Search Engine Optimization

Twingine - Comparing Yahoo! and Google Search Engines

2005-06-28T03:18:00.000-07:00

John Battelle picks up on a post by Russell Beattie regarding Twingine, a Google/Yahoo! comparison search engine. Simply type in your search terms and Twingine will display your Google and Yahoo! results side-by-side within your browser.

It's quite interesting to see what he actually has to say about Yahoo! results:

I should be eating our own corporate dogfood more at work and doing my web searches at Yahoo! Search instead of Google but old habits die hard. Yahoo! Search is easily as good, but for some reason I've always got this nagging doubt in my mind of whether I'm seeing the absolute best search results or not. So I end up using Google a lot to ease my suspicions.

I have actually been thinking the same about the results that Yahoo! throws up. Recently, I have ended up down dead alleys with Google, whilst Yahoo! has offered me far better results. Why not try out Twingine and see what you think?

Yahoo Announces API Search Developer Network

2005-03-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

The big announcement today at the Search Engine Strategies Conference was Keynote Speaker Jerry Yang’s news that Yahoo is not launching a Yahoo! Search Developer Network which will allow developers the access to Yahoo Search and Overture API’s. Such API access allows developers to create Yahoo powered tools and applications.

“We have worked closely with the development community to create a new program designed to stimulate open discussion, experimentation and development of new search applications,” said David Ku, director of engineering, Yahoo! Search. “We believe that it is critical to provide the development community with both the search APIs and interactive resources to help foster the discovery of innovative applications leveraging Yahoo! Search Technology.”

Additionally, the Yahoo Search Developer Network allows developers to share knowledge through a select interactive online community that features mailing lists and discussion groups dedicated to each API, an application showcase, a weblog, and a “wiki” that provides developers with the ability to ask questions, share ideas and provide feedback on how best to utilize the APIs.

The Yahoo Search Developer Network features Yahoo! Search APIs which span Web search verticals, search engine marketing and direct advertising products including:

* Web search - leveraging Yahoo! Search Technology

* Image search - the largest image search index on the Web with more than 1.5 billion images

* Video search - providing users with one-click access to any video

* News search - with more than 7,000 news sources

* Local search - the most popular destination online for local information

* Spelling correction - advanced search query spelling correction technology

* Related searches - advanced search query recommendation technology

* Overture - access to its search engine marketing API program

Search Engine Strategies New York

2005-02-28T04:11:00.000-08:00

Leaving for New York tomorrow for the Search Engine Strategies conference. I’m planning on hitting most of the blogs, news search, rss, and search engine marketing seminars.

This year, Jerry Yang - the man responsible for Yahoo, and Danny Sullivan - the man responsible for SES and Search Engine Watch, will be kicking off the largest Search Engine Strategies ever with a keynote conversation on changes in search. Even better news is the buzz that William Hung will be appearing at the Ask Jeeves get together Monday night and I’ll be sure to bring my dancing shoes (expect photos).

The Search Engine Journal will be interviewing and talking with people from Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Topix, AlmondNet, SEOInc and have plans to drop by about every booth that welcomes yours truly during the conference. If you would like to chat or for the Search Engine Journal to stop by, please email to Loren Baken at lorenbake@yahoo.com.

We’ve set up a Flickr account (rumors are spinning that Yahoo will be acquiring the Flickr photo blog site) and will be flashing some pics and moblogging a lot of the conference.

Search Multiple Search Engines With TurboScout

2005-02-26T10:58:00.000-08:00

If you’re looking for a way to compare search results from multiple search engines for web, blogs, images, audio, and video search - give TurboScout a try. TurboScout is a new search tool that helps Internet users to access and compare original results from over 90 search engines across 7 categories on a single web page, removing the hassle of retyping keywords into different search engines.

Comparing results from different search engines like Google (which seems to be set to TurboScout’s AdSense Websearch account - a safe way to earn revenue), Yahoo, MSN Search, and Ask Jeeves is a common practice for many users and recently different browser add-ons and tools have offered such multi-step comparisons. However, TurboScout is much easier to use than most of the toolbars I’ve encountered and best of all - TurboScout is web based, meaning you do not have to download anything to your computer to use the multiple search engine comparison functions.

“That’s where TurboScout.com comes in handy” says William Chee, founder of TurboScout.com. “Grown out of the frustration of typing and retyping keywords into different search engines, I decided to create an online search tool to get rid of these hassles and make such searching 20 times faster.”

