MAY/JUNE 2005

Dear readers, we have decided to combine May and June's 2005 newletter into a single issue. Not a great deal happened last month in search engine world. Our only guess is that the whole industry took a month off and went on holiday!

This month again emphasises the dominance of Google although Yahoo is fighting back with a way of prioritising searches. Broadband is catching up on Yellow Pages as the source of local information and trends in the SEM industry are detailed. Clicking fraud again rears its ugly head. A recent Google patent application reveals some of its secrets and finally beware, small changes in content can have unexpected and far-reaching effects

If you have any general SEO questions, please let us know so that we can respond in future newsletters.

NEWS AT A GLANCE

The future of search looks bright
Google's dominant position in the land of search remains unchallenged despite innovations from competitors such as MSN, Yahoo and AskJeeves.

Yahoo threatens Google with Mindset search
A tool that allows Web users to prioritise search results by source could help Yahoo to take a larger slice of the search engine market.

Broadband Consumers Make Local Search a Reality
The Internet has emerged as a potent source for local business information.

UK Search Engine Marketing Industry Valued At Almost £600m in 2005
Continued PPC growth and keyword inflation to boost spend - Emerging trend towards long-term benefits of organic optimisation as "AdWords™/Overture" costs soar - Local search to engage newcomers from huge and virtually untapped SME market.

Click fraud now mainstream
India has spawned an innovative business called ad clicking fraud in which thousands of Indians are paid to click on a website's Google ads in order to increase the website owner's revenue from Google for each click.

KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLES

Cracking the Google Code
Google's sweeping changes confirm the search giant has launched an all out assault against artificial link inflation and declared war against search engine spam in a continuing effort to provide the best search service in the world... and if you thought you cracked the Google Code and had Google all figured out - guess again.

The Law of Unintended Consequence
For ad-driven, content-based sites, a content management system change alone can cut search engine referrals nearly in half within three-months of implementation.

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