A report from Efficient Frontier and Macquarie Capital confirms the obvious: consumers are making purchases on smartphones and tablets. Around 22% of 2012’s total search revenue is expected to come from mobile PPC spending ($3.7 billion). The more conservative projection puts that total around $2.7 billion (16%), but either way, mobile search and spend is not likely to decrease anytime soon.
Source: Search Engine Land
Ad-dominant pages may be regularly penalized in Google search results, according to Matt Cutts. At a Pubcon discussion this week, Cutts confirmed the current testing process and emphasized that ad-heavy pages may place much less emphasis on providing useful, articulate content, and should be punished for it.
Source: Search Engine Land
Businesses and Internet marketers have been waiting for this day like Christmas or the MLB’s Opening Day: Google + Pages are now open to all businesses and brands everywhere. Business pages are similar to personal ones because they allow photo, video and link sharing, as well as conduct Hangouts. However, Google has made it possible to create multiple pages for one business (they use Pepsi and Diet Pepsi as an example), and each page includes its own +1 count.
Source: Search Engine Land
If you can’t beat Google and/or Facebook alone, do like Tobey McGuire in Spiderman 3 and join forces with other lesser competitors. Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL have teamed up their online advertising efforts in the hopes of denting the Jupiter-sized market share that is Facebook and Google advertising.
Come 2012, the three companies will be permitted to sell each other’s unsold display ads. The partnership allows the trio to compete with each other while enticing advertisers with a wider range of consumer eyeballs.
Source: Reuters
In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged six Estonians and one Russian with stealing $14 million in fake online ad revenue largely from infecting computers with malware. The defendants allegedly set up their own “rogue servers” to re-route ad traffic from popular websites to their own pages. The group substituted existing online ads with their own, which then took a cut of the ad revenue.
Source: PC World
WordPress now features a plug-in that makes using microdata easier than ever. Microdata is becoming increasingly used to help websites explain their purpose and value to search engines, and this WordPress plug-in will undoubtedly become a staple of any SEO efforts on the hosting platform.
Source: Optimum 7
Similar in spirit to the “Google Related’ toolbar launched over the summer, Google is currently experimenting with a search feature called “Sources.” Basically, if you search for someone prominent (think Wikipedia page), a specialized column is displayed on the right-hand sidebar featuring personal information about that celebrity. The screen shot below explains the test much more than we can in words:
Source: Search Engine Land
Even in death, Steve Jobs’ business sense stays sharp. Adobe announced that it is letting go of 750 full-time employees, while also stopping updates to Flash that would make it useable on the iPhone and other mobile phones and tablets. Both of these moves were made, in part, because of a larger re-structuring that will focus the company’s resources on “digital media and digital marketing.” Adobe also stated that they understood HTML5 was the future of mobile browsing, and they recognized that Flash would not be worth much as an application in a short time.
Source: Talking Points Memo
Twitter has always been available as an add-on option for the Mozilla Firefox search bar. However, it’s now easier to access as a default search option in the top right side of the browser. It is not known how much the deal is worth, if at all.
Source: Search Engine Land
There has been no shortage of industry predictions of the Google + brand pages impact on marketing and social media as a whole. Mashable, in particular, provides a great side-by-side visual comparison of Facebook and Google + brand pages.
Analysis By: Christine Erickson, Mashable
We can never resist an infographic when it’s done well and focuses on poignant, useful information. This one, courtesy, of Hua Marketing, details what your targets look for in a good link, and how to go about approaching them.
Analysis By: Melissa Fach, Search Engine Journal
The patent wars in Silicon Valley are increasing in their hostility, and as such, an infographic is necessary to gain perspective on how many Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. have applied for and how they are now demeaning the original intent of patents.
Analysis By: Melissa Fach, Search Engine Journal
Social networks are used for a multitude of purposes, but from a business and content standpoint, they are most useful for creating brand awareness and driving traffic through a very shareable medium. This Search Engine Land infographic summarizes how, why, and when people are most likely to share content.
Analysis By: Search Engine Land Infographics
Unbounce has compiled some impressive “must read” indexes of notable posts explaining the ins and outs of everything that is Internet marketing. Their newest post details 50 articles that are essential reads if you conduct any form of email marketing, or are thinking of doing so in the near future.
Analysis By: Kristi Hines, Unbounce
Anytime Matt Cutts sneezes, an algorithm gets an update. As such, winners and losers are often compiled and read into extensively right away. This is a list of sites and brands that have won or lost since the latest update, although it’s too early to tell if this list is sustainable.
Analysis By: Simon Heseltine, Search Engine Watch
SEO browser extensions make our jobs as Internet marketers easier, and Chrome is nice enough to offer a multitude. Search Engine Journal has an awesome post that reviews the Oscar-worthy, Razzie-worthy, and simply ugly extensions in a succinct format.
Analysis By: Benjamin Beck, Search Engine Journal
Google has released an annual consumer intentions report around the holidays since 2008, highlighting how, what, where, and why shoppers will purchase their presents. Search Engine Watch generously runs down the 10 best takeaways from this year’s report, which should help in any on or offline sale efforts.
Analysis By: Andrew Davis, Search Engine Watch
Nearly every reputable marketing study has concluded that e-commerce will be ravaged by packs of consumers like lions pouncing on a limping gazelle in the Serengeti. As such, Unbounce was nice enough to offer five foolproof ways to increase your conversion rate on holiday-specific landing pages.
Analysis By: Oli Gardner, Unbounce
Rich text snippets are a great way for a website to communicate universally to search engines what their site is about and who considers it a significant resource. Eric Enge offers a simple way to incorporate rich snippets into your SEO strategy.
Analysis By: Eric Enge, Search Engine Land
Lisa Buyer explains why public relations and SEO are being mixed together to boost a websites placement in Google’s SERPs. Most of these efforts would be conducted on Google +, blogs, and news submissions, as the latest algorithm update emphasized the timing of certain posts.
Analysis By: Lisa Buyer, Search Engine Watch
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