July 19,
2006
In This Issue:
1. Local Results Moving into Google SERPs
2. In the News - Zap ODP data, Spider simulator,
Weather search
3. More News Headlines
4. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Local Results Moving into Google SERPs
The three biggest search engines -- Google, Yahoo,
and MSN -- each offer a "local search"
version of their service. Local search, by itself,
isn't a big traffic generator ... yet. Give it
time. As more people put down the yellow pages
and use the web (i.e., search engines) to find
local businesses, local search will grow in usage.
And when that happens, it'll grow in relevance
for business / web site owners.
Google has updated its SERPs display this week
to sometimes pull in data from Google Local and
show the data in its regular SERPs. The new display
features the business name and contact info. very
prominently, along with a pretty big map (from
Google Maps) showing the business' location. See
it for yourself on this search for [ashley
bertsch kennewick wa].
For now, the new display is very limited in its
use. You won't get such a display on a search
for [mcdonalds kennewick wa] because there are
too many to show. And from my testing, it also
appears to only show on searches for exact company
names. But it's not hard to imagine this being
expanded (after testing) so that it works on other
local searches, such as [home construction kennewick
wa] -- that's a search where Ashley Bertsch would
love to show up on a big map!
_________________
In The News
Zap your ODP/DMOZ info. from Google
Rather than using your page <TITLE> element
and the meta Description tag you wrote, is Google
instead showing your listing information from
the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) in its SERPs?
This is something we've touched on in the past
-- I remember a couple reader questions coming
in about it. Good news: You can now use a "NOODP"
tag to stop Google from using your Open Directory
information in its SERPs. Search Engine Watch
has information on how to make it happen:
SEW Blog: Google
Adds Supports For NOODP Tag To Opt Out Of ODP
Titles
See what a spider sees
SEO-Browser.com is a new tool that lets you "see"
a web page the way a search engine spider might
see it. Very helpful if you're using any advanced
DHTML or javascript for your site menu (or elsewhere)
and want to make sure search engines can follow
the links. Be sure to toggle between the "simple"
and "advanced" options in the upper
right corner.
SEO-Browser
Weather search
From the did you know? department... Did you know
that all four major search engines offer quick
weather search? Just type [weather 99336] in the
search box and you'll get the Kennewick weather.
But I think Google's thermometer is busted, because
just before I typed this, I went outside. My guess
was about 85 degrees. Yahoo, MSN, and Ask all
report the current temp as 82. Google says it's
only 66 degrees. Don't I wish......
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Three
Good Reasons to Survey Your E-Mail List
July 17, 2006 - ClickZ.com
How
to win links and influence people - part 2
July 14, 2006 - Search Engine Guide
How
to win links and influence people - part 1
July 13, 2006 - Search Engine Guide
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
Wrapping it Up
That's all for this week. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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