Your Brand On the Social Web: A Key to Corporate Reputation

You’ve spent a lot of time building your brand, but what do people say about you when you’re not in the room? That's what defines your reputation - so it's wise to pay attention to those conversations. How do you stay actively involved in conversations about your company or products when it's impossible to be everywhere at once?

When comments and commenters do damage to your brand, you need to have a plan to regroup and recover, while showcasing the best positive conversation in the right places. Do you know how to go beyond focus groups and surveys to create real connections with your customers and make sure your reputation is true to your brand promise?

If you’re building a strong brand that’s worth defending, you shouldn't miss this webinar. Join us and our panelists as we discuss:

• What does a strong brand really look like?
• Can an apparently strong brand prove otherwise?
• Where do you draw the line between healthy conversation and brand attacks?
• How does big data play into reputation management on the social web?

Register now

Chinese Search Engine Qihoo to Buy Sogou for $1.4 Billion?

The Chinese search engine space just got a lot more interesting with Qihoo 360 reportedly purchasing Sohu's Sogou search engine. If the report from DoNews (via The Next Web) is accurate, this deal will effectively combine the second and third largest search engines in China, which could have a significant impact on Baidu's huge market share. The deal is rumored to be worth $1.4 billion. It is speculated that the deal will be announced soon. Qihoo 360 launched its own search engine in August of last year, and is second only to Baidu in terms of market share in China. Purchasing Sogou would mean the company would have nearly 25 percent of the search market share compared to Baidu's eroding market share, which is now slightly under 70 percent.

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SEO: The Future of Search Results

This is how search engines currently answer questions — over a billion times each day. But what if instead of seeing 10 results, you only saw one? Sounds crazy, I know. But search is evolving and this could be its future. And it could be here a lot sooner than you think. Let’s take a look at why.

The Next Evolution of the SERP

We’re all familiar with the big algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin that happen a few times each month, but sometimes we forget that user interface changes can impact click through rate and traffic. This is important to keep in mind, as the actual look and feel of search could be changing drastically. In fact, the next evolution of the SERP could come from a new format called info cards.

While it might be difficult to fathom that info cards could replace the ubiquitous blue links, it’s actually quite plausible — especially when you consider how Google is displaying information in some of their latest products which we’ll explore below.

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Understanding The Reconsideration Request via Matt Cutts

Penalized sites get removed from the SERP's. Google has been fair to such webmasters and has allowed them a way to get back into the search engine index. You do this by filing a reconsideration request. One of our writers, Ann Smarty, wrote an excellent step by step guide that shows you how to fill […]

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The Dangers Associated With An Author’s Bio

In the past algorithm update of Google, a lot of traditional strategies in off-page SEO have been set aside by SEO pro to avoid penalties that websites might face in the future. Although some of these strategies are still being used by few SEO, it is not guaranteed that a website will stand out […]

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Organic vs. Paid Listings: Do Users Know the Difference?

Last week, we reported on a recent calculation that showed paid search was taking over the search engine results pages (SERPs). This was experimental math by a local business owner who was concerned that organic search was dead. While organic search isn't dead, there is another facet of the SERP worth exploring and one we hear about ever so often: When presented with multiple choices, where do users click on the SERP and do they even know what they are clicking on?
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Google To Take Action Against Fake Search Results Injected Into Browser History

Google made a clear stance late Friday on the Google Webmaster blog that they will not tolerate webmasters pushing deceptive search results to searchers through the use of browser history spamming techniques. The technique uses a method of detecting a click on the browser’s back button. When clicked, a user is not sent back to the page they came from, i.e. the search results, but rather a page that looks like search results. Google explained, a “users click the “back” button on their browser, they land on a new page that they’ve never visited before.” This only happens when the user is “coming from a search results page may think that they’re going back to their search results.” But “instead, they’re taken to a page that looks similar, but is actually entirely advertisements.” Read more

The Challenges of Localizing Your Website

 There are a number of challenges any business or organization must face when localizing its website. There are issues to do with translation, design, functionality, SEO and cultural adaptation. Website localization can represent a considerable commitment in terms of time and resources and the obvious first question is whether localization is worth all the effort […]

Read more of this post by Christian Arno

Google’s Schmidt: Hollywood Should Take Content Pirates To Court

Google’s Eric Schmidt says that the entertainment industry should focus on taking content pirates to court, rather than just trying to get Google (and other search engines) to remove pirate sites from search results. His comments, reported by Variety, came yesterday during an impromptu chat with reporters at an annual financial conference in Sun Valley, [...] Read Story

A Reminder About Manipulative Or Deceptive Behavior

Our quality guidelines prohibit manipulative or deceptive behavior, and this stance has remained unchanged since the guidelines were first published over a decade ago. Recently, we’ve seen some user complaints about a deceptive technique which inserts new pages into users’ browsing histories. When users click the "back" button on their browser, they land on a new page that they've never visited before. Users coming from a search results page may think that they’re going back to their search results. Instead, they’re taken to a page that looks similar, but is actually entirely advertisements: Read More