OpenAI, the AI research firm behind ChatGPT, has released a new tool to distinguish between AI-generated and human-generated text.
The post OpenAI Releases Tool To Detect AI-Written Content appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, today released an AI Text Classifier that might be able to help you determine whether the text you’re reading was written by AI or a human.
But there’s a but.
OpenAI notes it’s “impossible to reliably detect all AI-written text” and it has “not thoroughly assessed the effectiveness of the classifier in detecting content written in collaboration with human authors.”
Why we care. There are already a variety of AI content detectors. If these tools are able to do a fairly effective job of identifying AI-generated text, it’s safe to assume search engines can. Think: Google’s helpful content system.
Also, if you are publishing content, it may be smart of you to run any content submitted by your agency or freelance writers through these tools. We’re entering a new era – and you don’t want to publish anything that could potentially get your site flagged as publishing automatically generated content, which is against Google’s guidelines. We have already started using tools like this for all contributed content here at Search Engine Land.
What is the AI Text Classifier? OpenAI calls its new tool a “fine-tuned GPT model that predicts how likely it is that a piece of text was generated by AI from a variety of sources, such as ChatGPT.”
It has some limitations – most notably the results may be inaccurate. OpenAI primarily trained the tool on English content written by adults so it’s entirely likely there will be false positives. Also, as OpenAI pointed out, it’s easy to edit AI-generated text to pass as human-generated. As noted in its FAQ section:
The results of the classifier. After you paste your text into tool (Open AI says you need a minimum of 1,000 characters, which is roughly 150-250 words) the AI Text Classifier will evaluate whether the text was generated using AI. You will see one of five labels:
Here were the results after I pasted in the text of this article you’re reading (human written, I swear):
And thankfully, the classifier thought it was “very unlikely” that this article was AI-generated.
Try out the tool for yourself. OpenAI’s AI Text Classifier. It’s free.
More coverage. You can read OpenAI’s announcement here: New AI classifier for indicating AI-written text. You can see more coverage on Techmeme.
The post OpenAI launches new tool to detect AI-generated text appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Twitter has just announced the end of CoTweets. They put out a statement in their Help Center that the new feature, which started in July, will be sunset by the end of the day on January 31, 2023.
A CoTweet is a tweet that has two authors’ profile pictures and user names. A CoTweet appears on both users’ profiles and is shown to all of their followers.
Twitter warned us about this. When the CoTweet experiment was announced, it was also made known that this may not be a permanent feature and that it could go away.
Why we care. This feature was a short-lived experiment with the potential for brands and individuals to reach wider audiences. Clearly, Twitter deemed the feature a loser under Elon Musk after not meeting expectations.
The post Twitter announces the end of CoTweets appeared first on Search Engine Land.
OpenAI has released an update to its popular language model, ChatGPT, to enhance its accuracy and improve its ability to handle math equations.
The post ChatGPT Update: Improved Math Capabilities appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
You can now customize SEO titles and descriptions for any LinkedIn articles you will publish or have already published.
Why we care. Whether you’re using LinkedIn to grow an audience for yourself, your company or your clients, you want to take advantage of every opportunity you can to increase your search visibility and discoverability. This is super basic SEO – and it’s likely you were probably already creating your headlines with search in mind already. But it is a nice option to let you optimize your content specifically for search.
How it works. Click on Write article. Under the Publishing menu in the article navigation pulldown menu, click on Settings.
Here’s you’ll see two fields:
What it looks like. Here’s a screenshot:
Newsletters gain visibility in search. LinkedIn is also increasing the prominence of Newsletters in search results. Now if a LinkedIn creator offers a newsletter, it will appear under the author’s name, along with a Subscribe button. Here’s an example:
Scheduled articles coming soon. LinkedIn also announced the article and newsletter authors will be able to schedule articles. These will work in the same way as scheduled posts.
And more. You can see all this news and more in the latest Building LinkedIn newsletter: Creators’ Edition: newsletters enhancements, SEO, analytics & more + Inspiring conversations about building character, finding your next play, AR & AI
The post LinkedIn now lets you add an SEO title and description appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Virtually all ChatGPT content contain one or more of these flaws. This is how to prevent them.
