There’s A New Panda In Town, Google Confuses Us With Link Warnings, Bing Tries Product Ads, & More

Panda 3.9 Is Off The Chain…And Active

Google released the newest Panda update on Tuesday. This is the first update in a month and by Search Engine Land’s count it’s update 3.9.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google: ‘Those Link Warnings Are Neither Links Nor Warnings’

Google recently dispatched another collection of bad link notifications, delivered in the exact same message form as their late-March warnings. However, despite copying the previous warnings’ text verbatim, Matt Cutts said you really don’t need to worry about these messages unless you notice a drop in search query impressions/traffic.

Basically, Google says you should ignore a link warning message if you get it, unless something doesn’t look right in Webmaster Tools. It would probably be easier if Google made that distinction in their message, rather than put the onus on webmasters to determine if something that includes the word “warning” requires attention. Transparency has never been more confusing.

Source: Search Engine Land

Bing Gets Into The Product Ad Testing Game

Bing appears to be starting to test ads that look like product listing ads. The ad is a small image that accompanies the headline and ad text.

Source: Search Engine Land

Indexing Gets An Advanced Upgrade In Google Webmaster Tools

An “Advanced” button available under the Health-Index Status menu in Google Webmaster Tools parses out historical indexation data that can be helpful in diagnosing traffic drops or spikes. The additional data points include number of pages crawled cumulatively, robots.txt-blocked pages, and pages that have manually been selected for de-indexing.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Twitter Releases New Tool For Advertisers

Twitter unveiled a new advertising feature that will allow advertisers to target their tweets to specific users without first sending a Tweet to all followers. Now advertisers will be able to tailor their tweets to particular accounts based on their geographic location or whether they use a mobile device or computer to access the site.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Tablets Convert More, Cost Less Per Click Than Desktops

Mobile advertising campaigns typically have lower CPCs and higher conversion rates than their desktop counterparts. That seems to be the most notable, non-obvious revelation to arise from Efficient Frontier’s Q2 2012 Global Digital Advertising Update.

According to the findings, tablet conversion rates are 20% higher than the average PC conversion rate, which still boast a higher percentage than conversions from smartphones. The catch is that “conversion” only accounts for online transactions, as most smartphone searchers overwhelmingly convert offline after searching for a product or service.

Source: Search Engine Land

The Google Knowledge Graph Now Expands

Google is testing an expandable version of the Knowledge Graph. Currently when a search triggers a Knowledge Graph, it shows up to five related people, books, albums, movies, etc. This test gives the option to “explore more” which gives more related topics to scroll through.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Now Features A Graphing Calculator

Two weeks ago, typing a calculation into Google’s search bar would’ve returned a simple answer. Now, doing the same will give you a 34-button scientific calculator with which to do even more math! The interface for metric conversions also received a recent upgrade, which includes a an interactive measurement box.

Source: Search Engine Land

Will A System Requiring Real Names Before Posting Hold People Accountable For Their Stupid Comments On YouTube?

Probably.

Source: Mashable

With ‘Actively Discussed’ Feature, Google Still Really Wants You To Care About Google+

Google is now displaying a “Actively Discussed on Google+” feature within its search results. Through clicking the “Show” button under a website display, users can now go directly to Google+ to respond to discussions currently taking place on the social network. Along with the new direct “Share” button, allowing you to share a webpage directly from the results, It’s fairly obvious Google is doing whatever it can to promote its social network. Still this seems like a much more intuitive step forward compared to the “Share” button.

Source: Search Engine Land

A Comprehensive Guide To Half A Year’s Worth Of Link Building Strategies

James Gate has a stellar post on SEOmoz explaining a six month link building strategy he executed for a well-established website. Gate breaks each link building category into separate sections, and details how each performed at various points in time.

Analysis By: James Gate, SEOmoz

Google INFOGRAPHIC: Free Clicks Vs. Pay-Per-Clicks

It’s the Alien vs. Predator of the Internet: the voluminous money-spitting profits of PPC vs. the cerebral claw-wielding players in SEO. It’s not so much a debate as it is an examination into which Google views as more important in their long term money-making strategy. Clearly, pay-per-click ads bring in more revenue, and it’s interesting to see how these two worlds have collided over time, leading to more immersion of paid ads in Google’s results.

Analysis By: Zach Epstein, BGR

15 Helpful Link Building Tools

As its name implies, this article details 15 good link building tools for things such guest posting, broken link building, and group interviews. A couple of the resources need to be paid for (Majestic Site Explorer, The Contact Finder), but most are free.

Analysis By: Garrett French, Search Engine Watch

Politicians Can Run, But They Can’t Hide From Deleted Tweets

Politicians are going to need to be even more on guard when using Twitter. A clever new tool called Politiwoops allows users access and read tweets that have been deleted by members of Congress. Not every deleted Tweet is necessarily a major gaffe, but the occasional tweet worth noticing does appear. Not only is Politiwoops a useful tool for the voting public, but it’s a stark reminder that what you put on the Internet is hard to get rid of.

Analysis By: Gary Price, Search Engine Land

If you’re interested in learning more about what Rocket Clicks can do for your pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, website design and development, or law firm marketing, please check out our PPC services and SEO services or schedule a quick audit today.