Alan Rabinowitz

What If… Google Buys Yahoo?

by Alan Rabinowitz

What if…the testing of Google Adwords on Yahoo is really something else? What if Yahoo is trying to help Google determine the value of Yahoo if adwords were to be part of Yahoo. Since Google’s main revenue is Google Adwords, it makes sense to devote multiple avenues to paid search. A Google buyout of Yahoo?

This would achieve 80% to 90% of all online natural and paid searches, is this really the reason? The control of the Search Industry to one single multiplied giant would almost be, if not, a monopoly on Search. Making a top 10 listing for both natural and paid search twice as valuable.

Since I read the press release for the new partnership, I have thought from a business perspective. Maybe I am just planting ideas here, but if I owned Google and wanted to monopolize the Search Industry what would I do? Glad I asked, its simple I would buy Yahoo!

Yahoo is worth more than just a Search Engine in many ways. They capitalize on buying and developing social sites like Yahoo Answers (which beat out Google Answers) and MyBlogLog. Yahoo also has a large email and portal user base to boot.

Think about it, it would be total domination of Search if Google bought Yahoo! Many people do not remember a few years back when Yahoo did in fact served Google natural results. That partnership however, did add more authority to Google’s leadership in search quality at that point in time when they were only starting to emerge as the leader.

Why wouldn’t they consider MSN ads if a potential MSN buyout is in the air? The timing does not make $ense. Perhaps there is another potential partnership under way.

Food for thought is it an SE Conspiracy? Potential new buyout? Marketing Strategy? Battle of the Big Brands?

–>You decide.
This Site May Harm Your Computer & Your Mind

by Alan Rabinowitz

You better think before using popular applications meant for blogs as the core for your business. What happens when Google decides to remove access to your site from the results because your trendy and popular blog application (WordPress in our case) gets hacked without your knowledge.

Think about it, you invest thousands into marketing and promoting your site via a CMS and Blog application that is so popular, that it constantly needs security updates. Now, your busy managing your business and do not have the time to constantly manage and update the software of the blog, or do not want to because some of the plugins you use do not work on the new version.

Consider also, that if you are lucky enough to get an email from Google reporting the hack and that your site is blocked, you will be luckier still to get the barrier Google uses removed from your listings in Google in a timely manner. This can cause weeks of traffic lost for using a program. This is just plain old frustrating for any business owner.

Its common sense!

Is a popular application worth the risk of a potential and “Hopefully Temporary” loss of traffic? Can you live without Search Engine traffic for weeks, months or even years?

If you’ve never submitted a re-inclusion request with Google then you need to understand the process and the time line as you are likely one of hundreds of thousands of sites (I’m estimating numbers here, and yes, I do believe there are a lot of sites in the queue). A typical re-inclusion; you usually get no response other then a general email stating you will most likely not get a response. You are generally left in the dark for weeks, months and even years with no assistance or the luck of the draw someone fixes your problem, which may not have been a violation. You can be one of many left in the dust, while everyone else seems to do worse than you without any problem. You can go public and call out Matt Cutts and maybe, just maybe, he will be kind enough to respond and help as seen on many blogs that decide publicly screaming is the only way to get attention. I’m still waiting Matt! Please Help!
Seeing Green?

by Alan Rabinowitz

It seems like a dog’s age since Google updated the PageRank Toolbars. Making this the second PR update for the year. Many sites are reporting lowered PageRank, but some younger sites seem to have been given a nice boost when optimized from a link-baiting and content syndication methodology.

I now more than ever believe that these PageRank numbers are simply for show. With the recent penalties and changes to some sites, there seems to be NO EFFECT on rankings, so either we’re about to experience a new Google algorithm and see ranking updates, or we’re just being given evidence that the Google Toolbar is nothing more than really smart link-bait for the world of Search Giants.

So with this in mind, I’m gonna bet that Google is devaluing the power of any and every sitewide link. No doubt to kill the blog handshaking that has driven many popular blogs to extremely high PR. Also, they may be considering strategies to devalue blogs in general as bloggers keep criticizing Adsense claiming it pays very little. Google may feel that blogs only offer PageRank and that advertisers are trying to increase rankings and not traffic. – You decide!

Food for Thought…
Google Local Listings Hijacked?

by Alan Rabinowitz

This is very unusual but it seems our Google Local listing is displaying someone else’s URLs, maybe our data was somehow misplaced, it also lists additional sites that are not ours, nor are they located in New York.

