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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

November 21, 2011

Boxing Yahoo Site Explorer

Today is a sad day for those of us in the SEO industry. Yahoo Site Explorer is being boxed for good and as of today will be the last day you will be able to use it. Yahoo announced on Friday 18th that they would be that they would be shutting down the service. Many in the SEO industry are regarding this as the final demise of Yahoo Search.

“With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. Site Explorer services will not be available from November 21, 2011.”

This follows through on a previous announcement from July 11, 2010 that they service would soon be suspended due to falling use of Yahoo and the transition of Yahoo to Bing.

“In an August 2010 blog post, we said we would continue Site Explorer with a focus on new features for webmaster community, even after the transition to Microsoft platforms is complete. We listened to your feedback, and along with the team from Bing Webmaster Center looked jointly at the roadmap for the webmaster tools. Having two webmaster portals for a single source for organic results does not add enough value. Once organic results are transitioned to Bing in all the markets, we plan to shut down Yahoo! Site Explorer and Microsoft’s Webmaster Tools will be the source for Bing and Yahoo! webmaster site and analytics data.”

Yahoo Site Explorer went live in September of 2005 and was the progeny of Tim Mayer from Yahoo. It has been a powerful mainstay of the SEO industry ever since it’s initial launch. While most of us in the industry knew this day was coming, it is still tragic news for many SEOs who have come to rely on Yahoo Site Explorer as a free, comprehensive and search engine backed competitive analysis link tool.

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 11:00 am

Categories: Bing,Yahoo!
Tags: bing, site explorer, yahoo —

September 22, 2011

1st SEO Impressions of Windows 8

I started my computer life on an Apple II PC, my first gaming/entertainment electronics experience was the Lesiure Vision, and it wasn’t until high-school that I met my first IBM, an XT with an attitude. So in my years you can bet I’ve seen a few operating system ‘revolutions’, heck the first computer I paid for with my own money was the Mac Classic back when it was the first PC to have a mouse and ‘Windows’ (plus it could talk!).

Things have changed a bit since that 8mhz Macintosh with it’s single color 10″ non-upgradable screen. The 4mb maximum limit of RAM that was a selling point of my Mac isn’t even enough for a modern CPU cache, let alone an OS + applications, and ‘booting from disk’ has a totally different meaning.

Along comes Windows 8 and I really felt that I needed a new operating system like I needed a new hair in my nose, so I was in no rush at all to review it. The situation reminded me of a quote from Tron 2.0:

“..what sort of improvements have been made in Flynn… I mean, um, Windows 8?” .. “This year we put an 8 on the box!”

Well it’s not really that bad, in fact the more I poke at Windows8 the more I see it’s potential and I can see how it could be a game changer for a web based business. Here’s why:

The start menu is now a web page with tiled animated content including feeding from websites like XKCD.com:

– Do you have your website setup properly to feed the new start menu when people add your site there?
IE10 is the browser the OS uses, you can install another, but it won’t get loaded until you specifically load it
– Does your site look the way you’d expect in IE10? I know our aging site layout looks different in IE10.
There is no prompt to chose a search engine, you’ve got Bing and what more could anyone want?
– This could divide the consumer base among power users who have fiddled and those who just use things ‘as is’. Depending on your market this could change the way you look at Bing.
Clicking the “Make Google my homepage.” link on the google.com/.ca homepage currently causes IE10 to load a blank white page instead of the default home screen.
– Does your site use similar javascript? Will you have the same issues with IE10 users?
Built in applications for reaching social networks aren’t broad enough. “Socialite” program for FB only works with FB, and drops support for Twitter, Reddit, Google Reader, Flicker, Digg, etc..
– Speaking of which, how cozy are you with giving MS access to everything?

Mind you, with all the stink that’s getting raised over the UEFI secure boot protocol, the rate of adoption for Windows8 could be pitiful. If Microsoft’s hardware partners went ahead with the new feature it would lock out other OSes and force people to deal with one source for new OS installs/upgrades.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:05 am

Categories: Bing,Bing,Facebook,internet security,Rankings,Search Engine News,seo articles,social media,Twitter
Tags: bing, facebook, Preview, Windows 8 —

May 18, 2011

Bing Integrates Facebook Data into Searches

Bing has announced that they have created a whole new level of Facebook integration into their search results and have "designed a new way to experience search, focusing on great design, task completion, instant answers, and vertical categories like shopping and travel to help you make decisions faster."