The post 11 Disadvantages Of ChatGPT Content appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Creating content to satisfy long-tail search queries is an often-overlooked strategy. It’s easy to go after bigger wins, but focusing on the smaller gains can lead to powerful long-term results. Many times in SEO, slow and steady wins the race.
Search has been evolving and talking about keywords might seem old-fashioned. But long-tail queries have never been more important.
As search is second nature for many people these days and voice search gains popularity, searches are becoming more conversational. Creating content to satisfy this type of query can be really beneficial.
To get the best results from this strategy you need to approach it thoughtfully. In this article, I’ll cover some tips to get more SEO benefits from long-tail queries.
Long-tail keywords are specific words or phrases that tend to have a better conversion value. They are usually longer (three to five words) and have a lower search volume.
If long-tail keywords are not part of your strategy, you miss out on many opportunities. Nearly 95% of U.S. search queries get less than 10 searches per month, a large-scale study by Ahrefs revealed.
It’s also widely accepted that 15% of search queries on Google are new. This statistic has been confirmed by Google many times, most recently in 2022 as reported by Barry Schwartz on Search Engine Roundtable.
Long-tail queries can be easier to rank for and have the potential to eliminate ambiguity to drive qualified traffic and conversions.
A long-tail SEO strategy is a technique that places a focus on lower-volume search terms. This SEO tactic capitalizes on a lower competition rate to drive qualified website traffic.
It can be a really effective approach because the searcher’s intent is usually much clearer with long-tail terms. This gives you an opportunity to make sure you capture really relevant, valuable traffic.
While leveraging long-tail keywords can be powerful and effective, it’s important to go about this in a planned and considered way.
Here are my top tips for getting the best results from your long-tail opportunities.
A long-tail keyword strategy is ideal for gaining traction in a new market.
If you’re starting a new site or covering a new topic, putting your focus on long-tail keyword phrases within your content can help to give you visibility with the right target audience.
By their nature, long-tail keywords are less frequently searched for and very specific. This means the people searching for them tend to have a very clear intent.
Creating great content to satisfy these queries is ideal for building your reputation with the right people. It’s also a great SEO strategy to get things off the ground and build rankings around topics relevant to your niche.
For example, here’s Amore Coffee, a small coffee machine rental company in the UK, making the most of the long-tail.
That’s just one example, but across their website, they have managed to rank for a variety of detailed, long-tail queries around their main topic of coffee in the UK:
This forms a good basis for their target audience to discover them via search engines.
They’re unlikely to be driving huge amounts of traffic but they will be reaching people who are really interested in what they have to offer.
When working with long-tail queries, it’s important to be thoughtful with your choices. Don’t just create content for the sake of it.
Select topics that are very closely related to your area of expertise, or product offering. Don’t stray too far from your core business goals.
Make sure you can create highly relevant content that’s helpful and adds value. This will help you avoid the trap of taking a “search-engine-first” approach, which Google actively discourages in its helpful content guidelines.
The “don’ts” include:
• Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?
What creators should know about Google’s August 2022 Helpful Content update, Google Search Central Blog
• Are you producing lots of content on different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
In most topic areas, there are many relevant long-tail queries to work on.
The road to success starts by choosing the right ones and keeping them unwaveringly fitting to your audience and goals.
Before you start working on your content, think about what you aim to do.
Your primary goal will influence the content you write.
For the long-tail query “how much value will an extension add to my house” in the UK, Yopa clinched the featured snippet with their simple and objective answer:
Overall, Yopa now gets more organic traffic from their article:
However, Check a Trade’s more detailed article ranks well organically and has better overall search visibility.
So, having a clear idea of what would be most beneficial to your business before you start work can help you to gain the results you need.
Spend time and effort researching before you start. Some great keyword research tools that can help you find long-tail keywords include Answer the Public, Also Asked, and Answer Socrates.
You can mine long-tail keyword data from tools like Semrush and Ahrefs. Industry forums, Reddit and Quora, can help add another dimension to your research.
Nothing beats thorough research. It gives you extra insight into the way your target audience is searching, the topics that are interesting to them and common themes within a topic area. Don’t skimp on this step, even if the sheer volume of ideas might seem overwhelming at first.
Use your research to define long-tail keywords that really matter to you and your audience. Building a strong strategy to support your main aims (and back up those valuable short-tail keywords) is much more effective than taking a random approach.
