwtz of Search Engine Land has a side by side comparison of the new and old pages. The new search page includes increasing font sizes, less underlines for hyperlinked content and more white space.
Source: Search Engine Land
Report Scraped Content That Ranks Better Than Original Content
Matt Cutts announced on Twitter a tool that allows you to report instances of scraped content ranking higher than the original content. To use the scraper report, a user needs to submit the URLs of the original content, the scraped content and the search results where it ranks higher.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Bing Web Search Now Available With Xbox One
The latest system update to the Xbox One includes a newly supported full web search for Bing. “Xbox Bing,” as Microsoft has called it, will include results from Bing marketplace and other relevant items to the search.
Source: Search Engine Land
New Bing Search Features Available As Public Beta
Microsoft has a new feature called Bing Saves that allows users to save URLs and searches to their Microsoft Bing accounts. Anyone can try it as it is currently in beta at bing.com/saves. Bing has a disclaimer noting that this feature is an experiment and your saves results may not be available later.
Source: Search Engine Land
How Does Google Determine What’s A Paid Link
The latest Matt Cutts video answers that question by going into detail on the five basic criteria Google uses when determining what is a paid link. The most common criteria is if the link is an explicit link sale. Other less obvious criteria include how close the value is to money and what the intent of the audience is.
Source: Search Engine Land
Kickstarter Surpasses $1 Billion Pledge Milestone
On Monday Kickstarter announced that it had passed the milestone, with over half of that money being raised in the last 12 months. The company started in April 2009, but multi-billion dollar projects like the Veronica Mars movie have helped with the huge growth.
Source: Gigaom
New Ad Tests in Google Knowledge Graph
Looks like Google is Google is testing again (no surprise there). An ad was spotted recently appearing above the organic Knowledge Graph results in a panel that looks very similar to it. Although we have seen Knowledge Graph ads that pull from Google local listings and Google+, this is the first instance of Google Shopping powered ads.
Source: Search Engine Land
Facebook Unveils Revamped News Feed
Facebook unveiled yet another new look News Feed this week, this time allowing user feedback to have a bigger impact on the final product. The new News Feed harkens back to a previous incarnation with a few notable alterations. Back by popular demand, the new layout features larger photos, a new font and more intuitive navigation. The mobile design will remain unchanged.
Source: The Verge
Get Your Text Conversations Printed On Scrolls
Ever wanted to commemorate an especially notable string of text messages, maybe one that harkens back to a budding romance or a friendship ? A company, TxTo, now allows you to print you SMS conversations onto small scrolls so you can cherish them forever. Not only will you get a cool little scroll, you’ll also receive a breakdown of your texting statistics-busiest day, busiest time of day, gross number of texts sent, etc. How lovely.
Source:TechCrunch
New Reading App Claims It Will Allow People To Read Novels In Mere Hours
A new reading app called Spritz is claiming it will change the way we all read. Spritz presents text in a little box. But instead of scrolling through a massive amount of text quickly it presents each word one by one in rapid succession and positioned directly where your eye is looking. Spritz claims some people are reading at 1000 WPM and are actually seeing their comprehension increase. However, experts are skeptical, citing that the concept of rapid serial visual presentation has been around for awhile and hasn’t generated positive results when it comes to longer passages let alone whole books. The technology certainly begs the question: if you don’t have time to pause and reflect upon what you’re reading, what’s the point?
Source: NBC News
Notable Commentary
Quick Strategies For Link Building A New Campaign
Emma Still of Seer Interactive takes a look at six quick ways to kick off a new link building campaign. She reminds us that it is important to establish trust early and to start small. Among her six tips are ideas for link building off incorrectly spelled domain links and gaining links from unlinked mentions.
Analysis by: Emma Still, Seer Interactive
Search Ranking Factors Over The Years
SEO is rapidly changing and Nate Dame has analyzed how search ranking factors, reported by Rand Fishkin, have changed since he began reporting his findings in 2005. Confusion over how links and social will impact rankings are a common trend in the findings. The full analysis can be found on Search Engine Land.
Analysis by: Nade Dame, Search Engine Land
Tips For Successful SEO On WordPress Sites
State of Digital’s Marcus Taylor has put together a list of 12 tips to perfect SEO on WordPress sites. Among the tips is starting with an exceptional theme, installing the Yoast plug-in and the use of SEO friendly images. The list has great tips for SEO rookies and is a nice refresher for seasoned veterans.
Analysis by: Marcus Taylor, State of Digital
Spam Link Building Tactics Done Right
With a list of spammy link building tactics constantly growing, methods for safely and ethically obtaining links are always changing. Jon Ball, of Search Engine Watch, looks at five examples of common spammy link building tactics and shows you how you can still use these techniques and execute in a non-spammy way. Blog comments, press releases, reciprocal linking, directories and guest posts are all covered.
Analysis by: Jon Ball, Search Engine Watch
The Real Reasons AdWords Doesn’t Work For Small Businesses
After the NY Times release of an article that concludes that Google AdWords isn’t very practical for small business, Larry Kim argues why it doesn’t work. His main point was that in most cases small businesses simply do not spend enough time optimizing their accounts (or learning how); which lead to expensive and poor performing marketing.
Analysis: Larry Kim, Search Engine Land
How to Get a Job at Google
Ever wonder what it takes to work at Google? Thomas Friedman can give you a place to start. In his recent article he interviews Google’s vice president of people operations to get some tips. Check them out; they might not be what you are expecting.
Analysis: Thomas Friedman, NY Times
Optimizing PPC Campaigns with Segmented Performance Analysis
Purna Virji from Search Engine Watch explains how you might not be getting the biggest bang for your buck from your PPC campaigns. She then describes the impact segmented performance analysis can have when optimizing and how to perform this type of analysis.
Analysis: Purna Virji, Search Engine Watch
