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RAMAT GAN, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Internet Gold Ltd. (NASDAQ Global Select Market and TASE: IGLD) ("Internet Gold" or "The Company) today reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

Bezeq - On-Track Performance: The Bezeq Group reported another stable quarter, delivering revenues of NIS 2.7 billion ($ 738 million) and operating profit of NIS 850 million ($ 229 million) for the period. Bezeqs EBITDA for the first quarter of 2012 totaled NIS 1.2 billion ($ 323 million), representing an EBITDA margin of 44.1%. Net profit attributable to Bezeq shareholders for the period totaled NIS 582 million ($ 157 million).

Dividend from Bezeq: On April 24, 2012, the general meeting of Bezeq's shareholders approved a dividend distribution of NIS 1,074 million ($ 289 million) to Bezeq's shareholders of record on May 4, 2012. The dividend, which is in line with Bezeqs stated dividend distribution policy, is expected to be paid on May 21, 2012. Internet Golds subsidiary, B Communications Ltd., is expected to receive approximately NIS 334 million ($ 90 million) representing its share of the dividend.

On May 21, 2012, Bezeq is also expected to distribute the third NIS 500 million installment of the NIS 3.0 billion special dividend that was approved by its shareholders on January 24, 2011. Accordingly, B Communications expects to receive an additional NIS 155 million ($ 42 million) on the payment date, representing its share of the special dividend. On March 29, 2012 and on April 4, 2012, objections were filed with the Economic Division of the Tel Aviv District Court, opposing the continued payments of such distribution. Both objections were filed by holders of B Communications Debentures (Series 5), who filed similar objections in the second half of 2011. Bezeq denied the arguments set forth in the objections and asserted that there is no basis for the relief sought. The Court heard the closing arguments on the objections on May 2, 2012.

Cash Position: As of March 31, 2012, Internet Golds unconsolidated cash and cash equivalents totaled NIS 325 million ($ 87 million), its unconsolidated total debt was NIS 1.1 billion ($ 304 million), and its net debt totaled NIS 806 million ($ 217 million).

Internet Gold Unconsolidated Balance Sheet Data*

(US dollars in millions)

* Does not include the balance sheet of B Communications

Internet Golds First Quarter Consolidated Financial Results

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Internet Gold Reports First Quarter 2012 Financial Results

Google is continually updating its Webmaster Tools to bring the best features to users. This week brings some pretty major changes in the form of an updated navigation, new dashboard, and a compact view for the home page site-list.

The features that you know and love in Webmaster Tools have been regrouped which facilitated a change in the navigation structure. Some of the features have been renamed as well. The example provided is HTML Suggestions is now called HTML Improvements. All the features can now be found in one of four new groups:

Configuration: Things you configure and generally dont change very often. Health: Where you look to make sure things are OK. Traffic: Where you go to understand how your site is doing in Google search, whos linking to you; where you can explore the data about your site. Optimization: Where you can find ideas to enhance your site, which enables us to better understand and represent your site in Search and other services.

The dashboard has received a complete redesign. With the new design, youll find recent, important and prioritized messages regarding your site sitting at the very top now. Equally important, there is now a brief summary of your sites current status just below that. Three of the new feature navigations have widgets with Crawl Errors, Search Queries and Sitemaps representing Health, Traffic and Optimization. In what may be the best change, however, is that more messages and charts are now on the front page. With this, you can see how your site is doing without having to dive into the tools if you dont have the time to do a thorough check.

The final change is the addition of a compact layout. This allows you to see your sitelist without having to view the site-preview thumbnails. You have a choice between the two, but I personally like the compact view more. It also has the added benefit of loading faster since it doesnt have to stream in large images.

These new updates should make it easier to see site statistics at a glance. You can still dive in and get all the detailed information youve expected from Google Webmaster Tools, but now a lot more of it is on the front page. If thats not convenience, I dont know what is.

See more here:
Google Webmaster Tools Gets Better Navigation, New Dashboard

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Posted 09 May 2012 19:55pm by Heather Taylor with 0 comments

Negative SEO is not a new concept but it is one that has recently become more mainstream. These are underhanded tactics where companies do SEO activity for their competitors so it appears that they are breaching Google's guidelines and they get penalized.

This SEO campaign then ruins the competitor's organic rankings in order to improve their own rankings. The most common practice is to build low quality, anchor text links to a specific domain in order to trigger a Google penalty for that site or specific page.

We asked some SEO experts in the UK and US their opinions on negative SEO, what techniques are being used and how you can prevent it from happening to you.

It's actually pretty scary at the moment - as there is truth in negative SEO working effectively, see posts like this one from Aaron Wall. Of course Google are looking to favour brands in its search results and big brands will be more protected by this due to the fact that they have authority and more natural back link profiles.

This means that negative links wouldn't stand out as much percentage wise and the strong domain should be enough to protect it from any potential influx of negative links. It's definitely the smaller and less authoritative sites which are at more risk from this.

