October 2015 SEO Newsletter

Featured Threads

Here is some advice on saving money on domain registration & renewals.

SEO Tools News

• SEMRush increased the size of their database to include 80 million keywords.
• Bing announced the launch of a new keyword planner tool, located here. They also shut down their link explorer.
• Ahrefs added a link categorization feature.
• Screaming Frog 5.0 launched.
• Ann Smarty reviewed a number of Reddit trend tools.
• Here is a guide for using Ahrefs to find expired domains with links. There are a variety of other tools like this one with some of these sorts of features.

Apple News

• Apple unveiled a subscription iPhone upgrade program & a stylus.
• Apple confirmed their plans to build an electric car, with an ambitious 2019 ship date.
• Apple launched their music streaming service in China, priced at $1.57 per month.

Algorithm Updates

• Some sites which saw a Panda recovery on Panda 4.2 saw a decline on August 14th. Glenn Gabe wrote an in-depth analysis of Panda 4.2, which Google claims is still rolling out. The next Penguin update will allegedly be rolled in as a real time algorithm & should happen before the end of the year.
• While Google describes their in-app interstitial ads as being "beautiful," they have indicated starting November 1st sites which use app install interstitial ads won't be considered mobile friendly.
• French regulator rejected Google's appeal against applying right to be forgotten globally.
• Google updated "first click free" to allow 3 articles per day.
• Google announced they will leverage engagement metrics in apps to boost app rankings for apps using the app indexing API.

Google+ / Scrape-n-displace

• Google and Twitter are looking to create an alternative to Facebook's Instant Articles. The effort is primarily led by Google & has buy in from other sources like Pinterest and Wordpress.
• John Mueller suggested Google may eventually fold the use of rich snippets in as a ranking factor.
• When someone searches for [fun facts] Google shows random scraped facts from various websites.
• Google added hundreds of additional health conditions to their health info scraper offering.
• Google added book preview links to their knowledge graph.
• Google's Waze allegedly stole copyright data from a competing database, including faked data (like how map makers put fake maps on roads to catch people who copy their work).
• Google removed rich snippets associated with Facebook reviews.

More Google News

• Google was found guilty of abusing their dominant market position in Russia from forced bundling in Android. The FTC is investigating Android bundling.
• Google morphed into Alphabet & revised their code of conduct.
• Google increased the vertical height of their search box to push down the organic search results.
• Google is still offering search engine marketing assistance to their investments.
• Google tested infinite scroll results rather than paginated results.
• Google has recently started holding "office hours" where they brief investors on their performance.
• Google tested a fixed search bar on mobile SERPs.

AdWords News

• Google Shopping feeds now require brand and global trade item number (GTIN) in a dozen larger economies.
• AdWords added the ability to upload email lists for ad targeting & to create look alike audiences.
• AdWords added new ad interaction columns for multi-channel advertisers.
• Google adjusted their display network billing model to only charge for viewable ads.
• Google extended the availability of their commission-based hotel ads.
• Google made their feature call out ad extensions dynamic.
• Google updated how they display conversions in the AdWords interface.
• Google broadly launched their native ads for Gmail.
• AdWords added forwarding phone numbers in Canada.
• Here is a script for adding keyword controls to Google Shopping campaigns.
• AdWords advertisers won the ability to sue under class-action status for buying AdWords traffic on error pages & parked domains.
• Jet.com has established a strong footprint in PLAs.

AdSense News

Google is beta testing a feature offering interstitial vignette ads on websites.

Local & Mobile Search News

• Google Weblight is breaking many mobile sites.
• Blackberry is building an Android smartphone.
• Google removed the Google+ links on local listings.
• Google is working on blurring the lines between their local listings and AdWords. Google tested once again showing phone numbers in local packs and showing both home services ads and regular local listings within a single search result set.
• Google is talking with the Chinese government to try to launch a localized censored version of Google Play.
• Google removed the ability to manually verify local listings by calling an operator.
• Yelp created an "in the media" styled notification for company profiles of companies with personalities who recently got media exposure which led to fake negative reviews and various types of irrelevant spam.
• Google filed a lawsuit (attached on this post) against robocallers claiming to be affiliated with the company.
• Google updated their Maps API pricing.
• Most people only use a couple mobile apps with Facebook representing nearly half of app usage in the U.S. & there hasn't been much turnover among top apps. As the app ecosystem has become more saturated, many newer app startups have focused more aggressively on monetization over heavy usage.