Just look at all the questions you could answer about SEO strategy that can be generated in seconds:
Some of these will overlap and others will be relevant to certain companies or publications.
Take your time to assess the opportunities, do further research and really get into the mindset of your audience before you embark on your long-tail journey.
A common question about targeting specific long-tail keywords is “what about search volume?”
It’s a conundrum. As SEO professionals, it can seem counter-intuitive to spend time and effort creating content around search queries that have zero or low search volume according to keyword research tools.
The trick with a long-tail strategy is not to be concerned with search volume. It’s more important to ask yourself whether the query is relevant to your business and if it is something you can add value to.
Through a long-tail strategy, you can gain an in-depth understanding of the gaps in your audience’s knowledge and help to optimize their search experience.
Mark Williams-Cook covers the topic of zero-volume keywords and why they’re important in detail in his recent Brighton SEO presentation. You can also watch the accompanying video for some in-depth advice.
Each individual search term might have a low search volume. But there’s a reason for this. It’s often because longer keyword phrases can be input in many different ways. The search intent might be the same but different people will phrase this in different ways.
Moreover, many of these specific keywords are interrelated and cover different facets of the same topic. If you’re writing a long-form article, you can generate more traffic by covering a whole host of long-tail phrases in one detailed resource.
Every successful piece of content ranks for multiple keywords, so think about the combination of terms you’d like to include in your content rather than focusing on specific keywords.
Here’s an example of a popular article on Search Engine Land about how Google uses artificial intelligence. This snapshot shows a small selection of the long-tail keywords it ranks for:
You can see these all cover the same theme but may discuss different facets of this theme.
This is keyword clustering, but in real terms, it’s organizing things effectively for readers and following a logical structure.
To really harness the power of a long-tail strategy, create a series of related articles focusing on different, closely related keyword clusters.
Link these articles together to create clear pathways from one topic to the next, and build them all around a cornerstone page that targets your head term.
This approach is known as a hub-and-spoke or pillar page and topic cluster method.
Each article contains a series of related keywords that forms a useful resource. Linking them together helps search engines contextualize them and helps users to access information that might be useful to them without leaving your site.
For example, Express Doors Direct clusters all their useful articles around internal doors in a way that’s accessible from the main category page to support the user journey:
This way, if their website visitors have questions about their purchase they can get easy access to support.
Search engines can determine that all this content is related and supports the overall topic of internal doors.
Targeting one long-tail term isn’t going to have an impact. If you want to embrace this approach, you need to think long-term.
Plan to spend time on your long-tail strategy every month and create the amount of high-quality content your limitations allow. For a small site, this might be one article, for bigger teams you could tackle many.
Be consistent, structured and organized. Make future plans and stick to them.
Idea generation, research, content creation and optimization should be ongoing processes. This is a long-term strategy and not a quick win. Putting the work in on a regular basis can really pay off.
Test, learn and optimize. Once your content has been established, use Google Search Console data to discover the long-tail keywords it’s ranking for.
You might uncover phrases that you hadn’t originally thought of. This could provide opportunities for further optimization or additional content.
You’ll also find opportunities to improve if the content didn’t fulfill your original goals.
If you haven’t captured that featured snipped or PAA box you were after, review the length of your text, the objectivity and the entities you’ve included. Google’s Natural Language Processing tool is really useful for assessing this.
A little optimization goes a long way. It keeps content fresh and up to date, providing a better user experience.
My final tip is to embrace your long-tail strategy. Opportunities are rich and the results can be really rewarding.
Get started and see where it takes you. You might be surprised by what you learn about your audience and who you reach with your content.
The post 9 tips to get the full SEO benefits of long-tail keywords appeared first on Search Engine Land.
One of the most popular formats for written online content is the humble listicle.
55% of bloggers say they’ve published a listicle in the last 12 months (only how-to articles rank higher).
But this popularity exists precisely because people love to read lists.
We love clicking on list headlines because they’re incredibly specific and set an expectation for what’s inside the article. We know what we’re getting into, and it’s satisfying to behold.
We love reading lists because our brains are wired for this exact type of information sorting.
And, by the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll love writing listicles, too.
A listicle is a type of content that smashes together two things: an article and a list.
Simply put, in a listicle, you present information formatted as a detailed list. Usually, accompanying each list item will be a few paragraphs of description to help the reader understand it, to give them background or history on it, or to explain why it matters.
