A recent report from analysts Citigroup has compared the search results for Google, Yahoo and Bing in an effort to determine which search engine produces the most accurate results.

The study compared 200 queries and concluded that Google was significantly better at returning the most relevant results compared to Yahoo and Bing. The results are very convincing with Google returning the most relevant result 71% of the time, compared with Bing at 49% and Yahoo! 30%.

Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney explains their methodology for the study:

“Over the past two weeks, we conducted 200 queries across the three major Search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Most of the queries we picked came from Google Zeitgeist, Microsoft’s xRank and Yahoo! Buzz, along with some personal queries. These queries spanned multiple categories, including Entertainment, Health, Local, News, Retail, Sports, Travel and Other.

After conducting the same query across all three search sites, we picked a winner based on: 1) relevancy of the organic search results; and 2) robustness of the search experience, which included factors such as image and video inclusion, Search Assist, and Site Breakout.

It’s interesting to note that Bing actually beat Google in 2 categories: Health & Travel, while Yahoo really struggled”

Google should be pleased with this result but shouldn’t be complacent.

Bing is well on the way to becoming a big competitor. With this weeks announcement that the much hyped Microsoft/Yahoo merger has now been finalised and the apparent decision for Yahoo to be powered by Bing, it will be interesting to see what happens in the search engine war over the next 12 months.

What do you think?

Is Google still your favourite search engine of choice or do you prefer the new search experience provided by Bing. As ever, your comments would be appreciated.

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As promised here is the fourth  Google video from their webmaster educational series - “Speeding up in a Slowdown”.

In this video you will hear tips from Jack Herrick, the founder of wikiHow.com, about how to attract new visitors to your site.

wikiHow is a collaborative writing project designed to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. wikiHow is a wiki, which means that any visitor to the site can create or edit wikiHow articles. wikiHow is currently ranked as the 100th most popular site on the web by Quantcast, and receives over 16 million unique visitors each month.

Jack shares three of his favorite tips to attract new visitors and I hope these tips will help you come up with new ways to entice visitors to your own website.

Tip #1: Produce great content

The first tip is obvious, but it’s also the most important. The articles on wikiHow vary widely in quality. We have some of the highest quality how-tos on the net, for example How to Hard Boil an Egg, and we also have some fairly ugly, unfinished drafts we call stubs. Interestingly, the high-quality articles don’t get just a little more traffic than the mediocre articles, they get hundreds of times more. When you can produce the single best page on the Internet on any given topic, people will find it and share it with their friends. Don’t settle for acceptable content, always strive to produce amazing content that your readers can’t resist sharing.

Tip #2: Learn to share

My second tip is more counterintuitive. To attract more readers to your website, consider putting your content under a Creative Commons license so it can be widely distributed. Everything on wikiHow is under a license that allows other websites to publish and even modify or adapt our content for re-use on their sites. In fact, we have a button at the bottom of every article that allows webmasters to copy and paste the HTML right onto their site. Many webmasters are afraid to share their content, because they worry they will only be aiding competition. By sharing, what you are really doing is encouraging your competitors to provide free advertising for you. The more people who see your content on other sites, the more likely they are to eventually come straight to you.

Tip #3: Make your community a team

Finally, I’d encourage you to allow real collaboration on your site. Lots of websites try to create online communities. To use a basketball analogy, most online communities are just groups of individuals shooting freethrows alone. On wiki websites, people play together as a real team. Humans are hard wired to want to work in groups and collaborate. By allowing this to happen, you can create a passionate community of people that will build something bigger than any one person could accomplish on their own. And that will in time attract a large audience.

Hopefully Jack’s tips will help you come up with some new techniques to attract visitors to your site. In addition to Jack’s tips, you may also wish to consider Professional SEO services or possibly an Internet Banner Advertising campaign to promote your site.

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Here is the third Google video from their webmaster educational series - “Speeding up in a Slowdown”.

In this video Howard Steinberg, Director of Business Development at Urbanspoon, describes how he tested Google AdSense for mobile applications.

If you develop iPhone or Android applications, Google are keen to let you know about the beta launch of AdSense for mobile applications. Participants in the beta will be able to display text and image ads in their mobile applications to earn revenue.