Video / Music / Broadband News

• YouTube launched new shoppable product features & will soon allow third party trackers on their site so advertisers can monitor ad viewability.
• AdAge published a good article about how YouTube is moving away from being a platform to becoming more like a programmer.
• Hulu launched an ad-free tier, charging $11.99 a month. Hulu beat out Netflix for online streaming rights to Epix films.
• Amazon made their Prime Video offering on Apple & Android devices viewable offline.
• Snapchat has 4 billion daily video views.
• Comcast is testing a $30 charge to remove data caps.
• The Philippines will roll out free nationwide wi-fi by next year.
• Netflix and Amazon users sued Chicago over their 9% streaming tax.
• While Facebook beats YouTube in initial virality, YouTube is better at surfacing older videos, as they have more search activity on YouTube & rank so well in Google.
• Google launched a family plan for Google Play Music, allowing 6 people to share access for $14.99 a month. When YouTube launches their ad-free subscription service they are planning on mixing in their general ad free service with their ad-free music service as a single bundled service. Content creators who do not approve the new terms will not have their content publicly visible.
• Samsung shut down their Milk Video service.

Yahoo! News

• Apparently billboards with no message did not get the job done. Yahoo!'s CMO & head of SEO left the company.
• The IRS didn't approve Yahoo!'s tax-free spinoff plan for its Alibaba stake. In spite of that, Yahoo! plans to complete the spinoff this quarter. Investors are still valuing Yahoo! as though the spin off will have major tax implications.

Bing News

• Microsoft launched Office 2016 with increased emphasis on collaboration & deeper Bing integration. Microsoft also added a like button and the @ convention to Outlook.
• In China Microsoft set Baidu as the default search engine in Windows 10.

Twitter News

• Twitter tested showing analytics information within Tweets, but the new Tweet buttons won't show share counts off Twitter.
• Twitter will soon expand beyond their current 140-character limit. Twitter is also testing offering a user polling feature.
• Twitter added a feature to allow users to make political donations through a Tweet. Twitter added "buy now" button integration for Shopify, Demandware, Bigcommerce & some larger retailers like Best Buy, Adidas, and PacSun. Twitter also partnered with Stripe, leveraging their Relay product to allow retailers to sell on Twitter. Stripe's Relay product will allow retailers to sell across a variety of platforms.
• Twitter was sued for wiretapping for shortening & tracking links in direct messages.
• The FBI claimed retweets are endorsements.
• Jack Dorsey will be named the permanent Twitter CEO.

Facebook News

• Facebook is dramatically expanding their Instant Articles offering. The Washington Post will syndicate all their content on Facebook's Instant Articles.
• Facebook announced Signal, a trend analysis and news curation service for journalists.
• Facebook unveiled their mobile interactive canvas ads.
• Facebook updated their notes pages and their mobile page & mobile profile layouts.
• Facebook allowed advertisers to track ad viewability, though the feature charges them if the ad was viewed only for a fraction of a second.
• Instagram broadly opened to advertisers.
• Facebook is exploring testing buttons other than a like button.
• Shopify merchants will soon be able to sell their products on Facebook.
• Facebook rebranded their free internet service initiative.

E-commerce & E-books News

• Uber will soon launch an ecommerce delivery program for large retailers and well known fashion brands. Amazon offers food delivery in Seattle & launched a crowdsource delivery platform which rivals Postmates. Google will test offering grocery delivery services this year. eBay is testing a speedy shipping subscription service in Germany. Target partnered with Instacart to offer grocery delivery. Walgreens partnered with Postmates for local deliveries. Etsy is launching same-day delivery in NYC. Etsy is shutting down Grand St., and is launching a manufacturing service for sellers.
• Ebook revenues at big publishers have dipped 10.4% in the U.S. after publishers raised prices, while print sales were up 8.4% in the first 5 months of the year. Ebook sales for independent authors still increased year over year, so it appears the price shifts from big publishers shifted consumer buying behavior. Ebook subscription site Oyster shut down, with Google acquihiring the team.
• Amazon stopped selling the Fire phone. To stay relevant in the tablet market Amazon lowered prices on some models to as low as $50.
• Amazon recommended users of their WebStore offering shift to Shopify before WebStore closes.
• Large offline discount retailers are selling more gray market goods like high end designer perfumes.
• Amazon discontinued their text ad program.
• Google has sold over 20 million Chromecast units. Amazon banned the sales of Apple & Google video-streaming devices.
• Amazon launched a merchandise platform named Merch, which helps app developers & content creators to sell print on demand t-shirts.

