Bing Reveals U.S. "Fireworks" Search Interest in Time for July 4th

→ Read more on SEOPopularTopicsPopular→ The 10 Best Ways to Generate Traffic Without GoogleJune 30, 2014→ Panda 4.0 Help: Google Clarifies Tremors, 3 Analogies for Diagnosing HitsJuly  2, 2014→ 6 Ways to Make Your Search Results ShineJuly  3, 2014→ SEO Website Audits: Everything You Need to Know Part IIJuly  7, 2014→ Keeping Your Head Above Water in the Google LagoonJuly  1, 2014→ Content Creators Ranking Checklist: How Quality Scores InfluenceJuly  2, 2014TopicsFourth of July • Bing • New Hampshire • Rhode Island • firework • Louisiana • Portland • Mississippi • Oregon • NorthwestPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.comments powered by Disqus

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Yahoo Retires Less Popular Products to Make Room for New Innovation

by Ashley Zeckman,July 3, 2014CommentsIn an effort to focus on developing some of its more popular products, Yahoo has decided to retire some of its not-so-popular ones. However, all is not lost. Many of the features from the newly retired products have been integrated into other areas of its product set.

Yahoo first announced its upcoming changes earlier this year and eliminated products such as Newlook Service, Research Reports, and Bookmarks.yahoo.com in April and May. Yesterday, the company revealed further changes. 

In a blog post confirming the move, Jay Rossiter, senior vice president, Cloud Platform Group at Yahoo writes, "Over the past two years, our teams have been incredibly focused on our mission: making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining. This focus has allowed us to launch some new, exciting products while giving us the opportunity to make the core products our users already love even better.

"To achieve this, we took a hard look at our products and have shut down some of the less popular ones and integrated widely loved features from others into core Yahoo experiences."

So, what additional Yahoo products are facing elimination?

People Search: As a user, you want one place to find everything you need. You can use Yahoo Search to find people, blogs, places, maps - anything. That’s why today, July 2, we are closing down Yahoo People Search, a defunct directory site that’s no longer useful. Check out Yahoo Search to find the people you’re looking for.

Xobni: As we announced in July 2013, although we are shutting down Xobni.com and the Smartr Product Suite today, July 2, we have incorporated many Xobni-like features into Yahoo Mail (like compose auto-suggest and people-centric mail search) and the technology behind the product continues to inform our current and future user experiences.

Yahoo Toolbar on Chrome: By July 22, the Yahoo Toolbar will be removed from the Chrome Web store, to comply with recent Google Chrome policy updates. Instead, we now offer the Yahoo Extension for Chrome, which will give you quick access to Yahoo.com whenever you open a new tab. The Toolbar is still available for Firefox and Internet Explorer at toolbar.yahoo.com. Install the Toolbar and sign in to your Yahoo account to access your personalized settings.

Yahoo Shine: We recently unveiled several new digital magazines that dive deeper into the topics our users have come to love on Yahoo Shine and offer unique advertising opportunities for brands. While Yahoo Shine will be closing on July 31, through our digital magazines, like Yahoo Beauty and Yahoo Travel, we will continue to bring these topics to life with stunning visuals, a strong editorial voice and engaging native advertising.

Yahoo Voices and the Yahoo Contributor Network: On July 31, Voices.Yahoo.com will be shut down and at the end of August, Contributor.Yahoo.com closes. Yahoo will be notifying contributors and please refer to this FAQ for more details.

Yahoo is determined to focus its energy on what it calls its "four core areas." Included in this group are Search, Communications, Digital Magazines, and Video. The company will also invest efforts in further developing Flickr and Tumblr.

While Yahoo’s recent changes may not affect marketers directly, it is clear that it will change the way that consumers utilize Yahoo. Do you think that the large number of changes will push users to try other search engines such as Google or Bing? Let us know in the comments section below!

Google 'Forgets' Publisher Articles as EU Takedowns Begin

by Carly Page,July 3, 2014Comments

Google has started taking down search results following Europe's 'right to be forgotten' ruling in May, with both the BBC and The Guardian seeing articles being removed from the search engine.

The BBC and the Guardian reported that pieces have been removed from Google, such as a column by Robert Peston commenting on bankers' woes during the 2007 financial crisis. The Guardian's James Ball said that six of the paper's articles have been removed from Google search.

Ball is calling for publishers to revolt against this, and has asked that media outlets set up Twitter accounts that tweet the links of articles that have been pulled from Google.

Google started removing search results last week, following the European Court of Justice landmark "right to be forgotten" ruling in May.

A Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal at the time, "This week we're starting to take action on the removals requests that we've received.

"This is a new process for us. Each request has to be assessed individually, and we're working as quickly as possible to get through the queue."