Anyone see this before? Is Google becoming an easy to hijack portal, or is one of its local suppliers having the wrong data? Their verification seems that it would make this hijack impossible unless there are other underlying issues that we cannot see. Maybe we’re jumping the gun, but after what’s been going on with Google, this is likely to be a hijack issue as well, or a third party not properly validating Local Listings, Look at our URL and the other sites that are supposed to be located at our office. Odd…

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Yahoo! Puts Emphasis on Natural Results

by Alan Rabinowitz

Yahoo! Search, which currently has the most paid ads above the natural results with 4 ads, has decided to put some emphasis back to the natural by adding an arrow next to the first natural result.

Its pretty easy to see and does have impact (more so once its full size (my preview is a bit small) when there are ads for terms.

On the opposite end is MSN which seems to place the least emphasis on PPC ads, yet somehow has the highest amount of clickthroughs in relationship to natural clicks according to Enquiro & Marketing Sherpa, see our Search Visibility post.

According to this data, natural results on all engine account for more clickthroughs, so “naturally” this is a good move for Yahoo!
🙂
Link Popularity Building through Link Types & Link Quality

by Alan Rabinowitz

I have written a 3-Part tutorial on the Search Engine Journal where I have been putting up weekly tutorials based on my SEO experience. For those of you who are unaware, I have been working professionally in the SEO industry since the late 90’s. I am very technical and have been a beta tester for Macromedia’s Dreamweaver for 1 1/2 years right up until Adobe purchased it. So when I base something on experience, I can assure you that I am no novice. I do not claim to be a know-it-all either, as a matter of fact, I learn on an almost daily basis.

I also feel that every SEO may have his or her own preferences in campaigns and what is needed can be determined better by a more skilled SEO. As the landscape changes regularly, there are always new methodologies that may be needed. I did touch on the latest methods of link building which are more marketing based than link building based.

Please Read it at:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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Search Algorithm Popularity Factors and Types

by Alan Rabinowitz

Alan’s latest post is online over at Search Engine Journal.

It categorizes popularity types and gives a brief intro into each. In defining popularity types, we can determine the best methods of optimization that would benefit websites by utilizing these popularity’s. Knowing that if we are well-rounded and utilize every aspect, we can get websites more traffic and higher positions on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

If a campaign only focuses on one aspect of popularity, it will fall short in the industry unless the factor is strong enough to pick it up as a whole and it leads to a buzz in links and referrers. This means the sites itself will become popular. Gaining all types of popularity will set the site up as an Authority Domain in the eyes of the Search Engines.

I recommend you read the post here.
Supplemental Index – Why are big sites falling victim?

by Alan Rabinowitz

The supplemental index has become a tool for Google to place less valued pages into to try and fine-tune the quality of its main index. In fact, the current supplemental index is growing rapidly and may be trying to get into the “Size Wars” of Millions of pages indexed. – OK, so I may like to exaggerate a little, but the fact is this is an index that is going through changes and has its own updates. Meaning 6 months ago a site in the Google index was there for duplicate content, now there are other reasons that Google is using to value sites and place poorly created pages into the supplemental index.
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Google’s over-emphasis on LSI & Authority Domains – Does Relevancy Even Exist?

by Alan Rabinowitz

Every once in a while, marketers may become critics, and this post would be just that. Most of the time, this blog has been informative, but after being involved in search since the late 90s, and seeing so many algorithm changes and so many different Search Engines, I think it’s nice to make a few comments that are meant to be 100% constructive criticism. That being said, here you go…

I would not call the US government spammers the way I would with some of today’s price comparison tools that buy millions of paid text links, but I do believe that both of these types of sites are over-emphasized in Google’s results. Also any Authority domain in any industry, and those that are considered general industries, are given too much power. Its almost like Search Engines do not trust their own results that they fill them with popular news sites, wikis, government sites and price comparison sites. That’s all fine and dandy, but I think we’re getting to a point where people are tired of finding the same sites dominating every industry and a lack of original and relevant results.
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The Top 3 Tools for Keyword Research on the Fly

by Alan Rabinowitz

This is a quick Tidbit for SEO Keyword Research: Utilizing Keyword Search Tools on the Fly.

One thing we often do with clients is track terms in conversations about potential new directions and goals. In doing this we often use our knowledge of the system and the goals of the client to determine the best choice of terms. Sometimes we have to change prior selected terms as the data the trackers provides can change if the industry is a seasonal business, or if the needs of the client change, or if terms that we researched on one tracker do not produce the traffic expectations of the client.
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