The search engine Yahoo completes the acquisition bid of the Right Media. Yahoo already a 20% share holder in the Right Media paid £340 million pounds to buy the remaining 60% share.
Right Media established in 2005 operate a digital media trading network which boasts some 200,000 daily users.
Yahoo justifies the acquisition through their possibility to now deliver their advertising to upcoming and ever popular social networking web sites such as Face Book and MySpace.
In a recent interview, Matt Cutts discussed the new breed of search engine algorithms, personalised search. Although not something that is going to take hold and become the norm overnight, personalised search is something all online businesses should be actively researching and preparing for.
In the world where linking campaigns are seen as the answer to all SEO (something that Notcon do not believe) it has become ever harder for search engines to distinguish good strong website from the weak.
Have a read of the interview, it contains some interesting stuff!
Google have recently updated their webmaster tools console to provide extremely useful backlink information. This information will benefit search engine optimisation consultants and webmasters alike. The information is far superior to that which is currently available, showing a far higher number of links than the current link: tool.
According to Matt Cutts the tool is currently not showing all backlinks Google picks up for your site but it will in the future.
Matt Cutts also makes clear that just because backlinks are showing up with the new tool does not mean that particular link is carrying any weight or helping with the off page optimisation of your website.
My opinion, the tool is great and a very useful new addition to the Google webmaster tools.
How important is it for businesses to make use of ethical search engine marketing firms, and harder still how can potential users of ethical SEM firms find out if indeed their potential supplier is ethical?
It is a terrible shame but the industry of search engine marketing in the UK has a fair number of unethical ‘black hat’ operators, not only in their marketing practices but in general business running. This means it is becoming increasing difficult for businesses to seek out and utilise the services of the few SEM companies that are indeed ethical.
The question you should be asking yourself is; – How do you go about finding ethical SEM firms?
When you are in initial talks with any future supplier of search engine marketing whether you contacted them or vice versa you should be asking various questions, including:
• How do you rank in the search engines?
• How many clients do you have on your books?
• How many clients are achieving increased revenue through search engine marketing?
• Can you see some examples of first page search engine rankings for their clients?
You should also familiarise yourselves with the Google Webmaster SEO Guidelines as they include some does and don’t for search engine marketing; after reading these you should check over the SEM firms own website and indeed their clients.
The main selling points the majority of un-ethical SEM firms will use are usually:
• Guaranteed first page listings.
• Listings within 2 – 3 months for all phrases, no matter how competitive.
• We are affiliated with the major search engines.
If you ever hear the above, we suggest you end the communications immediately.
