Posts Tagged latest

Bing & Yahoo Search Share Up, But Google Has Little To Fear

Written on July 13, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

Once again, Yahoo and Bing have gained share against Google, in the latest monthly search market share figures from comScore. However, questions remain on whether the growth from “slideshow” presentations should be counted as “real” searches. Meanwhile, on a volume basis, Google continued to grow, not drop, its market share.
comScore’s latest figures — [...]



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Bing & Yahoo Search Share Up, But Google Has Little To Fear

Cutting Edge Internet Marketing Class from April 21, 2010

Written on April 22, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing, searchengineguide

by Sage Lewis

I’ve just finished a class where we have gone over the latest trends and happenings in the world of Internet Marketing. We look at the most important changes in Internet marketing over the last week and what they mean to you.

This is an in-depth 43 minute interactive class.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.



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Cutting Edge Internet Marketing Class from April 21, 2010

5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix

Written on April 9, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing, seo

real-time searchSince late 2009 when Google introduced real time search, the concept has gained a lot of attention.

Today, real time search is at the top of the priority lists for all the major search engines – Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

As part of the new technology, Google is combining live updates from sites like Twitter with the latest news headlines and blog posts in search results.

For web searchers, real time search means the ability to discover breaking news the minute it’s happening.

For marketers, it presents a whole host of opportunities to increase online visibility. Here, we’ve provided five ways to leverage real time search in your online marketing efforts.

1. Develop the type of content that supports real time SEO

With real time search, frequently publishing online content becomes a must. Try incorporating these three types of content to support both traditional and real time SEO programs:

  • Tweets and Facebook fan page updates: Micro content from social sites now has the ability to appear in search results. It’s quick and easy to frequently post Tweets and Facebook fan pages updates, so both should play a big role in your real time SEO content strategy.
  • Blog posts: Blogging presents the opportunity to help your content rank and show thought leadership at the same time – since blog posts can offer more valuable information than micro content.
  • Optimized press releases: By optimizing press releases and submitting them through authoritative newswires, you can help your content achieve high rankings.

2. Mobilize your fan base

Creating a core group of brand advocates is important for a number of reasons. They recommend your products and services to their friends and family, defend your reputation in times of trouble and are more likely to adopt future products and services you introduce.

Now add one more benefit to the list: Brand advocates – particularly authoritative ones – can link to your content to help keep in the real time stream.

In addition, brand advocates who are active on social sites like Twitter can create their own content about your company that can appear in real time search results.

3. Know what’s hot in the news

With real time search, it’s important to recognize both what users are searching for online and what they’re discussing via social channels – at this very minute. Create frequently updated content that speaks to the latest topics and trends, and is optimized for the latest search terms.

A variety of tools exist to help monitor search and conversation trends:

  • Google Trends: Use this free tool to find the hottest topics and hottest searches in Google
  • Social Mention: Determine the strength, sentiment and reach for terms used throughout the social web, including blogs, microblogs, social networks, video sites and news sites
  • BlogPulse: Find the top blog posts, key phrases, new stories and more from across the search universe or related a specific topic
  • Delicious: See the types of content that goes wild across the social web
  • Trendistic: Learn trending topics in Twitter over the last 24 hours, week, month or more (see image below)

Trendistic shows “online marketing” trends over the past 30 days.

4. Time your content promotion efforts wisely

Give your content an extra boost by monitoring when blog posts, articles and other online content are indexes in Google News or Google Blog Search. Then ensure tweets, Facebook fan page updates and other social content promotions are timed right after the content is indexed. Doing so will help you take advantage of every opportunity to appear in real time search results.

5. Optimize your web site and online content for mobile technologies

Real time search is relevant on many mobile devices, including Android and iPhone devices. So Web site optimization for mobile technologies becomes even more important.

Consider these few mobile SEO tips:

  • Limit the use of images
  • Keep the design simple and clean
  • Test to ensure your site appears as it should across various mobile devices

The bottom line is, it’s crucial to take advantage of every real time search opportunity that comes around. Remember that these opportunities won’t stick around for long – presenting themselves quickly and then disappearing. It is real time, after all.

Have you implemented real time SEO into your online marketing mix? Tell us what best practices you’ve found so far.


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5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix |
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5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix

Google Testing Hotel Prices In Google Maps

Written on March 22, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

A “small portion” of Google Maps users may see the latest experiment on Google Maps: the addition of hotel prices as part of the business listing information. You’ll know that you’re one of those users if you see an interface like this next time you search for hotels on Google Maps:

The pricing information comes from [...]



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Google: The Social Media Company

Written on March 19, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing, seo

Over the last few years, the popularity of social channels – for professionals, teens, grandmas and everyone in between – has skyrocketed. Consider the recent numbers:

  • Twitter experienced an annual growth in 2009 of 1,382%
  • Facebook now boasts 400 million active users
  • Every minute, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube

Between blog posts, Facebook status updates, tweets, videos and every other piece of social content published, there’s a whole lot of information floating around out there.

