Great article today on Search Engine Land about how Google is starting to penalize sites that are being too active in their Search Engine Optimisation. This is a very key thing to understand as a business owner, especially a business owner who outsourcers SEO to a firm. If you are outsourcing your SEO it’s quite possible that the firm may be too aggressive in getting you results and could actually get you banned. Get the details here
Recently we asked one of our researchers to find out what the top 10 issues are for website owners, and surprisingly one of the top 5 was website load time. It’s surprising as it shows a level of depth and insight into how website owners think. Rather than just thinking about the traditional is my design appealing, is my offer engaging they’re also thinking about website usability. Now this is a good thing, as your website load time is a major factor in website conversion and search engine optimization. If you remember the childhood story of the Turtle and the Hare you’d probably remember that the slow moving Turtle was
In recent times Bing has been slowly edging it’s way towards taking over some of Google’s market share. Now I’m not talking significant numbers, it’s just a few percent of the market share, but still it’s enough to ruffle feathers at Google. Google’s going to be even more annoyed as Microsoft’s adCenter has recently been testing a new feature, Product Listing Ads. These new ad units look extremely similar to Google’s own Product Listing Ads and seem to be launched as a “copy”. The reason why Microsoft’ introducing them is obvious, they’ve been hugely successful for Google, and they’re wanting to get the same effect. Check out the ads here:
As Yahoo’s CEO takes the reins and starts to make change in order to stop the slipping share price and drive up revenue there is speculation as to whether a Yahoo and Google relationship will be forged. Currently Yahoo has a search deal with Microsoft but it hasn’t been generating amazing financial returns. Possibly a deal with Google could see those returns increase resulting in a stronger profit result. Google would certainly welcome a move like this; it would strengthen their position in the search market. Find out more here: http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-microsoft-search-alliance-google-127843
If the Search Engine Optimisation value of having a presence on Google+ wasn’t enough to convince you to get an account, a recent study now shows increasing consumer satisfaction with Google+ as well. It seems that in a recent study Google+ has moved forward in leaps and bounds becoming the internet’s number one social network in terms of consumer satisfaction. At the same time, Facebook has become the lowest liked network amongst consumers. As a business owner you should be monitoring this trend as it indicates potential growth area, and possibly Google+ is that growth area. Read More Here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/259399/facebook_user_satisfaction_plummets_google_shines_says_survey.html
It’s no secret that Yahoo has been struggling; they’ve been through 4 CEO’s in the last 5 years. The newest CEO to be appointed today though may be a little controversial as she was a top executive Google. For the past 13 years Marissa Mayer has played a key role in the development of Google Services. The exact same services that have seen Yahoo’s market share decline. Investors are obviously hopeful that Marissa will reverse Yahoo’s declining share price and seek to improve the companies overall outlook. What will be interesting to watch will be what kind of Google like services Yahoo takes on… …Read the full story here