According to Google they have seen positive results in the trials, and are excited to roll this out to new developers to continue supporting the growth of mobile applications.

Visit Google’s New Microsite to learn more about AdSense for mobile applications, see their beta requirements, or Sign Up. If you’re selected to participate in the beta, Google will be in touch with you shortly with next steps for getting started.

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As promised here is the second Google video from their webmaster educational series - “Speeding up in a Slowdown”.

In this video you will hear tips from Ricardo Prada, a user experience researcher at Google, about designing websites for the user.

One of the things Ricardo and his colleagues are responsible for, is making sure that Google websites are efficient and fun to use so that visitors keep coming back to them. Ricardo offers three valuable tips that he and his team think about daily, as they do their jobs. Ultimately, these tips reflect Google’s guiding principle: “if you focus on the user, everything else will follow”.

Tip #1: Design for the tasks that visitors complete on your site.

Think about tasks on your website first and layouts second. It’s tempting to want a flashy design that exercises your CSS skills, but remember that vistors come to your site with specific goals in mind, like reading your essays, or checking out your collection of sports photos. Write down the top three tasks your users might want to accomplish on your site, and design to make those tasks quick and efficient.

Tip #2: Use ads as potential exit paths, not interruptions.

Ads should complement your site, not distract from it. The most natural place for a user to evaluate an advertisement is after they’ve completed their goals on your site. Instead of interrupting your user’s main tasks, try to offer ads as potential exit path for users who were probably ready to leave anyway by placing them at the end of completed tasks.

Tip #3: SEO - only if it makes sense.

Only do search engine optimisation that benefit your users. For example, page titles that are relevant to the page content make it easier for your visitors to understand what your articles are about. On the other hand, there are lots of sneaky strategies out there for improving search engine rank. Most of those don’t work anymore, and they might actually harm your site’s reputation.

For further information check out the Google Webmaster Tools - Design and Content Tips or visit the Custom Web Site Design page on our main website.

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Over the past few weeks, Google have been running a series of videos for website owners called “Speeding up in a Slowdown”.

I thought it would be useful to share this with you as it provides helpful information from Google on how to grow your online business, together with useful tips on how to use various Google tools.

I will be posting the complete series over the next few weeks, so remember to check back here on a regular basis, in order to catch the next installment.

In today’s post, you’ll hear from Avinash Kaushik, Google’s own Analytics Evangelist, about the importance of understanding your traffic, analysing how your site performs, and using data to make decisions.

Here are a few small to mid-sized ideas that — in Avinash’s own words — can add up to remarkable results for your website. They’re all things you can do today with free web analytics tools, like Google Analytics.

Idea #1: Discover what content and traffic sources keep people coming to your site again and again.

How many times does a visitor have to visit your site to be considered valuable? Use the Visitor Loyalty report in the Visitors section of Google Analytics to pinpoint the visitors who come to your site that many times or more. Put that data into an Advanced Segment and apply that segment to your core reports to understand things like where these valuable visitors come from and what content they consume. You can then use this information to optimize how you acquire new visitors and the content on your site for loyal visitors.

Idea #2: Figure out which pages to improve on your site.

Many people ask the question: “How do I know which pages on my site to improve?” Take a look at the Top Landing Pages report in the Content section of Google Analytics. This report tells you the first page people see when they enter your site. Sort this report by bounce rate. Bounce rate measures how many people come to your site, only see one page and leave right away (or as Avinash calls it: “I came, I puked, I left”). Once you identify which of your top landing pages are not able to get a single click from your visitors you know which pages need to be improved.

Idea #3: Find out where AdSense performs best on your site.

If you’ve linked your AdSense and Analytics accounts, the Top AdSense Content report in the AdSense section of Google Analytics will tell you where on your website AdSense ads get the most clicks. This is a win-win for your business and your customers, as it helps you identify what type of content to produce more of based on what content people are most interested in as well as where people most often click on your AdSense ads.

If you haven’t already, Link Your AdSense and Analytics Accounts in order to take full advantage of what Analytics can offer. If you don’t yet have a free  Google Analytics account, you can Sign Up Today.

For additional Website Promotion information please visit our main website.

As ever, please feel free to comment, if you found this post helpful.