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Monday, May 14th, 2012
Search engine Yahoo! has parted company with CEO Scott Thompson, amid claims he embellished his CV.
It is the second high-profile departure from Yahoo! in recent months. The firm is now looking for its third CEO in three years.
Former CEO Carol Bartz, hired in January 2009, was fired in September 2011.
Her replacement, Scott Thompson, a former president of PayPal, was appointed in January this year. Just four months later, Thompson is gone.
Yahoo! is now hoping to find some stability. A veteran online entity, it still has popular portal sites focussing on entertainment, horoscopes, sport and health.
But Yahoo! has lost major ground in the search industry, thanks to Google. Despite being one of the first major search engines, Yahoo! has failed to capture the same user volume of Google – which now controls the lion’s share of the search market.
Thompson was already under pressure, as some Yahoo! shareholders felt the company wasn’t doing enough to catch up – whether that was improving its Internet marketing options, increasing paid ad revenues or capitalising on traffic to its other sites.
Thompson had started to make changes – with planned job losses and rationalisation to cut costs.
He won’t get to see through what he started though.
The problems arose after tough questions from board members about Thompson’s academic history seemed to show an anomaly.
Thompson’s online biography, on Yahoo!’s website, stated that he has a computer science degree. As did information submitted as part of regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
He has since admitted that he does not have such a qualification.
Reuters is now reporting that Thompson maintains he didn’t actually submit the erroneous info to the Yahoo! board. The error was included in his PayPal bio – with claims now that the info was simply lifted, but not checked, by either Yahoo! or their executive recruitment agency. Reuters reports these claims are still being verified.
The revelation that Thomspon’s academic history may have been skewed was first unveiled by ‘shareholder activists’ on Yahoo!’s board, who had been waging a proxy battle to get more of its members into board seats.
Thompson finally stepped down on Sunday, May 13 – just ten days after shareholder Daniel Loeb first claimed he’d ‘touched up’ his qualifications.
Yahoo! has since moved to appoint Ross Levinsohn as interim CEO. Levinsohn has a chance of getting the role permanently.
Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund group, Third Point, was also given new seats on the board in what one analyst called a “big victory”, according to Fox News. BGC analyst Colin Gillis told Fox: “It’s going to increase Third Point’s ability to shape the direction of the company.”
Loeb is said to have been frustrated with what he saw as an inability by the board to maximise Yahoo!’s potential revenues. A Yahoo! statement quoted him as saying: “We are confident this board will beneift from shareholder representations and we are commited to working with new leadership to unlock Yahoo!’s significant potential and value.”
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Tags: Carol Bartz, ceo, computer science, cv, daniel loeb, degree, fired, fluff, quit, resigns, ross levinsohn, Scott Thompson, search engine, third point, yahoo
Posted in Search Engine News
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Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
The world of Internet marketing is constantly changing: and the lead player in search marketing, Google, often drives these changes, whether webmasters want them or not.
For the end user, most Google tweaks result in a better search experience: for SEO staff, though, it can be a minefield of checks and changes to maintain ranking.
Google updates have the propensity to panic webmasters. The last big change, the Panda update, was met with alarm and confusion, and a pinch of disappointment. Panda was designed to weed out “poor” content – stuff that Google didn’t see as relevant, well-written, trustworthy, or original content was suddenly wiped out the search results overnight.
For sites with a good search engine optimisation strategy, the change made little difference. For others, who had perhaps built ranking through more questionable means, the game was up.
And this is where the good side of Google’s tweaks are clear: no search user wants to land on a site which claims to give trustworthy advice or information, only to find it’s actually entirely made-up, untrustworthy or stolen copy which is ranking because it’s spammier than a ham sandwich.
Article repository sites felt the pinch of Panda the most – they’d previously enjoyed excellent ranking based on hosting a huge amount of third-party content, covering topics from “How to clean your car engine” to “How to wire a plug”.
The problem was, the volume of third-party content made it virtually impossible to fact-check. And so, whilst a site may have had a percentage of excellent, informative and original content, those third-party pieces which were plagiarised, poorly produced or irrelevant, and uploaded without checks, would have dragged their ranking down.
Panda stepped in to do the user’s job for them: recognise poor quality, spammy results, and hide them.
Now, the game is about to change again – as Google looks to weed out sites which have put search engine optimisation over user optimisation.
