What is Search Assist?

Yahoo! announced search assist, a new beta product launched in the United States which is similar to Google Instant, but extends a bit further.

It works by extending the search interface to include a layer before the results come up. The layer typically includes a left column of related keywords a right box that can be anything from:

• 3 top websites for that query
• a weather forecast
• stock information
• the profile of a celebrity
• other unique data sets

Here is an example of how the search box flies out

Here is an overview video from Yahoo!

Arbitrage or Helpful?

It is easy to laugh at Ask.com when thinking about the spammy end of the “answers engines” (or even Yahoo! Answers for that matter), but this search assist could range from highly useful to pretty weak depending on what Yahoo! decides to do with it. It’s impact on various markets can range from trivial to significant.

What Powers Search Assist?

The ranking algorithm for Yahoo! Search Assist is different than their core results, being powered off a smaller index with its own algorithm, with a rapid refresh rate. Greg Sterling asked Yahoo!’s Shashi Seth about what drove the algorithm:

Seth told me that right now the links and content being shown in the right part of the box are the URLs that are the “most clicked” throughout the Yahoo network. He also implied that it might get more nuanced over time. And he added that rankings can change moment to moment because it’s dynamic.

That click bias has a natural preference toward promoting Yahoo! properties (since Yahoo! users like Yahoo! stuff) and promoting those who are featured on the Yahoo! network through editorial partnerships.

Greater Integration of Self Promotion

One of the benefits of Yahoo! outsourcing search is that they can now claim that they are not a search engine, which gets them around a ton of conflict issues, and allows them to aggressively self-promote without the type of scrutiny Google has come under for hard-coding their search results. Currently Yahoo! Search Assist is not yet running ads, but it is full of self-promotion. It is not a great sign for the longevity of Yahoo! Search that when you start typing almost every letter of the alphabet leads to a downstream Yahoo! product. In the past, search engines which have over-monetized have seen marketshare erode to Google. Hopefully this stuff pushes people to Bing though!

In key verticals where Yahoo! is well established the entire preview box is consumed by content from their vertical databases. See, for example, a search for LeBron James

If you are ESPN it becomes much harder to get traffic from Yahoo! Search directly given that sort of layout. If the model proves profitable enough Yahoo! can close off a lot of verticals. The key for web publishers is that Yahoo! has traditionally been horrible at integration, so the odds of them doing this in a way that monetizes more aggressively without harming Yahoo!’s search marketshare are pretty low. Having wrote that, last year Yahoo! bought Associated Content and has been pushing hard at growing their news, sports finance verticals. If they are able to instantly tap a large share of the search market can throw up a featured promotion for some of their key content then that will lead to lots of usage data (Microsoft has already mentioned using clickstream data to create a search signal) social signals (like Facebook likes) that can bleed into improving the ranking of Yahoo! content in other search engines.

Custom Ad Units

The showing of a mini-search box not only gives them the potential for further self-promotion, but it also allows them to run more custom ad units that are in full focus of the end user. When you display a full search result you are offering a list of options, but premium placement ads in the preview box can allow for tighter integration of video, audio, or other custom ad units within search.

Yahoo! has already put sponsored mortgage rates table in their search results. Now if they want to do something like that they can have it own the whole of the interface, sorta like Google has done with their local results. It will also allow Yahoo! to test video results in the search results, something Google is getting into as well.

Yahoo! has also taken branded search ads one step further, with a wrap around on certain keyword queries, like eBay.

Shortcomings

Where Yahoo! Search Assist falls short, especially when compared against Google Instant is it’s force of pushing a single vertical for keywords that can have many meanings. Take, for example, a search on cars. If you don’t want the DVD, you are still forced to view information about the cartoon movie because a Yahoo! vertical has a match.

Another thing Yahoo! seems to be doing is force feeding a local option as the last suggested keyword, even where it is totally irrelevant. In the long run I think this would harm Yahoo! local as a true destination, but it can drive short term volume. Of course this only just launched, so it will likely become more relevant as they track how users interact with it. Currently someone is likely registering a Yahoo! local profile with Viagra in it somewhere. ' class='wp-smiley' />

Article source: http://www.seobook.com/yahoo-search-assist

Keyword research is not just for determining what you would like your website to rank for. Keyword mapping decides which URL shows up in the search results for certain keywords.

Once upon a time, individuals read newspapers. If you wanted the latest sports news, you picked up the paper and found the sports page. What if you went to the sports page and found movie reviews?  This would be frustrating. You would most likely find a different newspaper.

The same is true for web pages. If you search for “Atlanta Hawks� wanting to see if they won last night’s game, you would be rather disappointed if the first link in the results was on the history of the team in the 1960s.

Just like the newspaper, you would leave that web page and look elsewhere. Then why are keywords mapped to certain URLs? Keyword mapping guides people to the pages that contain the information they want.  Google tracks bounce rates because the goal is to provide the most relevant search results.

Writing content that people want to read is as important for websites as it is for newspapers.  To have keywords mapped to URLs for the search engine results pages, the content must be what people want. Creating this unique content is vital for keeping visitors on your site.

