Search Engine Optimization

The speed of the search industry is amazing. Having let loose on checking news, developments and updates in search field, I was amazed to see number of new developments and new posts to read on SEO from all over the internet. The speed with which things change and move forward is extremely fast. Much of what was true 5 years ago, is still true, yet a lot of it has no value now. One has to stay on the edge of things, and invest time in learning new things in order to stay on top of things. That’s how the game is played in SEO, so prepare you RSS reader and an hour a day to go over the latest SEO posts (at the end of this post).

Here’s some of the most interesting news that I’ve personally missed:

• Google Introduces place pages – place pages replace the original “more info” bubble on Google maps, with an entire page dedicated to the business, with many new features. This is big news in Local SEO, since small businesses like painters, limos and hotels must stay on top of their games. As of now Google said it will not crawl those pages.
• Google Jump to Links – Google now features links in search results descriptions. In order to get the links the site must be broken down into topics, and have relevant anchor text links (at least internally) pointing to the pages.
• Yahoo Released new Search Format – the format still has the classic links, but features some options on the left, with the PCC ads in their spot on the right. The changes are not dramatic, but very bold in comparison to Google’s tip toe steps when it comes to interface updates.
• Google officially states that META KEYWORD tag does not matter – In Google’s words: Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword meta tags completely. They simply don’t have any effect in our search ranking at present.

If you’re looking for a list of blogs, here something to add to the RSS (from the SEO toolbar):

• http://www.seobook.com/rss.xml
• http://community.seobook.com/external.php?type=rss
• http://feeds.searchengineland.com/searchengineland
• http://www.webmasterworld.com/index.rss
• http://feeds.sphinn.com/sphinn
• http://www.techmeme.com/index.xml
• http://feedproxy.google.com/TechCrunch
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogstorm
• http://massa.techndu.com/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss
• http://www.audettemedia.com/feed
• http://www.bluehatseo.com/feed/
• http://feedproxy.google.com/chrisbrogandotcom
• http://feeds.copyblogger.com/Copyblogger
• http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/feed
• http://fantomaster.com/fantomNews/feed/
• http://www.gapingvoid.com/index.rdf
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/3DogMedia
• http://www.jimboykin.com/feed/
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/johnon/pDvU
• http://feeds.mattcutts.com/mattcutts/uJBW
• http://feedproxy.google.com/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney
• http://ppcblog.com/feed/
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/PPCHero
• http://feeds.rimmkaufman.com/rkgblog
• http://www.searchengineblog.com/atom.xml
• http://feedproxy.google.com/searchengineguide
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/SearchEngineJournal
• http://feeds.seroundtable.com/SearchEngineRoundtable1
• http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/sewblog
• http://seoblackhat.com/feed/
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/seomoz”
• http://feedproxy.google.com/typepad/sethsmainblog
• http://www.semvironment.com/feed/
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/ShoeMoney
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/SlightlyShadySEO
• http://feedproxy.google.com/SmallBusinessTrends”
• http://www.stuntdubl.com/feed
• http://feeds.sugarrae.com/sugarrae
• http://feedproxy.google.com/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/Traffickdotcom
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/WeBuildPages
• http://wiep.net/feed/
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/Wolf-howl
• http://seoroi.com/feed/
• http://feeds2.feedburner.com/techipedia