Enter the latest social media player, Google.

Google’s latest activities, acquisitions and features all point to the fact that the search giant no longer has a close eye on web 2.0; it’s already there.

Here are 5 ways Google is now becoming a dominant social media player:

1. Google Social Search

Google Social Search results

Until now all of the social content in channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, hasn’t been easy to find in a central place – including through Google search.  Until now, that is.

That’s where Google Social Search comes in. It’s still in the experimental stages, but this new feature combines users’ social connections with organic searches. For example, if you were to search for “New Zealand,” social search results would appear beneath the organic search results. The tool scans your social connections’ content (based on the social accounts included in your Google profile) to create these results.

2. Google Buzz

Google Buzz

These days, it seems the social world is abuzz with talk of Google Buzz. This new product is built into Gmail and essentially turns users’ inboxes into social networks. A mobile version of Google Buzz is also available.

Here’s how it works: Google Buzz leverages current email contacts and connects you with their social profiles. Through Gmail, you can share status updates and photos, and start conversations, all through from your email.

What does this mean for your brand? You may want to consider adding Gmail to your social media marketing mix.

3. Twitter and Facebook Feeds in Search Results

Imagine the tweets highlighting your latest blog post or a new product launch getting found in organic searches. These days, that’s a reality.

At the end of February, Google happily announced on Twitter that public status updates from Facebook fan pages would now be included in real-time search. Facebook joins a long list of other social content appearing in search results including:

  • Twitter tweets
  • FriendFeed updates
  • Google Buzz posts
  • MySpace updates

Twitter and Facebook marketing efforts, then, take on new importance and new meaning. It’s now essential that all social content be optimized just as other online content is optimized.

4. Google’s Social Acquisitions

Still not convinced that Google’s sights are set on social? Just check out the list of its acquisitions over the last nine years, and count the social platforms.

In terms of sites owned by Google, the search giant has the gamut covered:

5. Google Wave

Google Wave

Google Wave

Essentially, Google Wave is 21st century email. The tool enables real-time communication and collaboration – i.e., share images, post videos, discuss ideas. Within Google Wave, you can create a message, invite other users to take part in the discussion, and add files, images, videos, you name it.

The coolest part about the tool is conversations are live, but you can rewind the wave at any time to see a previous comment.

It’s only available in limited preview right now, and you need an invitation from Google to join. Unfortunately, I’m not one of the lucky ones. Google, if you’re out there, can you hear me?

There’s no doubt about it: Google’s gone social. What’s up in the air is where it will go next. What do you think will be the next Google social media tools or applications?

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Search In Pictures: Bing Hat, Yahoo Balls & Yahoo Karate

Written on February 5, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Bing Winter Hat:

Assortment of Yahoo Golf Balls:

Yahoo Guys Karate:

Yahoo Girl Happy:



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Search In Pictures: Bing Hat, Yahoo Balls & Yahoo Karate

Yahoo Patent: Geotagging + Social = Augmented Reality

Written on February 3, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, Object, marketing

When you think about geotagging, what do you think of? GPS coordinates appended to a Tweet? Picking the location you took a photo on Flickr?

How about notes from your friends? As customary, the US Patent Office recently published a patent filed by Yahoo in July 2008, and in that patent, geotagging takes on a whole new meaning. Instead of assigning pictures a location, you can actually leave notes at a location, accessible via mobile, and networked with your friends. Want to let your friends know what your favorite restaurant is? Add a tag. When they’re in the area, their phone will let them know about your tag. And that’s just the beginning.

As Read Write Web points out, this dovetails nicely with another patent filed the month before—one that provides video, audio and other info pertinent to the user’s location. This latest patent builds on both these ideas:

The technology described in this latest patent isn’t just location-based social networking, or Augmented Reality “air tagging” – it includes social graph analysis, permissioning, expiration dates, contextual advertising and more. It’s not just text notes, it includes methods of augmented reality with photos, videos and more. While the most popular mobile augmented reality apps on the market today focus on text on top of locations – there’s no reason why reality can’t be augmented in other ways as well.

Notes can also be tied to non-stationary objects, including people (well, more likely their phones) and vehicles.

The patent is not yet granted—once a patent is published, the USTPO reviews it in due time.

Google has made a few location inroads—Latitude to publish users’ locations, a year ago, and “Near Me Now” to offer nearby business suggestions, last month. However, if Yahoo is currently developing the technology to make their patents a reality, Google has a long way to go to catch up.

Yahoo isn’t the first to develop solutions for augmented reality—but they might be the best known. With the huge userbase they already have, they probably stand a better chance than most of the competitors in the field.

What do you think? Will Yahoo pursue this technology—and if so, will they lead the way for mass adoption?



