Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Weekly Search Buzz Roundup: January 25, 2008: MLK Day, Yahoo Search Results go Social & Google Reverses #6 Penalty
TGIF! I can't believe how excited I am that it's the weekend. This week has been one heck of a rollercoaster. For more information, read this. Or this. :) But enough about that. Let's talk about other interesting things that occurred this week. Martin Luther King Day Monday was Martin Luther King Day, and we celebrated with a theme done by one of the newest additions to the RustyBrick team, Mabe. What do you think? - Does Google Penalize Too Many Footer Links?
What would you do if you saw hundreds of links on a website, with much of those being in the footer? Is that a natural surfing experience? Would Google penalize you for these links? The penalty might not be the issue, actually. Tedster says that you should minimize the number of your links to preferably under 100. He also adds that it is probably not so much of a penalty but it's an issue of - Some Sites Need Usability Makeovers, Not SEO
Stoney DeGeyter has written over at Search Engine Guide that not every client needs SEO. Sometimes the usability needs to be tackled first. Using an analogy, he explains that your website is like a restaurant. If the restaurant isn't accessible, people might not hang around. He drives the point home with: By fixing usability issues you can sell more while without having to spend a lot of money always trying to bring in a lot - The SEMMYs Finalists are In: Vote Now
Last week, we introduced the SEMMYs, Matt McGee's awards for his favorite blog posts. Well, folks, the judges' votes are in and you can now vote for the best of the best. Matt explains the voting procedure on his blog. For a list of finalists, go to the SEMMYs website and cast your vote. There are 15 different surveys from which to vote, so at the minimum, choose the two where I appear as a - Yahoo Search Marketing Max Keyword Limits
A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks what is the keyword limit per campaign within the Yahoo Search Marketing ad marketplace? Based on the YSM help section, you can have up to 1,000 keywords per ad group and up to 20 ads. But we learn an additional item from the thread. It appears that when you initially add the ad group, you can only add 500 keywords at that time. Then after you save your ad group, - Google May Improve Domain Park Ads With "Ad Grace Period"
Time and time again, we see complaints form advertisers and searchers that Google's domain park program is costing them time and money. Google's domain park is a way for domainers to monetize their inactive domains, by placing Google ads on the page, for searchers to then click on when they land on that page. Many advertisers dislike them and prefer to opt out of them and many searchers who land on these pages are frustrated. - Google Wants Your Medical Records : Google Health
The "health" term has been buzzing around Google for a long long time now. We believe something on the health side of things is going to be announced at Google in early 2008, which is anytime now. Google Blogoscoped captured a screen image of the Google Health login page, which showed the features that may be available in Google Health. FYI, the login page no longer contains the details of features, but here they are - SEO Company Using Generic Letter from Google to Attract New Clients
A Cre8asite Forums member tells us his client is about to leave him for another company. The reason is because this other company claims to be a "Google partner" and proved so through a letter they received for participating in, what appears to be, the Google Video upload program. The Cre8asite Forum member claims that this other company came in, pointing to a letter from Google that they host on their web site proudly. The
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Chinese Search Engine Baidu Turns Japanese, Sphinn
- Absent Google News Search Results, Google Groups
- Baidu Still Out Front In China Web Search, WebmasterWorld
- Does SEO have an image problem?, Sphinn
- Home Page Value, HighRankings Forums
- Let's talk about Twitter, HighRankings Forums
- Prisoners of War in the Battle for Paid Links, Sphinn
- Rand Fishkin & Andy Hagans No Bullshit Guide to Startup CEO's, Sphinn
- Shapes, save as PDF, and improved printing have arrived for presentations!, Google Groups
- Talk To A Live Adsense Rep @ Google, DigitalPoint Forums
