Google Analytics Gives a Green Signal to New Comer ‘Bing’

We all are aware about Bing. It is a new search engine that was recently released by Microsoft. The latest information regarding Bing is that, it has begun sending traffic to websites with Google Analytics installed. Bing currently shows up as a referring site in the Traffic Sources reports.

Sebastian Tonkin, a member of the Google Analytics team, explained on the Google Analytics Blog, “We are actively working on an update that will include Bing under the default list of search engines in Google Analytics. If you absolutely cannot wait for the upgrade, you can add pageTracker._addOrganic("bing", "q"); to your Google Analytics tracking code as a temporary solution.”

And, if you really are impatient to include the above line in your analytics code and wish to fidget around with the code then just be cautious that this workaround is recommended “for advanced users only”.

Thus, whether you wish to get the latest traffic statistics or wait a little more for a simpler solution, whichever way you go, one thing is crystal clear that Google Analytics is being very kind & it is not going to turn a blind eye to its newest competitor ‘BING – But It’s Not Google’!

Yahoo! Search Update For June 2009 On Its Way

Are you observing any kind of ups and downs or any fluctuation in your Yahoo! rankings? If yes, then do not get worried about such instability. Yahoo! is not going to ban your site. It is just a quarterly index update.

Dan Rampton, a member of Yahoo! search team, explained on the Yahoo! Search Blog, “We’re rolling out some updates to our crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms over the next few days. During this process, you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index.”

Thus, you are not alone experiencing such rise and falls. If you have noticed any such changes then let everyone know about it.

Google Maps Launches New Local Business Center Dashboard

We all are aware that online maps and local listings drive searchers to our business, but they don’t always visit our website. In order to help my customers find me on Google, make my business visible to local people and reach out local customers, I had created a local business listing to be sure that they could locate me. While using local business center, I always wondered how I would track the number of searchers visiting my website, where my customers came from, what did they search to find me and loads of such questions. These questions cropped up my mind because there was no single web analytics in the world to track my requirements.

Finally, I felt a sigh of relief after hearing that Google Maps is making all the tracking factors easier by launching a new dashboard in their Local Business Center. It is now offering a new reporting dashboard through which we will be able to learn how people are finding our business. The dashboard can now help local businesses understand how users are interacting with their local listings in Google Maps. The new feature will provide businesses with new visibility into the ways their local listings are found on Google, enabling them to make smarter decisions about attracting customers. Thus, from now we can expect following things from our Local Business Center dashboard:

- Impressions will tell users how many times the business listing appeared as a result in a search of Google.com search or Google Maps during a given period.

- Actions will show the number of times searchers interacted with a listing. One example is the number of driving directions requests.





- Top search queries shows which keywords drove searchers to a business listing.

- Zip codes will be listed to show where driving directions were requested from.

Before now, you could track usage metrics on your website using a tool like Google Analytics, but data about how customers found you in other ways never got back to you. That all changes today, and we think business owners will really get a lot out of this new information. So, if you're a local business owner and you feel the same way, be sure to check out this new dashboard.
- Mansi M Karia

Small Piece of Information for Local Business Users

Few days back, Google has made a very minute change to the most important pin number process in the Local Business Center. This alteration will now transform the way Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs) need to manage assisting clients with the all-important listing verification process.

The Pin Number is no more in our hands now. Unlike all local SEOs even I follow the typical method of listing verification process. I initially create a local business listing for my client, insert all the details related to his business, get the pin number at the end of the insertion process and then give away the pin to him so that he is able to verify the listing whenever Google calls. On the other hand, now Google has started providing this pin number within the phone call. Thus, the pin is not in hands of optimizers like us. It’s up to the clients now to receive and enter the pin when Google calls them for verification.

Though this is not a major change in the way we serve our clients, but it’s surely an information that one ought to know about.
- Mansi M Karia