PALM BEACH, FL - Just because you see something in ‘search’ doesn’t mean someone else will see that same result. This is because more and more of the web, as well as the experience you receive on your mobile device – be it Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Google, etc., is being influenced by your past search and browsing habits, as well as where you go and how valuable your visit might be, and/or how many times you might return for more - all of which are being done through various … [Read more...]
Keep In Mind, New gTLD “Buzz Factor” SEO Ranking Weakens Over Time; Use Best URL
PALM BEACH, FL – About a year and half ago in April of 2018, I wrote about an out-of-the-ordinary domain name sale when the new gTLD domain “Vacation.Rentals” changed hands for a little over ‘half a million’ in cash, supposedly. I still sort of question the sale as either authentic and insane - or completely bogus, intentionally and strategically planned to not only create industry buzz, but boost sales for nGTLDs. Either way, and it probably doesn't really mater … [Read more...]
How Google Grows Advertising Rev 20% a Year, While Global Economy Grows at 4%
PALM BEACH, FL - If you are in the Internet business, you're going to want to stop and read this one. It will educate you. It might explain a couple of things you have thought about when it comes to Google. It might even make you a little mad. But it is always best to know what is happening in your industry. Or you could stay in your little bubble where they say, ignorance is bliss. Google has the ability to provide the illusion of diversity while using sort of eye candy … [Read more...]
Why Investigations Into Google’s Search, Ad & Android Businesses Will Go Nowhere
PALM BEACH, NY – It seems like every day there is a brand new, squeaky clean investigation (or at least some accusations) into our good-ole’ friends at Google Inc., and Alphabet Inc. Swirling stories of lawsuits and federal inquiries into a company that is so large, so big, it’s almost such that you could consider them, “too big to fail” – how familiar. Historically, investigations into good-ole’ GOOG have gone all but nowhere. For instance, in 2013 the Federal Trade … [Read more...]
How Much Does It Cost to Build A Mobile App For My Website? Do I “Need” One?
PALM BEACH, FL - One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to building and maintaining your own mobile app is that the development phase is a set-it and forget it endeavor; it is never over. How Much Does It Cost? The cost to maintain a custom app can be steep ($10k-$100k) and each time IOS and Android release an update, most apps will need to have their code modified for the new version so developers must be within reach or on-board continually. This … [Read more...]
What Does Google’s New BERT Update Do? Most Significant Update In Last Five Years
PALM BEACH, FL - Google’s BERT update (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) effects up to 10% of search queries by allowing Google to better understand natural language processing (NLP), for the most part, in longer tail keyword searches. It is something Google has been working on for the last few years and allows Google to use particular words within a search query that change or transform the intent of the search. It is said by Google to be one of … [Read more...]
Will Sale of Dead News Site “Examiner.com” Attract Authentic Bidders at GoDaddy?
PALM BEACH, FL – A domain name, that by itself, could potentially fool even one of the most complex computer algorithms such as Google's rankings technology, into trusting that a site is a “big brand”. There is probably not a lot of them out there that could easily be scooped up, however, that’s pretty much what’s for sale at GoDaddy auctions this week, with the bidding for the domain name previously used by the defunct news site “Examiner.com” reaching $69,666.00 - so … [Read more...]
Sources Say “Money.com” Sold for $20M; Net’s Seller Double Without Print Product
PALM BEACH, FL – The Internet domain name “Money.com” and its live website was all that was left when failed Money Magazine ceased printing its tangible physical copies last July. The entire business was for sale including its 400,000 or so monthly subscribers for $10 million by it’s owners Meredith Corp, publishers of newspapers, magazines, television stations and websites; with no buyer in sight, they ceased print and planned to focus only on its digital edition; lo and … [Read more...]
How Google Search Worked (Back in 2010) With Quality Search Engineer Matt Cutts
PALM BEACH, FL – The below video was uploaded by Google’s YouTube account back in 2010. As of the time of this writing the video has been watched over 5.2 million times. It explains, in layman’s terms (a very simple way), how Google works, at least, how Google ‘worked’ back in 2010. The video includes Matt Cutts, who was at that time, Google’s quality search engineer. He also acted as somewhat of a communications contact between Google and the entire webmaster community. … [Read more...]
First Google (GOOGL), Now Facebook (FB) Under Attack by 47 Attorney Generals
PALM BEACH, FL – In September, word started circulating across major media that Google (GOOGL) was expected to face scrutiny by 50 U.S attorney generals regarding alleged bias and antitrust violations from the tech giants advertising and search businesses. The probe, which would be the first of its kind since Microsoft was sued in 1998, was expected to potentially expand into other areas of the business later in the investigation. It's an investigation to determine … [Read more...]
If Google Removes URLs From Search Results, Who Exactly Stands to Benefit?
PALM BEACH, FL – Last week I ran a story about Google’s obvious intent to remove URL’s from search. The story was titled “Google Determined to Remove URLs from Search Results; Replace with Breadcrumbs” and published on October 18, 2019. It was a follow up to “EVIL: Will Google Do Away with Domain Name and Extension Entirely Anyway?” There has been wide reaction from both the SEO and Domain community on the coming change and it warrants added thought and hopefully, added … [Read more...]
Exact Match Domain Names Yielding “Free Ticket to Ride” Long Over on Search Giant
PALM BEACH, FL – Exact match domain names, URLs which are spelled exactly how a top search term is used in popular verbal expression still work to help boost search rankings well when it comes to Bing.com and Yahoo.com, but on Google.com, it doesn’t seem to matter unless there are powerful “brand signals” in play, such as high numbers of inbound links, frequent references to the URL whether linked or not, and other popular signals such as social media activity with matching … [Read more...]
Google Determined to Remove URLs from Search Results; Replace with Breadcrumbs
PALM BEACH, FL – It seems that Google, the world’s most popular search engine, is determined to do away entirely with URLs in its search engine, no doubt further increasing its position in, and not to mention, the value itself of “alternative URLs” by completely removing a person’s ability to subconsciously decide whether a site is trustworthy based on the URL itself. I touched on this topic back in September 2018 when I wrote “EVIL: Will Google Do Away with Domain Name … [Read more...]
NYT Highlights Sealed Auction of Domain “Democracy.com” Via Heritage Auctions
UPDATE 11/4/2019: Auction for Domain Name “Democracy.com” Extended to November 7th Closing PALM BEACH, FL – What could possibly be better than being the auctioneer of a generic, super premium .com domain name like Democracy.com? Having that same opportunity with it being covered by the New York Times. That’s what’s happening with Democracy.com, a super premium generic domain name which is being offered for sale in a sealed bidding contest held by Heritage Auctions, … [Read more...]
Gobble, Gobble: Google Wants To Steal Your Website’s Local Event Calendar Traffic Too
PALM BEACH, FL – No, its not quite Thanksgiving yet; there are still several weeks to go. I wasn’t referring to [that] type of “Gobble, Gobble”, with a turkey or thanksgiving or any of that. But Gobble, Gobble seems to fit the bill. Because if you were to ask Google, every day is like a feeding frenzy. I’m talking about Google’s insatiable appetite to steal all of your content so that there is little traffic left for you. In fact, I bet Google would much prefer if your … [Read more...]