Listicles are formatted in a very specific way, with each list item denoted with a numbered subheading.
Here’s a good example from a Reader’s Digest listicle of the 100 Best Books of All Time. Each book’s title is a numbered point on the list formatted as a heading. Underneath each list item is a summary of the book, why it made the list, and why you should read it.
Listicles are one of the most popular content types for a ton of reasons:
Writing listicles and publishing them as part of your content strategy is also useful for meeting brand content and SEO goals.
Listicles tend to get great engagement – when people see a typical listicle headline, they’re more likely to click it.
In a BuzzSumo study of the most-shared headlines, articles that got the highest engagement started with a number, e.g., “7 unique ways to decorate for the holidays” or “10 of the best books of all time.”
Half of the top 10 SEO expert columns on Search Engine Land in 2022 were listicles. (And that article itself is one example of a listicle.)
Don’t forget keyword rankings. If your listicles are properly researched and optimized for the right topics/keywords, they’ll rank in search engines, grab clicks, and drive traffic and leads to your website.
So, let’s answer the question: How do you write a good listicle that accomplishes all these things?
Writing listicles can be extremely straightforward. However, you can take your listicles to the next level by incorporating these steps.
First, make sure you choose a topic that lends itself to a list – not every topic will work for writing a listicle.
The best listicle topics are straightforward and easily sorted into a list. If you do your sorting and are left with dangling information that wouldn’t make sense as part of your list, you need to rethink the topic or hone it.
For example, this article you’re reading could have been a listicle, but ultimately all the information I wanted to share wouldn’t fit neatly inside the list format (such as the definition of a listicle and why you should write one). These “danglers” ruin the list – and defeat the neatness, simplicity, and satisfaction inherent in the format.
Long story short: If you can’t fit all the information in your article neatly inside a list, you shouldn’t write it as a listicle.
Thankfully, your listicle headline should write itself – but it shouldn’t be clickbaity.
Click-bait headlines promise more than they deliver. That means your headline initially excites your reader in some way, but when they click and start reading, they immediately feel let down.
Avoid this by getting clear and specific about what your article will include. Describe that in your headline, including the exact number of steps/points your list contains.
For example, if I was writing a listicle about the best eco-friendly clothing companies, I would word it like this:
“10 amazing eco-friendly clothing brands for the earth-conscious shopper”
Or, if I was writing a listicle of tips to save money on heating/cooling:
“5 simple tips to save money on heating and cooling your home”
These headlines are descriptive, but they don’t over-promise. They’re also front-loaded with the number of points in the list.
This listicle headline from a plumber is another great example. It’s simple but effective:
Next, lay out all the steps, points, or items in your listicle. Write them out as a simple list and number them accordingly.
This is your outline – a very helpful step that allows you to see your entire article at a glance and ensure it makes sense from a zoomed-out perspective.
At this point, ensure that your list items are ordered as logically as possible.
For example, this listicle by Baking Kneads offers 13 tips for baking a cake. The tips follow a logical order, starting with prepping ingredients and ending with the right frosting technique.
As you’re outlining your listicle, don’t say, “I must write 13 points or else...”
That’s a recipe for an unsatisfying list. What if you have way more valuable information than that? What if you could easily write a list of 25 points, each one of them useful?
On the other hand, what if you struggle to come up with more list items after number 7? The remainder of your points probably won’t be that valuable or interesting – and that’s how you end up with useless fluff.
Instead, let your topic guide you on how much information you need to satisfy readers – and how long your list should be.
Great example: Plenty of people will tell you that including a certain number of items in your listicle is more engaging and will earn more clicks and reads. Some say to only use odd numbers, others stick to multiples of 5, and a few only build lists with 1-9 items.
This Backlinko listicle completely throws all those “best practices” out the window by including 200(!) items.
To write a truly useful list article, make each point or list item as clear and valuable as possible. This means being specific, actionable, and descriptive.
For example, if I was writing a listicle of fall gardening tips, it would be easy to be vague, like:
“But wait!” my green-thumb readers would think. “Plant what bulbs? Prune what?”
These steps only hit one target: They’re actionable. But, to be clear and valuable, they must be specific and descriptive, too. Here’s how I would edit them:
Yes, you could describe these actions in the paragraph text. But, you’ll make your overarching list more valuable (and optimized) if you get clearer at the list level. For the scanning reader, especially, this is super useful. It also helps search engine crawlers understand what your content is about.
