• Google's Categorization Methods
    A new version of an older Google patent could provide insight into how the search engine determines categories for Web pages. The patent, Methods and Apparatus for Serving Relevant Advertisements, focuses on AdSense and search engine marketing, but also potentially offers up lessons on SEO and how pages might be classified for other purposes as well. Bill Slawski explains.
  • Visualizing The Bullet Points
    Rand Fishkin gives marketers eight rules -- tips and tricks -- to make slide presentations. Show, don't tell, he says as he takes us through the rules. Take the process and turn the points into a visual or graphic and don't use bulletted points. He suggests creating a narrative with each bullet point by taking the topic and turning it into a visual. Research the audience and understand what they already know. At least one-fifth of information should be new to the group.
  • How To Identify Negative SEO
    Pete Meyers defines "negative SEO," and then tells us how to identify the signs. Identifying the wrong signs can become an even bigger problem -- so he suggests several tools, such as Open Site Explorer, and Majestic SEO, that can help. He explains that Google analyzes a site's entire pattern and history of links. If the site has generally high-quality links, it's more difficult for others to damage the site's reputation with short-term attacks.
  • From Tablets To Touchscreen TVs
    With the acquisition of Perceptive Pixel, one of the makers of big multitouch displays, Microsoft will move deeper into hardware manufacturing, with Xbox and Surface in tow. The company disclosed the news at the Worldwide Partners Conference in Toronto. Brier Dudley tells us it won't be difficult to "squeeze an ARM processor into these displays" to create a line of Window 8 tablet computers, but what about TVs? A tablet -- basically a thin computer -- could easily transform into a television.
  • Meet Image Search Engine Chic
    Adrian Rosebrock designed a visual search engine that matches the shape and color of objects in an "image led query," according to Jonathan Allan. He has been skeptical about the ability to really use visual search because of the complexities surrounding the technology. He lays out the challenges of "computer vision" and how the technology works. Chic Engine's ability to match color tones and hues is impressive, he writes.
  • YP.com Redesigns Local Search
    The home page serves us local content and reviews from the top recommonded sites. The redesigned home page aims to provide businesses with increased visibility, making it easier for potential customers to find. Since spinning off from AT&T a couple of months ago, AT&T introduced several product updates, including a mobile app called Gas Guru. In a LocalInsights report analyzing Q2 2012 online advertising trends, the company found that current events influence searches. Searches for archery ranges rose in March just prior to the theatrical release of the movie "The Hunger Games."
  • Paid Search In 20 Minutes Per Week
    Wordstream put together a guide that walks through effective paid-search optimization tasks in 20 minutes a week. Bethany Harvey shares the steps in an infographic. The list includes a weekly checklist for bids and budgets, paid-search reports, keyword search testing, and optimization ad tests. She suggests reviewing each ad and writing new text for the two words in strongly performing ads after testing the headline, calls to action and keywords.
  • When Email Rules Over Social Marketing
    Email has nearly three times as many user accounts as Facebook and Twitter combined -- about 2.9 billion, according to Bnonn Tennant. He tells marketers about the importance of email marketing, rather than social media, when it comes to working with businesses. Email marketing supports higher success rates. After all, the majority of business transactions are completed through email or face to face, not on Facebook. And open email rates continue to rise with the increased use of mobile devices.
  • Hangout With Google Shopping
    Google launched a Hangout on Air series to help small- and medium-sized businesses through the company's transition of Shopping. The series guides marketers from an introduction on using the platform to Merchant Center, creating and optimizing product listing ads, and overviews and setups for stores. For those who can't join the hangouts, Google will post video on the Google Business YouTube channel.
  • Google Tips On Responsive Design For Building Mobile Sites
    While the industry has not come to consensus on the benefits of building a mobile site using responsive design, Google product marketer Jessica Sapick believes the technique offers several advantages. It allows marketers to create one Web site that re-sizes the content on the page depending on the device being used to view it, such as a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet. Sapick explains how responsive design can minimize long-term maintenance issues, and reduce redundant copy by giving the desktop, smartphone and tablet versions the same URLs.  Sapick explores responsive design as one of many tactics for going mobile.
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