Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

Recent number from W3Schools.com on browser stats show Firefox making HUGE gains against Internet Explorer in the war of the browsers.

In May of 2004 Mozilla (makers of Firefox) had 11% of online users with IE coming in at about 85%. One year later (and after the launch of Firefox in 2005) Mozilla is now the browser of choice for roughly 28% of all online surfers with IE dropping to 65%.

If you haven't check out Firefox yet ... do. With all the great SEO extensions and free tools available right off the Mozilla website it's one of the easiest steps you can take to finding great tools to help you get your website to the top of the search engine rankings (oh, and it's just a great browser as well. :)

To download Firefox dimply visit the Mozilla website at http://www.mozilla.org/.
If you already have Firefox and simply was to enhance it with some great tools and fun gadgets visit their extensions page at https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/?application=firefox.

Well after a weekend of a greyed out PageRank bar it appears that it was only a glitch in Google's side. PageRank is now displaying properly in toolbars.

Was this a glitch? Was this Google simply playing with SEOs worldwide? Who knows. At the very least it made for some interesting discussions in the forums and probably resulted in more than a few chuckes at Google. Oh that panic caused from such a tiny amount of browser real estate. ;)

Yahoo expands on their search tool arsenal by adding a new feature called Yahoo! Mindset. Meaning, "what was your mindset when you performed a search?". It promits you the user to dynamically filter the top 100 search results according to a scale of commercial to non-commercial sites.

"Mindset uses an intuitive slider in the interface, so you can set the bias for commercial vs. non-commercial results."
Courtesy of Yahoo Search Blog:

To find out more information about Mindset, visit Yahoo Research Labs FAQ.

If you would like even more information Yahoo has set up it's own forum dedicated to Mindset.

Google appears to have shut off the displaying of PageRank in the toolbar. The first report of this that I was able to find was at 6:57PM PST.

Whether this is the "end of PageRank" as some predict, the end of PageRank being displayed in the toolbar, or simply a glitch in the Google system - perhaps related to the current backlink update is yet to be seen.

If they're turning of PageRank altogether I honestly believe that's a bad step. If they're simply going to stop displaying it in the toolbar that's probably a good thing. Stop those pesky SEOs from hunting down and attaining high PageRank sites to link with. ;)
(honestly, the benefit of this for all is that we'd all switch from our preoccupation with PageRank and shift to a preoccupation with relevancy which is the way it should be anyways)

This appears to be affecting all datacenters.

As an aside, if you are curious about your PageRank the Google Directory is still displaying current PageRanks and was updated just a few days ago.

Stay tuned for updates on this development. (And here I thought I was going to have a relaxing weekend. :)

If you look near the top of the right-hand navigation you'll notice that Beanstalk has now added an Atom XML feed of it's blog so that you can use your newreader to keep updated constantly with what's going on in the search engine world (or add our feed to your site of course).

In an additional step to keep you, our valuable visitors informed on the goings-on accross the net we have also added a new page dedicated to RSS feeds from other quality SEO resources. This page will be updated as we find more quality resources. You can find our new RSS page on our website at http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/rss.php.

Enjoy keeping informed and have a great weekend ! :)

While we're not ones to recommend SEO-related products lightly, after testing Advanced Web Ranking (as noted in our last newsletter) we are happy to report that we not only recommend it for others but will be adding this product into our own arsenal.

This rank checking software is head-and-shoulders above WebPosition Gold in many ways from it's basic functionality to the cost (from $59).

A recommended tool for anyone interested in tracking their rankings accross the search engines.

For more information on Advanced Web Ranking you can view the brief writup on our SEO Tools page which includes a link to their site.

It appears that there's a backlink update underway over at Google. Various datacenters are showing different results.

Mixed in with this backlink update, it appears that the backlinks Google is displaying are varying too. One client's backlinks appear to be dropping from over 1,100 to just over 400 with none of their actual backlinks removed. It appears however that the majority of those no longer being displayed are from their own URL.

If this happens to you don't distress, Google still sees them all - they just don't show them publically. If anything this works better for those of you ranking highly as this limits what your competitors can see of your incoming links.

If you'd like to check multiple Google datacenters all at once without the hassle of visiting each one individually I'd recommend the "Datacenter Quick Check" on McDar.net.

Very good tool though is can get a bit bogged down and take a few minutes to run.

Never one to let his competitors keep any type of advantage, MSN has announced the the "beta" launch of "Virtual Earth" - their answer to the additiona of satellite images to Google Maps.

What makes it different is that the images MSN will provide are taken not from satellite but from sleughs of planes and provides not jsut topographical images but 45 degree images as well (which is great visually but I don't really see how it'll help me find that new restaurant any faster). :)

This comes to us through a press release yesterday by Pictometry who just signed a 5-year deal with Microsoft. You can read more on the details of this agreement and the upcoming launch of "Virtual Earth" on the Pictometry website at http://www.pictometry.com/pressrelease/msft.asp (Note: link removed as page no longer exists).

Labels: microsoft

AskJeeves announced today that they are now acquiring Excite Europe, a move that helps Ask expand further into the UK market. AskJeeves currently enjoys a solid toe-hold on the European search market and this move will help them further solidify their position in this region.

Now owning Excite US and Europe.

Additionally, AskJeeves has announced that they will be working with InfoSpace to enhance the search experience on Excite.

While Ask does not expect this acquisition to affect 2005 projected revenue it should provide them with much better positioning as they head into 2006. Assuming Ask has enough in the coffers to compete with the inevitable push of MSN into the European market, this acquisition could well situate them to become the #2 engine after Google in the region.

If you're interested you can read the full press release here (Note: hyperlink brought down as the page was removed).

