Kevin Ryan Talks About the Future of Search Engine Strategies

Search Engine Roundtable
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1. Kevin Ryan Talks About the Future of Search Engine Strategies - 2007-07-06 07:48:53-04
   

   A Search Engine Watch Forums thread on "Guiding the Future of Search Engine Strategies" has finally started to pick up some steam.

   Ammon Johns offered some suggestions and then finally, the "future of SES," Kevin Ryan stepped in to make his first post at Search Engine Watch Forums.

   First, he commented about the comparison of food between SES and Danny's new SMX conference. He said, "On the food subject: I am open to suggestion and, yes, it is easier to feed 100 people as opposed to 1000." Fair enough, but I have seen plenty events feed thousands of people at the level of the SMX conference. But still, it is a ton of work.

   Kevin Ryan then comments on the challenges of finding good speakers. He said, in the "vein of quality control" and making the right balance between speakers with training in presenting versus speakers who have less skill in presenting but can offer a wealth of knowledge. He said, "Generally, people want to hear more from the "buy side" [aka less presentation skill but more knowledge] so balance is the key."

   For one thing, Danny starting SMX is encouraging the conference circuit around the search industry to get better.

   Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

   

   
   
   
2. New Accounts are Needed to Target Different Countries with Yahoo Search Marketing - 2007-07-06 08:15:08-04
   

   A WebmasterWorld thread asks how can one who is based in the UK and has ads currently running in the UK with Yahoo Search Marketing also have ads for the US market?

   Yahoo has set up their pay per click management system to require you to set up new accounts in each country region that you want to advertise in.

   For example, if you are a USA based advertiser and want to advertise in the UK, you must set up a new account in the UK with the Yahoo division there.

   Keep in mind, Yahoo does allow geo-targeting within the country you are in. So US advertisers can target New York users, if they wanted to. How?

   To target prospective customers by state, province, or territory:
   1. Click the Specific Regions button. The Target By dropdown list is displayed.
   2. Select State/Province/Territory. The states, provinces, and territories within your market are listed below.
   3. Select the regions to target.
   - To target specific states, provinces or territories, click the checkboxes next to the regions.
   - To target all states, provinces or territories, click the checkbox next to States/Provinces/Territories above the list.

   To target prospective customers by city and surrounding area:
   1. Click the Specific Regions button. The Target By dropdown list is displayed.
   2. Select City and Surrounding Area. The search panel appears below.
   3. Search for the cities and surrounding areas to target.
   - To search for cities and surrounding areas within a state, province, or territory, click the State/Province/Territory button and select an area from the dropdown list.
   - To search for cities and surrounding areas near a specific ZIP/Postal code, click the ZIP/Postal Code button, and then enter the ZIP/Postal code and the radius (in miles) around that ZIP/Postal code that you want to search.
   4. Click the Search button. A list of cities and surrounding areas appears below.
   5. Click the checkboxes that correspond to the cities and surrounding areas to target. The Map View tab displays the selected cities and surrounding areas. The Targeted Regions tab lists your selections.
   6. To target additional cities and surrounding areas in another state or near a different ZIP/Postal code, run the search again.

   More on geotargeting at Yahoo over here.

   Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

   

   
   
   
3. Google Removes Old Remove URL Tool - 2007-07-06 08:29:01-04
   

   The old way to remove pages from Google's index without using 404s or a robots.txt file was to use a page at http://services.google.com:8882/urlconsole/controller. It now appears that if you go to that URL, you are redirected to login to Google Webmaster Tools.

   The page reads:

   Sign in with your Google Account to submit a removal request.

   Use the Webpage removal request tool to request that information be removed from Google Web Search and Image Search results. You can use this tool to request the following types of removals:

   * Remove outdated or missing webpages.
   * Remove information or images.
   * Report inappropriate content appearing in SafeSearch filtered results.

   We'll investigate and provide an update on the status of your request as soon as possible. Removals that are processed through this tool are excluded from Google search results for six months.

   Learn about removal options not listed here.

   If you're a webmaster and would like to remove your site's content from our index, get started with our webmaster URL removal tool in webmaster tools.

   If you login, you can then remove three types of content, they include:

   • Information or image that appears in the Google search results.
   • Outdated or "dead" link in the Google search results that returns a 404 not found error.
   • Inappropriate webpage or image that appears in our SafeSearch filtered results.

   The removal request form is a lot more detailed and asks you a lot more questions than the previous form. Plus you are encouraged to login, if you would like to remove a page or search result.

   Some are upset that there is no easy way to remove a page that has a 301 redirect from the Google search results.

   Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.