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Yahoo Patent: Geotagging + Social = Augmented Reality

5 Ingredients for a Perfect Twitter Marketing Recipe

Written on January 29, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing, seo

After reading Lee’s post earlier this week on how to source content on Twitter, I started to think about the homemade guacamole I made for the football playoff games last weekend. Stick with me here.

With my guacamole, I carefully strategize on the right mix of each ingredient to achieve the perfect flavor and consistency.

Not enough lemon and lime juice, and the avocados brown too quickly.

Too much garlic salt, and the guacamole gets a pungent taste.

Twitter as a marketing tool is much the same way.

Too much product pushing and self-inflation, and your followers head for the hills in droves.

Too little interaction and communication, and your followers forget you exist altogether.

A successful Twitter marketing strategy must include a balance of different but complementary elements. Ensure the right mix with these 5 ingredients for the perfect Twitter Marketing recipe:

1. Relevant, informative content
You don’t always have to go out in search of new, interesting content to promote on Twitter. Your company likely already has produced a host of existing content that can be leveraged.

Twitter is the ideal medium for sharing and promoting:

  • Tips leveraged from a blog post
  • Information on upcoming events
  • Research from a recent whitepaper
  • Webinars with industry thought leaders
  • Interesting statistics from press releases

For example, TopRank implemented a Twitter marketing strategy to help promote blog content for a client that provides syndicated content to media outlets. Each day, TopRank crafts 3-4 tweets highlighting the most interesting and intriguing elements of new blog posts, with links to the posts. In just three months, the client has increased its followers by nearly 64% to more than 1,500. The tweets were responsible for more than 1,000 visits to the blog during the same timeframe.

2. Relevant, informative content … that’s not yours
In addition to sharing your own content from blogs, whitepapers, press releases and the like, leverage content from outside sources as well.

The good news: Staying up-to-date on the latest news from across an entire industry doesn’t necessarily have to consume a lot of extra time:

  • Subscribe to industry publications’ e-newsletters to receive the latest content in your inbox
  • Sign up for the RSS feeds of several prominent industry blogs to get notified of fresh content
  • Set up daily Google Alerts for a few relevant terms to receive the latest news articles and blog posts

It’s as simple as highlighting the most interesting part of the article or blog post – i.e., a surprising statistic, a quick tip – and offering a link to the original source.

3. Product offers and promotions
Twitter can be an effective marketing channel for sending promotional messages – when combined with other types of content.

Offer timely sales information and coupons, since the nature of Twitter allows followers to respond to promotions quickly. Provide exclusive offers to build a sense of ownership among followers, and give Twitter users an incentive to follow your brand.

Dell, for example, uses Twitter to post product coupons and new product information on a daily basis. Complementing these promotional tweets, Dell also uses Twitter to provide immediate service and elicit customer feedback. So far, the company attributes $3 million in revenue to Twitter efforts.

4. Customer service
Using Twitter to provide customer service and support empowers brands to address issues quickly, supplement formal call centers, and improve brand image. Offering customer support via Twitter involves two elements:

  • Monitoring and responding: Use a service like TweetBeep to be notified by email of any brand mention – positive or negative. Then respond accordingly, but quickly and transparently.
  • Eliciting feedback: Ask questions like: What features were missing from our latest software release? What subject would you like to learn more about in our next webinar? Don’t forget to acknowledge responses.

5. Retweets
Don’t underestimate the usefulness of the retweet, posting the same tweet of others that you think will be useful to your own following. Retweeting can help you:

  • Increase your following
  • Get your own content retweeted

Then again, don’t overestimate retweets either. If all the content you are providing can be found elsewhere, what’s the use of following?

Take some time this month to reassess how you and your company use Twitter. Is there too much of one ingredient and not enough of another? Where does Twitter use fit within your overall social media marketing strategy? Tweak the way you use Twitter until you’ve got the perfect recipe for brand engagement, interaction and awareness.

What ingredients do you include in your Twitter marketing strategy?

Be sure to connect with TopRank on Twitter!

Experian Hitwise: Google Passes 72% U.S. Market Share

Written on January 14, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

Google surpassed 72% U.S. market share in December according to the latest numbers from Experian Hitwise. For Google, that represents a slight gain over November’s share of all U.S. searches. Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com all saw their search share drop from November to December.

In a separate blog post, Hitwise’s Bill Tancer says Bing’s search “success [...]



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Experian Hitwise: Google Passes 72% U.S. Market Share

Don’t Forget The Place Your Customers Call Home

Written on January 11, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, Object

A new year offers new opportunities for local search providers and small business customers to reevaluate their advertising strategies to reflect the latest consumer usage trends and economic realities.
On December 31st, Yellow Pages directory publisher Idearc emerged from bankruptcy with a new name, SuperMedia, and a fresh understanding that new initiatives in the online and [...]



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Don’t Forget The Place Your Customers Call Home