Matt Cutts, Google’s spam chief, already revealed algorithm changes were afoot which would be able to tell if a site was “overly optimised” in order to achieve a good Google rank. These sites, Cutts said, would be penalised for “playing the game” instead of providing meaningful, useful content – helping to “level the playing field” for honest sites who struggled to rank against spammy, but less relevant, competitors.
The other thing with Google, though, is that they like surprises: whilst Cutts revealed the update was on the horizon, he didn’t spell out exactly what constituted “over-optimisation”.
Webmasters, then, have been left to fill in the gaps – using their existing knowledge of SEO strategy to separate what might be classed as a gentle SEO tweak to a full-on trick.
It’s likely Google could look at a range of SEO factors – some may be penalised more heavily than others. Spammy articles with unnaturally high keyword density are likely to be downgraded, along with those using repetitive anchor texts, duplicate content or who have created an “unnatural” linkbuilding strategy using inorganic or paid inbound links.
Other things to watch out for, which are likely to come under Google’s scrutiny, include excessive redirects, keyword overuse, mutual link schemes and thin affiliate work.
Google isn’t interested in punishing webmasters: but it does want to ensure that information it provides to search users is pertinent, quality and trustworthy. As long as your website is playing fair, is relevant and has fresh, quality, unique content, the latest tweak should leave your site unscathed.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Tags: algorithm, duplicate, Google, inbound links, Keyword density, over SEO, over-optimised, overly SEO, Panda, ranking, search engine, SEO, update
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Friday, March 2nd, 2012
Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, is reported to be testing variations of the local search results featured on the site’s SERP (search engine results page), according to an article published by Search Engine Land.
A search feature that has previously been adopted by Google, Bing’s new Local search results layout bears some resemblance in appearance to the results provided by the Sergey Brin founded search engine.
Previously Bing’s local search results displayed a “pack” of local business listings, as well as a map.
Now the results show a mix of local search results. Matt McGee, writing for SEL, has defined the new layouts.
He writes: “The ‘pack’ of listings may appear anywhere in the search results, not just at the top of the page. The map appears with the pack in this display.
“The ‘pack’ may be replaced by blended listings – organic listings with local data blended in as part of the search snippet. The map appears in the upper right of this display, but floats as the user scrolls down the page.”
Bing remains popular for search engine marketing campaigns – but the outcome of this work could change with the introduction of new Local listings.
A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We’re constantly updating and refining the Bing search experience, and before any changes are implemented they undergo intensive testing and experimentation to ensure the best possible user experience. We have nothing further to share at this time.”
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Tags: Bing, Google, local search results, search engine, Search Engine Marketing
Posted in Search Engine News
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Monday, February 27th, 2012
Blekko, a recently founded search engine, has started testing search ads on its SERPs (search engine results page), according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Launched by Rick Skrenta in November 2010, Blekko has the backing of Russian search engine, Yandex, as well as a number of venture capitalists.
The site is currently working with a number of large brands via Google and Bing feeds, but according to SEW “doesn’t have direct relationships with any confirmed brands as of right now.”
The ongoing tests are currently small-scale, rendering the likelihood of PPC marketing campaigns being conducted on the site in the near future highly unlikely.
Skrenta stated that some of the ads are provided in searches linked to slashtags, adding: “We’re still ironing out the kinks.”
He also stated that Blekko would measure its success based on RPMs – revenue per mille (thousand), estimating that search traffic would be worth between $50 and $100 CPMs (cost per impression).
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Tags: Bing, Blekko, Google, PPC, PPC marketing, Rick Skrenta, search engine
Posted in Pay Per Click Marketing
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Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
The long-awaited migration of Yahoo! search marketing accounts into Microsoft’s adCenter is set to begin today, as part of the search alliance originally formed by the two in 2010, according to an article published by New Media Age.
Search traffic for Yahoo! will also be powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine as a result of the migration – which has already launched in America, Canada and India.
Scheduled for completion at the end of April, the migration will allow search engine marketing professionals to purchase ads for both Yahoo! and Bing via adCenter.
Microsoft’s UK marketing manager, Cedric Chambaz, commented on the launch of the alliance.
He said: “Starting around 19 March, we expect to progressively start serving adCenter ads to Yahoo! searchers. The entire Yahoo! paid search volume is expected to be transitioned to adCenter within approximately two weeks from that date.”
More about the transition can be found on the Microsoft adCenter blog.
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Tags: adCenter, advertising, Bing, Microsoft, Search Alliance, search engine, Search Engine Marketing, yahoo
Posted in Search Engine News
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Micro-blogging site, Twitter, has agreed a partnership deal with Yandex that will see tweets featured in search results provided by the Russian search engine, according to an article published by Reuters.
