SEO Weekly Round-up #1 November 7th-11th
As the internal research and development analyst here at SEO Consult, I thought it'd be apt for me to create a round-up of the recent goings on in the SEO world within the past week, every Friday. So here it goes, here's the first SEO weekly round-up:
Majestic SEO to launch OpenApps
I first heard about this over at State of Search - http://www.stateofsearch.com/majestic-seo-to-launch-openapps/
"Majestic OpenApps" is set up to carry the tool further and have others program applications which can work with Majestic. It is also a smart response to the closing of Yahoo Site Explorer.
Dixon Jones from Majestic SEO says:
"We are opening up our data so that third party applications can build modules which let them use the resources of our customers. Inspired by (but not the same as) OpenAuth, Majestic SEO users will have complete control over what applications can use their accounts."
Majestic will apparently also be launching a new website.
Google testing showing "sources" in the preview area
Cyrus Shepard posted about this one on Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/108621512304373089316/posts/bBMbKGJZ1QZ
Basically, it looks like Google is sourcing forms of rich snippet data throughout the web to make the quick description box placed on the right side of the page.
Google offers free websites to Indian businesses
Apparently, Google is to offer free websites to small and medium business in India in attempt to boost the internet usage in india, aiming to get half a million businesses online in the next three years.
"The country is home to an estimated 8 million small and medium businesses, of which about 400,000 have a website and 100,000 have active online presence, Google said in a presentation on Wednesday."
It surprised me that Google picked a 3rd part, Hostgator, to partner with this project, take a read of the full article over at Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/02/google-offers-free-websites-to-indian-business-in-internet-push/
November Linkscape update
Rand Fishkin announced on the SEOmoz blog that the linkscape update for November is live (and was done in a record time). View the post here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/november-linkscape-update-is-live
FireFox 8
Mozilla announced on Tuesday that FireFox 8 is now available for download. http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2011/11/08/mozilla-firefox-adds-twitter-search-and-new-features-that-make-web-browsing-easier/
Google testing lighter colors in search results
I came across this one via SE Roundtable, Ruben posted a thread at http://blogoscoped.com/forum/180964.html that described how Googel is testing slightly different colors:
(image from Ruben:)
Google+ Pages now open for businesses
It was announced on the 8th of November that business are now allowed to be part of Google+
A large feature of the new Google+ business pages is the ability have pages found through "Direct Connect" in Google Search. This will happen for any business that Google determines is particularly relevant for a search, if it is linked and if someone searches for the business with a + symbol in front of its name (this explains why Google removed the + command last month):
SearchEngineLand created quite a couple of quality posts that are definitely worth a read regarding the new Google+ pages for business & the Direct Connect:
http://searchengineland.com/a-look-at-google-direct-connect-for-google-pages-100382
http://searchengineland.com/google-pages-now-open-for-businesses-brands-places-more-100217
Pagerank update
On Tuesday there was a pagerank update. (SEO Consult is now PR5)
Yahoo release a JavaScript web app framework that runs server-side if client doesn't support JavaScript
Yahoo released a new technology on Tuesday called "Cocktails".
""Cocktails" is a mix of HTML5, Node.JS, CSS3, JavaScript and a lot of ingenious, creative mind-bending tricks from Yahoo!'s engineers. Today, we are announcing two Cocktails: Yahoo!'s Mojito, an environment-agnostic JavaScript web application framework, and Yahoo! Manhattan, a hosted platform for Mojito-based applications."
Read the full post over on the Yahoo Developer Blog: http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2011/11/yahoo-announces-cocktails-%E2%80%93-shaken-not-stirred/
Google released a preview of the critical path explorer featured in Page Speed
https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/?velocity=1
Enter a URL then it should take you to a new page with a section that says:
Google+ now allows you to share circles with others
Bing launches Bing central
View the post from Bing here: http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/11/07/bing-central-now-open.aspx
"Bing Central allows you to explore Bing services and features by completing fun missions, manage your Bing Rewards account, redeem great rewards in the redemption center and access account support as well as your profiles and preferences for Travel, Maps, Finance, and Shopping.
Bing Central gives you a hub to manage everything you do with Bing. From checking your Bing Reward offers and redeeming credits, to managing your search history to discovering helpful Bing features and services. Now it's all in one place."
SEMRush databases updated
SEMRush announced on Wednesday via email that their database's have been updated.
The US data has new fresh keywords datasets.
A new database for Bing.com consisting of 1 mil keywords and over 1.8 mil domains
A new report for Google.com TOP 200 organic results for 1 mil keywords available for the US database
Google tests thumbnail interface changes for videos & news results
If you go back to the thread that Ruben posted regarding the lighter colors of search results (http://blogoscoped.com/forum/180964.html) you'll notice a link in the comments (by Ruben) to this post: http://tecno-net.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-hace-mas-de-15-tests-en-su.html
As you can see from the last image, Google are testing thumbnail interface changes for videos & news results.
SERoundTable did a post regarding this: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-thumbnail-tests-14277.html
Google expands offers to five new markets
Google Announced on Wednesday that they've expanded its Offers product to 5 more US cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Brooklyn brining the current total to 24.
Google also recently introduced deal personalization on Offers and released an Offers app for Android. Google Offers can equally be accessed through its Google Shopper mobile app.
Twitter rolled out the "Activities" tab
This tab shows items favorited by those you follow along with new follows that are occurring.
First heard about this at Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/twitter-begins-to-roll-out-the-activities-tab-to-the-masses-100594
Bing maps extends sharing and editing options
Again, first heard at Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/bing-maps-expands-sharing-editing-options-100614
Google+ allows you to connect your AdWords campaigns
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/11/connect-your-google-page-to-your.html
ThinkInsights by Google is launched
Consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research: http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/
Phew, I think that has covered most of the week. If you've found anything great or you think I've missed anything off, please let me know. Anything that pops up over the weekend and the rest of today will be mentioned next week.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and SEO is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
