Page titles are an important part of our search results: they’re the first line of each result and they’re the actual links our searchers click to reach websites. Our advice to webmasters has always been to write unique, descriptive page titles (and meta descriptions for the snippets) to describe to searchers what the page is about. We use many signals to decide which title to show to users, primarily the <title> tag if the webmaster specified one. But for some pages, a single title might not be the best one to show for all queries, and so we have algorithms that generate alternative titles to make it easier for our users to recognize relevant pages. Our testing has shown that these alternative titles are generally more relevant to the query and can substantially improve the clickthrough rate to the result, helping [+]

Qi Lu, director of Microsoft Online Services, says about the integration: "Bing and Facebook are collaborating to create a search experience that doesn’t exist at the moment. What’s missing from search is the trusted opinion of people you value." With regards to hard figures Google is still a-# 1 in the search results market, certainly in the US, UK and numerous areas of Western Europe, but that doesn’t stop Microsoft’s Bing from taking out all the stops to gain some ground. Here are five important ways in which Bing might just be starting to get an edge on Google. With regards to challenging numbers Google is still the leader in the search results market, certainly in the US, UK and numerous parts of Western Europe, but that doesn’t stop Microsoft’s Bing from [+]

Now you can see Google Adds +1 Button Data to Google Analytics as well as Webmaster Tools

Google announced the addition of +1 button data to Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. These new metrics can show you how the +1 button actually affects the traffic to your site.

In WMT, there is a Search Impact report, which shows how +1′s affect your organic search traffic. “You can find out if your clickthrough rate changes when personalized recommendations help your content stand out,” says Google software engineer Dan Rodney. “Do this by comparing clicks and impressions on search results with and without +1 annotations. We’ll only show statistics on clickthrough rate changes when you have enough impressions for a meaningful comparison.”

An Activity report shows how many times your pages have been +1′d, from [+]

As Facebook becomes an increasingly important commerce platform, brands are starting to direct users straight to their pages on the site. Unfortunately it can be difficult to get Facebook pages to appear in the SERPs, even for larger household names. I thought it would be useful to take a quick look at a few Facebook Page optimisation techniques, and some of the more common SEO problems on the site... Let’s look at what’s out in the open: Likes How you go about getting extra ‘likes’ is an entirely different kettle of fish, but in general the usual social buzzwords apply: Relevant, regular, engaging content please. URLs and naming conventions The most visible element on the web. Keep it succinct and branded. It’s also worth thinking about other channels you operate on. If your Twitter account is @GreatDonuts, don’t call your Facebook page ‘We make Great Donuts’. That may [+]

Scammers and spammers have helped turn SEO from a three-letter acronym into a four-letter word. It's time to clear the good name of SEO and convince the public that SEO isn't all dirty schemes cooked up by crooks and liars. ... [+]

Google's newly released tool is a nice, easy way for you to check the performance on any page from any device. Also, the new mobile suggestion is definitely a handy addition. ... [+]

Tips for businesses with limited resources on overcoming marketing challenges when taking expanding to new territories. ... [+]

There are a number of ways to accumulate fans and none of them are easy. Here's how to entertain those fans once you've built them up. ... [+]

A look at if tablet users are more likely to convert than smartphones or desktops, and how user behavior and usage alters the way you think about your marketing approach. ... [+]

Where do you start? What types of areas should you be investigating, and why? What factors really matter? What tools should you use? Your questions answered here. ... [+]