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Internet Marketing News October 2013

binny
31 October 2013
Reading Time: 3 minutes

International SEO and keyword research, Google Analytics new acquisition reports, Facebook advertising during the holiday season and other internet marketing issues published on our Hebrew internet marketing blog in October 2013:

image: tinyforglet/Flickr

International & Multilingual websites using the hreflang tag

Google Webmaster Central Blog uploaded an instructional video focusing on technical SEO for international and multilingual websites and including recommendations for webmasters who target several countries and languages. The video explains how and when to use the rel=”alternate” hreflang tag, which was designed to signal Google search engine about additional versions of a website, in different languages or targeting different countries.

Full post: Google guidance for International SEO

Geographic Targeting on Google New Keyword Tool

Google new keyword tool, the Keyword Planner, offers several features that help in local targeting and can be used in international SEO and PPC. Following webcertain group post, we discussed language and geographic targeting options and local keywords using Google Keyword planner.

Full post: Google Keyword Planner for International SEO

Google Analytics New Navigation and Traffic Reports

Google announced changing the navigation menu in Google Analytics and adding two new reports: acquisition overview and acquisition channels. These acquisition reports replace the old traffic report and they are part of bigger change, which also includes the omission of the organic search keywords.

Full post: Google Analytics New Acquisition Report

Google+ User Profiles will be used by Advertisers

Google announced expanding Google+ Shared Endorsement feature, allowing advertisers to use users’ profile pictures, +1s, comments, reviews, ratings and other social interaction for commercial purposes. Google+ users can opt out of appearing on brands’ business pages, but social activity such as rating and reviewing can also appear on Google shopping search results.

Full post: Google+ “Shared Endorsements” Advertising

Bing Search Engine Ranking Factors

Searchmetrics published its SEO ranking factors report for Bing. An examination of about 10,000 keywords and 300,000 websites on Bing 30 top search results showed a high correlation between social media signals and (mainly Google+) and incoming links and top rankings on Bing search results. The report also showed that there’s a huge difference between Google first page results and Bing.

Full post: SEO Ranking Factors on Bing Search Engine

Facebook Advertising on 2013 Q4

The fourth quarter of the year is an important period for advertisers, and according to statistics, Facebook is going to be a very crowded and competitive advertising platform. Nanigans’ Facebook Advertising Benchmark Report shows that Facebook users’ engagement, CTR and ROI are increasing. Facebook simplification of the advertising process and its recent news feed algorithm changes could also lead to an increase in Facebook advertising, including page post promotions.

Full post: Facebook Year-End Advertising – Data & Tips

How Hummingbird will change SEO?

Although Google’s new search algorithm Hummingbird implications on search results are not seen yet, its semantic and voice search will probably change searchers’ behavior and SEO strategies. Natural language search queries will replace keyword searching and search marketing professional will be required to provide relevant content to answer those queries. Top ranked websites may lose traffic as Google advanced search features (such as the Knowledge Graph) provide visual and detailed answers.

Full post: Google Hummingbird Algorithm and SEO

Google Penguin 2.1

Penguin 2.1, Google fifth Penguin algorithm update, was released early October. Similar to previous Penguin updates, Penguin 2.1 focused on webspam activity, mainly websites with unnatural backlink profile and low quality content, but it seem more aggressive, focusing mainly on deep links.

Full post: How to Recover from Google Penguin 2.1

Google Webmaster Tools New Security Issues Section

Google announced adding a new section to Webmaster Tools, Security Issues, replacing the former Malware part at the Health section and allowing webmasters to find out about malware, hacked sites, spam and other security issues, recognizing the issues using snippet codes and submitting review request on one page.

Full post: Google WMT Security Issues