As part of the deal Yandex will be able to access and feature public tweets in their SERPs (search engine results pages) based on their relevance to the query. A site frequently used in social media marketing campaigns, Twitter already has a similar partnership in place with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Yandex currently holds the majority share of the Russian search engine market – 60 per cent – compared to Google, which holds just a quarter.
In a statement, Yandex’s blog search manager, Anton Pavlov, commented on the partnership.
He said: “People share news, exchange opinions and discuss all sorts of matters in real-time all the time. This kind of information will help us enhance our search results.”
April Underwood, Twitter’s director of business development, stated: “We wanted to make sure that Twitter content can be where Twitter users are already going. Discovery through search is so important.”
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Tags: April Underwood, Google, Russia, search engine, Social Media, twitter, Yandex
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Thursday, January 19th, 2012
The co-founder of the search engine Yahoo!, which first appeared back in 1995, has announced his resignation, effective immediately, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Jerry Yang owns a 3.6 per cent stake in the Yahoo! – a popular platform for search engine marketing initiatives – and has been on the board of directors since March 1995. He also acted as the company’s CEO between June 2007 and January 2009.
Writing in a letter to Yahoo! board chairman, Roy Bostock, Yang said: “My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life.
“However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as chief executive officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”
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Tags: David Filo, Jerry Yang, resignation, Scott Thompson, search engine, yahoo
Posted in Search Engine News
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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Search engine giant Google is in the process of unveiling the most significant changes to its home page that it has ever made, according to an article published by BBC News.
The latest changes see the black bar – running horizontally across the top of screen – removed and replaced with a simple grey logo.
When users click or highlight the logo, a drop down menu appears listing Google’s seven other services. There is also an option to bring up eight additional services.
First announced towards the back-end of last year, Google – a popular platform for search engine marketing initiatives – is unveiling the changes in a gradual roll-out, meaning only a limited number of users will currently see the new features.
Commentators and analysts have said that the move has been taken to allow Google to highlight its other services – without causing the home page to become cluttered.
A Google spokesman commented: “Constant revision and improvement is part our overarching philosophy.”
He added: “If you compare the original Google home page to today’s version, you will see that a makeover every so often can certainly be refreshing.”
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Tags: Google, home page, search engine
Posted in Search Engine News
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Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Recent research released by Experian Hitwise has revealed that the percentage of one-word search queries has increased, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Hitwise’s data has shown that one-word queries previously accounted for 20.3 per cent of search activity in January 2009; this figure now stands at 27.7 per cent in October 2011 – a significant increase.
This has led Paul Burani, writing for SEW, to attempt to provide an explanation behind the increase in one-word search queries.
He firstly attributes the rise to the growth in mobile search – with around a quarter of those making searches on mobiles inputting just a one-word query. However, this theory can be discounted as Hitwise’s data excludes mobile devices.
Burani also offers the increase in URLs being used as keywords as an explanation, as well as improved geographic targeting – which has impacted on SEO.
Despite this, Burani eventually concludes that: “We can deconstruct these trends until we’re blue in the face, but in all likelihood the behavioral insight here has less to do with the search engine, and more with the resulting action.”
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Tags: Experian hitwise, Mobile Search, Paul Burani, search engine, Search Engine Watch, URL
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Thursday, December 1st, 2011
Rumours surrounding the potential sale of Yahoo! have been circulating for a considerable period of time; however, it has now emerged that private equity firms, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, along with Asian partners are in the process of preparing a fresh bid for the search engine, according to an article published by the Guardian.
Microsoft had put forward a bid as part of a consortium worth around $20 billion – lower than another received bid.
The new consortium’s bid could value Yahoo! at $25 billion, according to a Reuters source.
The new consortium would feature prominent Asian businesses including Alibaba Group from China and Softbank Corp from Japan – though final plans have yet to be confirmed.
Spokesman for Alibaba Group, John Spelich commented yesterday, stating: “Alibaba Group has not made a decision to be part of a whole company bid for Yahoo!.”
It is believed that Alibaba Group are primarily interested in buying back a 40 per cent stake currently owned by Yahoo! – a popular platform for search engine marketing initiatives.
Dick Wei, an analyst at JPMorgan commented on Alibaba’s intentions, adding: “Alibaba definitely wants to get its stake back from Yahoo!, so whatever that can make that happen, they will try for it.”
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Tags: Alibaba Group, search engine, yahoo
Posted in Search Engine News