Labels: ask

Well renowned Internet marketing guru Michael Cheney has just recently dropped the price of his strategy guide "The Website marketing Bible" from $197 to $97.

While we at Beanstalk are in the business of search engine positioning more than dealing with conversions, etc. we appreciate that your site need, more than traffic, a solid ROI. This is why we note the book here.

It's been getting great reviews from some of the top Internet resource sites. I haven't had the chance to read it yet as I've only just ordered the book (the price drop sold me) however if I know anything of the likes of Mel Strocen from SitePronews.com and Jay Conrad Levinson, Author of "Guerrilla Marketing" I know they know what they're talking about.

If you'd like more info on "The Website Marketing Bible" feel free to vosit their website at http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/.

it occured to me while reading the latest additions to the Google Blog that some of our visitor's might not even know it exists.

For those of you interested to read what some Googlers would put on a blog you can visit it at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/.

A recent article posted on site-reference discusses Google's sandbox effect and some new Google patents. The most alarming thing put forth in the article is when the author writes, "Unfortunately, this means that Google’s sandbox phenomenon and/or the aging delay may apply to your web site if you change too many of your web pages at once."

Also unfortunately is that we at Beanstalk have witnessed this phenomenon on two separate events over the past year.

If you are an SEO or are about to have or optimies your site you will definitely want to read the article. You can find it on the site-reference website at http://www.site-reference.com/Search-Engines/6087/index.html.

First, an appology that there was no SEO Blog post yesterday. Unfortunately, due to some issues with our Blogger account (the issue being we couldn't log in) we were unable to enter a post yesterday. But it appears to be corrected. :)

Today's post is more of a heads-up than specific advice. While for many Christmas is an event in the far-off future, for those of us in the SEO world it's time to start preparing. things to consider if you're planning on taking advantage of the Christmas buying season:

1. Christmas terms are highly competitive.
2. The Christmas buying season does not start in December, it begins around September.
3. New sites will be subjected to Google's sandbox.
4. Most of your competitors know this.

If you're going to be targeting phrases that are Christmas-related you're going to want to get started on that now or by June at the latest. If you take this edge over those who will start in the late summer you will be positioned (with proper SEO) to hold your rankings through the lucrative Christmas season.

A study released today by Yahoo Inc. analyzing financial adviser client HarrisDirects campaign states that online display advertising expanded on the numer of relevant searches by a whoppng 61 percent.

Yahoo also said that clicks on sponsored search advertising links pointing directly to HarrisDirects site at theharris.com also jumped 249 percent after a user was exposed to a display ad campaign.

Consumers exposed to the display ad campaign clicked on 139 percent more links to the HarrisDirect site via both sponsored and algorithmic links.

You may read an entire article at DMNews

In the race between search engine giants Yahoo Inc. and Google to offer the best video search capabilities, the leader (at the moment) seems to be Yahoo. Thursday, Yahoo brought it's service out of beta with the addition of searchable content from MTV, CBS News and other media channels. The beta version was initially launched by Yahoo in December of 2004, one month before the release of Googles TV Video Search, which is still in beta. The biggest difference between these two search engine monsters is that Yahoo offers video clips, while Google offers still photos and a text blurb at the poit where the search phrase was spoken.

Yahoo has been much more savvy in striking deals with content providers some of the latest editions include CMT, VH1, Discovery Channel as well as many others.

At the moment, Yahoo is not making money directly from its video-search service.
"We're not currently applying any monetization model directly," Jeff Karnes, director of media search, said.

There have been other companies doing both video and audio searches since the 90's a few examples of these companies include ShadowTV Inc, which offers a paid business service, BlinkxTV and SpeechBot which utilizes speech-recognition in it's search.

Understanding how searchers behave on the net can lend significant weight to how you choose to target phrases and where to place your budget.

A great article was published on SearchEngineWatch today by guest writer Anne Kennedy on just this topic based on recent information gleened from the Search Engine Strategies Conference happening right now in Toronto.

You can read the article on the SearchEngineWatch website at http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3502796. This is highly recommended reading for anyone in competitive industries.

Watch for an article by Beanstalk CEO Dave Davies in the near future with an analysis of what this means to you in how you target phrases and make the best use of your online budget.

Certainly thanks to the significant pay cuts on the part of Google's CEO and owners reported in this blog back on April 12, 2005 - Google has reported enormous growth over last year. ;) Reporting first quarter earnings of $1.256 billion, this reflects a 93% increase over the first quarter of 2004.

Predominantly related to increased revenue from paid listings through the AdWords program, this sudden increase (remember, their traffic DID NOT increase by 93%) reinforces a commonly held belief (though not substantiated) that sites that display Google's AdWords will tend to rank higher in the results.

If we think about it, Google (with it's shareholders) is in business to make money. Their primary source of revenue is generated from their paid listings and so if they can get those listings in front of more people by rankings sites higher that display them, they will make more money.

This is the logic those that subscribers to the belief that Google favors sites that display AdWords through the AdSense program hold. Not a bad one though I'm not sure I'm convinced. That said, if you check the Beanstalk articles area you'll notice the conspicuous presence of Google AdWords recently added at the bottom of each article.

If you've read any of our newsletters or articles you're probably aware that a program called Total Optimizer Pro is a big favorite at Beanstalk for it's ability to basically spoon feed you information regarding your competition's links. Well version 2 was just released and I have to say ... I'm truly impressed with the enhancements.

While they kept the great link analysis abilities, this software now gives you everything you need to know about the onsite optimization of the top ranking sites. The folks at TopNet Solutions have essentially created an all-in-one tool that tears apart every aspect of your online competitors' sites.

We will be doing a review of this software shortly and posting it at http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/resources/recommended/top.htm. In the meantime you can visit the TopNet Solutions website for more information at http://www.totaloptimizer.com/.