Microsoft (MSN) Considers Bid to Buy Yahoo

Is it a sign of defeat when the #2 and #3 search engines (Yahoo, MSN) can only see themselves matching Google's market share by teaming up?

Microsoft has looked into acquiring Yahoo search before, and now it seems they are at it again. The idea is that with Yahoo's broader audience and Microsoft's technical superiority, they could combine forces and compete with Google (who has more market share than Yahoo and MSN combined).

What's the true motivator here? Ad dollars. Lots and lots of ad dollars. Search engines bring traffic. Traffic brings advertisers (pay-per-click sponsored search). And advertisers bring the top revenue source for search engine companies.

What does all this mean to the average web user? Nothing for the moment. If they do combine, I only hope there's a smidgen of consideration for the quality of search results. After all, that's why Google dominates the others. It crawls the web more aggressively, it finds new material faster, and it's more focused on weeding out crappy sites that "trick" their way to the top.

Did I just "reveal" the top factors of Google's success? I think I did.

~Brandon

Real Estate Search Engines - A Review

I try to cover all things search here on the SEO blog, and that includes vertical search, such as real estate search engines.

I thought you might enjoy this review of modern real estate search engines. It covers everything from Yahoo Real Estate to the newer search engines like Trulia.

As you've probably noticed, real estate search engines have exploded in popularity in recent years. These tools empower consumers, which means real estate agents need to start rethinking their approach to (A) marketing, (B) web presence, and (C) search engine optimization.

~Brandon

SearchWarp.com - No More SEO Value from Links

If, like me, you publish articles online to support your SEO program (in addition to other benefits), you might be interested in my recent discovery...

When you publish an article at SearchWarp.com, there is no longer any SEO value in the text links from their site to yours. Why? Because Search Warp has begun to use the "nofollow" tag on their outbound links.

If you know anything about this tag, you'll know it prevents search engines from passing along any trust to the website on the other end of that link. In other words, it removes any and all SEO value from the text link.

Here's a snippet about the "nofollow" tag from Search Engine Watch:

What Nofollow Means

Below I'll cover what Google says it does, if it sees a link with the nofollow attributed associated with it. Yahoo and MSN are likely to react in a similar fashion, though I haven't yet spoken with them to get exact details since news of their support only just emerged.

If Google sees nofollow as part of a link, it will:

1. NOT follow through to that page.

2. NOT count the link in calculating PageRank link popularity scores.

3. NOT count the anchor text in determining what terms the page being linked to is relevant for.

Sure, your article may still be republished on other websites. And those websites may keep your link intact. But here's the kicker. If the person republishing your article copies it from SearchWarp and pastes it into a content management system (like a blog), they have brought the "nofollow" tag along with it. So you wouldn't get any SEO value out of the republication.

If you ask me, this is selfish on the part of SearchWarp.com. In fact, I told them this a few months ago, when they first started talking about using the "nofollow" tag. I told them their authors give them a business model, allowing them to make money from Google ads and the like. In the past, SearchWarp reciprocated this by allowing standard hyperlinks on all articles. This gave their authors SEO benefits in exchange for the articles they submitted.

But now, SearchWarp.com still takes as much as they always have ... they just give less back in return.

Just thought you might want to know.

~Brandon

Wordtracker Now Offers a Free Keyword Tool

If you haven't already heard, Wordtracker (a keyword research database) now offers a free version of their keyword research tool.

Read their blog announcement

This new release comes partly in response to the continued decline of Yahoo's / Overture's free keyword tool. I can vouch for the fact that the Yahoo tool is now a complete waste of time due to shoddy performance. It seems to be going bye-bye.

Here's what Mike Mindel from Wordtracker has to say about their new tool:

"Everyone should have access to a reliable, basic working keyword tool (database of intentions) that they can use for their pitches, proposals and good ole search engine optimization, AdWord campaigns etc. One that we pledge to support and continually make sure is reliable, fast and useful."