It is potentially possible...but it is extremely rare. I was chatting to one of the Google Quality team who reckoned they'd only ever seen a couple of cases ever that fell into this category, and they look at thousands of websites a month.

Yes, it is, and the SEO industry chatter on this topic is at its highest level in years. Google has rolled out the Penguin algorithm update on April 24, 2012 which is supposed to target websites that use spammy sources of links. However, the SEO community is in agreement that this update has increased the danger of negative SEO tremendously. Basically, a competitor would be able to engage in tactics that the Penguin update deems spammy and hurt a companys rankings.

Yes I used to believe that the worst case scenario from a negative link would be that it would have no impact. But we've seen a few sites take drops recently and the most obvious explantation is due to negative links. Of course you'd like to think that the only way to get to the top of Google is to focus on yourself and building a brand but you can't be nave to what is actually happening out there and you need to make sure that your site is well protected from any negative SEO activity.

Read the rest here:
The impact of negative SEO: the experts' view

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most efficient but also most complex online marketing channels for the acquisition of new customers. For many companies who want to and can acquire new customers via the Internet, SEO can be the most efficient customer acquisition channel if its particularities and complexities can be coped with continuously.

The SEO channel can either be tapped into with one's own employees so called in-house SEOs or by working together with a SEO agency.

But how should one approach it?Have one or more in-house SEOs or collaborate with a specialized SEO agency? Or does a combination provide crucial advantages? How does one get to good, reliable and sustainable SEO?

A combination of those two options is not only possible but recommended if SEO is an important marketing channel for the respective company.

Let's look at the arguments for both options and hints on how to find the right mix for your own SEO.

A SEO in steady employment will try to implement projects as fast as possible. After all, he is motivated by promoting the SEO channel and convincing the company about its importance.

An agency, on the other hand, is often paid per time so there is a risk of it artificially expanding the extent and length of projects. The only way to minimize this risk is to explicitly address the issue during the process of becoming acquainted.

When comparing hourly rates the cost for an in-house SEO is lower than that for a SEO consultant. Additionally when working together with an agency there are costs for communication and coordination since the agency first has to get to know the company as well as its products and services.

SEO can be regarded as the most integrative marketing channel. Unlike other online marketing channels SEO doesn't just send new customers to special landing pages that may not even be integrated in the regular product and website of the company.

Without solid interaction and integration between product management and IT, it's impossible to deliver good SEO, and it's obvious that an in-house SEO can get acquainted with colleagues much easier than an agency can. A core task of an in-house SEO is to establish a certain consciousness and awareness for SEO topics within the companys collective body of thought, and someone who is permanently present is likely to succeed in this task.

The rest is here:
In-house SEO, SEO Agency, or Both? 17 Points to Consider

CARLSBAD, Calif., May 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --"Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing," a course taught by SEO Inc., a Carlsbad, CA based search engine marketing company, will be back at the University of California, San Diego this month.

The three-day, 3-credit course will run May 30 through June 1 from 8:30 am to 5 pm. Class sessions provide basic information on website architecture and search engine operation and now provide added information about social media marketing.

The SEO strategies taught in the course can be used by students to optimize websites, achieve higher rankings in the top search engines, and help increase web visibility, brand awareness and online sales and conversions. Students in the SEO class learn how to boost search engine rankings by researching competitors, optimizing code, choosing competitive keywords, writing search engine-friendly website content, and creating a successful linking plan.

"I have been teaching this course since 2008, and we continue to see full classes each semester," said SEO Inc. Senior Project Manager and course instructor, Burkan Bur. "Designed for webmasters, business owners, corporate marketers, and anyone else interested in increasing their website's ROI, it is believed to be one of the only courses of its kind to offer college credit.

The social media portion of the course covers blogging, social media community management, social media optimization and viral online marketing.

"By the end of the day you'll not only know how to use social media and blogging to improve your organic SEO, you'll also be able to effectively market to your communities through a variety of methods," said John E. Lincoln, Director of SEO Consulting & Social at SEO Inc. and co-course instructor. "We have a heavy emphasis on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest, but we also focus on smaller social sites as well that provide big benefits to organic search and referring site traffic. Ultimately, we use social to drive better rankings, different forms of traffic, and increase conversions for your website."

SEO combined with social media is the fastest growing form of Internet marketing, and it is the most successful and cost-effective way to promote a website property and receive maximum ROI. For more information, call 877-736-0006 or visit http://www.seoinc.com.

Class registration is available online at http://extension.ucsd.edu/studyarea/index.cfm?vCourse=CSE-41157, or search course # CSE- 41157.

About Search Engine Optimization Inc.:

Search Engine Optimization Inc. is an integrated search engine marketing company that specializes in achieving high rankings for their clients on the internet's major search engines.

Originally posted here:
SEO Inc. Adds Social Media Training to SEO Course at UCSD