Here’s a good example of that from a gardening tips listicle by Eartheasy:
Always use the same format for every listicle you write.
Sure, you could skip the formatting and just do whatever feels right. But remember that listicles are popular precisely because of their numbered list format. It’s the reason they’re so engaging and attention-grabbing. So why mess with a proven standard?
Here are the general rules to follow:
Finally, if your list is super-long, consider grouping it by categories.
For example, a listicle of Christmas stocking stuffer ideas is grouped by type of gift:
Don’t get overwhelmed when writing your listicle. Though there are lots of tiny details that will help your content rank better and earn more reads, you probably have an instinct about creating a good list already.
Think about it: How many listicles have you consumed in the last week alone? The last month? If you’re like most online readers, it’s probably a lot more than you realized.
Take all the things you love about listicles and pour them into your content. Add in these steps and tips, and mix well. Your effective listicle will be ready for your content calendar in no time.
The post How to write a listicle (with 6 examples) appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Yahoo Search seems like it will be making a come back in the future. Yahoo has been dropping hints over the past couple of weeks related to this return and is also hiring a Principal Product Manager for the Yahoo Search platform to help lead these initiatives.
The job posting. Yahoo posted a job listing for a “Principal Product Manager, Yahoo Search” a few weeks ago. The job posting, in part, reads, “We’re looking for a Product Manager for Search at Yahoo. We are looking for folks that are interested in pushing beyond the status quo to change the way folks interact and use search.”
“As a Product Manager for Search, you will help develop our search strategy and roadmap and lead its execution. The ideal candidate will leverage strong organizational skills and deep subject matter expertise to partner with design, science, engineering, and other key cross-functional teams. You will determine what we prioritize for our customers in our search experiences and bring the vision to life. You will also lead the effort to discover and amplify content from across the vast Yahoo ecosystem to create new and innovative search experiences across surfaces and for our Search App. The role is also responsible for identifying and documenting product and business requirements and taking them from concept to production, while working with a broad set of stakeholders that include marketing, sales, legal, editorial, design, UXR, and other teams,” it continues to read.
Twitter hints. Yahoo has reactivated its Twitter account for Yahoo Search, posting teasers throughout the past couple of weeks. Here are some of those:
The year of the
— Yahoo Search (@YahooSearch) January 22, 2023is said to bring tranquil energy and opportunity for prosperity.
Love that for us.
Yahoo executives. Brian Provost, SVP & GM, Yahoo posted on LinkedIn about this job listing and wrote, “There’s going to be so much innovation in Search in the coming years and there aren’t many places where you can immediately have an impact this big. Would love to hear from you if you have a passion for Search and building product experiences.”
Karen Chin, Sr. Director of Product Management at Yahoo, posted on LinkedIn as well saying, “Looking to drive meaningful and innovative experiences for millions of users? We are looking for a seasoned Search Product Manager to take search into the next phase! Share and join us.”
Jim Lanzone, Chief Executive Officer at Yahoo, took the helm of Yahoo in September 2021. Jim has a lot of deep roots in search. He worked at Ask.com for 7 years, starting in 2001 as an SVP, Product Management, then in 2004 as the SVP and GM of Ask Jeeves and then taking over as CEO in 2006. After Ask.com he became the President and CEO of CBS Interactive, then the CEO at Tinder and now at Yahoo as their CEO. It will be exciting to see what Yahoo Search does under Jim’s leadership, he is a creative mind that produced a lot of search innovation while at Ask.
Why we care. Personally, I cannot wait to see what Jim and his team come up with for Yahoo Search. I am excited to see what new ideas, interfaces, and concepts the team brings to Yahoo Search. Yahoo was a pretty big player in search in the early days, then the company continued to decline and even Google veteran Marissa Mayer could not save the company.
But now Yahoo has a blank slate and it will be very exciting to see if Yahoo can compete again.
The post Yahoo is making a return to search appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Find out why sitelink assets (formerly sitelink extensions) are my favorite feature and how to use them in Google Ads.
The post Sitelink Assets (Extensions) Best Practices & Examples appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
While these practices sound familiar, you cannot go wrong with the basics. Follow these top 7 tips into the new year and bring in traffic.