Here's the free keyword tool

Until next time,

~Brandon, Austin SEO Guy

Organic Search Increases Web Traffic by 337%

I always tell clients how significant it is to show up within the first couple pages of Google search results. I've always collected case studies and tidbits of data to support the claim.

Now there's even more data to back it up, thanks to a company called Oneupweb. Like any good SEO company should do, Oneupweb conducted some data-based research to show the traffic gains for websites entering the top of Google search results.

One notable metric -- a 337 percent increase in traffic once a website reached the first page of Google for its key phrases. [View chart]

Read more about it

Food for thought (and justification for professional SEO services)!

Until next time,

~Brandon

Does Google + Yahoo = Yoogle or Gahoo?

If a form of plagiarism weren't involved (which I detest), this would be rather amusing.

You're probably aware that Internet Explorer launched a new version of its browser lately. Well, as is the current trend, Google and Yahoo both offer customized versions of this browser. And now, Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo points out how Google clearly copied Yahoo's splash page to promote their own version of IE7.

The resemblance is undeniable (and indicative of both competitiveness and laziness)!

SEO Tidbits From Around the Web

Some days, I just don't feel like blogging. You can relate to that, right?

But even on the "lazy" days, I like to provide value through this blog. So today I'm going to offer up a list of helpful resources from around the Web. I hope you like it. And if you like it more than my regular posts, please keep that to yourself. My ego couldn't take it. :-)

An excellent comparison of search ad programs (Google, Yahoo and MSN):
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006842.html

An interesting article about Site Advisor popping up in search results:
http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=1566

Further advancements with Google News Search:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/staying-informed-with-google-news.html

"10 Signs That Your SEO is a Quack" (Jill and I agree on this one!)
http://isedb.com/db/articles/1571/

AdSense Preview Tool (See what kind of Google ads your site would generate)
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/google-adsense-preview/

The Ultimate Keyword Primer
http://www.wordtracker.com/articles/index.php/academy/the_ultimate_keyword_primer/

What do you think?
Do you like this kind of summary of SEO articles, tools and resources? If so, comment on it and let me know.

Until next time,

-Austin SEO Guy

Update on Sitemaps for Google, MSN, Yahoo

About ten days ago, I posted about an agreement between Google, Yahoo and Live Search (MSN) to support a common format of XML sitemap. This is a common protocol sitemap that you can submit to all three search engines to help ensure your pages get crawled and indexed.

But it seems there's some confusion over where you go to submit your new sitemap to MSN. To submit a sitemap to Google, you use Google Sitemaps (same place as always). To submit to Yahoo, you go to Yahoo Site Explorer. But the current question is, how do you submit your sitemap to MSN?

Ironically, I stumbled across this forum post on the subject while trying to find out for myself. I submitted my sitemap to Google, no problem. Then I figured out how to submit to Yahoo Site Explorer. But for MSN, I've come up empty so far.

My guess is that, for the time being, you just have to bank on the MSN Bot finding the sitemap on its own by crawling your site.

Bottom line ... I wouldn't worry too much about it. But I'll keep you posted all the same.

Until next time...

-Austin SEO Guy

3-Part Harmony: Google, Yahoo and Microsoft

On Wednesday, I received three blog posts from the "big three" search engine companies ... and all with a similar message. One from the Google blog, one from the Yahoo blog, and one from Live Search.

Web developers have long agreed that standards are both necessary and beneficial, and it seems the big three search engines agree with this notion. They have agreed upon a standard protocol for sitemaps.

Now, I'm talking about the sitemap you create for your visitors to help them find their way. I'm talking about the XML file you create to help search engines find all your pages.

This is from Yahoo:

Together we're announcing www.sitemaps.org, which provides details of the current release of the Sitemaps protocol and will include future updates as we continue to collaborate on this common protocol. By offering an open standard for web sites, webmasters can use a single format to create a catalog of their site URLs and to notify changes to the major search engines.

Sitemaps are especially important if you have a large site, a site with lots of directories / sub-directories, or a combination of the two.

-Austin SEO Guy