Bing states in their blog post that Research tells us that 90% of people seek advice from family and friends as part of the decision making process. This "Friend Effect" is apparent in most of our decisions and often outweighs other facts because people feel more confident, smarter and safer with the wisdom of their trusted circle.

In October 2010, Bing formed a partnership with social networking giant, Facebook that would allow Bing to use the Facbook social data and integrate them into Bing search queries. Initially, Bing was slow to integrate the data. In February of this year, Bing took a step towards more complete integration but still was not utilizing the full potential of the data that was available to them.

With the new update from Bing, search results can now be tailored to your Facebook profile based on your friends and even the collective Facebook network (not your FB friends).

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&vid=243216f7-9941-4f48-a2d0-2065e06a47b5&src=SLPl:embed::uuids&fg=sharenoembed" target="_new"title="Facebook Friends Now Fueling Faster Decisions on Bing">Video: Facebook Friends Now Fueling Faster Decisions on Bing</a>

Some of the biggest changes are:

Receive personalized search results based on the opinions of your friends by simply signing into Facebook.
You can see what your Facebook friends "like" across the Web
Incorporate the collective know-how of the Web into your search results, and begin adding a more conversational aspect to your searches.
You can quickly see what your friends like and are sharing.
Showing which of your friends liked the search results given by Bing via Facebook.
Bing will promote search results that are "liked" by your friends to the front page of the Bing personalized search results.

Google has used social media as a ranking signal for many months and continue to attempt to incorporate social media signals into their search results. Until Google has a popular social networking platform from which to draw data from, it looks as though Bing has taken the lead in personalized searches by utilizing Facebook social media data.

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 4:48 pm

Categories: Bing,Facebook,Google,social media,Uncategorized
Tags: bing, bing toolbar, facebook —

February 8, 2011

The Google Honeypot Sting – Part 2

As a follow-up to my previous post regarding the accusations from Google that Bing is using click-through data as part of their ranking methodology. It is pretty certain that Google does as well and there is evidence to show that they both have been doing so for some time. Even Matt Cutts said in 2002 that "using toolbar data could help provide better SERPs." Although to this day, Google hasn’t officially disclosed if they use the click-stream data as a factor in their search ranking algorithm.

To try to prove their accusation, Google created some fake SERPs for "non-words" and sent clicks through to Bing to make sure they got hold of the data. Even though it was nonsense data, Bing still took it serious enough to use it in about 10% of their search results. Bing then accused Google of click-fraud, but because there was no PPC component it was immediately dismissed.

Bing was not forthcoming in their practices, stating: "We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop." Bing now reveals that they DO use 100% click stream data from sources like their IE toolbars and use this information as factors in their ranking algorithm.

In an additional statement from Bing they revealed that:

"We use over 1,000 different signals and features in our ranking algorithm. A small piece of that is click-stream data we get from some of our customers, who opt-in to sharing anonymous data as they navigate the web in order to help us improve the experience for all users."

I think the bigger story here is why this seems to be such a contentious issue for Google? Why the cloak and dagger routine between the two? I can understand that Bing may not want to divulge its practices, but it seems like adding insult to injury by denying the accusations and then admitting to them later. Both Google and Bing appear to behaving like temperamental juveniles in school yard.

What can we take away from this? Large corporations often behave like children. Even if clickstream data isn’t a leading factor in the ranking and probably never will be, it is part of the equation and as such cannot be ignored. As SEOs, we should be looking for ways to get URLs into the data stream of toolbar users.

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 6:56 pm

Categories: Bing,Bing,Google,Google,Internet Law,SEO Tips,Uncategorized,Yahoo!
Tags: bing, click-through, google, matt cutts, rankings —

August 27, 2010

Google Update & YaBing!

For those of you who have noticed significant fluctuations in your rankings – you’re not alone. Across the web people have reported significant changes in their rankings. We at Beanstalk were fortunate on this one in that we had ranking reports running for the past few days and got to watch the changes over the course off the report. A happy coincidence.

