Back in 2007, Google announced that they were introducing personalized search results to anyone signed into their Google Account. So for Gmail, Adwords, Analytics, Adsense users and for ALL of the other Google products… as long as you remained signed in to your account, your Google search results conformed to your past search history.

At the time, I remember wondering (worrying) what chaos this would bring to the SEO world if that personalization were at everyone’s fingertips… if any given search phrase resulted in a slightly different position based on individuals’ search history.  I pictured clients calling me up complaining that they did a search at home and were #2 and now that they’re at work they’ve suddenly dropped to #8… Oh, and by the way, they called to verify with a buddy and he couldn’t find them at all. Well, Google was pretty serious about these personalized results. I didn’t realize how serious until they extended Personalized Search to everyone! Read the rest of this entry »

If you are a Verizon Online customer or if you send email to Verizon Online customers, you should be aware of important changes made recently to the company’s email service, regarding Port 25 sending and receiving restrictions effective November 3, 2009. Here is the official notice released by Verizon Online:

Dear Verizon Online Customer,

Verizon Online will soon be making changes to our network to further strengthen the security of our customers’ email messages and our network and to help prevent spam.

We have blocked incoming email from Port 25, which is the default port used by email programs to connect to email servers and to send email, for some time now.  We are now taking the additional step of blocking outgoing e-mail messages from Port 25 to help ensure that our network is not used by spammers.  Depending on whether you use a web-based email service or an email program such as Microsoft Outlook®, you may need to make changes to your computer settings to ensure that your ability to send email is not interrupted. Read the rest of this entry »

The concept of Short URLs is wonderful. Instead of very long, multi foldered URLs that can be hard to remember, type in and break in emails, how about a URL with few characters that can be generated in seconds, pasted wherever needed and redirects to the page you want readers to go to. All this and great tracking capabilities to boot. Perfect for today’s world with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and the ever increasing effectiveness of email marketing.

But the fact that thousands of sites can be linked to by the same main URL domain can lead to a trust issue. How do you know if the link will lead to a safe site that really matches the copy that surrounds it? Is it possible that the link is a spam link, and the enticing copy surrounding it is only there to trick you into clicking on it? Does the fact that you don’t know make you more or less likely to click on it?

Even though the majority of Short URLs you come across will indeed be safe and link to a good page, the truth is that it is tough to be 100% sure that what you are clicking on is safe, and will lead directly to where you want to go. And we all know that one bad click can sometimes ruin a good day. So, what are some tips to keep in mind when you come across Short URLs:

• If you trust the sender or poster (like someone you follow on Twitter), you should be okay. But be wary, as some accounts can get hacked and those hackers may spam people associated with those accounts.
• If you think the link may be spam, don’t click on it. If the marketing message entices you, you can probably find out what is being referenced by searching that website.
• Preview the linked page if possible (TinyURL offers this option – http://tinyurl.com/preview.php).

I believe that the need for a service like Short URLs will always be there, but the exact form the future versions of this service will take is yet to be determined. Do you have ideas of what it will look like? Do you have alternatives to Short URLs? Have you run into any huge problems? Let us know.

By now you have been told countless times that you need to have your business on Facebook and Twitter. That’s where the people are. And maybe you have been told that pages and entries on social community sites have slowly crawled into listings on search engine results pages.

And maybe you have put off signing up for an account, or building a fan base, because you were ‘waiting to see what happens.’ Well, it just happened.

Both Google and Microsoft have recently come to agreements with Twitter, while Microsoft has signed a deal with Facebook as well (you know Google can’t be too far behind there). These agreements will allow the search engines to integrate updates on the social media sites right onto the SERPs.

You can read more about these deals here.

So what does this mean for you? If you have been at the forefront of social media, and have accounts on Twitter and Facebook with lots of fans and followers, then you are in a good position to gain more exposure (and hopefully traffic) from these deals.

If you have accounts but have not kept them up to date, or if you don’t have any accounts at all, there’s still time but you have some work ahead of you. These deals are about real-time search, so it’s not necessarily what you have done in the past that will count (although having more fans and followers will probably be a plus, so you’ll want to increase those numbers). You can position yourself for real-time search by:

• Opening or updating your account
• Building up more fans or followers
• Starting conversations on current topics
• Respond to comments and other posts on topics you are an expert in

So what type of situation are you in? Are you ready to take advantage of real-time search?

Well, it’s official. Yahoo made an announcement that they will no longer offer Paid Inclusion as of December 31, 2009. Specifically, the two programs affected are “Search Submit Basic” and  “Search Submit Pro” (Yahoo SSP).

Yahoo submitted this official statement on the subject:

We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit. We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.

Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

What does this discontinuation mean for your internet marketing campaign? Without this marketing tool, it means that on site SEO is more important than ever. Without the luxury of paying for inclusion, companies must make sure that their optimization plan is aggressive and effective.