SEOpittfall » live search

Further Study on the Value of Image Optimization

pittfall — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:25:10 +0000

Yes, yet another test, and I will return to the rest of the link development series soon, but I have been sitting on this test for some time and I thought you deserve to see the results. The last test on the value of image optimization was limited to Google and Yahoo only and utilized [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Further Study on the Value of Image Optimization

Long Live No Follow

pittfall — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:00:26 +0000

In a recent post at SEOmoz, by Will Critchlow of Distilled, entitled Nofollow is Dying: The Impact of Micro-Blogging and Nofollow on SEO, is a review the overuse of the nofollow link attribute in online publishing by webmasters and 3rd party sites like WordPress.com, Blogger.com and Twitter and it’s impact on SEO for everyone. Before [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Long Live No Follow

Die Duplicate Content Die!

pittfall — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:41:51 +0000

What does canonical mean? According to a biology glossary from the University of Arizona it is “repetitive; repeating in different forms“. So, what does it mean to online publishers? Simply, duplicate content. How does duplicate content exist, what is it’s impact on search engines and, more importantly, how does it affect online publishers in search [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Die Duplicate Content Die!

Measuring the Value of ALT and Title Elements of Image Tags

pittfall — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:00:13 +0000

Not a great title, I know, but accurate. Recently, I began a test of the ALT and Title elements in the img html tag. Here is the breakdown of the testing: Conducting the research by creating a page on the topic of “dogs” that has the same image of a Dalmatian that link to four [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Measuring the Value of ALT and Title Elements of Image Tags

Next Step in Universal Search

pittfall — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:12:43 +0000

In my most recent post, I wrote of the need for relevancy in search results and it being the biggest determining factor for switching your preferred search engine (based upon survey by JP Morgan). However, much of the changes that have impacted SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) in the past few years have had more [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Next Step in Universal Search

Relevancy – The Ultimate Google Killer

pittfall — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:54:00 +0000

A study recently compiled and released by JP Morgan, 2009 Internet Investment Guide, included some interesting insight into search, advertising and online behavior including a “potential search deal likely between Yahoo! and Microsoft.” Even as the idea that Yahoo! and anyone might happen, there is more important implications of the research data that isn’t as [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Relevancy – The Ultimate Google Killer

Bounce – Better Than SearchWiki?

pittfall — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:27:37 +0000

Looking at the search landscape over just the past few months, it can be easy to see that professional SEO is not for the faint of heart. Search engines are always trying to make adjustments to their results and offerings to differentiate themselves from their competition, just like other competing businesses. For those of us [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Bounce – Better Than SearchWiki?

Microsoft Still Pines for Yahoo!

pittfall — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:14:40 +0000

Microsoft still wants to purchase Yahoo!, however, now their true intentions are becoming more visible: There’s yet another chapter in what’s beginning to look like an eternal corporate love triangle: Seems Microsoft just can’t get past it’s obsession with Yahoo’s search business, at least according to The Wall Street Journal. It reports Microsoft is looking [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Microsoft Still Pines for Yahoo!

Google Pushing Local Search?

pittfall — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:22:33 +0000

Today while doing research for a client, I happened to notice something very interesting in Google’s results. The given search was for “hampton inn” and further research on other geographically relevant, broad terms returned similar results like “restaurant” and “mcdonalds.” Entering a city, state or zip code returned the Google map and relevant results based [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Google Pushing Local Search?

Anatomy of Organic Listing Snippets in the SERPs and Outlining Best Practices

pittfall — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:42:08 +0000

When returning results to a user, search engines use various resources based upon the particular search or query. The basic information published on a Web page may not be visible to a user, even when the page is displayed in an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or FireFox. Some of this information is used [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Anatomy of Organic Listing Snippets in the SERPs and Outlining Best Practices

Oops, an Error has Occurred – Yahoo! Says No to Microsoft

pittfall — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:05:45 +0000

Via the Wall Street Journal: Yahoo Board to Reject Microsoft Bid Yahoo Inc.’s board plans to reject Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited $44.6 billion offer to acquire the Web giant, a person familiar with the situation says. After a series of meetings over the past week, Yahoo’s board determined that the $31 per share offer “massively undervalues” [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Oops, an Error has Occurred – Yahoo! Says No to Microsoft

The Great Search War or Search War I?

pittfall — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:26:56 +0000

Whether the outcome would be Micro-hoo or Ya-soft the outcome would be the same, a new combined power that may be able to put some heat on Google to maintain their control on search and online advertising. This is not new speculation, actually last year Microsoft was in the same role as they have assumed [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

The Great Search War or Search War I?