The post 7 Content Marketing Best Practices In 2023 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
In 2020, following critical articles about its data collection and sales practices, analytics firm Jumpshot was shut down by its parent company Avast.
Jumpshot was made famous within the SEO industry by SparkToro founder Rand Fishkin’s (heavily criticized and widely circulated) zero-click analysis and presentations.
Articles from Vice, PC Mag and Motherboard claimed that Avast and Jumpshot were “secretly harvesting” users’ browsing behavior, packaging it and reselling without their full knowledge.
Fishkin defended the company and faulted the publications for what he said was incomplete and biased reporting.
Read all about it in With Jumpshot shuttered, where will SEOs get their ‘zero-click’ fix now?
Dig deeper:
2022: This document explained how SafeSearch works and added some troubleshooting.
2020: The new-ish Apple Maps has a range of improved features and content
2020: Early looks at the new campaign type and native ad formats that have had little fanfare since launching in beta.
2019: In anticipation of the old Google Search Console going away, Google moved the security issues into the new version.
2019: Google began incorporating YouTube into its Search Partners network.
2019: While Amazon and LinkedIn cracked the top five, Marketing Land’s Digital Agency Survey found second-tier platforms were much less likely to see spending increases in the coming year.
2019: Microsoft released three location APIs: Bing Maps Location Recognition, Bing Maps Local Search API and Bing Maps Local Insights API.
2018: Google explained what featured snippets are, the various user interfaces and treatments you can get from these featured snippets and how they interact with desktop, mobile and voice search results.
2018: Advertisers could quickly see performance by audience and benchmark against non-targeted users.
2017: A report found that AMP results shown in the Google News section for mobile users had more than doubled in the past several days.
2017: The Doodle featured Korematsu with his Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2015: A new Word Count Query dimension in Analytics let advertisers quickly compare head terms and long-tail queries.
2015: Google Now could now be integrated with 30+ developer apps.
2015: Bing’s search results included original content and almost anything a fan would need to know before the game starts.
2015: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
2014: That was an increase of 17% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012.
2014: It had been over a year since Graph Search launched.
2014: After attention was drawn to the fact it dropped links to competing financial websites, Google quietly restored the links.
2014: The local business info included basic business information, photos, hours of operation and some data specific to the business type.
2013: The beta was open only to electrical and electronics industries.
2013: 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had 50% more searches than Raven’s quarterback Joe Flacco.
2013: Some people on Google+ have added satirical, fake reviews to locations in North Korea.
2012: Yandex licensed data from Nokia-owned Navteq to offer better and more comprehensive maps coverage around the world.
2012: FAA Mobile Web App, USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, National Archives Transcription Pilot Project and more.
2011: Many iOS users on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices reported seeing the instant previews button on the right side of the search result.
2011: Google showed live snow results on the search results for ski resorts. The weather results had a slider and larger real estate for interacting with the weather.
2010: Google Street View was terribly unintuitive on the iPhone.
2009: Rather than fixing its problems and earning more revenue by doing something advertisers actually want, Yahoo seemed more interested in doing manual tweaks to advertiser accounts – without explicit permission – to generate more money.
2009: It enabled search marketers to define various kinds of actions or “conversions” (e.g., newsletter sign-up, ecommerce transactions, email capture).
2008: In particular, Google Universal Search filled more than just 10 spots on the page, while shopping and blog search results were among the new resources being included.
2008: Total revenue in Q4 was $1.83 billion, which represented 8% growth year-over-year ($1.7 billion). Full year 2007 revenues for Yahoo were $6.97 billion.
2008: Searching for [dangerous cult] returned the Scientology website in Position 1.
2008: The US Geological Survey and Google made global earthquake data available in Google Earth as one of the layers under “Places of Interest.”
2007: Conducting searches on Google.com for local-specific information could now return local reviews and business comparisons.
2007: You could now delete URLs from Yahoo’s index with a click of a button.
2007: Anyone could place code on their website to show off the number of links they have to a specific page or to their site.
2007: The industry average click fraud rate in Q4 2006 was 14.2% versus 13.8% for Q3, 14.1% for Q2 and 13.7% for Q1.
2007: The Google Mini would “enable companies to perform searches on intranets as well as internal business applications.”