More Goodies from Around the Web

• A judge approved a $415 million settlement against Google, Apple, Intel & Adobe for their illicit anti-employee poaching agreement.
• US retailers who haven't upgraded their payment systems will be liable for credit card fraud risks.
• Sam Altman wrote about the horrible unit economics being funded in the current market: "There are now more businesses than I ever remember before that struggle to explain how their unit economics are ever going to make sense."
• A new app named Peeple launching in November will act as a "Yelp for people" & is already getting press coverage.
• Paypal now works in the United States on some gambling sites like WSOP.com and DerbyGames.com.
• Snoop Dogg launched a marijuana website named Merry Jane & hired ex-military people to run a promotional video on YouTube.
• Fast Company covered why many horizontal sharing economy startups never took off.
• Envato shut down Flash marketplace ActiveDen.
• The CFTC ruled Bitcoin is a commodity. BitPay sued their insurer after losing $1.8 million in a phishing attack.
• Crowdsource invention company Quirky filed for bankruptcy. Kickstarter shifted to become a public benefit corporation.
• Almost every unicorn startup has liquidation preferences tied to their lofty valuations & a large number of startups also have minimum IPO prices. Google invested $32.5 million into Oscar health insurance at a $1.75 billion valuation. Insurance comparison service CoverHound raised $33.3 million at a $103 million valuation. Thumbtack raised $125 million at a $1.3 billion valuation. Lending site Avant raised $325 million at a valuation above $1 billion. Medium raised $57 million at a $400 million pre-money valuation. Drupal maker Acquia raised another $55 million. Payment startup Adyen raised another round of funding at a $2.3 billion valuation. Online lending company Social Finance raised a $1 billion round. Coding school General Assembly raised another $70 million. Chinese food delivery company Ele.me raised $630 million at a $3 billion valuation. Restaurant search service Zomato raised another $60 million. Sales automation startup Apttus raised $108 million at a valuation above $1 billion. Security startup Tanium raised $120 million at a $3.5 billion valuation. Meal delivery service Hello Fresh raised $85 million at a $2.9 billion valuation. Cloud software maker Okta raised $75 million at about a $1.2 billion valuation. Used clothing site ThreadUp raised $81 million at a valuation near $500 million. Real estate company Compass raised $50 million at a $800 million valuation. Makeup subscription service ipsy raised $100 million at a $600 million valuation. Uber drivers were granted class-action status. Uber China launched a carpooling service, raised another $1.2 billion (which they are trying to expand to $2.5 billion) & is aiming to launch in 100 Chinese cities next year. The California Employment Development Department determined a former Uber driver was an employee. Uber's Chinese rival Didi Kuaidi signed a strategic partnership with LinkedIn, invested in Lyft & cross-linked their apps, and are in discussions to potentially extend the cross-promotional links to other localized Uber competitors. Indian cab company Ola is raising another $500 million at a $5 billion valuation, with Didi Kuaidi being one of the investors. BlaBlaCar raised $200 million at a $1.6 billion valuation. Buzzfeed published an article about the sketchy history of JustFab.

SEO

• Yandex penalized hundreds of sites selling links.
• Google has streamlined the reconsideration process for hacked sites.
• Bill Slawski looked at Google patents on improving related queries, scraping factual content from publishers, fighting keyword stuffed local listings, identifying entity relationships, disambiguating entities, and a patent on a (now abandoned) project which would put store messages on Google maps when a person walked in a store.
• Here is a look at dozens of ways Google modifies the SERPs to displace the organic search result set.
• Google's investment Thumbtack remain aggressive with their SEO strategy.
• Bruce Clay interviewed Google's Gary Illyes.
• Here's a look at commonly-used terms in high ranking page titles and another guide to Google ranking factors.
• Google's indexing counts once again wildly shifted, another example of search console information being "for entertainment only."
• Google warned against repeatedly violating their guidelines.
• Maria Haynes reviewed some "pure spam" penalties.
• A Google engineer stated nofollowed links no longer consume link equity.
• Here is a review of the tragedy which is T.J. Maxx's SEO strategy.

