Weekly SEO news: 20 December 2005
Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

This week, we're taking a look at one year of search engine optimization with links to many articles that can help you to get better rankings for your site.

In the news: Google pays $1 billion for a 5 per cent stake in AOL, Japan wants to develop a Google competitor, Yahoo releases open shortcuts and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Facts of the week: 2005 - One year of search engine optimization

Every week, we publish a new article about search engine optimization (SEO). The first issue of this newsletter was published on 30 April 2002. That means that there are now 191 issues in our online archive. Our newsletter archive is full of tips and tricks that help you to get better search engine rankings.

Here is an overview about the articles of 2005. With Google being the most important search engine, we published a number of articles that focused on Google's ever changing ranking algorithm and how you can get your web site to the top of Google's search results:

People use a variety of different search engine optimization methods to get at the top of the list. Of course, these different methods find a place in our newsletter:

Google might be the most important search engine but there are also other search engines that can bring you targeted visitors. For that reason, you can also find information on how to optimize your web site for Yahoo, MSN and other search engines in our articles of the year 2005:

Link popularity remains one of the most important factors for SEO. Should you buy links? Can you have too many links? Do reciprocal links still work? Our newsletter has the answers:

Pay per click advertising is a good addition to natural SEO. However, you must do it right. The following articles show the details:

It's even possible that other people influence your search engine rankings and change your website:

Of course, you can also find articles about new search engine features and general search engine topics in our newsletter:

We'll endeavor to continue to provide you with the best search engine news in 2006. Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

The newsletter issue on 27 December 2005 will be sent out as usual but it will only contain search engine news and no main article. We'll continue the regular newsletter in 2006.

2. Search engine news of the week

Google to pay $1 billion for AOL stake

"Google is poised to pay $1 billion for a 5 per cent stake in Time Warner's America Online unit. [...] Google and AOL have a years-long relationship for AOL to carry paid search ads from the Google network, and split the revenue with the search engine giant. AOL's general Web search is powered by Google's search engine."



MSN UK releases local search function

"MSN UK has launched a beta version of 'MSN Local Search', which helps people search for local services and businesses by town or postcode."



Yahoo releases open search shortcuts

"Open Shortcuts (beta) are custom keywords that take you directly to a site, a search, or start a task right from the search box. In Unix speak: if the search box is the command-line of the web, shortcuts are aliases."



Japan aims to give Google some competition

"The Japanese government is teaming up with electronic, telecommunication and media companies in the country as well as universities to develop an Internet search engine to give Google some competition."



Google adds music search and purchase features

"Google Inc. is introducing a music search feature that details the work of certain featured artists, the company said late on Wednesday. [...] The music search feature is prominently placed above the main search results in what Google calls its 'one box' area -- where information such as weather, movies or books may also be highlighted."

 

Search engine newslets

3. Articles of the week
This is the Google side of your brain

"As more people find themselves spending much of the day within arm's reach — or even pocket's reach — of something that can tap into the Internet, search engine Google quickly is taking the place of not only a trip to the library, but also a call home to Mom, a recipe box, the phone book and neighborly advice."



Is 'Googlezon' in our future?

"In the video, search-engine giant Google and online retailer Amazon join to create 'Googlezon.' [...] They unleash EPIC, the Evolving Personalized Information Construct, which filters and delivers [...] a custom content package for each user, using his choices, his consumption habits, his interests, his demographic, his social network."



Diller Asks Jeeves to Grow

    "Barry Diller's Internet empire expects to increase the staff at its Ask Jeeves search engine by about 20% [...] The expansion comes as Jeeves, which employs 650 workers now, posts solid gains in traffic but remains overshadowed by its more famous and deeper-pocketed rivals."



Proposed AOL-Google deal hits opposition

    "The real risk for Time Warner shareholders is that a Google joint venture may be short-sighted in nature and may preclude any consideration of a broader set of alternatives."

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4. From the developer's kitchen
New ARELIS version in Q1/2006

Every day, we get feature requests for ARELIS, our link management software, and we really appreciate them. As there is a great interest, we want to confirm that we are all working like crazy on the latest version of ARELIS.

To whet your appetite: there will be 15 major new features in the next ARELIS version and about 150 small improvements. Best of all, it will be a free update for all ARELIS users.

Unfortunately, we can't tell you about the new features yet (our competitors read this newsletter, too :-), but rest assured we are very excited about all the new features and we're certain that you'll love them.

A concrete release date has not been set yet. We're targeting Q1/2006 for the first beta version.

If you purchase the current ARELIS version, the new ARELIS version will be a free update for you (although it will have many more features than the current version).

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5. Recommended resources
"ARELIS is the first software program that provides a serious, spam-free reciprocal links solution for professional webmasters."

ARELIS has received another 5 out of 5 stars rating. This time, 8844Download.com was so impressed by the quality of ARELIS that it gave ARELIS the highest rating:

5 stars"ARELIS is a top-rated software program that helps you to build a powerful business network quickly and easily.

Your business will benefit in many ways from that network: You'll get highly targeted visitors to your web site, you'll benefit from new business contacts and your web site will get a higher ranking on search engines because of higher link popularity.

ARELIS helps you to establish many high quality reciprocal links that point to your web site. It is the first software program that provides a serious, spam-free reciprocal links solution for professional webmasters."

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6. Previous articles

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