How do we map keywords to URLs on a web page? The process isn’t as easy as you might think.

Let’s assume you’ve used the Google keyword tool ( check out this post for instructions).  You’ll have a large list of keywords gathered from brainstorming, looking at competitors, analytics and targeted pay per click. There are many resources to help you perform killer keyword research.

For example, let’s use the keywords modest wedding dresses, modest prom dresses and modest bridesmaid dresses. The location is Atlanta, Ga. Evaluate the words and organize a list based on search volume including localized terms.

Once my keyword list is complete, I narrow it down using the following:

1)      Is the keyword related to the site’s services?

I’m targeting modest wedding dresses and should avoid terms like dresses. Understanding the products helps you understand which keywords the client wants to target. There are many tools to help you understand your target audience.

Each product should have its own page on the site. The individual page targets the appropriate keyword. The wedding dress keyword should be mapped to the wedding dress page not the homecoming dress page.

Putting the keyword in quotes helps gauge the competition on Google and identifies how many pages have that exact string of text linked to that keyword.

To strategize and improve clients’ rankings with certain terms, you must research your competition.  Always consider the competition when making final decisions.

On the SERP above, eight out of 10 results are mapped to home pages. Also consider this when mapping keywords.

2)      After compiling your list, check the website’s URLs for the keywords. If a URL doesn’t exist for the keywords related to your site, then one should be created.

If the URL isn’t ranking, one thing to help the on-page optimization is to change the URL to include the keywords with search volume and 301 redirect the old URL to the new URL. If the URL is ranking, then it’s a judgment call whether or not to change the URL. It depends on how well the URL is ranking and whether changing it would help on-page optimization.

3)      Once the targeted keywords list is complete and you have ideas of what URLs to map to, find iterations of these keywords to target.

The modest wedding dress page should also target terms such as modest wedding dresses, modest wedding dresses with sleeves, beautiful modest wedding dresses and modest wedding dresses with long sleeves. After doing this for each of the different URLs that have products/services, you can map the home page.

4)      The home page has keywords that define the products/services of the site.

The keywords mapped to the home page could be modest wedding dress, modest prom dress, modest homecoming dress and wedding dress Atlanta. Since I’ve chosen my keywords, I know what the title of this page should be. Title for home page: Modest Wedding, Prom Homecoming Dresses Atlanta. Through my keywords research, the term wedding dress in Atlanta didn’t have any search volume.  However, wedding dress Atlanta had 140 global monthly searches.

The wrong words could become the focus if keyword research isn’t optimized. Huge mistake. Remember the newspaper and misplaced sports page?  We don’t want visitors leaving the site and going elsewhere.   Make sure you help keywords find their long lost URLs.

What tips do you have for finding long lost URLs?  Please leave your comments below.

Tags: Keyword Research, keywords, Search Engine Optimization

Article source: http://www.seo.com/blog/helping-keywords-find-long-lost-url/

b.) Content should be original and not copied. As suggested by Google here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html , some great ideas about writing original content are based on research, in-depth reports, and thoughtful analysis.

c.) Articles should be well written, clear, concise, and direct to the point. The readability of your content is also important.

d.) Content should contain images or videos. Content with images or videos reinforces learning and helps the reading process. Make sure you have rights to these images and videos. Make sure to ask permission first if you do not own them.

e.) If absolutely necessary, cites references to external sources as proof. Sometimes when you are writing something in your blog or website, you need evidence that can substantiate your point. In this case, you need to link to a quality external resource. This linking process should be given with editorial merit.

f.) Link to other content within your website. For example if your content is talking about “building widgets” then in some of your paragraphs you start talking about “configuring widgets”. If you already wrote a separate and detailed tutorial about “configuring widgets”, then have your “building widgets” page link to the “configuring widgets” content.  This method is really helpful for visitors who are in need of detailed resources about a certain topic (example “widgets”). You might notice that if you are reading a Wikipedia article, it links to a lot of related pages within Wikipedia, and of course helps improve the user experience and increases the retention time of your visitors.

g.) Allow user-generated comments. When you publish content make sure you allow comments to it. User comments are helpful to validate the accuracy and trust of the content. If certain content receives a lot of interaction and approval, then any future readers do not need to spend more time searching for quality content on the Internet because they already found one. They will stick to your website longer.

h.) Allow users to share your content on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites. One aspect of a quality website is that its content is highly shared, liked and added to a users list of favorite websites. You should take this opportunity, as search engines like Google are definitely using this data (source: http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 ).

i.) Write as often as possible- this makes your website grow bigger with quality content. The end results are higher organic traffic due to long tail effect and higher link baiting opportunity because of your content. Google also loves to rank big websites (source: http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Choosing-Keywords-Help/Keyword-Difficulty-vs-Size-of-Domain/ ).

Article source: http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Google-Optimization-Help/How-To-Increase-Google-Trust/

Firefox 4 was just released. It is much smoother faster than prior versions of the browser. And the persistent memory leaking issue seems to have been tamed, even with many extensions installed. Overall an awesome upgrade. I can see this once again becoming my main web browser while also remaining my primary SEO research browser.

