Happy Halloween! In honor of the frightful night, as has been a hallowed tradition for the past 11 years, Google created a special logo that was only displayed on October 31st.

Google's Halloween Themed Homepage 2009

Here are several of the past Google Halloween Logos from as far back as 1999, the year that I got my start in SEO. I can remember seeing the first one in ‘99 and thinking: “Gee, they can do better than that”. We’ll I must say that they have indeed become more creative throughout the years. Kudos to the logo design team!
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6 Frightening Tales from Paid Search

Paid Search. Nothing seems to strike fear into the heart of a client quicker then the mention of those two horrifying words.

Bring up Search Engine Optimization? No worries; they all want their sites to show up organically.

Link Building? With a little explanation on the intricacies, most see the value these important links play in gaining online exposure.

Social Media? Of course they are interested, it’s the new rage…and if all the cool kids are doing it, they don’t want to miss out on the action.

But the moment you mention Paid Search, a surprisingly large percentage react like you just asked them to sign their soul over to Beelzebub, the dark lord himself. No other Search Marketing medium gets the types of horrified reactions that Paid Search does. This is especially true for small businesses and local clients that have little experience in marketing their businesses online.

But why is that? Why do so many run away screaming like frightened little school kids from this effective and proven form of online advertising? (more…)

Recently, Google Analytics made an update to their Goal Conversion Tracking system that allows you to rearrange and change the position of your goals by simply selecting a different spot in a dropdown menu. At first glance earlier today, this new feature seemed to be an easy way to rearrange your goals to your preference so that you can see the goals that you want, where you them. But after testing it further I realized that is has a major flaw that you need to be wary of: Loss Corruption/Confusion of Goal History Data. 
 

Reordering your Analytic Conversion Goals became too simple…

Change your Analytics Goal Positions easily by selecting another dropdown menu option

 
Why this is significant

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The team at Google Analytics has recently made an announcement stating that “Google Analytics Now More Powerful, Flexible And Intelligent”. This system update has many new features, but the 2 that have been on my web analytics “Wish List” for some time are: 
 

• More Goals Per Profile – Now 20!
• Rearrange & Sort Goal Order

 
20 Goals instead of just 4 – That’s 500% more Useful and 1,000% Simpler!

Google Analytics now allows 20 Goals and Change Position feature

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During the a Search Engine Q&A session at the SMX East conference in New York this week, Yahoo officially announced that they have stopped supporting the meta keywords tag as an ranking factor in their web search algorithm. Yahoo was the last major search engine to openly admit that it was an element of their search ranking results.

Yahoo Web Search No Longer Supports The Meta Keywords Tag

But did they really quit supporting the keyword tag? Maybe not…
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At WebRanking, we are dedicated to our own continuing education in the industry we have been apart of for over a decade. So when I recently discovered the “Essentials of Online Marketing” course that is offered through the Online Marketing Institute, I decided it was time to brush up on a few internet marketing areas that fall outside the search box.
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