Once upon a time all websites were either a .com, a .net or a .org. That is far from the case anymore. New top-level domains are being released all the time, like .golf or .gold. That leaves business owners with questions---and often, misconceptions. How does Google handle these new domains? Are they better or worse for your SEO? Should you move your site to a new one, or have sites using several of them? To answer these questions Google has released a new FAQ page. Here's everything you need to know about their answers, and our recommendations on how to use domains. Google Says
Google knows when you are sleeping, it knows when you're awake
There are a lot of ways to research keywords for your site's SEO. You can brainstorm ideas and test them in Google AdWords. You can let AdWords make suggestions of its own. And you can simply rip keywords from competitors' websites. But what if you could find out exactly what customers are searching for, just by typing a single asterisk? That's the conclusion that Larry Kim came to in a recent article on keyword research. Larry was inspired by a brilliant info map showing the most Googled products around the world. Mapping Consumer Demand The map was created based on research done by Fixr, which wanted to know
Starting about two weeks ago, websites of all sizes across many industries saw a troubling trend: a major drop in their search traffic from Bing. While traffic can vacillate for many reasons, as the days wore on webmasters and SEO consultants did not see it bounce back. Rumors began to spread. So what happened, and should you be worried? Here's the complete skinny. The Phantom Update Usually when there's an unexplained drop in search traffic, it's one of two things. If it affects only your own site, there's a chance you've been hit with a penalty. But if it affects lots of sites, it could mean a
Ever notice that your favorite local coffee shop isn't on Google Maps? Or have a hard time finding a business you know is nearby, because they're not listed? That's the problem that Google Map Maker was created to solve. And now, after being shuttered for months, Map Maker is coming back. The idea behind Map Maker is simple: you probably know more about your neighborhood than Google does. So if you and other people in your community start adding businesses, monuments, street names or other features to Google Maps, they'll be more complete worldwide. Of course that also invites troublemakers. When anyone can add items to a map, a competitor could
When your business relies on search traffic to make money, trying to take down Google might sound a little crazy. But for Yelp, Google is not just a source of traffic, it's also a competitor---one that it's fighting tooth and nail to tear apart. The latest weapon? A study that says Google is rigging the game. Bad Blood Yelp is in an interesting position. Like most major web properties, a huge chunk of its traffic depends on being well-placed in search results. But as a review site, the service it offers duplicate one offered by Google itself. Look at any local business on Google Maps, for example, and
More than any other company, Google is responsible for the current SEO landscape. As the world's largest search engine they set guidelines worldwide for what kind of content will make Page 1. And by making those guidelines ever tighter, they good SEO a must for online success. Ironically, now Google now finds itself on the opposite side of the fence: it needs help getting its own websites to rank well. At least, that's the message sent by a recent job posting. Google is hiring for a "Program Manager, Search Engine Optimization." And as Search Engine Land points out, this is not a let's-tweak-the-algorithm kind of role, it's a marketing one. The position
When it comes to online retail, "bigger than Amazon" is a hard concept to wrap your head around. But the world's largest online marketplace will be dwarfed if some new initiatives from Google are anything to judge by. Purchases On Google The first of those two initiatives is named Purchases On Google, but more commonly called "the buy button." This is a long-awaited feature where searchers can buy merchandise directly from the search results, without being passed to a third-party retailer. The feature is now live, albeit in a pilot program with a select few retailers. This is not exactly Google stepping on the toes of retailers
There's been plenty of buzz lately about Europe's "Right to Be Forgotten," where citizens can have old or irrelevant information dropped from search results. The idea has been copied by Canada and proposed in a much spookier form in Russia. And even in Europe there's an ongoing battle about whether their regulations can be imposed worldwide. I think it's a safe bet that Americans don't want European laws governing our technology. But what if the United States had its own Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF)? That's the proposal that's been put before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week. It comes from the non-profit group Consumer Watchdog and contains a surprisingly strong argument. The Precedent
The long list of dubious or "spammy" links that you don't want pointing at your site has grown a little bit, thanks to the pioneering effort of some unidentified hackers. The hackers used PDF files to create illicit links pointing at their sites, a technique that no one has seen before. The tactic was only recently uncovered and Google has not given any comment yet. It appears that hackers broke into normal, legitimate websites and either added entire fake PDFs or simply edited links into PDFs already on the site. These keyword-rich links pointed away at a third party website, the one the hackers wanted to build up. Worse than