It’s Official – MSN Webmaster Center is Open for Business

pittfall — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:48:00 +0000

I have outlined the MSN Webmaster Portal Center over the past few months, and now it is open for everyone: Webmaster Tools: Open for Business This week we’re excited to announce that the Live Search Webmaster Center has moved out of its closed beta and we are now open for a public beta. In conjunction [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

It’s Official – MSN Webmaster Center is Open for Business

Microsoft Webmaster Portal is Live in Beta

pittfall — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:44:50 +0000

MSN Webmaster Portal was announced in August and was to be released into beta in September and be fully accessible by the end of November, however very little has been released since the initial announcement. Until now. The first screenshots of the new platform have been released by Barry at Search Engine Roundtable. Along with [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

Microsoft Webmaster Portal is Live in Beta

What Does College Football have in Common with SERPs?

pittfall — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:40:04 +0000

It is college football season, if you haven’t noticed. Everyone is wearing their Alma Mater colors’ and talking up their team’s successes and being quiet after losses. There have been some real differences this season as opposed to many from the last 10+ years. Namely, the teams that were expected to be dominating on the [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

What Does College Football have in Common with SERPs?

More Information from Microsoft on Webmaster Portal Beta

pittfall — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:33:07 +0000

Today I received more information about the new Webmaster Portal Beta coming soon: Live Search Webmaster Portal Beta Thank you for filling out the survey for the Live Search Webmaster Portal Beta program! In order to provide the highest level of service to our Beta Partners, we have started off the beta program with our [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

More Information from Microsoft on Webmaster Portal Beta

The New MSN Live Search is Ready

pittfall — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:20:34 +0000

MSN has launched the “new” Live Search portal to address four main areas of concern: Relevance (why you use the search product) Speed (patience is a virtue, but not what users really want in search query results) Streamlining Concept (better usability) High-Interest Content (universal search product anyone?) The MSN team claim that this is the [...]

Copyright © 2004-2011, by Stephen Pitts aka SEOpittfall.com, All Rights Reserved. Contact pittfall@seopittfall.com

The New MSN Live Search is Ready

Insight into MSN Webmaster Portal

pittfall — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:53:59 +0000

Last week MSN announced Webmaster Portal should be available in late fall and offered a chance to apply to test out the beta and provide feedback. I am not aware that the beta has actually started, however, I was sent an email to register for the beta. It was a simple form requesting information about [...]

MSN is “STICKIN’ IT TO THE little guy”

pittfall — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:12:01 +0000

Microsoft AdCenter has updated it’s trademark policy, wait… in an email sent out today they state that their trademark policy remains the same, however, how they enforce the policy will change dramatically: Microsoft adCenter is changing the way we manage our trademark policy starting September 10, 2007. While no change will be made to the [...]

MSN Live Search Building Webmaster Portal

pittfall — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:12:01 +0000

MSN Live Search has joined the race to provide webmasters with the tools and features that we expect with the announcement of Webmaster Portal. According to the announcement, the new service will be started in “private beta” and will test out some of the tools and commands that they intend on bringing to the public [...]

SoloSEO – Link Search Tool

pittfall — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:27:09 +0000

There are a large number of things that many take for granted because of their time in the SEO arena… Because of this, it is always important to take a step back to see what you are doing and what you are not doing to improve your website for visitors and search engines. That is [...]

Engines “Search” For More Diversity in Organic Results

pittfall — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:46:38 +0000

A recent research study by Dogpile.com with collaboration with Dr. Amanda Spink of the Queensland University of Technology and Dr. Jim Jansen from the Pennsylvania State University discussed the differences regarding organic results across the major search engines, specifically Google, Yahoo, Live (MSN) and Ask. Aside from being a pitch to users for the relevance [...]

Microsoft + Yahoo = ???

pittfall — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:52:21 +0000

As it stands now, a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! would up the combined companies’ share of the all-important search advertising market to 27 percent against Google’s 65 percent. It would also narrow the gap in overall online ads with Google to just 13 percent. More importantly, a deal would create what one source described [...]

Personalized Search – The Death of SEO?

pittfall — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 04:16:52 +0000

Search Engine Optimization has been a topic of debate since the concept was developed in the mid 1990′s. Some think of it as techniques to artificially inflate organic rankings, in essence, to “trick” search engines to send them traffic that they do not deserve. I am not saying that people have used techniques to accomplish [...]

Google Doesn’t Own the Internet!

pittfall — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:06:52 +0000

Here is a tool that is extremely useful for SEOs to know, it is provided by BruceClay.com and is called the Search Relationship Chart. (pdf here) They even have a histogram with the relationships as they have changed since November 2000. It outlines the suppliers and receivers of primary and secondary search results (raw index) [...]