Unfortunately the algorithm shift isn’t particularly favorable to solid site optimization. There was an odd connection is what we’re seeing. Site that had link building that focused on high relevancy and high trustability lost ground and sites who’s links building was focused on volume in recent months have gained ground. This indicated a shift to volume over quality. For obvious reason we’re convinced that this shift won’t last.

This shift in quality isn’t just apparent in the sites we’re working on but as we analyze various sites across the web we’re noticing a larger degree of lower quality backlinked sites ranking.

Now – to be sure we’re always in favor of diversified link building strategies and that includes strategies that focus more on volume and other strategies that focus on trust and relevancy but from everything we can see indicates that this update puts a disproportionate emphasis on volume. I expect to see the rankings shift again – likely over the weekend.

I should note that this isn’t just something we’re noticing but that has been noticed by a wide array of SEO’s. My advice? Don’t react too quickly – corrections are coming and you don’t want to adjust the wrong way.

And in other news …

And also noticeable in the current ranking report we’re running for our clients is the merging of Yahoo! and Bing search results. A couple days ago Yahoo! announced that their organic results in North America were being fed by Bing. This is of course the first set of ranking reports though that have refected this. This is (in my opinion) very exciting news and you can read more about it on Search Engine Journal here.

And stay tuned – I’ll be posting more as the Google update continues.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 3:13 am

Categories: Bing,Google,Rankings,Yahoo!,Yahoo!
Tags: bing, google, google update, yahoo —

February 25, 2010

Webinar, Privacy & Google

Well, it’s been a long time since my last blog post. I apologize for this and will be working hard to try to be more active in the social world of the web. As you know – in this industry things move pretty fast and while I definitely can’t recap the last couple weeks, I can start anew with the recent going’s on – some interesting news going forward and an update on Google. First – let’s talk about what’s going on right now:

Today on Webcology (my radio show) Jim Hedger and I discussed privacy including an Italian’s court’s assertion that Google executive are responsible for the material uploaded to YouTube (yikes), an interview with the Ontario privacy commissioner, and a lengthy discussion on what should and shouldn’t be private (and who’s responsibility is it anyways – is Facebook REALLY responsible for your privacy or should YOU take a second to think about what you’re adding to a social network (key word – social) and understand that once you add it – it’s no longer private information). It was a great show and is the first in a series of interviews and information on privacy issues and concerns.

Yahoo! & Bing are finally sitting in a tree. The deal has been approved and Bing will soon (hopefully by the end of 2010) be feeding Yahoo! organic results and Yahoo! paid search will power Bing paid results (they hope by Q4 of 2010 but in my humble opinion it’s more likely in Q1 of 2011). Can I hear a – FINALLY !

And for those of you who are as geeky as I am – there’s a great webinar series this weekend. 30 webinars in one weekend on a wide array of topics. it’s going to be a wild ride with tons of great info and PRIZES. With reps from the major engines and great presenters such as Shawna Fennell, Stoney deGeyter, Jennifer Laycock and many many more (including your truly on Saturday at 12PM) you just know it’s going to be great. Hope to see you there and good luck winning one of the many great prized from netbooks to $5000 design packages. So get your Twitter account loaded, step in front of your favorite browser and buckle up. To register go to http://www.newlifeevent.com/.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 4:42 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bing, google, webcology, webinar, yahoo —

Webinar, Privacy & Google

Acer Aspire One AO532H-2676 Intel Atom N450 1GB 160GB 10.1IN WSVGA Windows 7 Starter Netbook Red And for those of you who are as geeky as I am – there’s a great webinar series this weekend. 30 webinars in one weekend on a wide array of topics. it’s going to be a wild ride with tons of great info and PRIZES. With reps from the major engines and great presenters such as Shawna Fennell, Stoney deGeyter, Jennifer Laycock and many many more (including your truly on Saturday at 12PM) you just know it’s going to be great. Hope to see you there and good luck winning one of the many great prized from netbooks to $5000 design packages. So get your Twitter account loaded, step in front of your favorite browser and buckle up. To register go to http://www.newlifeevent.com/.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 4:42 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bing, google, webcology, webinar, yahoo —

July 6, 2009

Bing Toolbox

Last week on Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm I had the pleasure of chatting with some of the fine folks at Bing to discuss their new engine Bing. I got a followup email from Brendan Blandy from Waggener Edstrom (the marketing folks for Bing) with some useful links for those interested in Bing.