2007: The feature would let users send SMS messages to their Orkut friends from their mobile phones.
2007: When you received an email in your Gmail account, and it contained a Google Docs or Spreadsheet file, the file would have a link to “Open as a Google Document.”
These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
< January 29 | Search Marketing History | January 31 >
The post This day in search marketing history: January 30 appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Here are the 10 SEO competitive analysis tools that you need to know.
The post 10 Tools You Can Use For SEO Competitive Analysis appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted, “Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).”
Buzzea was less than thrilled about being called a link network, saying they “oppose this assertion since we never stopped wanting to keep the ethical side of sponsored articles focusing on quality and natural links created.” As a result of the penalty, Buzzea officially called it quits.
Read all about it in Google Takes Down Another Link Network, France’s Buzzea.
This was hardly the first link network Google had gone after:
Buzzea would be just the first of several link networks Google identified and took action against later in 2014:
2021: Citing advertisers’ brand safety concerns, Facebook said the feature would allow marketers to choose whether to show their ads alongside potentially sensitive content.
2020: URLs shown in featured snippets that appeared in the right rail of Google desktop results would continue to be included in the main organic listings.
2020: In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he chatted with Barone about the older days of SEO and then moved on to how her career has changed over the years.
2019: Search marketing experts offered feedback on when to pay for search analytics tools, factors to consider and making the most out of what you buy.
2019: Google added a microphone to the Google.com search field on Android phones to enable mobile web voice search.
2018: A button in the beta Search Console explained why all of the old reports had not been migrated.
2018: Bing and Yahoo saw search ad spend jump 32% year-over-year. Google spend slowed slightly from Q3.
2016: Retail advertising spend on mobile Shopping ads nearly doubled year-over-year in Q4.
2016: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.
2014: That was Cutts’ answer to “Should I build links using article directories?”
2014: Two previous antitrust settlements were strenuously opposed and thus defeated by Google critics and competitors.
2014: Google was asked to pay $15.8 million in 2012. The plaintiffs were also seeking ongoing royalties, which the court awarded.
2014: There were also “photos,” “people you follow” and “near you” filters to further refine results.
2014: Bing also measured player searches, with Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning winning 72% of the searches over Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson.
2014: iOS and Android users could earn Bing Rewards credits (toward gift cards for brands like Amazon, Xbox and Dominos) by performing searches on their phone.
2013: Those advertisers were rewarded with higher click-through rates and lower cost-per-click than text ads.
2012: Images and reviews were very important in capturing users’ eye movements and clicks.
2011: Google was seeing millions of calls every month and it had become a core part of a large number of mobile search ad campaigns.
2010: When you visited Google Images on a smartphone, you would see “popular images” and a link to browse more popular images.
2010: Google confirmed it was “testing a feature in which text ads on Google search results pages may include star ratings and links to third party sites that have reviewed the advertiser’s business.”
2010: Online Services, which housed online advertising and Bing, reported $581 million in revenue vs. $609 million the prior year ago.
2010: It is a basic search engine, playing on the Google name and Google logo.
2009: The new interface looked similar to the charting/graphing system that Google Analytics used.
2009: The sites you visited most often were listed when you opened a new blank tab in Firefox.
2009: Hitwise research suggested that 72% of the site’s Top 50 search terms from December 2008 were music-related.
2009: You could add it to your Firefox search box manually via the add-on from Live Search.
2009: Google’s TV Ads team announced the addition of new metrics detailing time-shifted ad viewings.
2009: Known widely by his online handle lazerzubb, he was a fixture at various events.
2009: Google said the image was removed because of several requests from users using the Street View image removal option.
2008: Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed the behavior and said Google had already begun reversing it.
2008: This was a huge deal for Microsoft, giving their ad program exposure to 20 million unique users and over 330 million page views per month.
2008: It was “open warfare” between IAC CEO Barry Diller and Liberty Media, one of its largest backers and investors.
2008: A UK woman was convicted of trying to murder her husband after researching methods on Google.
2007: Brin was arguing that some information is better than no information.
2007: ‘Twas a hoax.
2007: Just lots of rumors.
2007: Tribune had struck a deal that had Topix providing content and a back-end platform for general merchandise classifieds on their newspaper sites.
2007: Wikio blended articles from major news web sites and blogs with commentary and tags from Wikio users.
These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
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