If you’ve been keeping up on our blog you’ve probably heard of Universal Search by now, where on the search engine results page (SERP) you’ll find pictures, videos and other vertical search results where once only web page listings resided (if you are not familiar with Universal Search, here is a good article on what it is). This feature within the search engines is meant to enhance the searchers experience by providing the most relevant results to their search, no matter what form of ‘rich media’ it comes in (whether an article, video, photo or something else – read a previous post discussing why to keep up with Universal Search).

We think this is great for search engine users – providing a greater pool for which to pull relevant results is fantastic. The drawback? Website owners and marketers may find it difficult to keep pace with this change, having to keep finding ways to include rich media on their website in order to be at the top of the SERPs. Recently we came across another significant bump in the road for website marketers when it comes to Universal Search – its impact on PPC advertising.

Yes – we said that Universal Search has an impact in PPC. How can that be? (more…)

As announced by Google, they have rolled out two new result page improvements. The one we will focus on today is their LONGER SNIPPETS improvement.

Typically, when you search in Google, your results page will return a Title with about a line and a half description from which you will make the decision if this is a click worthy site or not.  The words utilized in your search query are bolded to accentuate the relevancy of the results to you and in most cases have been pulled from your meta description.

Google felt like queries with more than three words deserved more of a snippet explanation. A longer description in these cases will allow enough information for you to determine whether or not this is the site you want to explore. The increase in the number of lines in the snippet allows for more text and shows more of the words you queried in the context of the page.

Try it out! Make sure to use a long, detailed query.

What does this mean for you and your SEO campaign? (more…)

Do you agree with ‘intent based search‘? You may have seen Google (Yahoo and others) rolling out intent based advertising for the AdSense platform. Are you afraid that Google is trying to pry into your private life? (more…)

The issue that keeps popping up… every now and again, we get questions from people who are experiencing ranking woes due to canonical issues. Here’s a quick video on canonicals and how to resolve the problem with use of 301 redirects. There are additional 301 redirect examples and other resources below.

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It’s fun to debate, isn’t it? You simply can’t deny it, Twitter is a social media phenomenon. You hear talk on the news of how celebrities and talk shows alike use Twitter, and how people are tweeting from the floor of the House, or how co-workers are sharing their work within their organizations and abroad. You even  read stories in reputable newspapers that Twitter should be a part of your marketing sphere of influence. So, what’s the holdup? Is it pure stubbornness, or are people just not educated on the use and value of Twitter? (more…)