Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Tips, Search Engine News

TORONTO -- The more things change, the more they stay the same, especially with search engines. In a series of presentations at Search Engine Strategies Canada conference here, search optimization experts and representatives from the big four search engines emphasized that the basics of search optimization are the same as they always have been. It's about content, relevancy and thinking about the user. "Is search engine optimization and good search design mutually exclusive? The answer is no," Gord Hotchkiss of search research firm Enquiro said. "Fundamentally, the basics only get truer over the years." During a presentation about Search Engine Friendly design, Matt Bailey, a consultant with SEO (search engine optimization) firm Sitelogic, asked how many participants had ever actually bothered to visit Google's Webmaster guidelines page. Only half of the audience raised their hands. Bailey and others reminded users that much of what they need to find out

In the latest report from comScore, Google has maintained its lead on other powerful search engines. According to the report, Google captured just over 50% of U.S. searches in May. That is a full share point over April numbers . Americans conducted more than 7.6 billion searches in the time period; Google accounted for roughly 4 billion of those searches. Yahoo remained in second place with 26% (2 billion) of total searches, Microsoft ranked third with 10.3% (782 million) of searches and Ask.com remained in fourth with 5% (384 million) of searches. Time Warner Network rounded out the top five with 4.6% (348 million) of May searches. Google was the only search engine to gain in share (1%). Yahoo fell 0.4% as did Ask.com (down 0.1%) and Time Warner Network (0.4%). Microsoft sites remained steady with no change. Though many users have begun inputting their information directly into address bars, it is clear that most prefer to use their favorite search engines to find needed information.