Google didn't sound too pleased about the whole thing, and didn't reveal any further details about the process, which means it's not clear how many requests the firm has received, nor how many it has removed so far. If recent reports are to be believed, takedown requests have topped the 50,000 level.

Bloomberg noted that, as well as articles from the BBC and Guardian, the interrnet search engine has removed a link to a Spanish newspaper that was the target of a court case by Mario Costeja Gonzalez. A Search of Gonzalez's name now shows text at the bottom of the page, which reads, "Some results may have been removed under data-protection law in Europe."

"We're showing this notice in Europe when a user searches for most names, not just pages that have been affected by a removal," Google clarified on its website.

Towards the end of May, Google started offering EU citizens an online tool to fill out if they want a link removed from its search results.

When submitting a request, Google said that users will have to provide at least one kind of photo ID, and stated that links will only be removed if the information is erroneous, misleading or no longer relevant.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

10 Shocking Facts About Content Marketing Today

Every day, more than 27 million pieces of content are shared on the Web. If there was ever a question as to whether content is still king, this statistic speaks volumes. However, the content marketing industry is just beginning to bloom as more people turn to it to exhibit their company brand and message.

Content marketing has revolutionized what it means to showcase your business to the world. With social channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter, it's quick and easy to get the word out about your goods and services. Now, content marketing has evolved into an art – every marketing team is attempting to create the next unique, wildly successful campaign to propel their company to the top.

As marketers find new ways to reach their target audiences and technology continues to evolve, the future of content marketing continues to get brighter. Here are 10 shocking facts about this revolutionary marketing strategy that shapes the way we make purchases, evaluate services, and use the Internet each day.

1. Companies with an active blog generate 67 percent more leads per month

This statistic highlights one key factor that anyone who uses the Web can't ignore – people love blogs. They love them even more when they happen to find them on their favorite company's websites.

Why? Because blogging provides consumers with a down-to-earth view of what a business is all about. Furthermore, company blogs can quickly become a go-to resource for other people in the industry, assuming posts are always educational and relevant. Marketers can utilize the company blog to entice readers with calls-to-action and content offerings for lead capture. Why not cast a larger net when there are plenty of fish in the sea?

2. On average, content marketers are using 12 different tactics

Multitasking is an understatement for marketers, as this statistic from the Content Marketing Institute implies. Every year, more channels of communication open up for marketing teams – think of all of the apps and social networking sites that have exploded onto the scene in 2014 alone.

That being said, content marketers are taking advantage of many of them – most have an average of a dozen in their arsenal. Virtual conferences, videos, and research reports are among some of the most popular ones, and they may be worth incorporating into your own strategy.

3. About 86 percent of B2C companies use content marketing

It's no longer just the B2B companies that are taking a stab at content marketing, according to this statistic. With the number of consumers turning to social networking to make buying decisions, B2C companies are viewing content marketing as the key to expanding their client base. The value of content marketing continues to expand across multiple industries.

4. B2B marketing teams spend 33 percent of their budget on content marketing

This statistic indicates one key point: content marketing is valuable – so valuable that it's worth 33 percent of the marketing budget.

Resources such as content management systems and email marketing software come with a price. That being said, you can make up for the cost with the ROI of the product. Automating certain marketing tasks can save your team valuable time that they could put toward other tasks such as lead nurturing.

The value of content marketing continues to prove itself in the number of leads that are brought in, which have the potential to translate into deals.

5. Social media sites and blogs reach eight out of 10 Internet users in the U.S.

This is a large number, even when you aren't taking into account the number of people who may be using these sites to make purchases. Whether your buyer persona is most frequently on LinkedIn or Facebook, content marketers need to have a presence on social media and develop a blog strategy for outreach purposes.

6. Email is the most popular form of communication

Despite the prominence of social networks and their relevance in content marketing, email is still the winner. For this reason, marketers need to continue to place value in their email marketing campaigns, as well as the content that they are distributing to their target audience. These days, email automation and tracking software make it easy for marketing teams to tackle this portion of their job.

7. Approximately 47 percent of B2B marketers regularly use LinkedIn

Even if your target audience primarily uses Facebook or Twitter, it's a good idea to utilize LinkedIn as a marketer. Business professionals turn to this website to make connections with other people in their industry and build their network.

If you still aren't convinced, consider this statistic – top salespeople spend approximately six hours per week on LinkedIn. The social networking site has evolved into a powerful sales and marketing tool that continues to grow in popularity.

8. Nearly 87 percent of B2B companies use social media to distribute content

While it's completely acceptable to offer content on areas of your company website, there's a greater chance of reaching the masses through social media. That being said, publishing your content on websites such as Facebook and Twitter isn't always enough.