Publishing

• Gabe Rivera wrote an article on the history of Techmeme.
• The UN suggested shifting the web to require social platforms to obtain a "license" which requires they proactively police content to remove online harassment.
• App install ads priceshave roughly doubled over the past year.
• NN/g published an article covering considerations on when to hide vs share various types of content.
• A U.S. appeals court ruled "copyright holders must consider the existence of fair use before sending takedown notifications." Meanwhile, spammers flooded Google with fake takedown notices.
• Mozilla is testing suggested tiles in Firefox. Firefox also rolled out a new private browsing feature with tracking protection built in.
• Closed Silos Taking Control: Google and Twitter are looking to create an alternative to Facebook's Instant Articles. The effort is primarily led by Google & has buy in from other sources like Pinterest and Wordpress. Larger publishers think the rise of these closed silos give publishers greater leverage over platforms, but they are wrong. They are only helped if smaller publishers are killed off far faster than big media outlets are hurt, but even if the big media services are subsidized with early access & custom deals they still lose power and revenue as the 3rd party networks displace them as habits with greater control over user attention streams. Even the canonical examples of online "news" business success stories are slowing & some journalists are having their salaries tied to their social activity. Wired locked a feature article to be available exclusively on Apple News for a 4 day preview. As closed platforms continue to grow at the cost of the open web, ad labeling within them gets blurrier & more people will push harder to fake it until they make it. While people spend most of their mobile usage time within sticky apps, there are still many mobile users of the web outside of apps & search still drives a significant traffic stream on mobile.
• Online Ads & Ad Blocking: Publishers continue getting squeezed on ad viewability, with Google adjusting display network pricing to only charge for viewable ads. And not only does programmatic advertising lower ad rates, but it also has a far higher percent of the advertiser's spend go to administering the campaigns. Google charged advertisers for many views which they appear to have flagged as being driven by bots. Here is the research paper, and articles about it in Business Insider and the Financial Times. Large publishers are using fear of ad fraud to promote private exchanges & even some of the venture-funded upstart online publishers are avoiding programmatic ad sales. Marco Arment launched an ad blocking app for iOS for $3. In spite of its early success he quickly pulled it from the app store. Apps dominated the paid app charts for 2 weeks after the feature became available. AdBlock Plus is trying to get in front of any legal risks by setting up an independent board to determine which ads are "acceptable." A Havas VP argued ad blocking and the poor state of mobile will force innovation from brands and advertisers, though further ad blocking could lead to a faster rise of paywalls & a shift from ad-supported to subscription content. Ad blocking is still growing rapidly as ad networks monetize shady ads users can't see & some publishers like cNet & The Washington Post are blocking people using ad blockers. Doc Searls argues the focus should be on ad tech rather than the entire field of advertising, as it is surveillance and targeting which are responsible for much of the harm done by online advertising. Some mobile ad blockers also blocked regular content on ecommerce sites & like AdBlock Plus some of the mobile ad blocking apps will monetize allowing "acceptable" ads through. Here are some recent ad blocking stats. A Caribbean and South Pacific wireless operator named Digicel is blocking ads on mobile devices, suggesting ad networks should pay for the bandwidth. The New York Times ran a series on the cost of web ads on mobile bandwidth & how much time + data users can save by using a mobile ad blocker. UBS predicted iOS ad blocking would cost publishers $1 billion per year. The cost of other forms of online ad fraud is far greater. An anonymous buyer acquired the Chrome AdBlock extension. Researchers tested buying bot traffic to YouTube videos and then running ads against those videos.
• The Washington Post is creating a freelance network. Amazon offers The Washington Post free for 6 months to Prime members.
• Economic shifts in the music industry may be paralleled not only in other lines of publishing, but also in many lines of manufacturing with the rise of 3D printing.
• Groupon laid off 1,100 employees & shut down in Morocco, Panama, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay. They also recently shut down in Turkey and Greece, and sold off a controlling stake in their India operation.
• Here is a guide to responsive image design.
• Hotels are trying to block the Expedia acquisition of Orbitz & are trying to win back direct bookings with rewards and other perks.
• The BBC announced their intent to work more closely with local news organizations.
• Intuit is shutting down DocStoc.
• AOL spun out CrunchBase. Hearst invested $21 million in Complex Media.
• Wired removed an advertorial for Volkswagon diesel tech after VW got in trouble for scamming emissions tests.

