Facebook Forks Over Big Money For WhatsApp, Google Tries Out More Ads On Knowledge Graph, & More

FCC Working To Save Net Neutrality

The FCC is taking public input as they attempt to update net neutrality rules. The changes come with concern since they would still allow censorship and web blocking from broadband providers. Opponents believe a change is necessary but the ones proposed by the FCC will not do the trick.

Source: The Verge

German Lawsuit May Change Online Reputation Management

A January lawsuit has ordered Google to remove unsavory photographs of a German man who had filed lawsuits to block the publication of images. Google plans to appeal the ruling, but the precedent it sets when it comes to online reputation management may lead to many more similar cases.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Cutts Answers Question About Google Results Without Backlinks

A recent video post by Matt Cutts answers a fan’s question asking if there is a version of Google that excludes backlink relevance and what that kind of search would be like. Cutts explains that while there is not a public version of this, they have tested it internally and found the quality is much worse. For the most part the quality of the existing algorithm’s results are better despite spam and other negative results.

Source: Google Webmaster Help on YouTube

LinkedIn Opens Up Long Form Publishing Tools To All Members

LinkedIn is slowly rolling out its publishing platform that allows users to publish long-form original content. The feature, which was previously only available to top influencers, allows long-form posts to be added to your profile and shared to those in your network.

Source: Marketing Land

SEO Advice For Faceted Navigation And Infinite Scroll

Google released two new blog posts that tackle SEO advice on common web design trends. For infinite scroll pages, web crawlers can’t always access content that is buried in the scroll. Google suggests producing a paginated series to compliment the infinite scroll. When it comes to faceted navigation, it is often not search friendly because it puts duplicate content on many URLs. To prevent this problem use nofollow, noindex, robots.txt, and canonical tags.

Source: Search Engine Land

Newest Version Of Google Maps Now Available

Google has unrolled the newest version of Google Maps as the default option for most devices. It spent roughly a year in preview mode, allowing users to choose which they used. Now most features found on the previous version are available on the newest one. The tool is more powerful than ever but has a learning curve that may be frustrating to new users.

Source: The Verge

Google Shopping Campaigns Now Available Globally

Earlier this year Google began testing Shopping campaigns as a beta. Now Google is rolling Shopping campaigns to all users globally. These new campaigns give users access to inventory and feed information right in the AdWords interface. Bulk editing capabilities are also available now, and coming soon are API support and bid simulators.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Testing More Ads on Knowledge Graph

Google has been testing ads on Knowledge Graph panels since last year, and is now testing even more ads on the panel. We can now see ads for movie streaming rentals on panels about movies. Ads can be seen on desktop and mobile devices and include a brand icon and a “watch” call to action along with the price of the rental. Streaming services utilizing this ad spot include Google Play, Amazon, and Hulu Plus.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Adds, Then Retracts Advice to Block Ad Landing Pages

Apparently Google’s Webmaster Guidelines recently added a statement that blocking a destination URL for a Google Ad product could disable or disadvantage an ad. When Google was asked to give more explanation on this, the statement was removed from the guidelines. It is known that Google wants to make sure ads do not influence the search results, so their brief guideline change was contradictory.

Source: Search Engine Land

Twitter Introduces “Marketing Platform Program”

After a year of releasing its Ads API, Twitter has announced a new name for their suite of ad partners. It will now be known as “Marketing Platform Program”. Each partner that has been working with Twitter can be found in the new Marketing Platform Partners section and the list can be broken down by location and partner type.

Source: Marketing Land

Facebook Acquires WhatsApp For $19 Billion

In a move that has some in the business community questioning the sanity of Facebook’s valuation process, the social media giant acquired mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion on Wednesday.  It’s a lot of money to be sure, but the service boasts 450 million users worldwide and is on track to reach 1 billion. Facebook has said that WhatsApp will remain largely independent, much like their approach with Instagram.

Source: BusinessWeek

Ten SEO Metrics Superior To Keyword Ranking

The Moz Blog’s latest Whiteboard Friday explains how changes in search have made keyword ranking reports less important than they once were. Instead, they suggest ten other numbers to measure, including endorsement breakdowns, reach specifics, and the business objectives most important to the client.

Analysis by: Cyrus Shepard, Moz

Google Plus Benefits Google More Than The User

It is no surprise that Google Plus hasn’t caught up to other social networks in popularity. But as Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times reports, Google isn’t concerned by the lack of use. Google relies on Plus to get to know the users more based on browsing status, user relationship, habits, and more. This information improves the user experience by offering better content, something far more valuable than a social network to Google.

Analysis by: Claire Cain Miller, New York Times

Tips For Dealing With Negative Reactions To Your Content

There is a huge upside to generating fresh content via a blog to generate leads and engagement; the downside is that it may provoke negative reactions or comments. Gigi Griffis offers tips includinh having a proactive plan, owning it, and gaining a strong understanding of your audience.

Analysis by: Gigi Griffis, Kapost

Treat Your Blog Like A Well Balanced Meal

An infographic created by LinkedIn Marketing Solutions compares the content you “feed” to a business blog to the food groups we balance in our diet. Just as it is unhealthy to only eat desserts, a blog can’t be comprised of only memes and funny videos. The blogging meal plan is the perfect balance for successful content marketing.

Analysis by: Marketing Land Infographics, Marketing Land

Don’t Blame Google When A Spammer Ranks High

It can be frustrating seeing a spammer ranking high for certain keywords, but as Eric Enge of Search Engine Land points out you have to understand why Google may be slow to fix it. First, Google has a dominant market share and can afford to be patient instead of making immediate reactions to complaints. Second, mistakes are hard to avoid when there are 100 trillion web pages and you return search results in 0.4 seconds. Patience is a virtue.

Analysis by: Eric Enge, Search Engine Land

Evolution Of Google’s Weather Forecast

Matt McGee of Search Engine Land examines the changes Google’s weather results have gone through since 2005. When it launched, only a few keywords would return weather results and the data was basic. Today’s results include precipitation, humidity, wind, and more. An even bigger change is the query that will return the results. Today users can find weather with queries like “do I need a jacket today” without the need to specify city or obvious keywords.

Analysis by: Matt McGee, Search Engine Land

Mom Knows Best When It Comes To Display Campaigns

Sarah Peduzzi from Luna Metrics thanks her mom for teaching her life lessons that she applies to her daily adult life – including her work with AdWords display campaigns.

Analysis: Sarah Peduzzi, LunaMetrics

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