Lycos today announced its results from its excellent blog report The Lycos 50, the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007.
Biggest Search Engine movers for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007:
1. Rachael Ray - 871%
2. Nelly Furtado - 220%
3. Amy Adams - 150%
4. Anna Nicole Smith -100%
5. Stephen Colbert- 100%
6. Emma Watson- 86%
7. Johnny Depp- 73%
8. Xbox- 72%
9. Thanksgiving - 55%
10. Poker- 40%
As to be expected a distinct Christmas theme is around this week with terms like Xbox (Natural Search #45) re-enters this week’s Lycos 50, jumping 72% in online interest.
A report recently issued its list of Top Toys and Video Games of 2007, based on web search activity, and while the gaming consoles fail to make the Top 10 Toys list this year, both Nintendo (Natural Search #36) and Xbox score the biggest points with web users over the past week, generating 64% more search interest than PlayStation.
Meanwhile, the unstablity in Iran (Natural Search #28) continues its climb up the Lycos search logs, rising from number 35 last week.
While shy of making this week’s Lycos 50 list of top search terms, celebrity chef Rachael Ray sees the biggest jump in search activity, up 871% over the past week.
The star of the popular US TV show “Rachael Ray” show, Ray is also a best-selling author, and for the past year, has locked in the sweet gig of Dunkin Donuts’ spokeswoman.
Her CBS talk show won a 2007 Daytime Emmy Award, while Forbes named her the number two “Most Trusted Celebrity.” The most popular Rachael Ray-related search queries this week include Rachael Ray biography; Rachael Ray party food recipe; Rachael Ray photos; and Rachel Ray Show.
The Lycos 50 Top 10 Search Terms for the Week Ending Nov. 24, 2007:
1) Poker
2) Thanksgiving
3) Golf
4) Fashion
5) Disney
6) Christmas
7) World Series
8) YouTube
9) South Beach Diet
10) Britney Spears
Source:http://www.hitsearchlimited.com/news/999186/
Friday, November 30, 2007
Google Experimental Offers Vote Up Search Listing: End of SEO
Yesterday I covered the news at Search Engine Land of a new Google experimental search feature that lets you move search results up and remove results from the Google search results page.
The changes you make only impact you - your login and does not influence the overall scope of the search results. But can they? Who knows. We have been seeing Google test remove results features before and then drop the feature.
Google says:
This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made. Note that this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.
A Cre8asite Forums thread is talking about how this may or may not impact SEOs. Well, this is nothing new. We have had whole conference panels on the topic, such as Personalized Search: Fear or Not?. Plus we have shown how much the personalized results today can differ from non-personalized results. In fact, why not try turning off Google personalized results yourself and do some tests.
Is this new Google experimental test the end of SEO? Not at all. This does not add much more than what we have today with Google Personalized results. All it does it make it more visible to all of us.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015496.html
The changes you make only impact you - your login and does not influence the overall scope of the search results. But can they? Who knows. We have been seeing Google test remove results features before and then drop the feature.
Google says:
This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made. Note that this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.
A Cre8asite Forums thread is talking about how this may or may not impact SEOs. Well, this is nothing new. We have had whole conference panels on the topic, such as Personalized Search: Fear or Not?. Plus we have shown how much the personalized results today can differ from non-personalized results. In fact, why not try turning off Google personalized results yourself and do some tests.
Is this new Google experimental test the end of SEO? Not at all. This does not add much more than what we have today with Google Personalized results. All it does it make it more visible to all of us.
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015496.html
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Google Spam Patent Explorer: "Identifying Manipulated Articles
What SEO doesn't like talking about spam? Now add a newly granted Google patent that talks about spam and an SEO is in heaven!
Bill at created a Cre8asite Forums thread about a new granted patent named Methods and systems for identifying manipulated articles. Here is the abstract:
"" Systems and methods that identify manipulated articles are described. In one embodiment, a search engine implements a method comprising determining at least one cluster comprising a plurality of articles, analyzing signals to determine an overall signal for the cluster, and determining if the articles are manipulated articles based at least in part on the overall signal.""
Bill goes into more detail at the Cre8asite Forums thread and in his blog post at SEO By The Sea. I will not recap what he wrote, since he did an excellent job explaining the patent.
In short, Google has come up with an formula for analyzing articles, placing them in a cluster and determining based on the linkage pattern between those articles if they are manipulating the web with spamming tactics.
Here is how Bill explains it:
"" A patent granted to Google today explores Web spam and the manipulation of documents and links on the Web. It describes how the rankings of pages may be influenced if they are identified as “manipulative.”
