Google has released a new keyword tool that uses search data relevant to a specific site to provide keyword suggestion for advertising and other purposes according to a post on the Inside AdWords blog. The tool looks at a site’s pages and then identifies “keywords that potential customers are searching on to find your products or services.” The tool lists how many searches the keyword receives as well as the amount of competition and suggested bid for that keyword in Google’s AdWords search advertising program. While the tool is designed to work with AdWords, the tool can be used without and AdWords account. The tool currently provides data for United States and United Kingdom, but will expand to additional languages and countries in the “near future” according to Google.
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Stepping Down
Yahoo has announced that CEO Jerry Yang will be stepping down from the position following the appointment of a successor according to a Yahoo press release. The move follows the recent cancellation of Yahoo’s proposed search advertising partnership with Google and a drop in Yahoo’s stock price. Yang, who had been the CEO since taking over for Terry Semel in June of 2007, will return to his old position of Chief Yahoo. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in the press release that the company is looking for a CEO “who can take the company to the next level.” The New York Times reports that among the possible successors are “Susan L. Decker, Yahoo’s president; Daniel L. Rosensweig, the former chief operating officer of Yahoo who is now a principal at the investment firm Quadrangle Group; and Jonathan F. Miller, the former head of AOL.”
Google Releases Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Google today released the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (pdf), which details basic search engine optimization techniques. The 22 page guide discusses best practices for title tags, description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, heading tags, quality content, links, images, robots.txt files, and links. According to a post on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, the guide was created because “we thought it’d be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing”. Google also said that they “plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.”
Google Withdraws From Yahoo Partnership
In a post on the Official Google Blog, Google announced that they were withdrawing from the search advertising partnership with Yahoo that was originally announced in June. In a press release the U.S. Justice Department stated that Google withdraw “after the Department of Justice informed the companies that it would file an antitrust lawsuit to block the implementation of the agreement”. The Justice Department said that the agreement “would likely harm competition in the markets for Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication” due to the companies accounting for over 90 percent of both markets. In Google’s post they stated they withdrew because of the risk of a protracted legal battle as well as “damage to relationships with valued partners.”
Google, Yahoo Propose Revised Partnership to Justice Department
Google and Yahoo have proposed a revised version of their search advertising partnership to the U.S. Justice Department according to a Wall Street Journal article. The revised proposal limits the amount of revenue Yahoo can receive from the partnership to 25 percent of Yahoo’s search advertising revenue, shortens the length of the partnership to two years from a possible 10, and allows Google advertisers to opt out having their ads appear on Yahoo. The Wall Street Journal also reported that people familiar with discussions between the companies and the Justice Department told them that as of late last week a stalemate had been reached in the discussions.
WordPress 2.7 Beta Released, Final Release Delayed
The first beta of WordPress 2.7 was released on Saturday according to a post on the WordPress Development Blog. The most significant change in 2.7 is a redesigned administrative interface, which according to the posting is almost in its final form in the first beta. The new version will also include automatic updating, comment threading, and other new features. More information about 2.7 is available at the WordPress.org Codex. The final 2.7 was previously scheduled to be released on November 10, but according to the posting it is two weeks behind schedule. Instead, on the 10th a release candidate will be made available that is “intended to be a high-quality, almost-finished release that we are comfortable recommending for broad use.” A new release date will be set as the development moves further along.
Google Putting More Ads Above Search Results
Google will be changing the requirement for ads to show up above search results instead of to the right of search results according to a post on the Inside AdWords blog. Previously, Google only displayed ads above search results if the ad had a high enough Quality Score and it was the top ranked ad for that particular search. Ads will now be displayed above the search results if they have a high enough Quality Score; even if it is not the top ranked ad.
The post also announced that there would be an update to the portion of the Quality Score algorithm based on click-through rate, which according to Google is the “most significant component of Quality Score.” Because click-through rate is higher for ad in higher positions regardless of the quality of the ad Google factors in the position of the ad when determining that part of the Quality Score. The update will change how the position of the ad is factored into the click-through rate, which Google claims that the update “will result in more accurate Quality Scores.”
Study Finds Half of Readers of Blogs Find Them Useful for Purchase Information
A JupiterResearch study sponsored by BuzzLogic, a social media analysis company and ad network, found that half of blog readers (defined as consumers who have read a blog in the past 12 months) find blogs useful for purchase information. Of those readers, 56 percent said that blogs with niche focus and topical expertise were “key sources.” The top categories that those readers founder were useful for purchase information include technology at 31 percent, media and entertainment at 15 percent, games/toys and/or sporting goods at 14 percent, travel at 12 percent, automotive at 11 percent, and health at 10 percent.
The study also found that same percentage of frequent blog readers (defined as consumers who read blogs more than once per month) said that they trusted blog advertising as paid search advertising. The percentage, 25, was six points higher that their trust of advertising on social networking sites. The study also found that 40 percent of blog readers and 50 percent of frequent blog readers had taken an action as the result of viewing an advertisement on an blog.
September U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online yesterday released its rankings of U.S. search share for September. Overall search increased 9.4 percent year over year to 8.1 billion searches. Google had year over year growth of 20.8 percent and received 59.7 percent of searches. Yahoo! had a year over year increase of 1.5 percent and received 18.1 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 7.1 percent and received 11.8 percent of searches.
Click Fraud Level Remains Same As Year Ago Period
Click Forensics today reported that the overall industry average click fraud rate for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was 16.0 percent in the third quarter of 2008, down from 16.2 percent in the third quarter of 2007. The rate was 16.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008. The rate of click fraud for PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was significantly higher than the overall, representing 27.1 percent of clicks during the third quarter of 2008. Botnets made up over 27.6 of the click fraud during the quarter. Click Forensics gathers the data from a network of more than 4,500 online advertisers and agencies.