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Google was the only one of the “big” search engines to experience month-over-month growth in April 2008, according to U.S. search engine rankings released by comScore. Overall, searches by Americans declined by 2%. Core search engines received 10.6 billion of the total searches, with Google seeing over 6.5 billion, Yahoo 2.2 billion and Microsoft 961 million. Here’s the stats:

Related Reading:
Nielsen Online Releases April 2008 U.S. Search Rankings
ComScore Places Google Sites Ahead of Yahoo Sites for First Time

SEATTLE – A Washington-based company that sells search engine optimization (SEO) services to small businesses is prohibited from selling or advertising them to new customers under the terms of a settlement announced by Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna.

While the SEO standards debate rages, the search marketing industry continues to be perceived as purveyors of snake oil and predators of small business owners.

SEOMoz honcho Rand Fiskin denies that SEO standards are needed while raging against Internet Advancement to no avail for more than two years:

“All in all, this is one of the most despicable players I’ve seen in the spam/scam SEO game. It disgusts me to think of the thousands of dollars companies are paying every day to these clowns to get services that carry no business or marketing value whatsoever. These guys are going on my big time sh-t list.”

That was in February, 2006 before hundreds of additional complaints were filed against SEOMOz competitor, Internet Advancement.

Under the agreement filed in King County Superior Court, Internet Advancement must allow its customers to exit existing contracts. The SEO firm’s Web site is still online so advertising apparently doesn’t include a Web presence.

So will the lawsuit put the SEO firm out-of-business?

Amazingly, no.

The agreement allows Internet Advancement to offer search-engine optimization services to existing customers. The company may provide Web site design services to new customers, as well, provided such services don’t include the creation of metatags or keywords or submission to search engines.

The agreement states that Internet Advancement cannot:

* Advertise or offer search optimization (SEO) services to new customers;

* Misrepresent its success rate, ability to provide top search-engine rankings or increase Web traffic or its number of repeat customers;

* Fail to disclose all material contract terms before customers have agreed to pay for services;

* Fail to respond promptly to consumer complaints, refund requests or other requests for services or information;

* Charge customer credit cards without authorization;

* Fail to process requests to cancel service or bill consumers after they have cancelled contracts;

* Represent that a customer isn’t entitled to a refund because the customer performed changes to the source code of his/her Web site unless a third-party technical expert confirms that the changes were made or authorized by the customer.

More astonishing: Google, Yahoo, MSN , AOL and Ask have allowed their logos to be used on the Internet Advancement Web site.

Internet Advancement of Redmond, which also does business as 4GreatBuys.com, was accused of misrepresenting its ability to provide top search engine rankings and increase Web traffic, even after being sued by Washington State.

The defendants admitted that some of the violations had occurred and agreed to the new settlement filed today in King County Superior Court, but denied that all of the alleged violations were part of a repeated pattern. They will pay a $118,386 civil penalty and $35,959 in attorneys’ fees. The defendants also agreed to comply with a lengthy list of injunctive provisions or else be slapped with an additional $450,000 penalty.

According to today’s settlement, Internet Advancement guaranteed that a customer’s Web site will appear within the first 25 links on major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and AOL, when Internet users search for specific keywords.

Customers paid $999-$3,000 in “set-up” fees and a $149 monthly fee.

Small businesses filed 82 complaints about Internet Advancement with the Attorney General’s Office between Oct. 28, 2004, and March 10, 2008. The Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau also received complaints.

All righty then.

REFUND REQUESTS
Internet Advancement agreed to a refund program. Customers eligible for refunds fall into three categories:

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Search engine marketers on both sides of the Canadian – American border should attend Search Engine Strategies Toronto, which is being held at Metro Toronto Convention Centre June 17-18, 2008.

Why?

If you are one of the 1,250 alumni who attended SES Toronto in 2007 from Canada, the United States or another country, then you will find that more than 70 percent of this year’s 28 keynotes, panels, sessions, workshops and training classes are brand new. And, since more than 70 percent of the 27 sessions in 2007 were “different” from the ones in 2006, even industry veterans like me – who have attended every Search Engine Strategies Toronto since 2004 – need to keep coming back year after year to keep up with the latest developments.

If you have never attended a Search Engine Strategies conference before, then plan on going to SES Toronto 2008. There is no better time to start learning the key strategies for maximizing the search visibility of your web site. As I mentioned in “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing at SES New York 2008,” the most popular method used to improve search engine rankings back in 2000 was “changing metatags.” Today, Google uses over 200 signals for ranking. And that doesn’t even count the complexities of their paid search program, Google AdWords.

And, if you register before Friday, May 30, you can take advantage of the Early Bird Special, which will save you $150 CAD on a Platinum Passport.

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Google’s policy on paid links has long been the same: it does not approve of buying or selling links for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings. Links that use the “nofollow” attribute or some sort of redirect to prevent the passing of PageRank are fine with them.
Today in both the Webmaster Central blog and [...]

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As has been previously reported here on Search Engine Watch, Google has launched a set of APIs known as the OpenSocial APIs. This post will consider the implications for web and search marketers. What makes this so intriguing is the large list of particpating companies, including: Bebo, Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, mixi, [...]

For business-to business search marketers, receiving better search rankings than the competition is important. However around two-thirds of B2B search marketers said that the competition they face has little to no impact on the size of their online marketing budgets, according to a new study by Business.com.

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