With the release of Google’s Social Search on October 26, users can see blog articles or microblogging posts people within their social circle may have created relevan to their search query. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from users’ friends on other social services, GMail accounts, or in their contacts and highlights the content at the bottom of the search results. The idea is that by implementing these sources, the search results will be more customized and relevant to the searcher. NOTE: Google Social Search isn’t quite a finished product, so you’ll have to enroll in Google Experimental Labs to try it.
How does Social Search affect SEO? With the increasing of popularity of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as with the implementation of Google’s Social Search, Internet marketers should look to utilize this new real estate in developing their SEO strategies.
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You can now Preview How Rich Snippets Will Appear in Search Results (SEO)
Google’s new rich snippets testing tool allows webmasters to preview how snippets will actually appear in search results. This tool is valuable because it shows the rich snippet code for any URL. According to Google’s official blog: “Rich Snippets gives users convenient summary information about their search results at a glance”. A preview of the Rich Snippets Testing Tool is shown below:
(Image from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog)
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Google brings Adsense to Youtube
Google has now expanded its advertising reach. Now, advertisers can create an Adwords campaign that directly targets YouTube users. In the past Google has had a program called Promoted Videos within AdWords. This program allows video creators and uploaders to drive viewers to their videos by targeting YouTube searches. However, Google wanted to expand the reach of Promoted Videos by making these videos appear in Google search as well, and now it is possible. With Promoted Videos now appearing on Google Search, YouTube’s homepage, and the AdSense network, the program will receive millions of views per week, making videos a viable resource for advertisers to reach their target audience.
Go to one of the links below for the video.
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Google adds Twitter to its Search Results (SEO)
Google and Bing both announced on October 21st that they are including Twitter updates in their search results moving forward. This move will include real-time updates to your search results on both engines. Therefore, the next time you search for a breaking news story on Google don’t be surprised if the result is a Twitter page!
There are a number of SEO measures to take into consideration in order to take advantage of this latest development in search. They include:
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BING
Bing signs a deal with Facebook and Twitter (SEO)
Microsoft unveiled intentions of featuring both Twitter and Facebook post and pages in Bing results. Bing, at least currently, is using a subpage for searching tweets. This will enable users to view tweets relevant to their queries in the search engines, creating a more robust search experience. These announcements have come with mixed reviews. Many are hesitant of the high levels of spam in Twitter and the need to have some sort of a filtering system to display only quality Tweets and posts. Additionally, search marketing bloggers are expressing concern regarding how the integration will alter current search engine results and its overall affect on SEO strategies.
On the positive side, there are some promising potential outcomes of these new additions to the engines. From a searchers perspective, including Tweets and FaceBook updates in search results provides a new type of search engine experience—returning more results and indirectly creating a more interactive, conversational interface. It also provides the opportunity for real-time trending which may provide an avenue for SEO managers to get on the leading edge of new keywords. The true impact, in terms of SEO, will only be revealed as these search engine modifications are instituted.
Bottom Line—what does this mean for SEO managers? For the immediate future nothing as Google and Bing begin to unveil this new capability in the coming months, don’t be too quick to shift campaign strategies and jump on the bandwagon. Rise recommends that you wait to see how this integration plays out and continue business as usual until there is clear data to show how the integration is being used and the best way you can take advantage of it.
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YAHOO
Good-Bye to Paid Inclusion (Paid Search)
According to Search Engine News, on December 31 of this year, Yahoo will end their paid inclusion option for advertisers. Paid Inclusion, or Search Submit service, allowed customers to include their Web site in Yahoo's organic search results for an annual fee. Yahoo did not make an official announcement as to why they decided to end this service, but it is possible the closure is a result of its recent merger with Microsoft’s Bing.
Those people who had a problem with the notion of including paid, but unmarked, websites in organic search results will surely be pleased, just as those making actual money from their pay-for-inclusion sites are upset about the closure.
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Sponsored Ads to appear in Filtered Search Results (Paid Search)
Yahoo! has released a new filtered result page which provides users enhanced control in regards to what appears on their search result page. A key feature is the ability to filter results by website, including Sponsored Search ads that now appear in these results. This filtering option was designed to increase relevancy and user control over search results. When the search experience is positive and provides the most relevant results for consumers, advertisers can expect a better return.
So how does this filter work? Well, with the new search page, once the query is typed in searchers can further refine the results by clicking on links on the left-hand side of the page. This links include sites that other users find helpful and which have been frequently visited by others. If the user clicks on one of the suggested sites, he’ll get a smaller set of results from that domain only. If the user selects a site that is also a Sponsored Search advertiser, that advertiser’s ad should still be displayed in the new set of results.
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