If you care to follow Bing (and you should) then here’s where to go first:

See you there !

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 6:02 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bing —

June 25, 2009

Google And … Of Course … Bing

In preparation for today’s show on Webmaster Radio I did my obligatory ransacking of the web for SEO news. Of course – I do this on a regular basis but on Thursdays I dedicate a solid couple hours to just this one task as opposed to the “when I get a chance” aspects of most other days.

Today I found a few interesting stories and so rather than report of something we’ve discovered or putting my spin on some news I’m going to simply list of a number of interesting news stories, perhaps a bit of a summary on why they’re important (in my humble opinion) and a link to the radio show where I discussed them in more detail.

First – let’s look at Google.

Didn’t get to this on the show (week-after-week we run out of time) but they’re pushing hard to get broadband into more regions of the world and get fast wireless access to cover more areas.

Of course they’re only looking out for us right? Wrong. As Greg Sterling rightfully points out over at Search Engine Land in his post, “Google Wants The Web To Go Faster“, Google’s motives here are purely driven by self interest. That said, their self interest coincides nicely with the interests on most tech companies and with consumers so it seems that having the budget and interests on Google on our side just might get things rolling in our favor.

And for those of you who might have missed it the first 83 times they said it – here’s a video from Matt Cutts (Google Guru) on quality directories vs paid links:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXj73VDcSWk]

All right – now on to Bing.

Our regular readers will know that I’m getting sick-and-tired of reporting more positive news on Bing. Well today I get a mixed bag which is better than nothing.

On one hand – Bing’s share of paid links has increased by 13% since it’s launch. Let’s remember – this is where search companies make their money so this statistic is HUGE. You can read more about this on WebProNews.

Now the fun part for me – SE Round Table has brought a discussion to light that Microsoft has increased the traffic they’re sending in the form of bots looking for suspicious websites. Alright – that sounds good HOWEVER this traffic may well be skewing their referrer stats that all the previous good news is based on. The amount of traffic to some sites is up ten fold since the switch to Bing which is huge for traffic and could well amount to much of the search market share increases being reported.

I haven’t looked far into this at this time and so I don’t really have a side of the discussion however it’s definitely a story to follow. You can read the article and follow a discussion on the subject over at SE Round Table here.

Obviously there’s a lot of other news out there. Today I high recommend visiting Search Brains. They’re always good but today I was especially impressed with the quality and diversity of news.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 2:32 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bing, direcory, google, market share, matt cutts —

June 19, 2009

SEO On A Friday

I love Friday’s (and who doesn’t). Today there’s a bit of news from the SEO realm for you and I’ll add a bit of humor at the end just to make the end of your day (or weekend) a bit more entertaining.

First let’s discuss Bing (oh God not again). Annoyingly – I have more good news for Webmasters from Bing. For why this is annoying you can reference yesterday’s post. But here we go anyways.

A few days ago Bing released a PDF for webmasters and publishers on Bing the basically outlines some of the core differences between Bing and those “other engines” (read: Google). If you really searched on Bing you’d figure this stuff out fairly readily however it’s a worthwhile read. You can download the PDF from their download center here.

I came across the document when I read Vanessa Fox’s analysis of the document on Search Engine Land at http://searchengineland.com/microsofts-search-engine-optimization-advice-for-bing-21152. Both are recommended reading but if you only have time for one – stick with Vanessa’a take.

And now I get to smile a bit as I have some “bad news” on Microsoft. They’re bribing Australian users to switch from Firefox back to IE with a contest for $10k. Basically, they have “hidden” some money on the web and are giving tips away on Twitter. The first to find it gets to keep the cash but it won’t work if you’re using Firefox.

My tip to Microsoft would be to just build a better browser and I’ll just switch. You don’t need to bribe me.

You can read more about the bribery on the Australian site at http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/default.aspx.

And last but not least – the humor I promised you. So turn down your speakers or slap on your headphone (unless your at home in which case feel free to enjoy over your full surround system if you feel so inclined) and enjoy. The following is a clip from comedian Louis CK from his appearance on Conan O’Brien. You’ve got a very good grasp of this generation Louis.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETv3NURwLc]

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 3:21 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bing, comedy, firefox, microsoft —

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