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:
- Google Will Hide Ads If You Don't Like Them, Well Kind Of
Ever notice that if you don't click on a Google AdWords listing and refresh your search, Google may remove the top Google AdWords listing? For example, I did a Google search on "hard drives." The first time I conducted my search, Google displayed an AdWords ad at the top, above the organic listings, with the yellow background. Here is a picture: Notice the TigerDirect ad at the top. Afterwards, I refreshed the search for that - What is the SEO Impact of Changing a Site Often?
Is changing content often good from a search perspective? This question is discussed at WebmasterWorld and a lot of good information is dispensed. First of all, "changing" content should be considered carefully. It could potentially hurt your rankings, according to Tedster: If a url depends significantly on on-page factors for its ranking on a given search, then changing that content can even undermine those rankings. It's important to acknowledge that changing content is not a - Microsoft's Emphasis on Search Continues With (or Without) Yahoo
Whether or not Yahoo accepts Microsoft's bid, Microsoft seems heavily invested in search and will continue to look to compete with Google, according to Reuters. In an interview, Bill Gates is quoted as saying that Yahoo would help make the process easier, but even if they don't, Microsoft will focus on competing with Google: "We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that - Google AdWords Display URL Must Match Landing Page URL
Last week, we discussed the new Google AdWords policy where the display URL must match the landing page URL in your ads. Yesterday, Google made the policy official in the Inside AdWords blog post. Here's a snippet: In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards - 63% of AdSense Publishers Say Earnings Down in 2008
Earlier we released a poll that showed 37% of Google AdSense Publishers Earned Over a $1,000 in 2007. So on January 31st, I decided to run a new poll asking Google AdSense Earnings Way Down in January 2008? The results are in and of the 187 responses to date, 63% said their earnings are down. 63% of respondents said their AdSense earnings are down from 2007 21% of respondents said their AdSense earnings are up - Can A ODP (dmoz.org) Removal Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?
A WebmasterWorld thread has a Webmaster saying that a site of his recently was removed from the ODP. He said, soon after he noticed his rankings drop in Google. He wants to know if it can be related to the DMOZ listing removal or something else. So can a ODP removal hurt your search engine rankings? Most folks in the WebmasterWorld thread say probably not, but some aren't so convinced. WebmasterWorld moderator, pageonresults adds: Google - Microsoft Live Search Does Site Links Also
Many of you probably already know that Microsoft's Live Search has been displaying "Sitelinks" under the first search result for some queries for a while now. In fact, they have been doing this since the Microsoft Searchification Day 2007 in September 2007. Here is an example. Search on microsoft at Live Search and you get little links under the main search result: Search on microsoft at Google and you get the same thing: Yes, both - Google AdWords Still Using Past Searches To Display Target Ads
This is not new news but I wanted to demonstrate how Google AdWords tailors ads based on your past searches, since it has been coming up more often in the forums. I conducted a search for basketball shoes and the ads were for Eastbay.com, Nike.com, Finishline.com, Final-Score.com, and so on, all with titles targeting my search (here is a picture of those results). Right after that search, I decided to search for "searching for love"
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Charity Awards for Search Education (Cases), Sphinn
- How to make search engine crawling of dynamic contents less expensive, Sphinn
- Is URL Length a Ranking Factor - what say you?, WebmasterWorld
- How to get indexed by Google fast?, DigitalPoint Forums
- Issues with creating groups, Google Groups
- What Type of SEO Client Are You?, Sphinn
