What are the key factors in how search engines rank pages? A new survey of experts tries to give guidance; Google Personalized Search -- is it Google crack that webmasters should resist? Live Search gets map enhancements; social networking for homes on Zillow; Utah outlaws competitive keyword buys; Ask's mystery billboards and more!
Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Monday through Thursday (see instructions here), through iTunes via this link, though our Yahoo Podcasts channel or in other ways listed here. You can also listen on our Digg podcasts channel. And vote for us on Digg, c'mon! Visit the channel to do it or use this button at the top of this page.
Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ. See below for links to more information about stories discussed.
Advertisement

Upcoming Seminars:
5 Ghastly PPC Mistakes to Avoid - SEM Agencies and Reporting: Best Practices for Success
Listen to this podcast now using the Odeo player below:
- Ranking The
SEO Ranking Factors
Back in 2005, SEOmoz tried to assemble a list of all the possible search engine ranking factors out there and get various experts to rate them. I say tried to because while they had a list, and ratings, no one knows all the factors or exactly how each individual search... - 6 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Rankings, Link Building Blog
- Quickie SEO, Vanessa Fox
- University Domain Conditional Trust Rank, SEO BlackHat
- Google Personalized Search - Don’t Become a Google Traffic Addict, Garywolf
- Google Website
Optimizer Now Available, But Is It Cloaking?
Google Website Optimizer, a tool that allows you to easily test different page layouts, is now available to anyone with an AdWords account. Previously, it had been out in limited beta since last October. It remains unclear whether using the tool would be considered cloaking, which is against Google's webmaster... - Live Search
Maps Adds New Features And Firefox 3D Support
Microsoft added a range of new features to Live Search Maps, including Firefox support for Virtual Earth 3D. Some of the new capabilities are live right now, and some are going live later today. Below is a list of the new tools and features and their descriptions from the distributed... - Zillow Adds
New Community Features
Property search site Zillow is helping to lead a wave of innovation and development in the real estate vertical. This morning the site announced a range of new features including "Home Q&A," which allows people to ask questions about properties and neighborhoods, and "EZ Ads," which allows agents and others... - Four Steps To
Better Business Leads From Search
So you got a click on your PPC ad. Now what do you do? The job of the B2B search marketer is only beginning when a prospect clicks. As MarketingSherpa points out, the decision to click is microscopically unimportant compared to all the things you are asking from a... - Google Book
Search And Libraries: An Overview
Via Google Librarian Central, Information Today has an informative overview called Google book search, libraries and their digital copies. It is written from the perspective of librarians Jill Grogg and Beth Ashmore. The entire article is worth reading, but I think it's also worth highlighting a few of the important... - Preliminary
Scorecard: How Effective Is Yahoo's Panama Upgrade?
The world of search marketing is divided into two types of people, it seems: Those who have never actually used Yahoo's new Panama sponsored search upgrade and never will; and those who are in knee deep working on their accounts, and want to find out how other fellow marketers... - Will Utah's
New Trademark Bill Stop Competitive Keyword Buys?
Wow. Via Techdirt, news from the EFF that the Utah legislature has passed a Trademark Protection Act law preventing people from buying ads linked to terms that are also trademarks of others. The Trademark Blog notes the law probably violates the US Constitution. Certainly it will be hard to enforce.... - Tips On
Knowing Who & What To Trust
I'm an avid reader of Aaron Wall at SEO Book, because he always has great insight. Questioning the Legitimacy and Authenticity of Internet Marketing Advice & Sources from Aaron out today is an especially good read that I'd recommend to anyone trying to understand what to trust, and what not,... - Forget YouTube: Go To These Sites If You Want Hard Core Copyright Infringing Content, TechCrunch
- Study Says Over 90% Of YouTube Videos Are Not Infringing Copyrights (Sorta, Not Really), Techdirt
- Graywolf
- Follow Search
Engine Land On Twitter
Want to get updated about news from Search Engine Land via Twitter? We have an account there, sengineland. Why not searchengineland? Too long a username, sadly. Anyway, visit that page, and if you're logged in, use the "add sengineland" link in the white "Actions" box on the right-hand side of... - Snakes in a plain... old... office building!, Official Google Blog
- Ask Ramps Up
The Mystery Ads
First in the UK, Ask rolled out a guerilla marketing campaign aimed at sparking an "information revolution" to choose Ask over Google. Now a different yet still mysterious campaign is underway in the US by Ask. Valleywag reports about billboards on Highway 101 between San Francisco and San Jose saying...

