Yahoo now suggesting search queries

Yahoo have recently switched on a new semi auto-complete function in their search box, similar to what you get when using the Google toolbar. Presumably the suggestions will be based on popular search queries, though obviously this could potentially be an opportunity for Yahoo! to let people bid to be in this auto-complete function...? A few examples of the suggestions generated include:

Typing in "Car Insurance" suggests:
cheap car insurance
tesco car insurance
aa car insurance
car insurance quotes
churchill car insurance

Typing in "Mortgage" suggests:
mortgage calculator
mortgages
buy to let mortgages
mortgage rates
halifax mortgages

and interestingly, typing in "best search engine" suggests:
best search engines
best search engine results
the best search engine in the world
best search engine resource
google best search engine

Google release their own Facebook App...

Whilst Google has it's own social network (of sorts) in Orkut, it hasn't stopped them getting on to the band wagon and releasing their own application for Facebook this week. As you might imagine, the purpose of the application is.... search! The app has been build using the Google Ajax search API and allows users to conduct a Google search from within Facebook and then choose to share the results with their friends through their mini feed.

Only time will tell whether this is a portent of things to come, or whether Google are just (sensibly) recognising the popularity of Facebook and trying to get in early. If you want to add the app to your own profile, this is the link... Google Facebook App

While you're at it, you may also like to check out the "Google Gadget" app that lets you work in the opposite direction - taking your Facebook profile on to your Google homepage.

Yahoo! Search Gets Bigger

Well, the space it takes up on the Yahoo! home page!

We noticed that the Search Box on Yahoo! has got a lot bigger and given greater prominence. See beow:

See how it has moved to the very top of the page, from a previous right hand site, and just how much bigger it is!

And to be fair there has been an improvement their results following the latest update a few weeks ago.

So does this herald a return to a more 'search' focussed Yahoo? We shall see in the coming months.

Google News Now The Number One Listing

Google trialing 'News' positioning?

Checking for some car insurance this morning I saw that the number one listing was not actually a website but a News item. See below:

We have seen  Google trialing a number of positionings for their news/blogs/related searches of late and this looks like the latest incarnation. We assume they are gathering click through information on each of the types of listing as well as comparing how they perform dependant on page location - top or bottom of results.

While we understand what they are trying to do surely their figures are going to be skewed by the relevancy, or lack of it, by the News items served? In todays case the News story is from an Australian news site with an article on Pete Waterman signing up the trio of girls from the Sheilas Wheels adverts.

Not exactly what the majority of users typing in 'car insurance' would be looking for I am sure. But to be fair this may just be a trial so lets wait and see what happens next.

Announcements From The Big Three Search Engines?

Post from Rand Fishkin says to expect these soon

Ahead of the SES Conference in San Jose Rand Fishkin said that 'I can virtually guarantee that 2 of the 3 major search engines (and probably all 3) will announce big news next week'.

So what sort of news? This may just be financial or operational but we are all hoping that these would be of more interest along the lines of new features, changes in algorithms, additional funcionality in the Webmaster Tools section (please!)or maybe even some partnering and tieups.

Either way it does look as if a few things may be in the offing as Rand was up with Yahoo! and Google in the last few weeks.

Watch this space for annoucements soon! 

Google Results Page Getting Too Busy?

34 ways to click off Google's first page!

Check out the image below which shows the bottom of Google's home page for the search term 'travel insurance'. By adding in 'Related Searches' as well as 'News' and 'Blog' posts there are now 34 ways to get a listing on Google first page, including Sponsored Results.

As a search marketer that could be very good news, lots of ways to get sites listed, but is Google becoming too cluttered? 

The beauty of Google for me has always been the  simplicity of the Home Page as well as the results pages. And to my mind this is being lost a wee bit as Google looks to do the right thing and increase the relevancy and choice of the type of results  - blog, video, image, news etc.

This may only be temporary as we know Google likes to try things out but to my mind there can be too much of a good thing. We await new developments with interest.

BBC Adds Social Networking Bookmarks

BBC add Bookmarks to every page

Maybe I am a bit slow, or I never get to the end of any story but I just noticed that the BBC has social bookmarking links on every page. See below:

The main bunch of usual suspects are there in Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Facebook and Stumbleupon.

Good to see them getting involved but as my experience shows - is the bottom of the article the best place for these links?

News Results Feature on Google

Natural Listings Show News Results On Monetized Terms

Interesting to see that  a search for 'Travel Insurance' this morning showed a listing at the bottom of the page for News Results - see image below.

 

We have also seen this for other monetized terms and generally the relevancy of the 'News' listings is not great.

Quite why a user in the UK would be interested in the fact that on 10% of Chinese take out Travel Insurance when travelling abroad is a bit of a mystery! But this is the first time we have seen such results appearing on these sorts of terms.

As we know Google does like to try things out at this time of the year but we would anticipate that more of these sorts of listings will appear as Universal Search evolves.   

Google Sitelinks - What Are They?

And how do you get them?

Sitelinks are the indented links you see below the regular listing for a site in the Google search results. See below for example when you search for Tamar:

There is often the assumption that sites who have these links are an 'authority' site and as such will have better rankings. This is not necessarily the case but obviously the returned search result, if given 'sitelink' feature shows that for that term alone the site is an 'authority'.

So where does Google get these listings from and why? Well if you read what Google say the results are intended to help the user and as this is an automated process your site structure has to be able to be crawled by the Google spiders.

What it does allow you to do is dominate the search space, usually for 'branded' terms but occasionally for search terms. For example see the returned results for 'news' which shows the BBC News site with the Sitelinks indented.

So whatever search terms you are targeting if your site can carry enough 'authority' and can be crawled and indexed by Google you may be able to dominate the top of the Google search results for some of your chosen terms.

Use Your Logs To Generate New Keyword Tactics

Abstract keyword tactics from your logs!

I was checking the traffic logs to our Blog and I noticed someone had found a post by conducting a search which included the date the post was put live - the 10th of August.

The search was for 'top 10 christmas presents 2007' and if you check the resulting search you will see the '10' is highlighted and probably helped the blog post rank number three for this search!

Now I am not going to suggest this is going to drive any traffic or sales (well, not until I get Adsense up and running!) but it shows it can help to check to see how users are finding your site.

The search was on AOL but as we all know Google powers AOL and guess what, the search for 'top 10 christmas presents 2007' ranks #3 on Google!

From now on all my 'Top Ten' list posts will be put live on the 10th of every month, it all may just help!

Oh, and the original post title: SEO for Christmas - Do It Now!

Happy Shopping!