Tracking & Security

• Android had an overflow error which allows hackers to bypass the lock screen & two more Stagefright bugs were found. iOS had an exploit which uses Siri to access contacts or photos without unlocking the phone. Apple's App Store had malware in some popular apps like WeChat & Didi Kuaidi. A security researcher found an easy to implement exploit on Mac's Gatekeeper. Another major malware campaign attacked 10,000s of Wordpress powered sites. eBay's lax security on merchant descriptions had them hosting a phishing campaign against their own site.
• The U.S. and China are negotiating cyberspace arms control.
• A US court ruled forcing a suspect to reveal their phone passwords is unconstitutional.
• The Intercept reviewed some of the GCHQ surveillance programs.
• Antivirus software maker AVG altered their privacy policy to allow them to monetize selling anonymized search and browser history data. Adblock Plus set DuckDuckGo as their default search provider in their new Adblock Browser. Opera integrated their SurfEasy VPN into their web browser.
• A hacker stole security-sensitive information from Mozilla's Bugzilla to attack Firefox users.
• The Office of Personnel Management claimed hackers stole fingerprints of 5.6 million people.
• The DoJ now requires most law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant to track cell phones. They DoJ got a court order to obtain certain text messages from Apple, but Apple refused to comply, stating iMessage is encrypted.
• Cookies < ahref="https://thestack.com/security/2015/09/24/cookies-can-render-secure-websites-vulnerable-in-all-modern-browsers/">can render secure websites vulnerable.
• D-Link accidentally distributed private code signing keys in their open source firmware package.
• Vodafone hacked a Fairfax journalist's phone to find the source for a negative story.
• Comcast paid California $33 million for posting customer data online.
• Scotttrade had data from over 4 million customer accounts leaked via a breach from 2013 to 2014.
• Experian had a data breach with over 15 million T-Mobile customers & applicants impacted.
• Donation site Patreon was hacked & had their user data dumped.

IPOs

• Pure Storage is seeking a valuation between $3 and $3.3 billion, which is roughly flat to their valuation from their last round 17 months ago.
• Furniture retailer At Home Group filed for IPO.
• Music streaming service Deezer filed to list in Paris.
• Atlassian filed for IPO.
• Albertsons priced their IPO & plans to raise up to $1.9 billion.

Acquisitions

• The U.S. DoJ approved the Expedia acquisition of Orbitz.
• AOL acquired Millennial Media for $238 million to help build a more competitive mobile ad offering. A couple years ago Millennial Media was valued at $2 billion.
• Blackberry acquired mobile software company Good Technologies for $425 million.
• Amazon acquired digital video company Elemental Technologies for $500 million.
• Axel Springer acquired 88% of Business Insider for $343 million.
• WalmartLabs acquired loyalty startup PunchTab.
• FanDual acquired eSports company AlphaDraft. Like other forms of gambling, fantasy sports revenues are driven by whales. DraftKings and FanDual spent over $100 million on TV ads in the past couple months.
• Media General merged with Meredith.
• Airbnb acquired trip planning service Vamo.
• Gartner acquired software recommendation site Capterra.
• Anonymous web forum 4chan was sold to Hiroyuki Nishimura, the current editor of Variety Japan who was the founder of the 2Channel forum which inspired the launch of 4chan.
• Apple acquired speech technology company VocalIQ and mapping visualization startup Mapsense for $25 to $30 million.
• Havas acquired digital agency FullSix for around $75 million.
• Microsoft acquired assets from Adxstudio.
• 21st Century Fox expanded their majority stake in National Geographic for $725 million.
• Demandbase acquired data provider WhoToo to improve their ad targeting.
• Zynga acquired social casino game maker Rising Tide Games.
• European telecom company Altice acquired Cablevision for $17.7 billion.
• News Corp. acquired social video ad platform Unruly for up to $176 million.
• Snapchat acquired Looksery to offer animated image lenses.
• Zillow sold Market Leader to Constellation Software for for $23 million, a significant loss given Trulia paid $355 million for it.
• Dialog Semiconductor acquired Atmel for about $4.6 billion.
• Airbnb bought Russian sensor gadget company Lapka.
• Google acquired Jibe Mobile, a company which helps carriers support messaging features.
• Prosper acquired BillGuard for over $30 million.
• A former Demand Media executive acquired GigaOm.
• comScore merged with TV data firm Rentrak.
• AppDirect acquired app management company AppCarousel.
• Accenture acquired Cloud Sherpas.
• DaoPay acquired Boku's 'pay by call' business.
• Microsoft acquired cloud security company Adallom for $250 million, organizational analytics service VoloMetrix, game tech service Havok from Intel, and the maker of a popular Android lockscreen app named Echo.

Domain Names

• Many new TLDs have a high percent of shady sites on them.
• Amazon turned on AmazonRegistry.com in preparing to sell new gTLDs.