Your content marketing team needs to build a following on these social networking websites by providing valuable, insightful updates. This may take some work – and an employee who is dedicated to social networking efforts. However, the ROI will come in the form of more prospects and leads, who may eventually become customers and contributors to your overall bottom line.

9. Companies that blog 15 times per month get five times more traffic than those that don't

This number indicates one simple fact – build a blog, and people will come. Active blogs can create a breadcrumb trail for more leads and set the sales team up for success; pointing to an expert and in-house-written blog post that answers a lead's question thoroughly and intelligently is a very helpful sales tactic. It's up to the marketing team to ensure that the blog is always full of insightful, fresh content, and although this may take some work, the potential benefits are hard to ignore.

10. Only 44 percent of companies outsource their content marketing efforts

While it may be easy to outsource tasks such as blogging and social networking, companies are showing a preference toward keeping content marketing in-house. There are pros and cons to doing so, but the biggest benefit is that in-house teams generally have greater access to primary data, company voice, and other brand nuances that outsourced writers don't. However, in-house teams are commonly more expensive than outsourced solutions.

Conclusion

Content marketing isn't just a fad; it has firmly established itself as a core facet of the marketing industry. Its seemingly sudden increase in popularity is due to its significant benefits to other disciplines of online marketing, such as SEO and social media marketing. Clearly, marketers have embraced content marketing and the statistics prove its value.

Image credit: Stock Monkeys

Implementing the SEO Quality Gate

Brands are doubling down on content and becoming publishers in the true sense of the word. With all this investment in content creation, it’s become critical to have internal processes to ensure content is optimized before it goes out the door. Enter the SEO Quality Gate.

What Is the SEO Quality Gate?

It’s a simple idea – nothing gets published on the website or other digital properties without a check for SEO and inbound tactics optimization. It can take the form of a review by an in-house expert, a third-party agency, or it can become part of the way your editors, writers, and content creators do their job. And while it may be a simple concept, sometimes the simplest things are tough to implement.

The Rise of the CMS

As most sites of any significance now run on content management platforms, non-technical people can have a real impact on the level of optimization a given image, Web page, or video has when it gets pushed live.

Even the most basic CMS configurations allow for the editing of key SEO fields. Given a bit of development resources, the CMS interface can be customized to allow for even greater control – the ability to edit or add Schema.org tags for example – or the ability to add G

SEO Website Audits: Everything You Need to Know Part II

In a follow-up to an earlier column on what a site audit is in general, today I am going to spend a bit more time helping with the understanding of what a good audit is and why you would get with a tools audit vs. a human one.

Website SEO Audits - What Are They?

The term website SEO audit is a very general one that means anything that the auditor wants it to mean. This means I could be spending hours laboring over every detail of your site looking for issues, challenges, and areas of improvement or I could be running a tool that spits out a report and I spend an few hours writing up a few actionable items for you. So which is it?

It Is All of the Above.

Is it wrong if someone just uses some tools and writes up a few actionable items and gives that to you? Is it worth the money to pay for someone to pour over every nook and cranny looking for the slightest detail that might be out of place? The answer is that it depends. Why are you doing the audit? What do you want from the audit? And what is your budget?

Tools Vs. Humans

So when you are getting an audit, the most important thing you need to know is what you are paying for and why you are paying for it. In most cases, your audit reports and costs will be based on who is doing the auditing: tool or human.

Tools-Based Audits

All audits have some level of tool involvement: reports are run, analytics reviewed, links pulled for evaluation. The question is, does the auditor write most of the analysis for you or does the tool?

Vine Your Way to ClickZ Live San Francisco

by ClickZ ,July 7, 2014Comments

Interested in attending ClickZ Live San Francisco in August? Enter to win travel, accommodations, and a Platinum pass to the event by creating your best Vine video clip using your favorite toys. Yep, you heard that right, we did say "TOYS"...after all, who isn't a big kid at heart?!

From the announcement:

We want you to tell us the biggest challenge you've faced in digital marketing in a Vine video, using toys (because, being digital types, we know you've all got a toy cupboard in your office …)

For inspiration, ClickZ has created a few Vine videos of its own, featuring Ken (of Ken and Barbie), Legos, Thor, and Darth Vader.

"Think twice about building unnecessary apps":

"Keep in mind your global audience":

"Too much social":

"Keeping up with Google’s algorithm updates":

To enter, tweet your Vine video using the hashtag #DigitalMarketingChallenges. The favorites will be posted on the ClickZ Live Twitter feed.

The competition will close at midnight (PDT) on Wednesday, July 16. The best five will be put to a public vote, and the winner will be announced on Friday, July 25. Good luck!

This article was originally published on ClickZ.