“Users who visit TurboScout.com only need to enter keywords once, and getting original results from different search engines is as simple as clicking the engine’s name. No more retyping keywords into different search engines.”

Chee also suggests that search engine marketing firms also find TurboScout.com an invaluable tool for search engine optimization and finding out the rankings of their clients’ web sites in different engines. This is quite true, I checked it out for a quick look at a clients’ paid search placements and competitive rankings. Using TurboScout did save me some time and led me to some smaller engines which I would sometimes ignore.

Plus, TurboScout also proved to be an excellent tool for finding and comparing image and video results, two search functions which the big engines are battling over. One suggestion we have for TurboScout is to upgrade with the addition of MSN Image Search, Yahoo Video Search for videos and Blog Search Engine for blogs and cell phone images.

Keep Your Web Site Content Relevant

2005-02-25T12:50:00.000-08:00

Visitors and search engines love content-rich web sites, but just having a lot of content on your web site is not enough. It all has to be relevant to a main topic with each page or section of the web site having a specific theme (And yes, this includes any resource or links pages the site may have). Each page should have its own topic and content should not stray to a different topic.

If you are promoting your graphic design business and have a page on business card design, stay on the topic and refrain from using a page title such as “Graphic Design company in Vancouver, Canada - business cards, logos, letterheads". Your want the business card design to be the most important key phrase.

There are two main reasons for content relevancy. The first is so that visitors have an easy time understanding the flow of your web site. Visitors who have to search through multiple pages to find the information they’re looking for won’t be visitors much longer. The average web site user takes about three seconds to decide whether or not stay on a site. A clear idea of what your site is about should be apparent immediately, followed by easy navigation to other pages that display further topics in more detail.

The second reason for keeping content relevant throughout your web site is for search engine algorithms. Keyword relevancy is an important part of search engine optimization. The more relevant your web site’s content is for a specific term, the more likely the site is to show up near the top of search results for the term.

Keyword density is another big deal with search engines. There is an optimal ratio of key terms to the overall amount of text that must be used for search engine optimization purposes. The more unrelated terms that are used consistently throughout the content will bring down the percentage of more important keywords. Keyword density matters throughout an entire web site, not just on certain pages.

Other areas to keep an eye on are the contact page, about us page, and any other pages that you may not think are important to have optimized for search engines such as advertising info, privacy policy, etc. For instance, some web sites have pages devoted to reciprocal links. There’s nothing wrong with them unless you link out to a lot of unrelated web sites. The keywords that are used in the anchor text and surrounding description text will detract from your overall site content if they are not related. Incoming links from unrelated sites are fine, but keep in mind that the links page counts as part of your web site as a whole.

Consider using a reciprocal links page as more of a resource for visitors instead of a long list of irrelevant sites. This not only appeases search engines but your visitors as well. And as mentioned before, both visitors and search engines should be kept in mind when creating web site content.

Click Fraud and Its Effect on the Search Marketing Industry

2005-02-25T12:46:00.000-08:00

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) today weighed in on the subject of click fraud, a problem that potentially dilutes the value of search engine traffic. The non-profit professional association, which is working to increase awareness and promote the value of search engine marketing worldwide, presented additional findings about click fraud from its recent research paper, “The State of Search Engine Marketing 2004.”

“Search engine traffic is among the most valuable traffic to a web marketer due to the state of mind of a searcher. Click fraud, charging marketers for poor quality non-converting clicks, could poison the well,” said Kevin Lee, a member of the SEMPO Board of Directors and Chair of the association’s Research Committee. “During our recent research project, we got some great data on what marketers and agencies think about click fraud.”

Marketers felt that organic SEO abuse or “search spam” was a bigger problem than click fraud. This is interesting given the high level of attention given to click fraud by the media. One explanation for the disparity between what marketers think and the media’s heavy focus on the issue could be its potential impact on revenue from paid placement campaigns at publicly traded companies, such as Google, Yahoo, AskJeeves, InfoSpace, and FindWhat, among others.

When large marketers, smaller marketers and agencies were asked about click fraud, the results were enlightening: 10% of small advertisers thought click fraud was a significant problem that they had tracked, while none of the large advertisers agreed and 4% of agencies thought click fraud was a significant problem.

On average, across advertisers, 19% of advertisers believe that click fraud is a moderate problem and agencies agreed with 30% weighing in.