The identification of manipulative documents, how they might be grouped together, and how they could be treated by the search engine is described in some detail. That treatment might include removal of pages from the search index, reductions in rankings for pages, and possibly a change in how quality scores (PageRank) are calculated for links from manipulative pages.""
The patent application was filed about 4 years ago. So Google may or may not be using all or some of these concepts within their current day algorithm. The fun part is the discussion and application of the patent to current day SEO trends.
Bill ends his thread with a teaser, "Anyone want to talk about spam? Paid links?"
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015480.html
Bill at created a Cre8asite Forums thread about a new granted patent named Methods and systems for identifying manipulated articles. Here is the abstract:
"" Systems and methods that identify manipulated articles are described. In one embodiment, a search engine implements a method comprising determining at least one cluster comprising a plurality of articles, analyzing signals to determine an overall signal for the cluster, and determining if the articles are manipulated articles based at least in part on the overall signal.""
Bill goes into more detail at the Cre8asite Forums thread and in his blog post at SEO By The Sea. I will not recap what he wrote, since he did an excellent job explaining the patent.
In short, Google has come up with an formula for analyzing articles, placing them in a cluster and determining based on the linkage pattern between those articles if they are manipulating the web with spamming tactics.
Here is how Bill explains it:
"" A patent granted to Google today explores Web spam and the manipulation of documents and links on the Web. It describes how the rankings of pages may be influenced if they are identified as “manipulative.”
The identification of manipulative documents, how they might be grouped together, and how they could be treated by the search engine is described in some detail. That treatment might include removal of pages from the search index, reductions in rankings for pages, and possibly a change in how quality scores (PageRank) are calculated for links from manipulative pages.""
The patent application was filed about 4 years ago. So Google may or may not be using all or some of these concepts within their current day algorithm. The fun part is the discussion and application of the patent to current day SEO trends.
Bill ends his thread with a teaser, "Anyone want to talk about spam? Paid links?"
Source:http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015480.html
5 Free Or Cheap SEO Tracking Tools
There are a number of free or inexpensive search analytics tools available out there, and this article will outline a few of them that have gotten rave reviews.
Google Analytics
Google shook up the search analytics scene with the release of Urchin-powered Google Analytics. Google bought measurement powerhouse in 2005 and eventually integrated its tons of information into its Analytics product, the second incarnation of which was released early in 2007.
The good news, all that information is free.
The service allows webmasters to:
* See pie charts and maps that show who is sending traffic and what part of the world (on a city level) visitors are coming from.
* See several different reporting categories: Executive; Marketer; Webmaster; Marketing Optimization; Content Optimization.
* Integrate the information with AdWords that allows ROI reporting
* See visitor trending
Some reports say the breadth of information available through Google Analytics can be overwhelming, so there may be a bit of a learning curve for full benefits.
Compete Search Analytics
Metrics firm Compete grabbed some buzz this fall with the release of Compete Search Analytics, of which there are both free and pay versions. The company boasts:
* Keyword discovery for expanding your keyword bidding
* The ability to find gaps in competitors' strategies
* Discovery of keywords that drive visitor engagement
* Performance tracking and competitor comparison
Mint
Mint is a relative inexpensive tracking tool ($30 per site) that tracks browser type, country of origin, internal searches, outbound clicks, specific page tracking, and page trending.
It has been mentioned that Mint is fairly basic to the point that free tools would offer the same, but where it becomes worth its salt is via "Peppers," or free plug-ins created by enthusiastic developers.
SEO for Firefox
Developed by Aaron Wall, this Firefox browser plug-in allows you to see various stats about a website in the toolbar and beneath that site's search result. It tells you:
* PageRank
* Estimate of inbound links via Yahoo and MSN
* Number of .edu and .gov links to the site and pages within
* Number of del.icio.us bookmarks for a page
* Estimated Technorati links
* Alexa ranking
* How many pages are in Google's cache
* How many page are indexed in DMOZ
* How many Bloglines links
* Whether a site is indexed in Yahoo
* Whois lookup
* Age of a domain
* Google search volume trends
* Popular keywords
* Top keyword bid prices on Overture
* Bid estimates and click volume estimates on Google
SEODigger
Another free tool available, SEODigger shows:
* Which keywords your site ranks high enough for to be in Google top 20
* Analysis of user sites and competition sites,
* How well sites are optimized for search
* Information on entire domain as well as pages
Source:http://www.webpronews.com/
Google Analytics
Google shook up the search analytics scene with the release of Urchin-powered Google Analytics. Google bought measurement powerhouse in 2005 and eventually integrated its tons of information into its Analytics product, the second incarnation of which was released early in 2007.
The good news, all that information is free.
