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 Launches Insights for Search
At Search Engine Land, Barry talks about a brand new tool -- Google Insights for Search. The tool is intended to give advertisers and marketers some metrics of user behavior. In the screenshot below, you can see these metrics, which include geographic distribution, time trending, and news headlines. What you don't see (but is also included) are related search terms and rising trends. (Click for larger image) Interestingly enough, the map is interactive and is - How Many of You Meet with SEO Clients?
In a High Rankings Forums thread, forum members discuss whether they meet with their SEO clients or not. It must depend on how the business is structured (and if the client is local), but in the latter case, if the client is local and you're charging hourly, most people don't see why this would be a problem. The frequency of meetings is also discussed. Again, the geographic location plays a role here, but it also - Google AdWords Schedules Downtime on August 9th
Google AdWords will be unavailable on August 9th between 10AM and 2PM PDT on Saturday, August 9th, we've learned, while system maintenance is performed. Ads will continue to run, but you won't be able to access the AdWords interface to make any changes. The API will also be unavailable. Forum discussion continues at Google Groups. - SEOs Split On Buying Links Have The NoFollow Attribute
In May I ran an informal poll asking Would You Buy a Link With a NoFollow Attribute? In short, a nofollow attribute is an HTML attribute you add to a hyperlink that tells the search engines that you do not vouch for this link. Most search engines will not count that link as a vote for the site it is linking to. I was actually surprised by the results. They were split down the middle. - Is Yahoo Search More Relevant Now? SEOs Claim "More Like Google"
Yahoo conducted an update to their search engine over the weekend. We reported on the early discussion around the update and it then became official when the Yahoo Search Blog confirmed the update later in the day. But since then, I have been hearing and reading discussion that the new Yahoo Search results are more like Google. And since Google tends to be the barometer of what is "relevant" and what is not, maybe Yahoo's - Google AdWords Keyword Tool Suffers Temporary Outage
About a month ago, Google's external keyword tool began to show search volume numbers. Last night, there were reports via WebmasterWorld that the tool stopped showing these estimated search volume numbers, all together. The reports were sending back error messages that read, "Insufficient Data." This happened for any and all keywords searches between the times of about 5pm (EST) and 10pm (EST) last night, August 5th. I personally tested the tool this morning and most - WebPosition Ranking Software Being Blocked by Google?
The historically popular search engine ranking software, WebPosition, has reportedly been blocked by Google from checking rankings automatically. A WebmasterWorld thread reports that WebPosition is no longer able to process one's search rankings as of August 5, 2008. Old time WebmasterWorld member, Barbara 'WebMama' Coll, who has been a member of WebmasterWorld since 2002, said: Has anyone else noticed that after years of threatening it appears that Google has now blocked WP Gold from reporting
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- AdWords API ReportJob name length restriction?, Google Groups
- Dear SEO Community, It's Not Me, It's You, Sphinn
- Google Translation Center, DigitalPoint Forums
- How many of you have Google as Home Page?, DigitalPoint Forums
- Investor, Capital Research, Wants Yahoo Shareholder Vote Probe, WebmasterWorld
- Robots.txt vs. JavaScript for Robot Control, WebmasterWorld
- The Most Important Party at SES San Jose, Sphinn
- Website Credibility and Adsense, WebmasterWorld
