Good.bye to dot.com – SEO implications?
Thanks for visiting Skyline Marketing, SEO Company in Exeter, Devon. The true British summer is upon us of rain and people looking at the sky scratching their heads and wondering when the sun will appear…
In other news, Icann the Global Internet body has given the go-ahead for one of the biggest changes in the history of the Internet. The popular suffixes of .com/.org/.co.uk will no longer be on a list of about 250 domain suffixes but they are to be opened up to an unlimited landscape of dot.anything!
The cost of $185,000 to have your own .seo .internetmarketing .skylinemarketing may be a little restrictive to some smaller companies, however we can no doubt expect to see .google .microsoft .apple appearing in our Search Engine Results and advertising in the not too distant future.
Are companies going to really make that effort to push you away from the globally renowned .com for the sake of a better domain name?
The evidence is already there. Here is something to ponder – (and it really goes to prove how Social Media is the latest SEO & Internet Marketing tool on the Internet) – how many billboards do you see now that has a companies website address? Look closely… the vast majority of companies are now making sure they have their own Facebook URL in their advertising more-so then their own web address. (For the record, you can visit ours at facebook.com/skylineuk )
Now Social Media is a huge thing in our SEO circles, however one technique that over the years has bought excellent results in the Search Engine Results, is having a keyword domain – for example www.seo.com. In recent times, Google has said it would give less weight to keyword domains, however it seems for now that companies creating their own suffix will be able to create their own keyword domain also. We think overall that having a keyword domain will prove less useful – surely this decision has nothing to do with Google?
Speaking of Google though – the global Search Engine has changed its homepage and one of the features that has finally been dropped is the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, which would automatically load the top ranking search result. This is probably due to Google having an auto-search that starts showing your Search Engine Results as you type your keyword search query, although some believe it has been removed due to Google having less faith in its top results… We will let you decide!
Yahoo! shares fall on Alibaba fallout continues
A very warm welcome to Skyline Marketing, Internet Marketing and SEO Company in Exeter, Devon. Shares in Search Engine provider Yahoo! have fallen for a third day in a row after the argument between the Search Engine and its Chinese partner Alibaba deepened.
This all stems from Alibaba transferring it’s major internet asset – Alipay to chief executive and Founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma. The Search Engines share price finished 3.6% down.
The shares fell due to the news that Alipay is now out of the grasp of Yahoo! A bitter standoff appears to be growing now between the two parties, as Yahoo! says that the transfer went ahead in August 2010, but were only told in March 2011. Contrary, Alibaba says this transaction in question was discussed in a board meeting back in 2009.
During Friday, Alibaba made a statement saying that Yahoo! would have been fully aware of this deal, as they have a seat on the board.
Up until now, Yahoo! had had control over Alipay as it has a 43% private stake in Alibaba (having invested £600m in 2005), however there are now growing fears that Jack Ma may cause further trouble for the Search Engine by spinning off Taobao – China’s largest online shopping site, which again would put a valuable asset out of Yahoo!’s reach.
Apple is “not tracking” & Google fined
Hello again from Skyline Marketing, SEO & Internet Marketing Specialists in Exeter, Devon.
The last few days in the World of Technology & the Internet has seen a lot of pressure on Apple to comment on rumours their devices are recording details of their locations and sharing this data elsewhere.
Apple has now come out denying that either the iPhone or 3G iPad have ever tracked their owners locations and that they have no plans to in the future either.
The tech giant has now released a question and answer statement, which can be viewed online.
Apple claim that any devices that were currently or previously had stored data was merely a “bug” (a raised eyebrow smiley there), and that a fix will be shortly issued to correct the problem.
Apple have been praised though for their open and honesty about the problem and what they do with the information, so perhaps this will now put users minds at rest.
In other recent Search Engine news, Google was fined £3.2million by a Texan Court for a patent infringement of the Linux kernel.
Google use the software as part of its server platform, and want to possibly extend it to their mobile Android platform too. We will not know the full fallout of their ruling, however the “kernel” is at the centre of all operations when it comes to an open-source operating system.
More Internet Marketing & Technology news soon!
Google Panda Update arrives in the UK
Good Evening from Skyline Marketing, Exeter Devon. It has been an interesting week for SEO and Internet Marketing companies in the UK. Googles recent “Panda” update was unleashed on UK websites and search results.
At this point, yes we are going blow our own trumpets… For a domain that is just over 3 months old, we had another boost to our ranking, up to 3rd now for “SEO Exeter”.
Yes rankings move up and down, perhaps it is a coincidence that this happened the same day as the Panda Update arrived in the UK. It does however show, that keeping to white-collar Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques is the best way to move a site up the search engine results.
The Panda update has punished a lot of UK price comparison sites, including Microsofts “Ciao” website. The cynic would say this is because of Microsoft’s “anti-trust” suit against Google in Europe, I personally think however that when put into context with other sites that have lost traffic and rankings, that simply this is another case of Google redressing the balance, showing how quality links and content (and not just quantity) are some of the most important factors of a successful SEO campaign.
Google +1: The future or the beginning of the end?
All of the recent hype surrounding Google’s new “+1″ feature has got us all talking about the future of SEO, and Internet Marketing, here in the Skyline Marketing office. For those of you who have happened to have had your heads buried in the sand for the past few days, Google has launched it’s own version of “Facebook Like” – but for Search Engine Results. Users who are logged into their Google account can “vote” for results with the aid of the new “+1″ button. The data will be shared between your social circles.
For now, this is only available as a “trial” for those wishing to partake via their Google account, however if this is to be extended Worldwide, then what future for organic Search Engine Results? Google claims at this time, it will have no effect on organic results, however the “Search Team” are very excited about the potential it could bring – what’s that? – Spammers selling +1 links? Cannot wait for that one.
Is Google beginning to treat people with such disdain that it thinks we need our friends to recommend sites to us? I ran a search on Saturday for a client, and the second most popular result went to a domain that had expired! The website was gone and yet Google thinks this is relevant to me? Why won’t Google focus on getting the basics right, and let users decide for themselves if they think it’s relevant or not?
Another client wanting to rank on page 1 for a certain search term. After a lot of work, we got them to page 1. However, on Rob’s computer they ranked 2nd and on mine they ranked 9th. Rob cleared out all his personal cache and they dropped to 9th. How is this helpful to anyone?
Does a day go by when you don’t hear the words “Google” and “anti-trust” in the same sentence? Perhaps Microsoft, the US Government and many others now raising an eyebrow in Googles direction will at last get them focussed on putting their house in order and make their Search Engine work, and stop trying to copy Facebook fads.
There are a lot of hardworking SEO & Internet Marketing companies out there stick to best practises and do a good job, have our lives been made more difficult or do you think this will help us further in the long run?
Updated – You: Google’s Spam Police?
Good Evening from the SEO hub that is Skyline Marketing in Exeter, Devon!
During last month we were one of the first to break the news that Google had launched a new “add-on” for their popular Internet Browser, Chrome – “Block Sites from Googles Search Results”.
Now here we are again to announce that it seems Google has now added the same feature to all of you lucky Google Search Engine users, regardless of browser choice. (Good news for Rob, the “anti-Christ Chromer” among us).
Once again, the long-and-short of things, is that via a link, you can quickly remove and ban individual search results. The only requirement is that you are logged into your Google account, so the questions begging to be asked, is this going to be a popular tool? Is Google that bad at its job that it cannot display the appropriate content to start with? Is this going to open the door to further abuse if Google starts taking action on the results?