The service allows webmasters to:
* See pie charts and maps that show who is sending traffic and what part of the world (on a city level) visitors are coming from.
* See several different reporting categories: Executive; Marketer; Webmaster; Marketing Optimization; Content Optimization.
* Integrate the information with AdWords that allows ROI reporting
* See visitor trending
Some reports say the breadth of information available through Google Analytics can be overwhelming, so there may be a bit of a learning curve for full benefits.
Compete Search Analytics
Metrics firm Compete grabbed some buzz this fall with the release of Compete Search Analytics, of which there are both free and pay versions. The company boasts:
* Keyword discovery for expanding your keyword bidding
* The ability to find gaps in competitors' strategies
* Discovery of keywords that drive visitor engagement
* Performance tracking and competitor comparison
Mint
Mint is a relative inexpensive tracking tool ($30 per site) that tracks browser type, country of origin, internal searches, outbound clicks, specific page tracking, and page trending.
It has been mentioned that Mint is fairly basic to the point that free tools would offer the same, but where it becomes worth its salt is via "Peppers," or free plug-ins created by enthusiastic developers.
SEO for Firefox
Developed by Aaron Wall, this Firefox browser plug-in allows you to see various stats about a website in the toolbar and beneath that site's search result. It tells you:
* PageRank
* Estimate of inbound links via Yahoo and MSN
* Number of .edu and .gov links to the site and pages within
* Number of del.icio.us bookmarks for a page
* Estimated Technorati links
* Alexa ranking
* How many pages are in Google's cache
* How many page are indexed in DMOZ
* How many Bloglines links
* Whether a site is indexed in Yahoo
* Whois lookup
* Age of a domain
* Google search volume trends
* Popular keywords
* Top keyword bid prices on Overture
* Bid estimates and click volume estimates on Google
SEODigger
Another free tool available, SEODigger shows:
* Which keywords your site ranks high enough for to be in Google top 20
* Analysis of user sites and competition sites,
* How well sites are optimized for search
* Information on entire domain as well as pages
Source:http://www.webpronews.com/
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
SEO: How To Top The Search Engines
Just like every webmaster, you want your website to be on top when there is a query in Google. Ranking highly in organic search engine results is a key element for bringing traffic to your website. The higher you rank for search queries, the more often your website is presented to the internet community. The process to achieve these results is called search engine optimization.
The elements of good search engine optimization and ranking higher in organic search results are maintaining high web standards, accessibility and usability of your website. What improves the visibility of any site is the human usability factor, unique and quality content, easy indexing for search robots and the sites appeal to visitors.
There are many webmasters, site owners and consultants that engage in search engine optimization. It is actually considered to be a subset of search engine marketing which takes into account the optimization of website content, its keywords and meta tags. It also minimizes the use of complex scripts to increase the ability for search engine robots to crawl your website for content. If you do not have the technical expertise to optimize your own site you should search out a qualified professional to assist you.
Improving search engine optimization will involve the site’s coding for structure, presentation and correctly allowing robots to index the site. You also measure visitor traffic and the keywords that are used to find the website and the conversion of those keywords to the desired action of sign up, purchase or a certain landing page.
Another part of search engine marketing that is important for obtaining higher rankings is link building. To increase your websites visibility to the search engines and drive traffic and search engine robots to your website for indexing, you should submit your website to quality directories to increase inbound links that are relevant to your sites topic.
By taking these actions you should see an increase in traffic and inbound links to increase your search rankings.
Source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/
The elements of good search engine optimization and ranking higher in organic search results are maintaining high web standards, accessibility and usability of your website. What improves the visibility of any site is the human usability factor, unique and quality content, easy indexing for search robots and the sites appeal to visitors.
There are many webmasters, site owners and consultants that engage in search engine optimization. It is actually considered to be a subset of search engine marketing which takes into account the optimization of website content, its keywords and meta tags. It also minimizes the use of complex scripts to increase the ability for search engine robots to crawl your website for content. If you do not have the technical expertise to optimize your own site you should search out a qualified professional to assist you.
Improving search engine optimization will involve the site’s coding for structure, presentation and correctly allowing robots to index the site. You also measure visitor traffic and the keywords that are used to find the website and the conversion of those keywords to the desired action of sign up, purchase or a certain landing page.
Another part of search engine marketing that is important for obtaining higher rankings is link building. To increase your websites visibility to the search engines and drive traffic and search engine robots to your website for indexing, you should submit your website to quality directories to increase inbound links that are relevant to your sites topic.
By taking these actions you should see an increase in traffic and inbound links to increase your search rankings.
Source:http://www.americanchronicle.com/
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