With the upgrade I only had 2 major issues

• I needed to install the newest version of Roboform
• By default there is no status bar in Firefox 4. So if you want to use Rank Checker or SEO for Firefox you would need to do so through the Firefox menu system (a bit slowish + lame IMHO), OR you can download the Status 4 Eva plug-in to get your status bar back again ' class='wp-smiley' />

In time we will likely think about moving the icons for Rank Checker and SEO for Firefox out of the status bar into the upper menu, as it is not great for us to create extensions that are reliant on another extension which is then reliant on a browser that changes too … too many moving parts.

But for now stuff works well enough again if you download the Status 4 Eva plug-in, something over 10,000 people a day are doing!

We also just updated the documentation on the plug-in download upgrade pages for our extensions such that those who do not read our blog still know what they need to do in order to keep everything going smoothly. It also prevents us from having to read too many support tickets like these gems a crazy gave us today, which helps us maintain at least a bit of hope for humanity. ' class='wp-smiley' />

In moderation such messages are humorous…but you just hope that the person isn’t crazy enough to hunt you down and shoot you because they think Yahoo! is a superior browser to Firefox. Not for the least of reasons because Yahoo! isn’t a web browser! ' class='wp-smiley' />

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Comments

If you enable the Add-on Bar for Firefox 4 you will see what was the status bar at the bottom of your browser window with all your add-on icons that use it.

Is that a separate from the plug-in I mentioned? Is it another plug-in, or a core feature?

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Article source: http://www.seobook.com/upgrading-firefox-4

Guidelines are pushed as though they are commandments from a religious tome, but they are indeed a set of arbitrary devices used to hold down those who don’t have an in with Google.

When Google nuked BeatThatQuote I guessed that the slap on the wrist would last a month give BTQ time to clean up their mess.

As it turns out, I was wrong on both accounts.

Beat That Quote is already ranking again. They rank better than ever only after only 2 weeks!

And the spam clean up? Google did NOTHING of the sort.

Every single example (of Google spamming Google) that was highlighted is still live.

Now Google can claim they handled the spam on their end / discounted it behind the scenes, but such claims fall short when compared to the standards Google holds other companies to.

• Most sites that get manually whacked for link-based penalties are penalized for much longer than 2 weeks.
• Remember the brand damage Google did to companies like JC Penny Overstock.com by talking to the press about those penalties? In spite of THOUSANDS of media outlets writing about Google’s BTQ acquisition, The Register was the most mainstream publication discussing Google’s penalization of BeatThatQuote, and there were no quotes from Google in it.
• When asking for forgiveness for such moral violations, you are supposed to grovel before Google admitting all past sins admit to their omniscient ability to know everything. This can lead one to over-react and actually make things ever worse than the penalty was!
• In an attempt to clean up their spam penalties (or at least to show they were making an effort) JC Penny did a bulk email to sites linking to them, stating that the links were unauthorized and to remove them. So JC Penny not only had to spend effort dropping any ill gotten link equity, but also lost tons of organic links in the process.

Time to coin a new SEO phrase: token penalty.

token penalty: an arbitrary short-term editorial action by Google to deflect against public relations blowback that could ultimately lead to review of anti-competitive monopolistic behaviors from a search engine with monopoly marketshare which doesn’t bother to follow its own guidelines.

Your faith in your favorite politician should be challenged after you see him out on the town snorting coke and renting hookers. The same is true for Googler’s preaching their guidelines as though it is law while Google is out buying links (and the sites that buy them).

You won’t read about this in the mainstream press because they are scared of Google’s monopolistic business practices. Luckily there are blogs. And Cyndi Lauper. ' class='wp-smiley' />

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Google has been hypocritical before, but this case really takes the cake. How much more blatant can you get?

I think folks who work on the internet, who make their living on the internet, and make the internet tick – forget that lay persons not only don’t understand how the internet works, but they JUST DON’T CARE. So the brand damage is only done if people who care about link juice choose to not shop at those places because of it. I reckon that’s about 286 people world-wide. Everybody else is busy caring about the minutiae of their day-to-day existence.

Not one single person has admitted to me that they won’t shop at JCP any more because they scammed Google for higher rankings.

If you want to make Google notice, vote with your feet (clicks) – start using Bing.

When it hits mainstream media coverage I think the perceived idea of pushing that someone is a “cheat” of any type, or a “scammy marketer who doesn’t follow social norms” indeed can have a lasting perverse impact on perceived quality.

If you think otherwise, consider the lasting blowback Belkin got for buying fake reviews on Amazon Mechanical Turk. That happened a few years ago I simply won’t buy anything with their brand on it. For some folks a similar impact happens when reading the “Google caught company x spamming” articles in the NYT or WSJ.

That page I just linked to had hundreds of other links. And it is pointing at this page with nearly 1,000 inbound links.

How many millions of people saw some of those articles? The brand damage is more significant than it may seem at a glance!

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Article source: http://www.seobook.com/true-colors